Blue Ridge Sound Engineering

Has anyone heard these speakers?

http://www.blueridgesoundeng.com/index.html

Looks like a good speaker for the money.

 

Im intrigued, but always scared by someone that says really stupid stuff like his 2000 dollar speaker sounds better than most 30 thousand dollar speakers and that most 30 thousand dollar speakers have less than a thousand dollars worth of parts inside, blah blah.

Here's the real inside track on most audio components: They are built with a multiplier of four to five....

If the component sells for 30k, it usually means that the mfr has 6-8k worth of components inside, so he can sell it to the dealer for 12-15 and the dealer can sell it to you for 25-30.

Almost every high end company works this way. More than likely if this guy sells direct, cutting out the dealer he maybe has 5-600 worth of components in his speaker, plus his labor. The bad news is that this is not always the big indicator of quality that the little guys would like you to belive. Because the little guys buy tweeters five at a time, they pay 200 bucks for the same tweeter that Sonus Faber pays 30 dollars for in their lower end speakers, and can get custom drivers for 200. The big guys usually also have much better woodworking tools, or source their cabinets from someone that only makes speaker cabinets, resulting in much more cabinet for the money.

There's nothing wrong with the little guys trying to get into the speaker game, I just wish they would stop saying that everyone else is a ripoff.

I also find it kind of suspicious that there is no way to contact this guy other than a post office box. Good luck getting these fixed at some future date if he ever goes belly up. At least you can get a pair of Vandersteens fixed!!

Just my 2 cents worth....

 

Okay, so some guy reads the Loudspeaker Design Cookbook, spends a few dollars at Parts Express, comes up with something listenable, and decides to build a website to sell them. Bully. That's called "free enterprise" and more power to him. But my baloney detector pegs out when I read that website. [......./.]

I don't want to see pictures of mountains. I can drive up the street and see mountains. I want to see "AES Best In Show" or something. And whenever I see that "fish thing" it frightens me.

 

Im with you, especially when there isn't even a fax number!!!

Also, when the first two people raving about the speaker can
neither spell nor complete a sentence!

 

That says it all. They may indeed be great, but unless you can listen to them and decide for yourself, all you're getting is "audiophile speak" marketing.

I'd proceed with great caution and know that there's a lot of bs in high end audio.

 

Other posts have addressed most of the points.

I did not mind the web site, and the frequency response curve is very good. But despite what they say, a smooth frequency response is not everything, especially if the measurement is made in an anechoic chamber - but when the speaker is in a real room, the performance is quite different.

The 88 db/watt/metre sensitivity is a little on the low side for me, and this is typically overstated. So it's probably lower. They probably need a bit of clean power to sound good, and don't work that well at low volumes. Without hearing them, who knows?

What bothers me the most is they don't give the manufacturer and model numbers of the drivers (unless I missed that). That's a warning sign.

Their two mid-range driver design does not appeal - but I do like two mid-ranges with a tweeter between them in a d'Appolito arrangement. I'm also not happy with top-mounted tweeters, but that's me.

Speakers are the one component you simply have to hear - preferably in your own home. I know this is very hard to do.

We have seen other small manufacturers do something similar to start off with, though they usually get going by word of mouth. The expensive and quite fancy web site makes one realize what their strategy is.

I'd personally wait until I heard reports on these from the usual forums (Audio Asylum, AudiogoN) before considering them.

 

I was going to call or write to see if we could get a pair for review, but there's no contact info!!

Not good marketing there....

Anyone gets a contact let me know, Ill try and get a pair in....

 

If you go to the order page, then click the little ebay box, you will see him selling them on ebay for about half the price that is on the web site, I would guess that this is how he does most of the sales, I also see that he anwsers questions through ebay so that would be the way to contact him.
I agree, for what he is selling there should be better contact info.

 

heres a link

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZblueridgesoundeng


Guess I am just hopefull that this is a honest guy who loves to make speakers, has a great product and is just getting started, but who knows? Perhaps Im just too trusting.

 

Having read this thread firstly at work and now home, I would be extremely cautious about buying from them unless you honestly can afford to stand out any loss.

The lack of contact and general inaccessibility would concern me as they are usually a given. If I wanted to increase my sales, I'd like my stuff mentioned and reviewed in magazines.

Regards,

 

I'm immediately skeptical for this reason alone.

P.S. I have some $1K cables that sound as good as $10K cables. You have to use my own proprietary silver contact treatment for $500 for best results however.

 

Also, most engineers believe a MLSSA plot is far more valuable than a 2D FR curve.

 

Agreed. (What's with all the abbreviations? Are you in a rush?)

 

Dadaalice:

I've never heard these speakers, and nothing can substitute for actual listening when it comes to speaker selection. However, I suggest you look carefully at the large picture of the speakers at the top of the "Order" page. Does that really look like the fit and finish that you would expect from a $2000speaker (and, keep in mind, those samples were probably selected to look good)?

 

Canton NC isn't all that far away for me. If I ever get a free day (fat chance!) I think I'd like to go and hear a pair of those for myself. If I do get that chance I'll report back on them, favorably, unfavorably, or indifferent. Depending on how they fare with my torture disc I might even come back with a pair. Maybe he'll even let me tote a pair back with me for a free 30-day in-studio trial! But Def Techs for the same money didn't pass the test, sooooo.....

 

I have owned these, and was totally amazed with the sound. A buddy came over and preferred them to his big merlins. Carl, the owner, need to put higher quality binding posts, and better veneer, and they will be world class small monitors. I use epiphany 12/12's now, which list for 16,500. They are better, bigger sound, et. In a smaller room I could be real happy with these.

They are Truely great sounding speakers, especially for the money. I had a pair of Zu druids at the time, and they totally blew them away in musicality, soundstage, bass, transparency, et. Are they as good as magico mini's, I dunno, but they are 1/20th the price, and at leat 70-90 percent there. CArl has made a very fine speaker here.

JMO

Oh, forgot, use your own stand, his sucked, but I read he is working on upgrading these for the near future.

 

Hey troops:

I finally got in touch with Carl and he seemed very nice. He has agreed to send us a pair in about a month, when he catches up with the current orders, so we'll do our best to evaluate them and let you know how they sound!

 

Cool! Somebody who has actually heard them!

 

Cant wait! I am looking to upgrade my speaks in a few months and these are back on the list.

 

I'm not a fan of the JEE-ZUS fish in advertising, either. Also, it's pretty ironic that someone from Canton would market his product as being as clear and clean as the mountains, whan, as we both know, Canton often stinks so bad that your eyes burn when you pass through on 40.

Still, they are purdy thangs, and the person who has actually heard them gives them a positive review, and I think it'd be cool to have a quality boutique manufacturer in the area. If I hadn't recently bought a new set of giant Polks, I'd certainly give them a listen.

 

Blue Ridge Sound Engineering Replies-

Hello All,

This post is from Carl Halling, Founder, President and Chief Engineer of BRSE.

Thank you for your interest in our loudspeakers. I'm on my way to a business meeting so I can't take any more time unitl later to begin to address questions individually, but here's a post I wrote this morning on another forum that will address at least some of your questions/concerns:


Hello All,

Greetings from Carl Halling, I'm the President/Founder and lead engineer of Blue Ridge Sound Engineering. Thank you all for your interest in our speakers.

I started my own company after retiring from the business for two reasons:

1. I got a little bored and
2. I knew full well that I could do the seemingly impossible... to build a world-class monitor that would sound better than anything anywhere near it's price range. I have not only just the right background to accomplish this, but more importantly designing/building speakers is truly my passion. Doing it my way with my own company has paid off in a speaker with performance beyond anything else in it's class, and perhaps a few classes above as well.

Initially, (I'm not too proud to admit) we had some finishing issues because we're engineers, not carpenters, and our best efforts at veneer finishing were average at best compared to the pros. These issues have been resolved through the hiring of highly qualified cabinet makers for the time being... For the future, we've met with enough success and positive feedback that we're in final negotiations to have our speakers built professionally in a quality-controlled factory setting.

Someone mentioned our "expensive" website in one of the posts (I think it was this forum), I'll take that as a compliment because I created it myself with no help from any outside source and it actually cost me nothing whatsoever. This is another in the long list of reasons why I can sell such a high-performance upscale loudspeaker for a pittance: I know how to keep costs down and keep overhead to an absolute minumum. No huge staff of engineers/researhers to pay, because I've got it handled. No huge marketing staff to pay, because these speakers largely sell themselves. The closest thing to "advertizing" I've ever done is throw up a few auctions here and on eBay once in awhile to lead people to the website, then it's been all word of mouth from there.

While you'll see a few reviews around from some of my customers, we've not submitted a pair for professional review yet because we know we can't keep up with any more demand than we have now, and I feel the worst thing we could do is have a glowing review come out and not be able to supply would-be customers with a pair of speakers.

I'm very excited to have the speakers professionally reviewed. Mostly because, and I hope this doesn't sound immodest, but mostly because I know it'll be a glowing review. I have full confidence, because I know how much engineering excellence (if you will) I've put into this design. The crossover network is an entirely new, proprietary design that follows none of the convention of the industry by folloing one of the four basic crossover design types. My crossover is completely new, completely innovative, and completely mine. It goes beyond the simple function of directing the proper frequencies to each driver and actually incorporates frequency shaping (when needed) for each respective driver. Thus the truly flat frequency response. Don't get excited all of you out there who would like to copy my design.. the engineering is not evident in examination of the crossover and cannot be ported to another design without my proprietary knowledge, and of course this design is already trademark and patent protected. This is truly something unique, I hope you'll give a pair a try and enjoy my many years of hard work that went into this whole thing.

There is someone here in the forums that most of you know, Steve (711smilin), who had a pair of my speakers and was quite impressed with them. He and I were just discussing how he'll be the first to own a pair of my large floor-standing flagship model due out early this summer. He has some good things to say about the current model but he recently contacted me and mentioned that he was unable to post here on audiogon for some reason. I know Steve to be a very knowledgeable long-term audiophile who either owns or has owned nearly every noteworthy brand (no matter the cost) of high-end equipment and I'd value his opinion on nearly any audio subject, especially high-end equipment. If anyone has any idea why Steve was unable to post, please let me know, I'd love to see him back in the forums, and not just because he likes my speakers.

Finally, I'm here for any questions anyone may have. Please feel free to write me here on the forums, or at my personal email address as posted in the auctions, on the website, and now here as well: [email protected]

Until the reviews come out, I can only urge you to give the speakers a try with this simple fact: Not one single person who's purchased a pair has been disappointed with the sound or quality of these speakers, barring minor finish issues with early models, which were easily ignored as soon as they fired them up for a listen. Let me ask you... is there any better accolade than 100% customer satisfaction? Please try my speakers, they are the real deal.

If enough of you express interest, I'll be happy to put a pair up for auction here on Audiogon so you can try a pair at less than full price, and tell the others what you think. I'm sure Steve isn't the only guy out there who can afford to take a small chance with a little bit of money on something truly different. Plus, I do have a return policy, so what do you have to loose? Let's do this.

Thank You,
Carl Halling,
President,

BRSE
P.O. Box 1691
Canton, NC 28716

WWW.BlueRidgeSoundEng.Com

[email protected]

 

Hi Carl,

Thank you for posting that and I and many others I'm sure will look forward to hearing more about this speaker.

Regards,

 

You're welcome, glad to do it, and if anyone has any questions I'm always reachable.
Have a Great Weekend,
Carl Halling

 

That would be me. You'd be right to take it as a compliment - you've done a very good job.

Now, how about the drivers. I could not find mention on your web site of the manufacturer/model number. Did I miss it?

 

Very cool that Mr. Blue Ridge has posted, I feel my infallible intuition has paid off !!!
What a great forum!