Here is a commment by someone who has also listened to these amazing speakers. Anyothers with some impressions?
Posted by bartc ( A ) on July 06, 2003 at 18:39:26
In Reply to: Re: Correction: approximately $45,000 posted by
[email protected] on July 06, 2003 at 17:59:43:
I was in the shop with Leisure7, who brought me in to show me these extraordinary speakers and these extraordinary men who make them. You have no idea what these sound like, but here's my best shot:
Rick Beveridge is one of 3 surviving sons of the originator, learned to craft these things by hand from his dad, and recently took up reviving them after rebuilding some vintage ones for prime customers. Well let me tell you, now I understand why someone would spend $45,000 on a pair of speakers, because these are beyond belief. (This is by way of apology to Stereophile, BTW.)
Some background: They're planar speakers built into georgeous wood custom crafted cabinets about 7' tall, 2' wide and 1.5 feet deep. Each comes with a tube amp driving them directly built into their bases and an accompanying major sized subwoofer. The ones I heard were updated Model 2s, the best of the 6 models they ever made. These sit in the homes of top musical entertainers, because they appeal to people who want to hear music exactly as they make it in real life and for whom price and specs are irrelevant. Well, they are in this case. The key to the speakers is a takeoff on 60 year old radar technology that disperses sound waves throughout a space via multiple verticle wave guides.
So here's the review and the real deal. They were driven by a Thiel CDP and somebody's preamp but no main amp since they have their own built in. Ok, first thing we fire up with was Billie Holiday recorded in 1957. I nearly dropped my teeth! Absolute realism on all frequencies, all instruments, all voices male, female and entire choruses! And this at NORMAL listening levels. So the quality of the sound was as lifelike as possible and I'm not exaggerating. We tried this out on all genres of music and even a test CD with rainstorm and rainstick sounds (ever hear a rainstick reproduced correctly?). Everything was as good as it gets. AND THIS IS NOT THE REAL KICKER....
The real deal is that the 3D soundstage imaging is perfect FROM EVERYWHERE IN THE ROOM, BAR NONE. This was in a 25' high 50'x50' or so room inside an old wine warehouse. About the least likely listening environment possible. From 2" back from the front grill forward from any side and any position throughout the entire room, the image was crisp, absolutely rock stable and totally convincing. Yes, there were sweet spots in the room: a plane at any height running front to back perpendicular to the middle of the speaker plane outward. At that plane the image was shockingly holographic! Jawdropping realism, period, and I cannot explain to you just how astounded I was. At that moment I would have dropped $45K in a heatbeat if I had it.
OK, so this is already super impressive (or I was hallucinating). We listened totally for 2 hours. Halfway through I asked Leisure7 if I was really hearing what I thought I was hearing or if he had slipped me something in the winery we had come from earlier. He just giggled.
Now if I haven't buit this up enough here comes the real shocking truth. We stepped backwards into a side hallway. Rick told me to keep both speaker grills in view until the last spot at which I could see both. At about 60' away off to one side down a hallway the sound was still crystal clear, engaging and the 3D imaging was still working as strong! Then he had me walk back through a doorway into a really cavernous warehouse room where I could only see one speaker. The 3D image was gone but the clarity was just as strong at 75' away! Then he had me walk outside to the open warehouse doorway where I could only see a corner of one speaker. At over 100' away the sound was still crystal clear and listenable and the volume was still at normal living room listening levels - not altered at all! No 3D anymore, but hell, what speakers do you know that can do anything like any of this?
leisure7 is telling the truth that he isn't financially tied to the Beveridges. They don't need anything but a listen for you to be convinced anyway. Leisure7 is trying to help them get the word out about the quality of their product, so that they can build their business.
I want to add my enthusiastic support as well (still wish I had the $45K to add to the pot!), because these are a couple of men working hard to make dream equipment - their father's dream. They have done a superb job and the audio world will be very much worse off if the Beveridge brothers don't get the shot at spreading their good work around
