Excellent performer. Extremely good service from the designer John Meyer

None

I have had the pleasure of owning these speakers since May and I feel I have spent enough time with them to pass along my thoughts. The R645 is a two-way ribbon dynamic speaker system that is truly incredible for the quality of sound it delivers, especially at its price point. As with every speaker I have ever owned it takes a while for them to burn in before they reveal their true measure. The R645s took about 50 hours. Let me address the salient points. Soundstage: Wide and deep. The speakers simply get out of the way of the music and disappear. Spectral balance: From bottom to top, highly integrated, cohesive, smooth. Neither bright nor dark. Just right. Mids and highs are liquid and articulate with plenty of air. Bass has extension, slam and verve. Dynamics: Both micro and macro dynamics are well served. From airy brushed cymbals to pant flapping timpani kettledrums. Sweet spot: Easily three people across. No ‘head in a clamp’ effect here. Aesthetics: Might have a WAF for some. I find the small footprint and 45” ribbon suit my taste just fine. In the final analysis I care more about the music than the looks. Equipment compatibility: Works well with moderately priced and powered gear(I find at least 70w/channel to get visceral impact in my room). Is absolutely fabulous when mated with high-end equipment. GIGO applies here. I prefer active crossovers so I am biamping. My system: Dolan PM1 pre-amp Audio Research D70 for mid and high, Adcom 555 for the bottom, John Curl designed Symmetry xover @1000 hz Arcam D500se CD, Linn LP12, Ittok arm, Koetsu Rosewood signature Kimber interconnects Nordost flatline

Similar Products Used:

Strathaern stacked ribbons, Accoustat Monitor X, Quad esl63

Image well, good customer service, transferrable warantee, good resale value.

Hard to drive, uninvolving, lacked bass, not much high frquency air, ugly.

I had the R645 speakers from Newform last year. I have to say I found them to be a BIG disappointment. They lacked that involving quality that draws one into the music. Now, I have seen many authors write that better x-over parts, better bass cabinet, etc. makes a world of improvement for these. I can imagine this would be the case. There seemed to be a real hole around the crossover region. A friend of mine bought a pair at the same time and had the same problem. He sold his, too. They claimed to be 91 dB efficient, but they did not sound as loud as my 88 dB speakers. An issue that may have hurt my results is lack of power. I was using a 30W amp (Pass Aleph 30). My buddy was using a 45W tube amp (VTL). From what I heard, I'd say the Newform recommendation of 15W is WAY off. Think 100W to get any boogie factor out of them. For so many people to love them they must be hearing something I wasn't. I am sure with so many positive reviews these people got them to integrate better than I did.

Similar Products Used:

Martin-Logan, Quad, Sound-Lab, Hales, Talon, ProAc, ...

Not qualified to give an opinion

Same as above

After seeing these speakers as a "top pick", I could'nt help but give my 2 cents worth. First of all, I have a very good ear and am completely turned off by anything even remotely "bright", including front ends, power sources or speakers. Having said that, i have been to audio shows in Vegas, and Vancouver and spend that time listening to the latest and greatest speakers on the market. I have a 4, (maybe 5) year old memory of listening to a pair of these odd looking speakers, and i can tell you, after all these years I recall stevie ray vaughn's tin pan alley being portrayed soooooo realistically, that i could not believe what i was hearing. Sound reproduction is not what i heard, but rather a true musical experience. Blew me away for $2,400. I do however remember having to sit right in the sweet spot to get that magic and i am wondering if some of the owners out there could give me their opinion on this. I am looking for new speakers and its been some time since my last audition, so let me know if this is still a trait of these speakers. If they still retain the same strengths, then I must give these speakers top ratings based on one audition several years ago that i remember like it was yesterday! the only other incident that is so vivid in my memory includes 2 dancing girls and a midget..... but thats a story for another site.

Similar Products Used:

Celestion, B & W, dynaudio, M & K.

SEE NEXT REVIEW

SEE NEXT REVIEW

*****PLEASE READ NEXT REVIEW FIRST - TWO PARTS***** Blackhole five. Much less cabinet distortion. I could really hear this change, and I did one cabinet at a time so I could compare (using a mono signal). I made a mistake installing it initially by putting the material too close to the drivers. I cut a little back and this made all the difference. The best way to describe the difference when A/B’ing the two cabinets is the cabinet with the Blackhole five sounded less "confused". Despite all of the work, I was still not happy with the sound. I ran a spectrum analyzer on a pink noise input and found that the response was 35 – 18 Khz + 12dB, - 10 dB!! All along I new my room had nasty reflections, signal cancellation and the other nasties associated with an untreated room. So, I began to make some changes. Bass Traps in all of the corners – 50Hz "boom" less discernable Homemade absorbers on the walls (egg-crate foam backed by fiberglass sound absorption insulation in 4’ X 4’ frames covered with color coordinated burlap) – biggest change I made to the entire system. Better than any of the previous modifications. Depth, warmth, clarity, soundstage beyond the speakers, wall-of-sound, etc., etc., and NO listener fatigue. WOW! Shoulda done this first – I knew it. Diffusers in the back of the room. – sounds a little more lively, no massive overhaul, but discernable minor improvement. Custom suspended ceiling with same egg-crate foam backed by fiberglass. This time covered with felt. This deadened the room a little. I did not do RT60 tests, but my subjective hand-clap tests definitely indicated that I had decreased the room-decay time significantly. Oddly enough this improved the bass significantly. More than the bass traps. Less boom, yet a little deeper and tighter as well. I run a pair of NHT Sub Two’s, which takes me down to subsonic levels. So now what. These speakers sound fantastic. I am listening to Rebecca Pidgeon’s SACD (Chesky) "The Raven". It just sounds good. From time-to-time I drop into a couple of audio stores in the Houston area, and to be honest, I am not craving any other speaker that is less than $5K. I like a big soundstage with excellent imagery and no sense of the speaker as being a point source. I also like the mid-range I got with my B&W’s, and it took a lot of work, but for the most part I am now satisfied.

Excellent real world value, easy upgradeability, huge sound!

Cosmetics maybe not for everyone.

As a long time lover of music & the equipment that makes it, I think my membership in the speaker of the month ( year ) club may finally be over. The R645''s have that rare appeal to me as a maker of music ( at least in my room) that had eluded me in my current room ( 13'' x 22'' ) When I first recieved them I tried my usual speaker placement with mixed results. After experimenting with a variety of placement options the speakers really came into their own with a somewhat wider & further placement in the room than I had used for my previous speakers. The speakers virtually vanished as a source; and a wide, deep & focused sound stage that lit up the end of my living room. The spectral balance was nicely neutral, with great deep bass detail and treble was good, with excellent dispersion (both in the vertical & horizontal plane). After six months or so the Tweaker in me kept asking, how good can these speakers get? I called John Meyer & discussed upgrading x-over parts. I went with Hovland music caps & foil inductors. The results made a very good speaker, a truly great one! Some Starsound threaded brass cones and a pair of VPI blocks on each speaker really coupled them to the floor & room. New speaker wire & jumper ( Nordost spm) completed the transformation. The speakers now have superb image focus, incredibly wide soundstaging,and excellent balance top to bottom.My room has never sounded better! To sum it up. How John can make a speaker with such high quality parts at such an affordable price, with easy tweak upgrades to delight almost any audiophile ( enthusiast ) I realize that speakers, maybe more than any other purchase, are a personal taste issue but these speakers keep me coming back for more over & over again. (As an aside they''re the first large speaker my wife doesn''t mind. Sure they''re tall, but. not too visually imposing in the decorating scheme!) Associated equip. : Meridian 588 cd player Rowland Concentra II REL Stadium III Oracle Delphi III P.S. - The price paid was for demos.

Similar Products Used:

Most brands of planer speakers & a couple of very highly rated (& good) box types.

Good price,Sound Great,Great product support,a real plus.

None

These are the absolutely BEST speakers for the buck and better than many that cost much more. I don''t know were some people can give a 1 for a review they must be the Maggie crew trying to muddy a superior product,who knows for sure but how in the world can anyone give a 1,why not a 3 or 4??? The 645''s are great and can be made even better with a crossover upgrade I used North Creeks upgrade and it is outrageous. It gave the bass a real snap and slam I did not have before,and the ribbons became more articulate,less bright,more pleasent,not to say the 645''s weren''t great from the box they were,but anything can be made better.

transparency and musicality

None at the price

I contributed a review in June after only having the 645’s one day. I could tell right off the bat they were something quite special. I’ve been getting to know the speakers in my room, and I’d like to just add a few comments about how I’ve tweaked my particular system for higher performance. My comments should not be construed as a criticism of the stock speaker because it’s great just as it is; as good as any $2K speaker I know of, and far better than most. But the 645’s also have more potential for improvement than other speakers in this price range because of it’s superb drivers, one of the things that attracted me to them in the first place. I’ve gone the active tri-amp route with a Marchand XM-9 3 way active crossover that I use with a stereo pair of Hsu subs. Most audiophiles won’t go this route because it requires 6 channels of amplification just for stereo, but for those wanting to read more about the benefits of active bi-amping have a look at Siegfried Linkwitz’s excellent web site at http://www.linkwitzlab.com/ I ended up with a slightly higher mid bass / tweeter crossover point than stock, 2K instead of 1K, at 24 dB/oct, which is also steeper than stock. The sub to mid-bass is at 85Hz. (BTW, the Marchand is very flexible and very transparent.) This improves power handling top to bottom, and the system becomes even more transparent, and up to higher listening levels. Jon Meyer recommends leaving the 11uF cap in series with the tweeter to flatten response, and after listening I agree. Since that was to be the only passive high level component in the crossover I upgraded to the very good Theta caps from Sonic Craft and think they’re a good investment. The woofer crossover is bypassed by moving one lead on the board, and the tweeter has a set of binding posts for direct input already, so it was easy to set up. I haven’t modified the speaker in any other way. I’d also like to make one comment about some of the criticisms the 645’s have received in previous reviews. Comments like the one contributed by Marcus (for example) lack credibility because he doesn’t allow that his failure to get good sound may not be intrinsic to the speaker itself, particularly in light of so many comments to the contrary. His comment about poor imaging performance alone tells those of us who know better that something was amiss somewhere. A pity

Similar Products Used:

for partial list see previous review

Soundstaging, detail, transparency, presentation of recorded nuances - especially voice

None

I had been in the market for speakers for about 2 years. I was looking for something to replace my NHT 2.5i's and had listened to about every "name" brand of dome and cone speaker in the market. However, I still hadn't found anything that really made me want to replace the NHT's. Then I heard planars - Magnepan QR 1.6's specifically. This was the ticket! However the size and shape of Maggies was unsuitable for my home. That is when I learned about Newform Research. Dealing with John Meyer was a pleasure, and the product is absolutely fantastic. They are sonically superior, in my opinion, to the Maggies and work well domestically. I would echo the comments detailed below, and would also like to add some additional thoughts:

Sensitivity: This is a real benefit. Having a good-sounding, high sensitivity loudspeaker lets you really experience the dynamics of a good recording, especially when you have a powerful amplifier driving the speaker. Sinead O'Connor's voice on "He moved through the faire" from the Chieftains Long Black Veil CD is awesome, due to the dynamics of her voice. I never really heard this dynamic range until I heard it through the Newforms. Now it gives me goosebumps every time.

Jumpers and Hovland Caps - I started with single wiring the speakers. At first, it was OK. As time went on, I thought the tonal balance was a little bright, so I tried bi-wiring. This brought the treble nicely into balance with the bass and midrange. Then I took John's suggestion and upgraded the ribbon crossover with Hovland Musicaps purchased from Madisound. These really took performance to the next level. All of the strengths listed above improved considerably. I would highly recommend this upgrade if you are going to bi-wire these speakers.

Positioning - I spent the better part of two weeks (after the speakers were broken in) moving them around the room. Fortunately, from my NHT's, I had a pretty good idea of basic positioning to get good sound (I found that the Newforms worked best firing straight ahead. They are about 6 feet from the wall and 4-1/2 feet from the side walls. I sit about 9 feet from the speakers and they are just under 9 feet apart. There is about 5 feet to the wall behind my head). This cannot be understated - try different room placements and measure the speaker's response using pink noise and a dB meter. Get the flattest response possible for your room - this will give you the most long-term musical enjoyment. I use very little room treatment (4 x 2'X 2' squares of Sonex + 4 little pillows in the ceiling corners - my wife made these for me - cost about $7) and have achieved in-room repsonse of +/- 2.25 dB from 40 Hz - 10,000 Hz.

Subwoofer - Use a good subwoofer to power the bottom octave and it really helps to fill out the sound. I have a rising response in the bottom octave, which is good, since it doesn't muddy up the presentation and provides a little extra ooomph.

John Meyer - You will really like dealing with John. He knows his stuff, always returns calls promptly and genuinely wants you to have a satisfying musical experience. After dealing for years with "know it alls" and just poor salesmanship at a lot of high-end shops, John's demeanor was a real breath of fresh air.

If you love music, buy these speakers. You will not be disappointed.

Associated equipment:
Sunfire Signature amplifier
McCormack TLC line stage
Pink Triangle Numeral CD player
Basis 1400 turntable w/RB 300 arm and Benz-Micro cartridge
Exposure 13 phono stage
Velodyne F-1800 XR subwoofer
MIT MH-750, MI-330 and Terminator 2 cabling
MIT Z-Center and Z-Cord 2's

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NHT, Tiel, Joseph, ProAc, Vandersteen, Martin-Logan, Magnepan, B&W, others

transparency, clarity,soundfield,accuracy of tone and timber

extreme low bass

My wife and I have enjoyed this hobby for over 25 years. Over the last three weeks we have spent many hours listening to this extraordinary product. No component we have ever owned has made as big a difference to our system as the R645s. We believe they are an excellent value at the price. You need a large room for them. Our room is 16 feet wide, 9ft. high, and 44 ft. long, with the speakers set up 6ft from the end wall, 2.5 ft from the side walls, and the listening position is 11 ft from the plane of the speakers. Equipment consists of Bryston 4bst amp and 25 preamp, Oracle table, Linn cd. In our room the r645s literally sing. They disappear completely, with stunning transparency, huge soundfield with width and depth, clarity and detail combined with accuracy of tone and timber. They are extraordinarily fast and real, with both the bass produced by the Scanspeak drivers and the ribbons being very lively, quick and "live music" like. In the light oak finish they are very attractive. Downside-really none from a sound perspective; however the extreme low bass below 30hz is missing (I don't believe Andrew Marshall's review that stated that they were only down 5 db at 20hz) but the speaker is not designed to produce such low bass, and you must have a fairly large room in which you can accept the imposing heighth of these speakers. Build quality is superb and value for the money is extraordinary. Having spent four days at the Las Vegas CES listening critically to other candidates, there isn't another speaker we would rather have in our home until you reach the megadollar$20000 range. Five plus stars all around.

Similar Products Used:

B&W 801, Paradigm Studio 100

Invisibility with your eyes closed, very detailed soundstage, clear precise bass.

Maybe WAF but not from this client.

I have had these speakers up and running for over 5 months now, and am more impressed as I improve the upstream components. Anyone who has a review skewed to the negative in regards to soundstage, bass response, or brightness probably has room and upstream component mis-matches.

After upgrading to a 200WPC amp, I immediately unhooked my Paradigm Servo15 as it was actually redundant in the lower octaves. As I've added more power, the bass gets tighter and more accurate.

These is truly a five star product at $5K, and at just over $2K they are a ridiculous bargain if your listening tastes are begging for accuracy, especially in the jazz, folk, and classical arenas.

Please contact John with any questions before buying, and then jump on the audiophile train to music nirvana with the rest of us. I'll be talking with John soon about trading these in on a pair of NHB versions, or upgrades to these R645's directly.

Associated music room gear:

Sonic Frontiers SFCD1
Sonic Frontiers LINE2
Anthem MCA2 (Biwiring/biamping with 2 of these at 200WPC)
Audioquest Viper interconnects
Audioquest Cobalt (Lower octaves)
Audioquest Crystal (Higher octaves)

Similar Products Used:

Tested many, apprehensively settled on the R645 without a listening test.