tillerman

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $400.00

Summary:
This is a terrific little speaker, all components appear to be of very high quality. Requires significant break-in time(2 weeks, 100+ hours) as the woofer construction is very tight. My listening room is 12'x 20'(240 sq'=1920 cu') and my 50wpc amp provides enough headroom for loud, distortion free stereo. With careful placement they give solid tight bass down to 60hz where I cross over to a powered sub. Very nice!!

Strengths:
Really nice detail and imaging. If the music calls for quickness, these drivers can handle it. Bass is nice und tight, not tubby.

Weaknesses:
I's a small speaker, so a sub is needed for bottom two octaves. Trying to drive these speakers to realistic sound levels in a large room(say 400sq'+) would be very difficult. An amp with lots of power and headroom would be needed, not sure the speakers could handle the peaks.

Price Paid:  $470.00 from AudioLab, Harvard Sq

Summary:
I took a chance on these while looking and demo'ing the M&K K-series, AE Aegis ones, Monitor Audios and Polk LSi series. The real wood veneer is very nice, though, conspicuously, is first mentioned in every review of Castle speakers...hmm. After all, it's just wood veneer. The Richmonds are a very small speaker and represent the lowest Castle speaker. They are also the only one's not bi-ampable. The clears are clear as everyone mentions, but these little guys may be too small for my space. We recently put them through their paces with the 5.1 soundtrack to Amadeus, and they really shine during the quiet passages of flute and clarinet (I mean they are shimmering and hanging in the air...nice!). But under the burden of full-blown operatic sequences, with alot of dynamics and sonic layering, the Richmonds come a little unglued. They get busy trying to sort out the dynamics and seem to stop voicing discrete frequencies so well and start to just push the sound out. Again, this was primarilly with busy passages at higher volume. Bascially no bass to speak of. I crossed these over at 80hz and thankfully the sub helped the Richmonds do what they do DO well, which is voice and "cast" the mids and highs. I have a broader and more dynamic (though less detialed) sound stge with Polk RTi38 (mass market speaker) and so I think these little (well made) boutique speaker will likely go back. *note - our space is about 800ft3 and I think attempting to fill this space with Richmonds as mains is too much. Not to take anything away from the Castles, I think they are FANTASTIC speakers for a smaller room where delicate stereo listening would let them soar. This is a very well imaged speaker and

Strengths:
1.Build quality and style (if it's your look) 2. voicing and detail in the mid, mid-high, and high registers in smaller rooms. 3. Hand-made with Castle's own drivers and cabs. 4. very Bristish sound...

Weaknesses:
1. Performance contingent upon application and venue 3. Not the best options for a Center from Castle. 4. Expensive.

Similar Products Used:
M&K K-series, Polk RTi38, Genelec, Tannoy, Boston Acoustics, AE, Monitor, Vienna.

Price Paid:  $499.00 from Audio Lab Harvard Sq

Summary:
Not surprising after listening in the store and with the expert ear of Mike Volpe. These are one of the best speakers I've listen to for soundstaging and imaging. They virtually hang in the air by themselves. I power them with everything from the Aleph 3 to the Mac 30's, and they sing. Fair amount of bass from these little guys. I even drive them from a 45 amp, it doesn't play loud but it's a smooth cookie.

Strengths:
big sound from little speakers soundstaging smooth treble

Weaknesses:
wish they were bi-wireable

Similar Products Used:
Quad ESL 63, Klip Heresey, ProAc Tablet 50

Price Paid:  $200.00

Summary:
I uesd richmond ,I like clar good ,
I think very good,

Price Paid:  $300.00 from Richer Sounds

Summary:
Picked up these boys after some dazzling salesmanship in Richer Sounds when I was originally going to get either Mission or Celestion. Had a creeping suspicion I'd been conned but after a few days of breaking them in I was amazed at how great they sounded. I have a Paradigm subwoofer which provides enough oomph to annoy all my neighbours so I can't say much regarding bass reproduction but the midrange and treble is crisp and precise on everything from Dave Mathews to Underworld. Superb. Buy them.

Weaknesses:
None

Similar Products Used:
Some monstrous no name US speakers I bought off a bloke in Germany