I’m scared to look inside those twin bass ports.
Think they’re still available (or similar) a few years ago one of the grandkids pushed one of the tweeters in luckily it was a quick fix with the vacuum cleaner. My dealer was confident he could have replaced them if required.
There are so many of these small companies that have fallen by the wayside, despite making some fantastic products. Royd made some super speakers that are still much loved today. It’s strange how some companies thrive and carry on, yet others, despite making great products, disappear. I had some ARC 050 speakers and they were brilliant. Highly thought of, well reviewed, yet the company disappeared without trace.
I spent most of my career prior to retirement as a commercial bankruptcy/insolvency attorney. Making a good product or providing a good service is a necessary but insufficient condition for success and survival. In addition, survivors need astute management (both financial and otherwise), adequate capitalization and a certain amount of good luck.
That sounds like a job that could be profoundly depressing. Almost as depressing as mine, working out the least bad way to cut services, year after year.
For the most part, I enjoyed it immensely. Matters were frequently highly complex and allowed room for considerable creativity. At the same time, unlike litigation, matters generally moved fairly quickly and with a greater sense of urgency and practically than litigation (which is what I started out doing).
I heard that Royds we’re going to reboot a few years ago but I don’t think anything happened. Shame as they were (and still are) wonderful speakers.
There was a Royd Minstrel from a few years back.
Although by all accounts had no real relation to Royd and sounded rubbish.
I don’t think it had any dealer support and has now disappeared.
Interesting. A speaker that can run straight from a TT with no amplifier.
That’s MY chair… Give it back…
Seriously - I have an identical one. Same colour, too.
Do you think it’s possible to reach the bass impact and scale big speakers and keeping the medium and highs quality of bookshelves by adding a subwoofer to them ? Is it possible to get the best of the two world by doing this ? (I like my bookshelves but i dont’ have the physical impact of music with them so I am wondering if you it’s better to add a sub or to sell them and get a big speaker).
That’s a tricky one. To some extent yes but one of the advantages of bigger speakers is that they often include a dedicated midrange driver allowing cleaner sound at higher volumes and if designed well, cleaner midrange in general when compared to a speaker handling both mid and low frequencies. Adding a sub obviously adds low end extension but the original speakers will still operate within their limitations.
It undoubtely depends on the sub(s), the speakers it(they) are paired with, and their setup and integration. The Wilson Benesch Torus is supposed to be good…
Hopefully some who have directly compared big full range speakers with sub +satellites will respond, though of course as with all speakers the character is something you will ultimately have to assess for yourself.
I think it’s best to keep things simple and get larger speakers… or a bigger amplifier.
Also a system that allows you to do back extensions every time you flip a record.
Loved the 101’s … indeed made a trip with the intention of buying, just bottled out when the dealer hooked up isobariks! Always kind of regretted it though, they were really enjoyable.
I had ARC 101’s I think that was the model number, the designer and owner of the company (Alistair Clark???) delivered and installed them, can’t remember how that came about. Lovely speakers with Meridian 105’s one under each speaker. I gave them to my nephew, don’t know what happened after that……
I had a ARC 202s actively driven by Nytech amplification.Richard Hay (Nytech Audio) lived close to where I worked and lived I visited his house on numerous occasions and heard the full range of ARC speakers in various configurations plus a set of Isobariks actively driven.
Wonderful memories.
ARC 202, there’s posh! The easy way to go active with Nytech was great - just add a little box if I recall. The active Nytech/ARC was very good and great value. My 050s were used with a Meridian 101/103D. The whole caboodle was then replaced with a 42/snaps/110 and Mk 1 Kans, and the rest is history.
My 101’s had Meridian 101AB/105 mono blocks with short speaker leads and long interconnects, eventually traded in at Radford Audio in Widsor, for a Naim chrome bumper 250/32/Snaps and so forth, still use the 250 re-cased by Naim in olive livery, I remember the Meridian set up as being very good…but it wasn’t the Naim sound!