Thanks for the review, I've been drooling over those speakers for a while. A few lucky people managed to get ahold of the RA-8's big brother, a WWMTMWW open baffle speaker that Danny designed as a kit. But then he got an offer from some big name speaker company and they bought the design. Can't buy it as a kit any more but the RA-8 is supposed to be pretty close in performance.
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Building RA-8 Kits from Rawacoustic
Ok ... I've been thinking about building some new speakers for a while now and with fathers day comming up my wife gave me a early gift ... I can build new speakers
I then set out to find something new that would wow me. After speaking with Al for a good hour on the phone and countless e-mails (how does he ever get any work done ) I decided to go with the RA8. Part because they should sound fantastic ... part because my wife approves and likes the way they look (as long as the finish is "shiny" she says)
So what did I build ... a total of three RA-8's for the LCR ... I have a front projection system so the center will fit nicely there.
For more info on the build process please see the thread at AudioCircle
For my impressions,
Anyways ... amazing is what I have to describe the sound ... clear is another ... speech has always been "hard to hear" unless I turn up the calibration on the center way to high ... of course that lead to other problems .... I have also never had a properly matching front stage ... now all I can say is wow ... speech is clear and there ... I can hear everything I'm supposed to ... both in movies and TV. Also I was playing with things last night and went outside ... I had not realized I turned it up that loud .. I could hear it clearly to the garage ... hmm .. always in the past if I turned it up louder it would hurt the ears before I got to loud ... not this time ...
I put on short passages from the following movies
Black hawk down .... very very good .. could hear the bullets and still hear people talking ... in the past that has been hard ..
Resident evil 2 .. say what you will about the movie the sound is fantastic ...
Star Wars 3 - opening scene .. wow things were buzzing around me every which way
War of the worlds - scene where the tripods first emerge ... again wow
Also it was amazing how the speakers melded ... it really was one very big speaker across the front ... nothing else to say ....
Well I'll let things break in for a while before doing a better demo .. I've also got some new electronics coming in a week or so ( the UL's from Mark Schiffler .... I'm in the first shipment ). I'm looking forward to seeing what those electronics do for these speakers....
Feel free to ask any questions you may have.
Ted
I then set out to find something new that would wow me. After speaking with Al for a good hour on the phone and countless e-mails (how does he ever get any work done ) I decided to go with the RA8. Part because they should sound fantastic ... part because my wife approves and likes the way they look (as long as the finish is "shiny" she says)
So what did I build ... a total of three RA-8's for the LCR ... I have a front projection system so the center will fit nicely there.
For more info on the build process please see the thread at AudioCircle
For my impressions,
Anyways ... amazing is what I have to describe the sound ... clear is another ... speech has always been "hard to hear" unless I turn up the calibration on the center way to high ... of course that lead to other problems .... I have also never had a properly matching front stage ... now all I can say is wow ... speech is clear and there ... I can hear everything I'm supposed to ... both in movies and TV. Also I was playing with things last night and went outside ... I had not realized I turned it up that loud .. I could hear it clearly to the garage ... hmm .. always in the past if I turned it up louder it would hurt the ears before I got to loud ... not this time ...
I put on short passages from the following movies
Black hawk down .... very very good .. could hear the bullets and still hear people talking ... in the past that has been hard ..
Resident evil 2 .. say what you will about the movie the sound is fantastic ...
Star Wars 3 - opening scene .. wow things were buzzing around me every which way
War of the worlds - scene where the tripods first emerge ... again wow
Also it was amazing how the speakers melded ... it really was one very big speaker across the front ... nothing else to say ....
Well I'll let things break in for a while before doing a better demo .. I've also got some new electronics coming in a week or so ( the UL's from Mark Schiffler .... I'm in the first shipment ). I'm looking forward to seeing what those electronics do for these speakers....
Feel free to ask any questions you may have.
Ted
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Well if you talk to Al it really is debatable whether or not the open baffle is any better or not. Only real difference is the bottom end and I'll take a separate sub to place it optimally thank you. They use the same m-130 for mids and woofer and I really like the ribbon Al put in ....
Add to that the extra build time and cost even when they were kits .... well I like my RA-8's a lot !!!!!
Ted
Add to that the extra build time and cost even when they were kits .... well I like my RA-8's a lot !!!!!
Ted
Ted,
What are you using to drive your Ra'8s, I was looking at them on the Raw Acoustics web site, but did not see how much power they were rated for. I have B&K 200 watt per channel amp into 8 ohms, that I really like, but I think that may be to much power for the RA,8. They sure are very nice speakers though,nice job!
Ed
What are you using to drive your Ra'8s, I was looking at them on the Raw Acoustics web site, but did not see how much power they were rated for. I have B&K 200 watt per channel amp into 8 ohms, that I really like, but I think that may be to much power for the RA,8. They sure are very nice speakers though,nice job!
Ed
They are rated for 50-100 watts ... but Al has said realistically they can handle much more ... plus it is never a bad idea to have lots of power .. the speakers will only take what they need to run.
Ted
Ted
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