Value, performance in absolute terms, HIGHEST fidelity.

None.

I am the type of listener that does all the appropriate equipment selection homework up front, makes a purchase, then enjoys the fruits of his labors for many years, focusing primarily on enjoying the musical experience: creative genius, interpretation, musicianship, and the simple thrill of profound musical expression. Occupying the place of honor, until recently, were a pair of factory-upgraded Spica TC-50s, which I purchased new in 1983. Eventually, a Janis W1 subwoofer joined in. I regularly hear live performances ranging from symphonic music to jazz, to opera, and folk music performed in small clubs. I’ve played the piano since age 6. I prefer un-amplified live music, which is increasingly more difficult to find.

A few years ago, I became aware of Newform Research (somehow), and always read John Meyer’s brochures with great interest because of his seemingly pragmatic approach to solving the problem of that final transducer. Soundspace, coherence, dynamic capability, and good continuity through the frequency spectrum have been important to me over the years. Having had the Magnepan MG-IIa years ago, I didn’t want to contend with a small sweet spot, nor with the placement agonies of a dipole. The Spicas, I felt, were just a tad polite for my taste (but spectacular in most other ways), so the efficiency and flat top octave response of the R-645 were of interest.

I’ve had the R-645s for almost two months now, and they’ve had about 30 hours playing time. The sound continues to improve, although it was quite listenable right out of the box.

Variables:

The room is approximately 1,560 cu. ft., average damping, no damping on wall behind listening position (will try in the future)
Linn Sondek LP-12 “Valhalla” with Ittok LVII and Sumiko “Blue Point Special” cartridge; Sony CDP-XA7es CD player
Audio Research SP-14 pre-amp (normally operated in “bypass” mode)
Audio Research Classic 60 power amp (60 wpc tube amp using Svetlana 6550C output tubes)
Nordost “Blue Heaven” interconnects (0.5m and 1.0m)
Nordost “Blue Heaven” speaker cable (2.0m)
Ears: clean, happy, 50 years old

Customer Service: 10/10

John Meyer took the time and very carefully queried me on system set-up, listening preferences, room characteristics, etc. He made sure that my choice of speaker model was a good match. The purchase was handled with utmost smoothness, and the product delivered as promised. UPS gouged, tore and ripped the boxes in their best effort to ruin the precious contents, but all four speaker units arrived in perfect working and cosmetic condition nonetheless.

Build Quality: 9.9/10

Heavy, solid, dense. Finish on the plinths and bass cabinets is beyond reproach. Finish on the ribbon housings has two or three very minor blemishes on the sides. All parts fit together well, although lifting the hefty ribbon assemblies and positioning them properly requires appropriate care to avoid back problems! The reason for use of Nordost “Flatline” cable for the connection from top of bass cabinet to ribbon assembly wasn’t immediately clear, until I did some research and found glowing reviews of Nordost products throughout the press and on the Internet. (Subsequently purchased Nordost cables.) The bi-wireable gold plated binding posts are robust and a pleasure to use with the supplied wrench.

Appearance: 10/10

What does a “beautiful” speaker look like? It looks like the speaker that reproduces music to your complete satisfaction! To me, with the R-645, form clearly follows function, without any décor nonsense in the formula (well, maybe the bass unit grille, which is only a simple black rectangle). On the flip side, I have recently seen what I would consider absolutely hideous speaker designs, mostly from newer speaker manufacturers, in the ad copy of The Absolute Sound and Stereophile. We’re talking grotesque, as in choice of finish colors and textures, shape, proportions, etc….. designs I would want to hide behind a screen, no matter how good they sounded. And they’re BIG! The R-645 is just very clean, simple, and yes, unorthodox, but in a strange way, pleasing to the eye. Their very narrow profile minimizes their impact on the listening room.

Insensitivity to Placement: 9/10

These have been a dream to set up! Suggestion: don’t install the spikes until after 1) you’re done with your out-of-phase, face to face burn-in, and 2) figuring out final placement location. This is not to say they don’t require care in set-up, it’s just that the set-up process is rational and reasonable.

High Frequency Performance: 10/10

Extended, clear, pure, extremely detailed, smooth, fantastic transient speed, endearing. Tremendous resolving ability. They just sound like they’re not there!

Midrange Performance: 10/10

Pure, fast, smooth, fantastic transient speed, luscious. They just get out of the way of the music! Vocals are stunning!

Bass Performance: 10/10

Within the limits of this design, in a word, stunning! When required, prodigious amounts of clean, clear, very well controlled bass. “Tuneful” is a word that’s been used to describe the bass produced by this speaker… that’s an excellent description, because you can hear properly recorded bass lines as clearly as one would hear a strong melodic line (and with a tube power amp, no less). I’ve gained a new appreciation of what’s possible with first-rate drivers, like the ScanSpeaks used in the R-645 (you get what you pay for). John clearly agrees! I have not used a subwoofer with these speakers and do not feel the need. (The Janis has been retired to home theater duty.)

Imaging: 10/10

Huge, deep, layered, precise placement, realistic height, and on appropriately recorded material, images way beyond the left and right boundaries of the speakers themselves. Exceptional! (No, I don’t miss the Spicas!) These speakers truly disappear! The soundstage typically extends from somewhat behind the speakers rearward.

Dynamics: 10/10

Don’t know why exactly, but I suspect the electronics are the limiting factor here. Recordings with wide dynamic range sound that way, and visa versa. The R-645’s 91 db sensitivity satisfies at both low and high listening levels. My 60 wpc tube amp seems to have plenty of reserve power with these speakers.

Summary:

A true milestone in value-engineered speaker design. Phenomenal performance for size (foot print and frontal area) and price ($2265 delivered!). Great website (www.newformresearch.com) with truly useful information clearly presented, instead of hype on top of hype. The R-645 is a reference-quality loudspeaker system that is available to the masses! I encourage those of you shopping for a pair of new speakers in any price range to give Newform Research products some very serious thought. I hope you find this write-up helpful. In case you’re still not sure, I LOVE THEM!

Similar Products Used:

Magnepan, Spica, Infinity

Just about anything once it is proper break-in. Transparency, vocals, and details.

Could be too revealing. Is that good or bad?

Finally, the speakers has at least 50 hours of music being player through it. After about 30 hours of music, the newforms sounds more natural and open, the lack of zippy upper treble is also absent. Personally, I am very happy with the speakers, they are extremely easy to listen to and does not give you the headache of placing a ribbon speakers. I also had a pair of Apogee Slant 8s that requires most of your time fine tuning the placement of the Apogees.

It regards to the sound, the Newforms has this wide and deep soundstage that is non-exsistence in other speakers including my Apogees. However, it is best you pump the newforms with up to par recordings, otherwise these speakers are going to reveal flaws in your recordings. On the other hand, if you had good recordings, it is going to sound great with details, transparency, and excellent soundstaging which will rewards you with hours of fatigue-free listening sessions. Also a big thanks to the boss, John Meyer, for helping me choose the speakers and have it shipped across half the world. Believe it or not, I did my transactions and communication through emails. Thumbs up to the great product and services.

Similar Products Used:

Apogees, Magnepans, B&Ws

Natural, well-balanced and lifelike-sound, capable of throwing an enormous soundstage, dynamic, easy to drive and set up.

I'm nitpicking here: do not have stygian bass, appearance may not appeal to everyone.

The only drawback to writing this review is that it takes my limited free time away from listening to music through these wonderful speakers. These were a replacement for my beloved Gallo Nucleus Reference speakers (see my review on this site), which I had to sell because a room renovation left me unable to leave them sufficiently out in the room to sound their best. I had gone through a long list of excellent speakers over the years, trying to find one that best could recreate a sense of live music in the room, and the now-discontinued Gallos had been, I thought, the end of the line. When I knew I had to sell them, I tried two other speakers: the beautiful-to-look-at-and-listen-to Silverline Audio Sonatinas ($3800), which Bill Hardy at the Stereo Shoppe in Lexington, KY, allowed me to audition for a week, and the Newform Research R645's, which John Meyer in Canada sells factory direct with a 30-day money-back guarantee. I almost bought the highly efficient Sonatinas (93 dB), which gave up some bass to the Gallos but otherwise produced gorgeous, transparent and airy sound. But the Newforms arrived during that audition and they quickly demonstrated that with my solid state equipment (listed below) they sounded superior to both the other speakers. They sounded more realistic than the Gallos and, with their steady impedance (5.7 to 8 ohms) and efficiency (92 dB) were far easier to drive! I was able to sell one of my twin bridged Bedini 1 MEG amps that I had used with the Gallos. And the bass response of the Newforms was deeper and fuller than that of the Sonatinas, which added a greater foundation to the sound of music.

SETUP:
Others on this site have described the build and physical layout of this speaker, so I won't repeat what has already been said. I'll focus, rather, on the setup and sound. While John Meyer, the owner of Newform Research and an extremely knowledgeable, helpful, and patient man, recommends the speakers normally be set up facing straight ahead, I found the most accurate sound to result when toeing them in about 5 degrees. I have a fireplace that juts out on one side of my room and a large desk with an affixed bookshelf on the other, which produces anomalies in soundstaging when the speakers fire straight ahead. The speakers sit along the short wall, 40 inches (as measured from the back of the cabinet) from the front wall and 45 inches from the side walls (as measured from the outer side of the cabinet) in my 16W X 25L X 10H ft. room/study. Initial setup is straight forward and not nearly as time-consuming and maddening as were the Gallos. As with the Gallos, I bi-wired the Newforms, which, to my ears, improves their dynamics, soundstaging, and transparency. I also replaced the flat cable, which John supplies to connect the cabinet drivers to the ribbons, with the same speaker wire (Belden 1585A data cable) I ran to the cabinet. Believe it or not, that particular Belden cable, as recommended to be by Stan Warren of Supermods, is amazingly neutral, better than the Monster M1 I had been using and the Transparent Audio Music Wave Plus I had on hand, and it costs only pennies per foot to make your own cables! The spikes included with the speakers help the sound noticeably, too. A significant improvement can also be had by attaching Tekna Sonic vibration absorbers to the back of the cabinets. I installed C-10 and C-12 units on each cabinet and heard the lower mid-range and bass, already among the best I've heard, improve to another level, the quality of which now surpassed the Gallos. Given the already low price for the performance quality of the Newforms, an additional $200 for the four units, I think, makes it an accessory Newform owners would do well to consider. If you can only afford $100, go for a pair of C-10's, since they make more of a difference than the C-12's. The rest of my comments about the sound are based on the Newforms outfitted with the Tekna Sonic units attached.

THE SOUND:
What everyone in their reviews has been saying about the sound you hear through these speakers is, in my judgment, true. The speakers are neutral and incredibly revealing of nuaces in the music. It means they are "fast" in order to convey the "alive" quality of the music, particularly if you love acoustical instruments and voice. John Meyers has really triumphed in his ability to form a happy marriage between the twin Scanspeak drivers in each cabinet with his proprietary ribbon. More detail comes out of the Scanspeaks, which are crossed over to the ribbon at 1K, than I heard from the Dynaudio drivers in the Gallos. And from 1K on up, where the ribbon takes over, the transparency, palpability, and smoothness of the sound on well-recorded material will make you say, "Oh, God!" The speakers are engineered in such a way that the emotional power of the music flows out of them free from euphony. As much as I respect Anthony Gallo's achievement with his revolutionary cylindrical tweeter, John Meyer's ribbons are a bit less dry sounding, giving more what I hear in a live performance. Take for example, "The Streets of Laredo" on Connie Dover's beautiful "The Border of Heaven" CD (Taylor Park Music, TPMD0401). You can hear the subtle movement of the bellows of the accordion that accompanies her, the subtle click of the keys, and the air blowing through the reeds as if it was being played directly in front of you. Her gorgeous soprano voice has a "you-are-there" presence and is full-bodied, unlike what I have experienced through many of the other speakers I have had, which tend to reduce slightly the "body" of soprano voices and which sometimes convey an "edge" to the sound. On well-recorded choral music, these speakers are capable of such exquisite sound reproduction that I play tracks over and over again. On Chanticleer's spectacular "Sing We Christmas" album (Teldec, 4509-94563-2), recorded at "Father's Church" in Kempen, Germany, the voices of this 12-member male a cappella group soar through the reverberant space of that church so convincingly, that I listened to some tracks, such as "In dulci iubilo," "O Jesulein suss, o Jesulein mild," and "Noel canon," seven, eight, even nine times in a row. The voices are not only layered in that acoustical space, you can place individual voices within it. Every friend for whom I have played that CD has remarked that they believe they are sitting in a cathedral listening to a concert. What the ribbons do that I have never heard from other fine speakers is present ambient cues in such abundance that the original sound is reproduced with such great fidelity that it can at times be almost spooky. Music which is recorded in a large acoustical space is reproduced that way. The Gallos and the Sonatinas were close in that regard, particularly in terms of width of soundstage, but the ribbons, which atop the cabinet extend to over 6 feet in the air, convey a higher soundstage than either of those, and that height is what makes this type of musical event convincing.

So, the speakers clearly excel on vocals and the reproduction of ambient spatial cues. What do they do on harder-driving music? They deliver it accurately and with outstanding dynamics. If you want to test your system's abilities, try "La Capitana" on Sam Cardon's and Kurt Bestor's "Innovators" CD (Treble V, PHG 1012-2). This track features flamenco guitar, drums, bongos, and bass guitar all closely miked and with dynamic punch that will knock you back in your chair. The Newforms catch the leading edge flamenco guitar and the percussion instruments so realistically that, like with the other two examples I cited, you think the musicians are playing in the room. I was curious as to the sound pressure levels I was listening to on that track when I had the volume cranked up, so I pulled out my Radio Shack meter and recorded peaks of 105 dB. The sound did not break up, it did not get "hard," the instruments did not smear, it was simply cleanly reproduced, high-volume sound. The Magnepan 3.6's I formerly owned and the Martin Logan's were never capable of those kind of dynamics without the sound breaking up. The Gallos never would play that loudly with a single amp. Only with a pair of strapped Bedini 1 MEG amps through a Van Alstine Fet-valve bridging unit (which produced about 450 w/ch) could the Gallos reproduce that level of sound. But bridging the amps produced a loss of clarity. The Sonatinas could play cleanly with those kinds of dynamic swings, but at such high sound pressure levels, they took on a hint of hardness.

Another example is the Tractors "The Tractors" CD (Arista, 07822-18728-2). On "Baby Likes to Rock It" the sound opens beyond the walls of the room. The bass guitar lines are full and easily followed, the drums and cymbals are conveyed with tremendous dynamics, and backround vocals are clearly heard. On "Doreen," again, the driving bass lines are prominently displayed, tuneful and well-defined, and the soundstage width is wall-to-wall.

As a last example of the sound quality these speakers convey, consider the second cut on the soundtrack "The Prince of Egypt" (DreamWorks, DRMD-50041). That track, "Deliver Us," has it all: full orchestra, choral music, individual vocals. The instruments and full chorus extend from beyond the sides of the speakers and several feet in back of them. Individual voices can be picked from the chorus, as can the instruments of the orchestra, yet the sense you have is a seamlessly integrated whole with outstanding dynamic range. The tympani has weight and definition, too. The last crescendo that closes the piece decays for several seconds after the orchestra and chorus have finished, a decay that lasts longer than I could hear on either the Gallos or Sonatinas. The Newform Research speakers simply convey the wealth of information that the recording possesses.

Only on organ music with deep bass or synthesized music that plays at or below 30hz have I wished for greater bass output. The Gallos could play a bit deeper but the detail in the bass isn't quite as good as the Newforms. The best bass I have heard has still come from the Digital Phase AP2's, which, when set up right, could rattle the windows in my room at 20 hz, and low bass was better detailed than either the Gallos or the Newforms. Unfortunately, it's titanium dome tweeter was that speaker's Achilles' heel. Overall, the bass of the Gallos, in comparison with the Newforms, sounds just a bit too full, resulting in a sound that isn't quite as well-balanced as that from the Newforms. I wish to add, though, that the differences between the speakers in this region of the sound spectrum are pretty small.

I don't wish to imply that these speakers make all CD's sound good. CDs with crappily engineered sound sounded like it. But some tracks on CDs that I previously thought were badly recorded, with harsh upper frequencies, such as "Deeper Well" on EmmyLou Harris' "Wrecking Ball" CD (BMG, 61854-2), I discovered sounded bad because my other speakers weren't accurately reproducing the sound. Through the Newforms such CDs were revealed to have been well recorded.

Overall, the Newform R645s are an immensely good value. The two speakers with with I most frequently compared it, the Gallo Nucleus Reference and the Silverline Audio Sonatina, which, in my listening experience are world-class speakers, cost around $4000 vs. the $2265 for the R645 (or $2465 with the Tekna Sonic absorbers). They are a steal for anyone looking for a speaker in that price range. Enough said. I need to get back to wallowing in my music.

Equipment: Bedini 1 MEG amp (recently replaced with a Stan Warren modified Adcom 5400, a sonic marvel for the money), Hegeman Hapi 2 preamp, Rotel RCD-975 CD player used as transport to feed an Electronic Visionary Systems Millennium DAC 1a, original Sonographe SG-3 turntable w. Grado Signature arm and Goldring Electro II+ moving coil, Pioneer RT-707 reel-to reel deck with outboard dbx 150x Pro noise reduction unit, Silver Audio (formerly Dlinn Audio) Silver Bullet 4 interconnects, Belden 1585A speaker wire (bi-wired configuration), Brickwall AC surge protection filter, room treatment with 5 do-it-yourself Argent-style room lenses.

Similar Products Used:

Gallo Nucleus Reference, Silverline Audio Sonatina (for one-week audition), Martin Logan Quest/Sequel/CLS II, Magnapan 3.6, Digital Phase AP2, Pentagram P-10, Dunlavy SC III, Legacy Focus.

Superd transparency, soundstage, lifelike vocals

the looks might not be attractive to many people

After having so much wonderful review written on this speakers, I think you should have a clear idea what this speaker is capable of. However, I would like to tell about my experience with this speaker. My father visited me late last night, while I was listening to my favourite female pop singer, Celine Dion. He enters my listening room and start looking at the ceiling, trying to find the source of the music, whereas the speaker is located directly in front of him. I told him the music is coming from the front speaker, he was totally amazed and start inspecting the speaker at close range. He told me that he could not source the sound of the music, it seems it is coming from everywhere. Well, that is part of my father's small encounter with a speaker capable of being invinsible! Do you have any idea how good this speaker sounds?

Similar Products Used:

Audition to many highend speakers from Wilson Watt Puppies to B&W

MUSIC comes alive.

none

I am a lucky guy, my family love music as much as I do. My parents love listening to Chinese opera and songs of their generation. And I love jazz and classical music. We spend quality time listening to music together. I bought the speakers for my Dad's birhtday (read: for his b'day and for myself). John Meyer, the designer, is everything true to his reputation as a great guy. I ordered the speakers very late and it seemed impossible for them to arrive before my Dad's birthday. John shipped the speakers half way round the world and voila, they arrived in time. Kudos to Mr Meyer, the best customer service in Hi-fi.

I agree with all previous reviews, the sound is just like it was described. Most importantly, music comes through like it is, it comes alive and you become totally involved in the music. If you love music, there is no excuse not owning a pair of R645.

Source:
Rega Planar 3, Shure cartridge
Marantz CD 63MkII KI
Pre amp: ARC SP8
Power amp: Dynaco MkIII monoblock
Interconnect: Kimber Kable
Speaker cable: MIT terminator 3