I'd be interested to hear any comments from 1.5 owners. mike_c? Chip P? any one else?
   Thanks, Don

I received my 1.5s last week. I hooked them up to my existing system which consists of a Pioneer Elite PD-91 cdp, passive attenuator, and modified Hafler 220 amp (to be replaced by a PP tube amp in the future). Thus, the speakers are the only changed component. My room is L shaped and open and about 15x19 with a direct opening to the dinning room/kitchen.

After an initial couple of hours, the speakers soon “bloomed” to reveal spatial and imaging qualities I had only imagined were possible. The midrange is realistic and lifelike with a fullness I have never heard before; it’s just “present.” The bass, which was sorely absent in my previous speakers, was full, tight and focused. And, the highs, which I opened up with a lower value resister (3 ohm), are open and with incredible definition.

I am very happy with the 1.5s and I know from others that they’ll just get better.  ;D

Oh yes, the finish (which Ziggy says are the first 1.5s in mahogany) is finely done and beautiful. And, these babies are packed so very well and they arrived without incident.

Gary

Hi Gary - I bet that Mahogany looks nice!  Glad to hear you're enjoying the 1.5's.  Let us know how they break in over time and if you've got a camera let's see some pics.

Matt

Hi Don,

I'd be interested in other peoples approaches to room treatments with the Radials as well.  I have "Real Traps" in my room which have helped take some peaks out of the lower frequency response (of my room).  They are placed mostly in corners and wall/ceiling boundaries to trap as much bass as possible.  They do absorb a fair amount of HF sound as well and definitely have "deadened" the room a bit.  

The radial dispersion of the main driver acts to diffuse the sound, making diffusion treatments less necessary from what I understand.  I don't suppose they would do anything to hurt the sound though, but I have no experience with them so hopefully someone else will chime in.

There are many other treatment options, like live end/dead end, ceiling treatments etc. that I haven't played with but would be curious as to there likely effects.  I assume it would be good to damp all the first reflection points as with more traditional front firing spkrs, but again I haven't done much experimentation with this stuff.  I needed to try to control the bass frequencies first, as my room is not very big, and have stalled on trying much else cuz I'm about to move in a few months and I'm not 100% sure what the new room will be like.

Maybe some other Radial users will share their experiences.  My gut tells me that, although the Radials are monster imagers, they will of course benefit from room treatments just like any other speaker.  How best to implement those treatments is the question and hopefully we'll get some more info from this thread

Matt

P.S. Don - I sent you a PM.

   Looks like I asked too broad a question. Knowing each room is different, and does or doesn't need treatment, I was mostly wondering what happened when you unplugged your former speakers and hooked up the Radials? Just whether there was a big, obvious difference in reflections. But in all reality that's what they're supposed to do, so it's expected. Think I'm just being chatty as I'm glad to start thinking Radials again. Don

That's true!

There is an immediate "difference" noticed though, quite significant, in more ways than imaging---it's just a very different presentation of music.  I had worked hard with positioning my previous speakers to get a small amount of the effect, plopping the Radials down just accomplished so much more!

It's great to see posts in this forum every day!

Gary H, thanks for the offer to come to Medford to hear your Radials. That's about 200 miles from me, very doable. I notice you have a modded Hafler, any chance it is by Musical Designs? I've been interested in his work and have an Adcom I might want him to mod.
Also it would be very cool to hear  your 1.5's hooked up to my 84C. I'll keep in touch. Don

Well -
Here's my very brief update.  My radials arrived on Thursday.  They are maple.  Packaging was very good and they arrived without incident.  The finish of the speakers is excellent.  No dedicated listening room for me, but these will be just fine in the living room.   Many kudos to Steve and Ziggy on the build and finish.

I don't want to evaluate the sound too much yet, as the speakers have so few hours on them.  Hopefully by the end of the weekend, I'll be in a little better position to report.  Suffice to say at this point that right out of the box, little or no break in, these speakers impressed me.  Even my significant other, who has patiently indulged my short foray into this hobby, heard the difference immediately.

I feel as though it will take some time to describe the sound.  The best I can do right now is to say I've been playing the guitar for twenty or so years, and that last night, for the first time, I heard a real guitar on a recording -- not the guitar that I've always heard, but a real acoustic guitar with presence and life and microdynamics ........ all I can say is it was a guitar.