Homemade speakers – the Riders get baffled in Horsham

Following the thoroughly enjoyable, but unduly restrained trip to Tom Alves a couple of weeks back, the Riders were looking forward to our next trip where neighbourly wars wouldn’t play havoc with the volume knob. Fortunately for us, RichardN came to the rescue, with an invite to come for a listen to his sistem. Richard lives well off the beaten track with neighbours well out of view, never mind earshot. MrsN must have also had a tip-off about the Rammstein, as she decided to make herself scarce for the evening.

Richard’s sistem consists of an LP12/Lingo (with the ‘Weekes’ modification)/Ekos I with a retipped Troika and also a CDX at the front end. Amplification was provided by an 82/HiCap/250. All the equipment sits on an Ash stand in quite a large room which is probably near perfect in proportions. However, what really was of particular interest was for us to see and hear the DIY speakers that Richard has been working on.

Prior to arriving, Richard had described them to me as a home designed and built loudspeaker with infinite baffle of Linn Tukan proportions. What I was not expecting was the sheer quality of the build and finish – these certainly did not look like one of my DIY isolation platform projects. The speakers were on Kan II stands sited close to the wall. The finish was at least up to the standard of most commercial loudspeaker manufacturers – perhaps the only thing to give these away as homemade was the fact that Richard had kept the crossovers in separate boxes outside of the loudspeaker cabinet at the base of the stands – something that must provide better results. Examining a spare pair of the speaker cabinets showed the build quality to be superb – really heavy beasts for their size. In making his own speakers, Richard was able to use the best quality drivers he could get his hands on for the cabinets. Using the best quality components certainly has sonic benefits, but it does push up the cost significantly above the ‘entry level’ price range.

So what did the speakers and the rest of the sistem sound like? Where the sistem really excelled was in the PRaT, dynamics and detail. The sistem delivered an excellent rendition of our Rammstein ‘test’ track with some real attack – these are fun speakers. This is the second time, I’ve recently heard a set up with 82/Hicap/250 recently – a set-up I never really got to be comfortable with in my own sistem, but it was undoubtedly doing the business, so I think I’m going to have to re-evaluate my opinion of this combination. Part of this is I’m sure a real synergy between the amplification and the speakers. Whilst the speakers didn’t produce that much depth in the soundstage, I never found this to be something that was important – basically a true flat-earth design. It was also surprising for all of us to hear the amount of bass they did for their relatively modest size.

Coming on to the front end, there was one more component that is an essential part of Richard’s sistem, and that is his Moth II record cleaner. A comparison of a before and after of one of the records that Dave J brought along, demonstrated a real clearing-up of a whole layer of grain. If you like to hear your snap, crackle and pops at their clearest, then this noisy beast is well worth it from what I heard. Certainly this all helped in making the LP12 the superior source to the CDX on the night. However, even the combined forces of LP12 and the Moth II failed to make Richard’s copy of ‘Alessandro Moreschi - The Last Castrati’ bearable – a painful record to listen to in every way imaginable. In terms of shock value, this performance of a 2nd rate castrati well past his prime only managed 3rd place for the evening. 2nd place went to Tom’s Glastonbury recollections of a Hawkwind concert. 1st place went to the yellow jump suit on the cover of one of Richard’s Max Webster records – undoubtedly a design encouraged by the 12 inch medium. I think I’m starting to get my head round at least the differences between the sound of an Aro and Linn type arms on an LP12. For me I find myself leaning more in the direction of a preference for the Aro, although I know Dave J will put this down to my familiarity with the CDSII.

For me there was one negative of the sistem - whilst the speakers could go down low, there was sometimes a lack of weight in the lower mid-range to upper bass. The effect of this was sometimes an overall lightness to the presentation where the tonal qualities didn’t seem quite right. Part of this was undoubtedly down to the room which had recently had the carpet replaced with a wooden floor. My suspicion is that some if this is also down to the speaker crossover – I know that Richard is working on a new design that promises even better results. He is even talking about developing a carbon fibre design if he can get a few other people interested in the project as well.

So, many thanks to Richard for inviting the four of us round, and for keeping us suitably fed and watered – very much appreciated. As usual, I’ll write some more on the music when Nick supplies the track listing.

David