Red Rose Speakers (From Mark Levinson)

Has anyone compared the Red Rose to Proac Response 1SC or Dynaudio Contour 1.3SE. I have the Jeff Rowland Model 2 with a Wadia 850 and Aerial 5. The Aerial 5, at 85db, are a bit inefficient for the Rowland. Any recommendations?

nathanu, check out newform research r645's - not minimonitors, but the same price-range, they're ribbons above 1khz, and they're 91db/w/1m. their www: http://www.newformresearch.com/ amazing reviews: http://audioreview.com/reviews/Speaker/product_8052.shtml good luck, doug

An audiophile friend of mine visited the New York store. Said the Red Rose combination was very musical. He stated a drawback as the lack of strong bass response, which would have to be expected of a speaker of that size. Yes it will sound accurate with the piano, but feed it some other material, and you will remember the first law of audio, "There is no perfect speaker". I listened to the Audioprism(a company which Red Rose took hold of) amplifier at a local used audio store here, and found it to be very nice.

I have heard them with the "entry level" Red Rose system for amplification and an old Luxman tube-output CD player at a friend's house, who bought them. They have surprising bass (sort of like the smaller Totem speakers), but it is limited, probably to the 40hz range. What makes them special is the ribbon tweeter, which, together with the Red Rose/Audioprism tube amplification, gives them a natural, fast, detailed and extended high end. Certainly not perfect, but excellent imaging, soundstaging and dynamics. Well worth a listen.

According to Mark Levinson "the man" Red Rose is his attempt to make a real world, ie. affordable system, that the common man can afford. He reports that systems are flying off the shelf. Am not sure if price includes the cat.