Selah Audio RC3R 3-way Speaker Review

[maty]

http://www.selahaudio.com/filarmonica-kit

Clarified and optimized

Several years ago the RC3 our first 3-way stand-mount monitor and a popular speaker. The Filarmonica is essentially an updated version that uses new drivers and materials to retain the same virtues (smooth frequency response, precise imaging, good detail) while improving the overall performance...

Resized and optimized

KEF Q100 at 30-40-50º, measured by Zvu

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...phase-vs-linear-phase.8762/page-7#post-225351

 

[Selah Audio]

Yep, I try to keep my graphs the same (you can see the ranking list in the link in my signature), your speaker scored a tad better than the LS50 if ignoring bass extention, and considering the similar price and your’s being older, that’s not bad at all. And as you’ve stated you focused more on-axis, I see the measurements of some of the current speakers on your website and they indeed look better, the Epico for instance. However, for the DIY Filarmonica (like the tribute), the 5dB slope down from the bass to treble has always perplexed me.

Good spot - that set of curves was a voicing I did for a particular customer.

 

[MZKM]

Back on January 7th I posted on a few Facebook groups that the Klippel system was going to be used by Amir. Both groups are focused on DIY speakers and have some very talented people, including some that work for speaker manufacturers. Little did I know that one of my designs would be tested less than a month following the post.

I've followed ASR some over the last year, partially due to the Benchmark reviews. I've used their pre-amps and amplifiers at audio shows and they make great equipment (plus there are really nice people that work for them). I know the Klippel system and speaker testing is new territory for Amir and I expected that there would be a learning curve. I had a chance to meet Mr. Klippel a few years back and his driver test system is one of the best things to ever be used in the speaker industry. The more recent nearfield scanner was a brilliant idea!

There's really a need for more objective speaker testing in reviews. I like that Sound Stage online magazine has long used the NRC in Canada for measurement tests. Of course much of what the NRC is doing was due to the efforts of Floyd Toole. The CEA-2034 is an extension of Floyd's earlier work. There is one thing that isn't included in the CEA-2034 and that's the compression test done by the NRC. I think that's something that can be of use, especially if you're running a system at high volume levels.

Honestly I feel like the speaker I designed was involved more in a drive-by shooting than a thorough review. I would've happily supplied information about the design if it had been requested before the review. The woofer and midrange were correctly identified. The tweeter is actually an earlier version of the Fountek CD3.0 (the ribbon element was changed for the current model). This tweeter has a naturally rising response on-axis and the on-axis graph of the speaker indicates that. Since the aspect ratio of the ribbon is different than a dome tweeter (point source) the upper end response of the ribbon will be shelved downward at angles above or below the vertical on-axis response. The curves here show that.

This design was done over 15 years ago and at that time I focused most on the on-axis response; as a result, I'm not surprised that the off-axis isn't as linear as my current work. I do wish that the comments here had been based on some listening and not just in reference to the graphs. The graphs themselves are a mixed bag and difficult to compare to the other speakers tested here. The dB scales are not consistent and the ones marked for the standard 2.83v/1M are way too low for the actual system sensitivity.

As noted by a few posts in this thread some wrong conclusions were expressed based on Amir's interpretation of the data. I know that he's not an experienced speaker designer and I don't expect perfection. I do appreciate the effort to offer an honest opinion, something sorely lacking in much of the online reviews and videos that we see. I would suggest listening to every speaker before the measurements are done. That way there won't be as much of a bias before commenting on the performance. Make notes on what you hear and see if the tests confirm what you wrote down.

There was also an observation of some differences in the off-axis left versus right. The drivers are centered on the baffle and there should be no deviation for the left vs. right angles. This indicates that 1) the cabinet was mounted off-center or 2) the machine had some issues with the correct positioning of the scanner.

I sent in some $ today to help for future reviews and would be happy to provide some of my current work if requested.

Rick Craig
Selah Audio

Hey Rick, I'm updating my speaker data files and noticed I didn't have much data on this speaker, so I used the Wayback Machine to find an archived listing for it on your site:
https://web.archive.org/web/20050406031420/http://www.selahaudio.com/id15.html
For sensitivity, it is over 10dB less than spec'd (~74dB vs 85dB), so I agree that is odd. Then I noticed you had measurements of this speaker, including impedance:

That is when I noticed that that's the ported version and Amir measured a sealed version:

Still, I wouldn't expect that to cause a drop in sensitivity across the board of >10dB (the FR consistency is also way off from spec of the ported model).

 

[Selah Audio]

Hey Rick, I'm updating my speaker data files and noticed I didn't have much data on this speaker, so I used the Wayback Machine to find an archived listing for it on your site:
https://web.archive.org/web/20050406031420/http://www.selahaudio.com/id15.html
For sensitivity, it is over 10dB less than spec'd (~74dB vs 85dB), so I agree that is odd. Then I noticed you had measurements of this speaker, including impedance:

That is when I noticed that that's the ported version and Amir measured a sealed version:

Still, I wouldn't expect that to cause a drop in sensitivity across the board of >10dB (the FR consistency is also way off from spec of the ported model).

I built a sealed version for some customers. The design work was done many years ago on an old PC that I no longer have. If I had access to the files I could give you a better answer.