More Commentaries and Advice on Equipment
A somewhat strange coincidence occurred not long ago. I found an old commentary describing the speakers I used to own, part of a discussion explaining why I have never wanted to settle for small speakers.
At the same time I saw a fellow on Audiogon was selling the electrostatic tweeter array for the very same speaker I owned, the RTR 280DR. Let me tell you, it really took me back; I haven’t seen a pair in over twenty years.
Here is the story from the old listing talking about the RTRs, sparked by a discussion of Demo Discs.
Fooled Again
I was duped into buying my first real audiophile speaker, Infinity Monitors, when the clever salesman played Sheffield’s S9 through them. I desperately wanted them then and there. It was only later when I got home with them that none of my other records sounded as good, or even good for that matter. That was my first exposure to a Direct to Disc recording. To this day I can still picture the room the Infinity’s were playing in; it really was a watershed moment in my audiophile life.
And of course I couldn’t wait to get rid of them once I heard them in my own system with my own records. I quickly traded them in for a pair of RTR 280DR’s. Now that was a great speaker! 15 panel RTR Electrostatic unit for the highs; lots of woofers and mids and even a piezo tweeter for the rest. More than 5 feet tall and well over 100 pounds each, that speaker ROCKED.
This was the mid-70s, more than forty five years ago, and I am proud to say I have never owned a small speaker since.
I’ve heard a lot of them — some good, most of them not so good — but that’s not a sound I could ever live with.
Small speakers can do many things well; that is not at issue.
In my experience, what small speakers don’t do is move enough air to bring the music on records to life in a way that gives meaning to the term Hi-Fidelity.