New speakers unveiled from Clayton Shaw - Caladan


As I understand it, Clayton developed these speakers after he parted with Spatial Audio.  At a cost of ~$3K, which is astounding, and a beautify wood baffle, they look sensational.  I heard the sound of them in the video below on my cans and was super-impressed.  They go very low in response as well. I can't wait to hear more reviews of them as I am sure that they will be excellent performers for a really affordable price.  You have lived until you have had OB speakers in your room, which is just my humble opinion.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRrgJ-_npls

 

 

 

whitestix

I just returned from CAF. We spent about 30 minutes in this room listening to these speakers. They were in my top 4 or 5 speakers I heard at the show. The top 3 were all over $50k. I attended with a friend who has his own opinions of what he liked. He had them as third best speaker at the show. 
A note about evaluating systems at these shows. If you don’t play more mainstream music, I can’t truly evaluate a system. Walking into a room with 10 minutes of classical acoustic guitar or some tribal chant doesn’t tell me a damn thing about a system. Play real music, please. I’m happy your speaker can reproduce brushed cymbals with aplomb. Now show me some vocals and substance. Nobody cares how well your system can reproduce a piano if Norah Jones sounds like George Jones. This room played MUSIC. The other systems I evaluated highly did likewise. Rant over. For now.  

@jrimer I went to my first audio show in July this year at Pacific Audio Fest and that is one of the main things I noticed along with several rooms playing music too loud. A lot of modern music doesn''t have wide open space and is more challenging. When I asked for the music I listened to, many of the speakers sounded pretty average. 

If the Caladans are anything like the Spatial Audio Q6s (Spatial Audio has voluntarily put the production of the Q6 speakers on pause since they wouldn't be needed if Clayton can essentially duplicate the sound at 1/2 the price -- according to Spatial Audio on their own website) I heard at PAF, they are really nice. They were also played with LTA equipment which is good stuff but the amps Don Sachs has made including his upcoming new stuff really goes to a new level. 

I spent some more time in Clayton’s room at CAF. I thought the speakers sounded nice for the money. They didn’t sound honky or boomy like some systems did at the show, but I didn’t think they were better than his earlier products. I thought the system I heard at PAF was considerably better, although I think this was at least partially due to Don Sach’s and Lynn Olsen’d excellent electronics coupled with the Lampizator DAC. 

The new speakers lacked some of the dynamics and clarity of Spatial’s more expensive offerings, and had a bit of a hard edge to the treble, which I think is probably due to the LTA electronics (I’ve found this true with other LTA auditions). The bass performance was also a touch less controlled. 
 

But of course this was in a different room which was far from ideal, so an audition in your own room with your own gear is the only way to truly assess. 
 

Still, for $3000, this is a very credible offering. There aren’t many speakers at this price point that do as well. They look nice as well.