Hi. I have known Stuart Chapman Jones of Chapman Sound Company for about 20 years. I live on Vashon Island in Washington State about 3 miles from Stuart.
We have spent countless hours in years past in my living room and his shop auditioning various equipment and putting his speakers through their paces and exploring new ideas that he had.
He built a prototype speaker for me back in the mid 1980's that ended up weighing 350 lbs each by the time we were done. They were in a constant state of upgrade for about 4 years. Each time Stuart had a new idea or a new driver to try or whatever, we would make the change on one side of my speaker system and then decide whether it worked or not or if we liked it or not. If we liked it, he would make the change to my system for the cost of parts. All of that "research" not only benefited his bread and butter T7's and their little brother the T6, it also gave him another model called the T9. Only a few pairs of these were built because of their size and cost. These were basically a one piece "user friendly" version of the monsters that he had built for me.
Stuart knows his business very well and is very good at what he does. Each speaker is built by hand by him. He winds his own voice coils, and he tests each driver by hand and pairs them up so that each finished pair is as much a mirror image as you can get. He did each step of the process himself except for the wood oiling which he finally started having someone else do for him at a separate facility, and the cloth socks that slip on the speaker. He had a seamstress cut and sew those for him. Each speaker was a labor of love for him and anyone that owns a pair of Chapmans has something to be proud of.
And one small correction. Chapman Sound did not go "belly up" as stated in the original question. After building speakers by hand by himself for many years, Stuart took his business in a different direction. Last time I talked with him he said he was doing complete custom installs for clients on an individual basis. I think he is building speakers still, but it's just the custom stuff now. He is still working from the same shop location as always and has the same address and phone number...he just isn't building production speakers any more.
Now to the question about what amp/preamp to use. I have heard the T7's run by everything from Onkyo integrated amps to tube mono block amps costing tens of thousands of dollars and every kind solid state and tube amp and preamp combination you can imagine. The beauty of the Chapman line is that not only do they sound fantastic and are equipment friendly, but they can take a serious pounding from some heavy hitters and not even flinch. And unless they are abused, they can last a lifetime.
My huge speakers have gone to live with another friend of ours and I now have a pair of Chapman T6's. These are just slightly smaller in stature than the T7. They have a side firing 10" woofer instead of front firing and do not have the transmission line like the T7. They are 89db instead of 90db like the T7, and the bottom end is 30hz instead of 28hz like the T7.
I'm running them with a Jolida 502A integrated tube amp that will be on it's way in 2 weeks to Bill Baker at Response Audio in New York for a Reference Modification upgrade. This amp is a good example of bang for the buck equipment...just like the Chapman speakers.
I think as long as you have the best equipment that you can afford, and an amp with sufficient power (minimum 50 watts per channel required for T7)you will be a very happy camper. The T7 is capable of some amazing sound and you certainly can't go wrong with a pair. Just make sure your amp will drive a 4 ohm load and sit back and enjoy the show.
We have spent countless hours in years past in my living room and his shop auditioning various equipment and putting his speakers through their paces and exploring new ideas that he had.
He built a prototype speaker for me back in the mid 1980's that ended up weighing 350 lbs each by the time we were done. They were in a constant state of upgrade for about 4 years. Each time Stuart had a new idea or a new driver to try or whatever, we would make the change on one side of my speaker system and then decide whether it worked or not or if we liked it or not. If we liked it, he would make the change to my system for the cost of parts. All of that "research" not only benefited his bread and butter T7's and their little brother the T6, it also gave him another model called the T9. Only a few pairs of these were built because of their size and cost. These were basically a one piece "user friendly" version of the monsters that he had built for me.
Stuart knows his business very well and is very good at what he does. Each speaker is built by hand by him. He winds his own voice coils, and he tests each driver by hand and pairs them up so that each finished pair is as much a mirror image as you can get. He did each step of the process himself except for the wood oiling which he finally started having someone else do for him at a separate facility, and the cloth socks that slip on the speaker. He had a seamstress cut and sew those for him. Each speaker was a labor of love for him and anyone that owns a pair of Chapmans has something to be proud of.
And one small correction. Chapman Sound did not go "belly up" as stated in the original question. After building speakers by hand by himself for many years, Stuart took his business in a different direction. Last time I talked with him he said he was doing complete custom installs for clients on an individual basis. I think he is building speakers still, but it's just the custom stuff now. He is still working from the same shop location as always and has the same address and phone number...he just isn't building production speakers any more.
Now to the question about what amp/preamp to use. I have heard the T7's run by everything from Onkyo integrated amps to tube mono block amps costing tens of thousands of dollars and every kind solid state and tube amp and preamp combination you can imagine. The beauty of the Chapman line is that not only do they sound fantastic and are equipment friendly, but they can take a serious pounding from some heavy hitters and not even flinch. And unless they are abused, they can last a lifetime.
My huge speakers have gone to live with another friend of ours and I now have a pair of Chapman T6's. These are just slightly smaller in stature than the T7. They have a side firing 10" woofer instead of front firing and do not have the transmission line like the T7. They are 89db instead of 90db like the T7, and the bottom end is 30hz instead of 28hz like the T7.
I'm running them with a Jolida 502A integrated tube amp that will be on it's way in 2 weeks to Bill Baker at Response Audio in New York for a Reference Modification upgrade. This amp is a good example of bang for the buck equipment...just like the Chapman speakers.
I think as long as you have the best equipment that you can afford, and an amp with sufficient power (minimum 50 watts per channel required for T7)you will be a very happy camper. The T7 is capable of some amazing sound and you certainly can't go wrong with a pair. Just make sure your amp will drive a 4 ohm load and sit back and enjoy the show.