Reference Fidelity Components Loudspeakers
My first encounter with Paul's components was several years before I met him and was not audio related. Had I known the man back then I would have walked and driven over it with even greater confidence.
Well, Gloucester's St. Ann Way Bascule Bridge was a small-fry project when compared to Paul's recent speaker build. Less heavy lifting gear certainly.
Paul is definitely an engineer. When I visited him last weekend to listen to his vast Tannoy driver based speakers, he shared with me his design note book for the project. It was fascinating to see the design process unfolding as the pages of the book turned through time. Thoughts, sketches and scribbles evolved into clear annotated diagrams, figures and calculations. When Paul speaks about his products he does so with an excitement about technique and method. I am too much of technical numpty to catch the meaning of every detail of what is being said, but his passion about attention to detail would be clear to all. As I drive over his bridge with my family on a daily basis, this is reassuring.
So the speakers. Well they are big. I wish I could remember the exact figures Paul gave me (in gallons), but I didn't take notes. I must confess that this was partly because I knew that it would give me an excuse for not writing about the technical details of the speakers, and not understanding them, here. I am sure that Paul can fill in any technical details regarding the speakers should they be required.
Having said that I do remember Paul saying "This is 20Hz" as he put on the first CD track of our listening session. Now even I know that that's low down bass. Some subterranean synthesised bass kicked in.
"Hey I was listening to that!" I shouted as the sofa on which I was sitting vibrated in the direction of the listening room's door. The bass really was something terrifying to behold. Unbelievably deep and powerful, but also held in a vice like grip. The kind of bass that can have only some dark and devastating origin. But then came into the mix some acoustic instruments and vocals, delicately and discretely presented. A delightful contrast to the entirely different bass rumbles that continued somewhere underneath the rest of the mix. Incredible texture. Incredible separation.
and with trousers down...
As the listening session rolled on it was clear that Paul had achieved something rather special with his project build around the refurbed drivers. It was as if whatever Paul played the speakers said "Righto fellas, I'll go an make a cup of tea, I'll leave you alone to listen to the music". Everything that one would want was there. An apparently completely flat frequency response, powerful dynamics and utterly realistic separation. All that cliché stuff.
I felt that the speakers were, as they should be, completely revealing of everything else that came before. The recording quality, the music carrier format (we listened to CD and to vinyl), the source quality and the amplification. In Paul's system I preferred the sound of the CD. To me the transparency of the speakers showed up vinyl's slight lack of distinction (shapes of percussive events -- Dave). Also Paul uses valve amps... I'm not even going to go there. He did say that he would be interested in hearing his speakers on the end of something solid state. Very generously I offered to borrow them and report back. Paul pointed out that we would need a transit van (literally) to transport them up the road to Gloucester.
Anyway, suffice it to say that I was utterly blown away by Paul's project. The speakers are a triumph for Paul's approach to design, craftsmanship and engineering. They sound just right in every way.
In my mind I have a list of components that at the time of hearing I felt were the best that I have ever heard. In that list were 2 pairs of speakers. Some big Tannoy monitors in a studio where a band I was in recorded a demo many years ago, and some active Meridian speakers that I head at a show in Bristol a couple of years back. That list has now grown to 3.
The crossover, as viewed through one of the ports. (Paul believes that there may be some benefit from placing the crossover outside of the cabinet in future designs.)
Paul has put a £7500 price tag on the speakers. Given the cost of materials, the value of the expertise involved, the time taken to hand craft these things by hand and above all the sound, if you have the money for this calibre of product, it's worth giving Paul and Reference Fidelity Components a ring.
Oh, btw for the shill-sensitive amongst us, Paul gave me his time, friendship and 4 mini-muffins. I neither own, nor have been offered any Reference Fidelity Components products.
Well, Gloucester's St. Ann Way Bascule Bridge was a small-fry project when compared to Paul's recent speaker build. Less heavy lifting gear certainly.
Paul is definitely an engineer. When I visited him last weekend to listen to his vast Tannoy driver based speakers, he shared with me his design note book for the project. It was fascinating to see the design process unfolding as the pages of the book turned through time. Thoughts, sketches and scribbles evolved into clear annotated diagrams, figures and calculations. When Paul speaks about his products he does so with an excitement about technique and method. I am too much of technical numpty to catch the meaning of every detail of what is being said, but his passion about attention to detail would be clear to all. As I drive over his bridge with my family on a daily basis, this is reassuring.
So the speakers. Well they are big. I wish I could remember the exact figures Paul gave me (in gallons), but I didn't take notes. I must confess that this was partly because I knew that it would give me an excuse for not writing about the technical details of the speakers, and not understanding them, here. I am sure that Paul can fill in any technical details regarding the speakers should they be required.
Having said that I do remember Paul saying "This is 20Hz" as he put on the first CD track of our listening session. Now even I know that that's low down bass. Some subterranean synthesised bass kicked in.
"Hey I was listening to that!" I shouted as the sofa on which I was sitting vibrated in the direction of the listening room's door. The bass really was something terrifying to behold. Unbelievably deep and powerful, but also held in a vice like grip. The kind of bass that can have only some dark and devastating origin. But then came into the mix some acoustic instruments and vocals, delicately and discretely presented. A delightful contrast to the entirely different bass rumbles that continued somewhere underneath the rest of the mix. Incredible texture. Incredible separation.
and with trousers down...
As the listening session rolled on it was clear that Paul had achieved something rather special with his project build around the refurbed drivers. It was as if whatever Paul played the speakers said "Righto fellas, I'll go an make a cup of tea, I'll leave you alone to listen to the music". Everything that one would want was there. An apparently completely flat frequency response, powerful dynamics and utterly realistic separation. All that cliché stuff.
I felt that the speakers were, as they should be, completely revealing of everything else that came before. The recording quality, the music carrier format (we listened to CD and to vinyl), the source quality and the amplification. In Paul's system I preferred the sound of the CD. To me the transparency of the speakers showed up vinyl's slight lack of distinction (shapes of percussive events -- Dave). Also Paul uses valve amps... I'm not even going to go there. He did say that he would be interested in hearing his speakers on the end of something solid state. Very generously I offered to borrow them and report back. Paul pointed out that we would need a transit van (literally) to transport them up the road to Gloucester.
Anyway, suffice it to say that I was utterly blown away by Paul's project. The speakers are a triumph for Paul's approach to design, craftsmanship and engineering. They sound just right in every way.
In my mind I have a list of components that at the time of hearing I felt were the best that I have ever heard. In that list were 2 pairs of speakers. Some big Tannoy monitors in a studio where a band I was in recorded a demo many years ago, and some active Meridian speakers that I head at a show in Bristol a couple of years back. That list has now grown to 3.
The crossover, as viewed through one of the ports. (Paul believes that there may be some benefit from placing the crossover outside of the cabinet in future designs.)
Paul has put a £7500 price tag on the speakers. Given the cost of materials, the value of the expertise involved, the time taken to hand craft these things by hand and above all the sound, if you have the money for this calibre of product, it's worth giving Paul and Reference Fidelity Components a ring.
Oh, btw for the shill-sensitive amongst us, Paul gave me his time, friendship and 4 mini-muffins. I neither own, nor have been offered any Reference Fidelity Components products.
Comments
I heard Paul's new speakers the other day. Very impressed, I was. Easily the best Tannoy Dual Concentric implementation I have heard. Very open, detailed and fast. Bass goes way down, and is very well controlled. The treble needs power to stop it getting splashy when the going gets going. In fact, I thought everything was better controlled with Paul's amps in 60wpc ultralinear mode than in 30wpc triode mode.
Very impressive build, too, a proper pro job. Excellent high end speakers.
I didn't get any muffins, though. >:P
;-)
Lovely amp, Paul - glad you have a winning combination there.
I'm not saying never, just a very tentative maybe. It would surely be a lot of fun.
Keep me in the loop, if it's a weekday and it's raining and I can sneak past Star Fleet command I may come over.
Paul - could we (ie you) start a separate thread...?