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Review 3 of 3
Price Paid:
$1300.00
from www.rawacoustics.com Summary:
Over the past 6+ weeks, I have had the pleasure of retaining 3 sets of speakers from RAW Acoustics, based out of BC, on the West Coast of Canada – I am just outside Toronto, so it was a real treat that Al would ship these out to me, to try on, review, and post what I think.
For the record, Al and I have no formal or informal business arrangements, I do not make any money from his business, nor he from mine – we are both members of an online forum (www.audiocircle.com) and I contacted him to see if I could hear his HT3 speakers – they use a driver that I have experimented with, the WR125S, as well as the Extremis 7 inch woofer, and a proprietary ribbon tweeter.
Al graciously provided me with two other sets of speakers that he builds, in addition to the HT3 – the HT2, and the HT6, to compare and contrast, and post what I thought.
Over that timeframe, I have had 6 people to my house to hear his speakers, and some have posted to my thread around these speakers on Audiocircle in order to lend some other ears to the speakers, during their time at my house.
For those of you ultimately not familiar with my system (you mean you have not spent hours scouring AC for all my posts, etc? eeek!) it is as follows:
Room – unfinished basement of approx 25x35x7.5.
Front end – Bolder fully modded SB3, Bolder Rev1+Jensen caps upgrade PS for SB3
Amps – I use a JVC EX A1, a 3875 gainclone, and fellow AC member MarkC brought his hybrid tube/fet 300wpc monoblocks…
Cabling – Bolder M80 speaker cables, Bolder Nitro 0.5m IC, Bolder M80 IC, and MarkC also brought some Kimber 4TC with him
Power conditioning is a DIY Balanced power unit, search for Felicia on Audiocircles for more information, on the front end. 30A dedicated pony panel off my main electrical box, with dedicated lines out from that for 6 components, if need be.
Atlantis Reference 24 inch stands for HT2 and HT6. HT3 are floorstanding.
Strengths:
Each of these speakers exhibit excellent attention to detail around construction – excellent straight lines, great round overs, wonderful veneer, satin finish, SOLID feel. Each is surprisingly heavy, including the floorstanding HT3 that I knew would be heavy… Hand built, and in a good way…
The JVC EX A1, my preferred amp for my own reference speakers (DIY open baffle Visaton b200 drivers, run full range) just would not work at all. At low power settings, there was evident distortion, and snapping from the ribbons. Shut that off immediately, and pulled that amp.
The gainclone worked well with all 3 sets of speakers and this is the amp that Mumbles was hearing, when he was over. He brought his Modright modded Pioneer universal player, and that worked well.
When MarkC and his friend Tony came over yesterday, and this was when Sarchi was here too, we used a set of monoblock hybrid tube/fet amps (Mark, correct me when I veer off the track!) and a prototype tubed pre/DAC. That way, we could use my SB3 either as the source/DAC/preamp, directly to his monoblocks, OR, we could use my SB3 via the modded digital output, and let their preamp handle the DAC/Pre, and then on to their amps.
Sidebar – oh baby these are some lovely amps, gorgeous walnut thick front panels, black cases, large side heatsinks (that never got beyond lightly warm in my environment, in spite of pushing the volume to levels well my normal settings – during Straus’ Also Sprak Zarathustra for example, we were 15 feet from the speakers, shouting to be heard, and still those amps were just barely warm… lots of clean, clear, controlled power from those puppies), that worked wonderfully with all the speakers we plugged in yesterday. IF you are in the market for some top notch monoblock amps, hand built by a couple of audio enthusiasts that obviously know what they are doing, I advise a note off to MarkC hastily…
Ahem, back to the RAW speakers, and what I think of each of them, having heard them for several weeks, with several amps, front ends etc.
Now the HT3. This is the best speaker of the three. It is also the most expensive of the three, but far from expensive in my mind. A league above the HT2 and HT6 – this is what happens when you optimize each driver, within the preferred operating range, and let them each do their favourite thing. Simple? I doubt it, to get smooth integration from all three drivers, and let them operate in their sweet spot, cannot be easy, and the level of crossover components suggests that Al has really done his homework here. The same tweeter as the HT2, the midrange is covered by a WR125 4.5 incher, and the bass taken over by the 7 inch Extremis. This is some of the smoothest, sweetest treble I have heard in my room – my PM to Al included a question around “how can you achieve this level of detail, but with a rich smoothness?”. This proprietary driver is well worth hearing! The mids, when the WR125 is allowed to function just in that region, are great – not forward, or too full, but really nicely integrated with the treble.
Every single person who came to hear all 3 speakers said the same thing – this HT3 is the best, by far, in a different league than the other two. BUT, it is important to consider that my room is also likely best suited to that speaker – the other two just cannot fill the 6500+ cubic feet of air, as well as these do.
When driven by MarkC’s amps, this was a great match – I understand that Mark is interested in a set of these…
Full, rich, clear, clean, dynamic, pick your favourite audiophile phrases, and you are right there.
In the end, these are all good, to very good, to excellent speakers – in terms of build quality, sound reproduction, finish, value etc.
I characterize the HT3 as this – this is all the speaker that any rational person needs. It is high end for regular folks etc.
I don’t happen to fall into that rational category… so it is not the ultimate for me, but for 90% of the people I know, this would be all the speaker they would ever want/need, and a custom build to boot.
WAF is off the chart with the HT3, 5 out of 5 wives that saw these, were all over them, nice look, simple, small footprint etc, so if that factors for you, ping Al and start a conversation.
Thanks again to the AC members and others who came over, and lent an ear to these, and a big thanks to Al for sending out some great product, to a guy that he had never met, 3000 miles away etc.
It was a pleasure to see, feel, and hear these speakers, and in many ways I will miss those HT3’s when they go… Weaknesses:
The bass, while not the last word in integration with the mids and highs, is very well represented, as that Extremis gets to focus on where it does the best, in my room.
The only caveat I have, is around bass integration. Al tells me (tempts me perhaps?) with information that the new HT8 etc have that cat in a bag…
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4 of 5
5 of 5
