Role Audio Skiff Speaker Review

[Ken1951]

I think I'll just stick with my Signature S8s, thank you very much.

 

[DanielT]

Do yourself a favour and take a listen to a really good single driver , like Markaudio chn110. The first arriving sound will dominate the listening experience, because of the precedence effect.

Most loudspeakers with many drivers and crossovers have issues thats audible, just like many single driver constructions have issues with frequency response and high spl etc…

There are no perfect speakers , all are compromises.

But a 3-4 inch broadband driver that takes care of everything between 300-400 Hz to 4000-5000 Hz. Then the crossover point for the other drivers (in a three-way speaker solution) has been moved from the area where we are most sensitive to deviations. But okay, that brings with it other challenges, as you say all are compromises.

 

[tomtoo]

There's a brand of spherical ball speakers. I cannot remember who they are (not Gallo). Canadian perhaps? Anyway, I picked up a pair for $1/$2 for the pair. That was on the half price sale at our local oppo. (op shop/thrift shop). I took them to Dad's to play with, and haven't got them back since!...

For vocals, they are incredible. Absolutely phenomenal. No bass, but who cares, they are the size of an orange.

edit: Orb Audio. Check those little demons out- they are amazing.

View attachment 312844

No bass who cares ??? I CARE! And Amir too i think!

 

[DSJR]

This is the kind of world we lived in 15 to 20 years ago.

Back then if you wanted a small speaker, Role was one of the few brands that even existed. Audioengine was another, and their A2 objectively (and most likely subjectively) performs better than this by a lot. But Role was the "better" speaker because it was "more expensive".

Nah - fifty years ago (nearly) we in the UK had the Videoton Minimax and Keesonic Kub - admittedly two ways but both with way exaggerated highs...

 

[MAB]

Nah - fifty years ago (nearly) we in the UK had the Videoton Minimax and Keesonic Kub - admittedly two ways but both with way exaggerated highs...

We had Radio Shack Minimus 7, Archimago did an excellent writeup:

RETRO-MEASURE: Radio Shack / Realistic / Tandy Minimus 7 speakers (early 1980s, Cat. No. 40-2030A)

A blog for audiophiles about more objective topics. Measurements of audio gear. Reasonable, realistic, no snakeoil assessment of sound, and equipment.

archimago.blogspot.com

I have a pair, they were my outdoor speakers for the past few decades. Hard to imagine they sound worse than these fullrangers.

 

[Joe Smith]

I'm fairly sure my 90's KEF Q15.2 speakers that cost me $120 (including the tweeter replacement work) would be far superior in sound to these...

 

[AnalogSteph]

They sure remind me of the "cheap fullrange in a small box" projects that are popular with those getting started in loudspeaker DIY. Fine if you can build them yourself for very little money, but at $500 a pair, I'll pass.

 

[Tangband]

You certainly are evangelizing those CHN110 fullrangers, despite the ragged response. Send them to Amir for testing. I want to see if those 8dB and 10dB spikes in frequency response in the heavily-smoothed trace you provided were unfortunate room interactions, or if the same extremely uneven response exists on the CHN110 as is seen on other Markaudio drivers. Would be also good to send some of that wire that made a "clear improvement" in sound according to you, and maybe one of those warmer sounding DACs you also evangelize to pair with it, are they taming those response peaks I saw? Lots of people calling for some off-axis measurements on the fullrange thread you started, but you won't provide data but still keep talking these up like we missed something in life.

You have a persistent non-scientific point of view, with many unlikely anecdotes that you repeat as if they are deep-truths that only you have discovered. Yet these observations are completely unsupported by any evidence. Please support them, otherwise you are just pulling our leg.

Sine sweep measurements 1 metre from one of my DIY speakers with CHN 110 and passive line level baffle step correction from 600 Hz - first on axis ( in room ) and below 15 degrees off axis ( also inroom ) . Line Audio OM1 used together with Audient iD14 and audiotools . 1/3 oct smoothing .

 

[Tangband]

Get a Full range driver with high sensitivity plus Woofer and EQ for example with Acourate. That sounds intravenous and absolutely amazing.
It's not listening to music, it's like to be there

I know - my Genelec SAM monitors are sold

You are exactly right in your statement, if one uses a good sounding fullrange driver .

 

[Robbo99999]

What a nightmare speaker, but what more can you expect from a single 3 inch driver....at least you wouldn't expect it to be $500! Well, it was made in yr 2000, but still......$500 is masquerading it as something it could never be.

 

[Billy Budapest]

why buy a single unit if you can buy a pair for $100 $50 more - I believe this is the decoy effect


wage is so high, no body has time for a straight sticker

A pair is not $50 more than a single speaker. The $495-$545/pair pricing depends on the finish of the speaker:

The Skiff

"Tones are pure and pristine..." "...stealth high-end audio at its finest." Price per pair satin black: $449 birch: $495 style satin black $449.00 USD birch $495.00 USD For the first time since its introduction, the Skiff has been upgraded with a new driver that has a more extended, The...

roleaudio.com

 

[respice finem]

They sure remind me of the "cheap fullrange in a small box" projects that are popular with those getting started in loudspeaker DIY. Fine if you can build them yourself for very little money, but at $500 a pair, I'll pass.

One can actually have cheap fullrange in a small box, but only if this box contains decent headphones

 

[dasdoing]

We had Radio Shack Minimus 7, Archimago did an excellent writeup:

RETRO-MEASURE: Radio Shack / Realistic / Tandy Minimus 7 speakers (early 1980s, Cat. No. 40-2030A)

A blog for audiophiles about more objective topics. Measurements of audio gear. Reasonable, realistic, no snakeoil assessment of sound, and equipment.

archimago.blogspot.com

I have a pair, they were my outdoor speakers for the past few decades. Hard to imagine they sound worse than these fullrangers.

check out minimus 3.5

I have minimus 0.6 which are single driver, too....use them as surrounds (not really a movie guy)

EDIT: actually the minimus 8 look more like these skiff? probably a little bigger though

 

[pseudoid]

Thank you for the review, @amirm,
There is a happy part of this review: you did not damage your back while testing these puppies!
Each speaker weighs 3.51 pounds.
In the words of @restorer-john, they won't even make good "doorstops"!

 

[delta76]

A pair is not $50 more than a single speaker. The $495-$545/pair pricing depends on the finish of the speaker:

The Skiff

"Tones are pure and pristine..." "...stealth high-end audio at its finest." Price per pair satin black: $449 birch: $495 style satin black $449.00 USD birch $495.00 USD For the first time since its introduction, the Skiff has been upgraded with a new driver that has a more extended, The...

roleaudio.com

Right, amir had a typo 5o, I read it as "or", but apparently he meant "to"

 

[Hart]

I had a pair of Michael Kelly designed Era speakers that were about that size. I thought they sounded really good. Woofer and tweeter. I think Enjoy The Music has to be one of the strangest review sites around. They really liked this speaker, they also change out an interconnect and claim they are hearing something entirely different. Huge bass gains etc.

 

[Billy Budapest]

Right, amir had a typo 5o, I read it as "or", but apparently he meant "to"

OK, got it!

 

[Billy Budapest]

I had a pair of Michael Kelly designed Era speakers that were about that size. I thought they sounded really good. Woofer and tweeter. I think Enjoy The Music has to be one of the strangest review sites around. They really liked this speaker, they also change out an interconnect and claim they are hearing something entirely different. Huge bass gains etc.

Those Era speakers were pretty good—marketed by Peachtree Audio, correct?

 

[amirm]

@amirm would you mind adding normalized waterfall plots to your reviews? Or replace the unnormalized ones, as we already have the magnitude response in the on-axis FR graph and want the waterfall graph just to look at temporal anomalies, which a normalized plot would better showcase/isolate.

Unfortunately I don't have any option like that in Klippel software.

 

[peniku8]

Unfortunately I don't have any option like that in Klippel software.

oh wow, that's a pretty basic feature... unfortunate indeed!