[RAW]

Hello Al,
   I tried posting these comments at the AudioCircle
newsgroup site, but the registration process would not
accept my e-mail address. Feel free to post my remarks
if you think that they would be useful to any of your
customers.

    The RAW HT2 speakers arrived here in Copenhagen
  three weeks after you shipped them (the APO mail
  system tends to be slow). APO had poked a hole in
the
  side of the box, but thanks to your packing the
  speakers came through unscathed, though a bit of
  cherry stain finish had rubbed off around a couple
of
  edges of the speakers--probably from friction
against
  the packing material. I should be able to touch them
  up with a little cherry stain. Here are my
  impressions so far:
    (1) At first the HT2 pair sounded a bit distant
and
  veiled to me. However, after about 40 hours of
  breaking in with everything from Bach organ to Eric
  Clapton guitar, they have opened up beautifully. If
  my experience is similar to that of your other
  customers, you might want to recommend that someone
  buying your HT2 speakers burn then in for at least
30
  to 40 hours before doing any serious listening.
  Besides the AudioSource Amp 300, my system includes
a
  Yamaha YST-315 subwoofer, a Sherwood Newcastle 980T
  CD player with Burr-Brown DAC's, and a Ming-Da MC-7R
  preamp with Russian Electro-Harmonix tubes. I chose
  each component in an effort to obtain maximum
  fidelity for the dollar in a quest to step into the
  realm of high-end sound at less than typical
high-end
  prices.
    (2) It took me a while to dial in the high cutoff
  and volume controls on my Yamaha subwoofer to
produce
  an overall solid, but not boomy base when mated with
  the HT2 pair. For my room acoustics and personal
  taste, I found that setting the subwoofer's high-cut
  filter at about 63 Hz and the volume control to
about
  10:00 o'clock seems to give the best result for most
  kinds of music for this HT2 .4 cf model tuned to 70
  Hz. I also found that it worked better to use the
  speaker outputs from the subwoofer to the HT2 pair
  rather than to run the HT2 pair and subwoofer
  separately and simultaneously as Speakers A and
  Speakers B from my AudioSource power amp. When I ran
  the subwoofer and the HT2 pair simultaneously from
  the power amp, there was simply too much bass
  resonating in my room. In retrospect, it may have
  made more sense for me to order the .5 cf sealed box
  version of the HT2 to simplify room placement and
  mating it to a subwoofer. In any case, within the
  next year I plan to get a subwoofer for each
channel,
  most likely the JBL E250P, which seems to be a good
  value in a "tight," musically adept subwoofer.
    (3) I have tried every kind of music in my CD
  collection, and the HT2 pair and my Yamaha subwoofer
  are meeting every challenge. The HT2 handled the
  dynamic range in Leonard Slatkin's early digital
  recording of Mahler's "Symphony No. 2, the
  Resurrection" beautifully--without strain or audible
  distortion at any volume level--at least at any
  volume that I can stand without risking structural
  damage to my inner ear parts and home. When I played
  the "Creeque Alley" album of the Mamas and Papas,
Big
  Mama Cass and John Phillips seemed to be in the room
  with me, and this recording was originally made over
  30 years ago! Joan Baez's recordings from the 1970's

  have a similarly life-like presence. As I write this
  e-mail, I'm listening to the tenor saxophone of
Sonny
  Rollins on his "Saxophone Colossus" album. Though
the
  original recording was made in 1956, the 1987
digital
  remastering heard through the HT2 pair puts me up
  front in the club with Rollins and his beautiful
  tone. Best of all, I find it possible to listen to
  the HT2 pair for hours without fatigue.
     (4) For me the most notable feature of the HT2 is
  the precision of the ribbon tweeter. It sounds very
  quick. It must have a remarkable transient response
  graph. For me a major test of a speaker is how the
  sibilants sound. Cheap tweeters in the mass market
  speakers (and even many of the more expensive
  tweeters in high-end wannabes) tend to make
sibilants
  ring forever. With your high quality ribbon tweeter
  in the HT2, every "s" and "t" sounds exactly as it
  should--controlled, precise, and natural. The same
is
  true of percussion instruments, from the triangle,
to
  the brush on a cymbal, to a stick on the rim of a
  snare drum. I suppose that part of the credit must
go
  to the XBL mid-range/woofers with phase plugs that
  you use in the HT2. They seem to be reasonably quick
  drivers, even though the cones apparently are coated
  paper, and you and Dan Adire seem to have picked a
  good crossover point with the ribbon tweeter. Thanks
  to the good transient responses of the drivers and
  the tweeter, modern digital recordings of piano
  music, such as some of those offered by "Stereophile
  Magazine" on its various test CD's, sound remarkably
  life-like.
    (5) There is a certain price to be paid for this
  precision. While the horizontal dispersion of the
HT2
  pair seems to be excellent, the vertical dispersion
  seems limited. I needed to arrange the speakers so
  that the ribbon tweeters are pretty much at ear
level
  to be able fully to appreciate their remarkable
  clarity and precision.
    In short, you have a satisfied customer. I scoured
  the Internet to find a pair of speakers that would
  give me genuinely high-end sound without compelling
  me to pay absurd high-end prices. It seems to me
that
  every $1000 saved on equipment is $1000 that can
  better be allocated to purchasing 90 or 100 CD's of
  excellent music to add to my collection.
    In my speaker search I considered Energy,
Paradigm,
  EFE, Thiele, Dynaudio, Amphion, GR-Acoustics, and
  North Creek speakers, as well as several Madisound
  DIY speaker kits, but I judged that your HT2 pair
  would give me the highest quality drivers, tweeters,
  crossover components, and sound dampening at
anywhere
  near this price range, a mere $899 a pair assembled
  and tested. And the genuine cherry wood veneer
finish
  met the all-important WAF requirement.
    Thank you for taking such pride and care in
  crafting a product of such remarkable quality and
  value as the RAW HT2.
    Regards,
    Craig in DK

[theNoid]

I posted this earlier on another forum but figured it fit here as well so here goes...

Ok, so back in June I received my HT2 kits from Al up thar at RAW Acoustics. It has taken me quite a while to get them together here but I finall yhave them up and running. With only about 4 hours on them so far all I can say is...Very nice, very nice indeed.

Ok, that isn't all I can say. This is my first taste of Aurum Cantus, and now I want more. I have had a wee bit of experience with the WR125s drivers from CSS and this design uses two of the 16ohmers MTM style sandwiching the AC tweet. These little 5" midbasses are wonderful.

When it comes to imaging and detail, the HT2's are probably the best my living room has heard to date. I am sure my current electronics are holding them back for that matter. I have them running in sealed clothes at the moment and I am sure this is where they will stay. Being sealed, there isn't a whole lot downstairs, but from there on up...it's a beautiful thing. I am sure the ported version will be prefferred by many out there, but I just like my sub handling the bottom end stuff so the mids and highs can do their own thing, and they do it well I tell ya. I will continue to run them through the paces in the next day or two, and so far, they are doing nothing but getting nicer each time I sit and listen to them.

At first when the kit arrived, I was kind of shocked at the amount of Xover parts. I guess I was expecting a much simpler network here but having spoke with Al on the phone about it all, I agreed that Dan and Al had a good thing going here so I went with it.

The only drawback I can see anyone complaining about is the vertical dispersion characteristics of the AC tweet. It isn't terrible I don't think, no worse than any other ribbon/planar tweets I have heard. This doesn't bother me much simply because when I am listening to them, I am either in my chair, on the couch, or at the computer which puts my ears at the right level.

If I am cleaning house and simply just rockin' out and shaking the walls, I hit the ol' A/B swith and fire up the Kenwood dual-8" towers and let it rip.

I would REALLY love to hear these speakers running active (xovers and amps), but that's not an option for me at this time. Maybe after the DIY2005 Orlando is over with I can work on that.

Now I know I am prolly the biggest picture hound on the forum here but I have no pics of these as in there current state as of yet. I do have some pics of the build-process and I will post them all on a dedicated webpage for the project that should be ready tomorrow evening. I will be sure to mention a few things about the schweeet CNC cut baffles, and the bad*ss grilles that these come with as well.

No finished pics simply because they aren't finished yet, nuttin' but raw MDF going on here folks. I will get a few pics of them in there current fashion for the webpage, please be patient with me.

I would like to add that these will be at the DIY2005 Orlando event so if you are curious, please come on over and give them a listen.

Just an upfront bit of info here, I don't have any measuring equipment and such so don't bother asking me about distortion this and third harmonic that. I won't be able to give you the answer you are looking for. Plain and simple here folks, they sound great...nuff' said.

UPDATE: I now have many hours on these and they have done nothing but get better. I have also talked to Shawn, who has built the HT1 using the new OEM tweeter that Al and AC have come up with and he says the disperison is definately improved both horizontally and vertically. I have cycled through manuy speakers here int he last few weeks and for the most part, I keep coming back to the HT2. Now if I can only manage to wrangle some better electronics to let these things really shine.

Chuck

ps. sorry Al, still no pics, hoping to get a finish on them this weekend, no promises though...hehe

[theNoid]

Just to note again, my HT2 speakers wil lbe at the DIY2005 Orlando event on teh 29th of October, barring hurricane Wilma giving us another thrashing of course.

I have had these babies at my friends house in his HT and nothing but kudo's to Al on this kit.

Noidster