[LateApex]

After a couple months of having my new pair of Stiff Breeze in house, I wanted to share my feedback.  These are great speakers.  Everything I hoped they would be.

After participating in the Breeze Tour, Ryan and Pete's advised that the Stiff Breeze was worth the delta over the Breeze and they are for sure right.  If you like the Breeze, you will really like the Stiff Breeze.

As a starting point, the Stiff Breeze bring everything I experienced in the Breeze:

-   Decay - Now this is what a well integrated RAAL sounds like!  Fantastic "decay" on the highs as they just fade in a way that is so natural, with an air of ease and delicacy.
-  Holographic - Air & Ambiance combine with a wide soundstage that punches well beyond the lateral edge of the speakers add up to a holographic sound I have not experienced in my room.
-  Naturalness - These things just sound "right".  A drum sounds like a drum.  The resonance is right on wood instruments.  Vocals are well defined and have an ease to them.
-  Resolution - Related to "naturalness" in that they do not strike me as a "hi-fi" speaker that is overly detailed and etched but there is a fresh window into my collection that allows me to peer into the music with at least one layer of cloudiness removed allowing the natural recording to come through in a way that does not feel over-extracted (to steal a wine term).

The Stiff Breeze take thing up another notch:

- Impact - Additional visceral impact and dynamic range
- Bass Extension - as we would expect.  Depending on your room, a sub may not be needed.  So far I am happy without one, but I would like to see what a good sub would add
- Sensitivity - While these are more sensitive than the Breeze I still have not realized their full potential.  I have had a VERY nice 25 wpc tube amp from Sophia Electric on these and am currently using my Sonographe SA150, rated at 125wpc of solid state juice.  I think these speakers really could use even more solid state power.  I'd love to see what a he-man muscle rig would do to these.  The tube amp has surprising power, but the bass is lacking enough to know there's more there to be had.  Might be more to do with the EL34s than anything, but hard to say at this point.
- "Realism" - The Stiff Breeze brings more of just about everything over the Breeze.  Soundstaging, imaging, an "ease" of sound that is a pleasure to experience.  I've had zero fatigue with these speakers and I push them pretty hard.

Overall:
Incredible value - Sonics hard to beat for the money
Great build quality
Well balanced - Ryan has made very few compromises in his design - those that he has been forced to incorporate at this price point do not stand out

I would also suggest Vapor's stands should be strongly considered.  Aesthetically, IMHO, they have nailed it and they clearly bring the best out in the speakers.

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[roscoeiii]

Looks great. Have you been able to measure the in room response. How low do these Stiff Breezes go in your room?

[Pete Schumacher]

Thanks for the great writeup! 

Since you've received your set, Wavecor has replaced the Nomex cone of the woofer with a glass fiber and paper composite cone.  They look almost identical, but we noticed right away that the newer cone seems to have more stiffness.  They're using the same motor, suspension, and coil, and our initial sweeps with them in the crossover showed them to be almost an exact fit, but we did find that the newer cones were approximately 1 - 1.5dB more sensitive, allowing us to reduce the padding on the RAAL.   So overall, sensitivity of the system is now around 92dB/2.83V.  Not only that, Wavecor's new version actually has 10dB less distortion below 200Hz than the previous version.  As good as the original was, the replacement seems to be even better.

You should expect in-room bass to 40Hz.  If you do run with a sub, you might consider plugging the ports.

We can tidy up the look a little more by using the stand to hold the crossover which lets you connect your speaker cables along the floor instead of hanging from the back of the cabinet.

[playntheblues]

Very nice speakers from a great company!  One of the best Speaker manufactures around period.
Enjoy

[stlrman]

Nice write up !! Enjoy!
I am still enjoying my original Breeze in redwood burl!

[LateApex]

Thanks guys.  These speakers are such a clear lens on the upstream electronics (and recordings) I am probably going to have to invest in bringing the rest of the system up to their league.  I still have plenty of tweaking to get them dialed-in as well. 

Roscoe, no I have not measured the response.  I know you are local to me - feel free to stop by anytime if you'd like to check 'em out.