Hi: I would get a wood finish that has some contrast with your floor... It looks better to the eye...

There should be a patron saint of audio guilt...

I don't have to cook the books because I have a track record of buying and selling DECWARE gear - which usually holds it value very well. Unlike those Gucci purses priced at $349.00 to $449.00 that I saw at a table at Costco yesterday . . .

The counter to the purse argument is hard to defend from the purse owner's viewpoint. . . wouldn't a receive and speakers from Target serve the same purpose as the Decware ones?

You know different women than I do. I don't quite agree with the success of your defense; they'll offer the same sort of argument on the purses.

What has worked for me is I let my gal have what she wants. My lover girl wants Brahmin purses of Italian leather, and I have to confess they're as functionally beautiful as a Decware product is. Sure a ten dollar bag will hold the same things, but they don't look this way, feel this way, or make HER feel she looks like a million bucks and has a piece of art on her arm. She has five. . . and I know there will be more. In turn, she lets me have my audio art. We both enjoy what we have, together and separately.

Donnie, I hope you have a pair, AND keep the MGs as a back up, or for use elsewhere in your domain.

"Oh Happy Day!"  ;D
At long last these fine speakers are officially "outed" by the Zen Master himself! This is a wonderfully welcomed update. This speaker is the only type of its kind. It is singular in its combination of cabinet shape/design omni directional driver and forward firing mid woofer/tweeter combination. No one but the designer himself has more experience with than me, and I say that with all humility and selfless approbation to Bob and Steve both. Listening to this speaker over a long time period has without a doubt been the most enduring and pleasant audio experience I have ever had in 40 years of listening. IMHO nothing is the end all/be all in high fidelity (read my MG944 review) but these diminutive obelisks do things so wonderfully across the spectrum that render music that "sings" to me every time I turn them on. In a word they make everything "better". They show every nuance that is in the recording yet have an uncanny ability to make average electronics sound so much better. When you put high end amps and sources on these it gets so stupidly good I shake my head and wonder how. The bass authority is astounding. They image and soundstage ANYWHERE! In a treated listening room there apparently just is no speaker in the room. At just under a yard tall and a one square foot footprint the WAF factor is off the chart. In wood or paint stunningly beautiful. The price point is multiples below what these compete with in sound quality. Thanks again Bob and Steve. My best and heartfelt hope is for these to fly off the craftsman's table by the dozens!

The HR-1's became a must own to me within moments after hearing them. They just sounded "right" to me. Kind of like my MG's, but with something more.
In listening to them back to back with the Zen Open Baffles really pointed out what I liked about them. The ZOB's are what I originally thought I would want for my next speakers. But the HR-1's just were so warm and inviting to me. The sparkle of the treble is what really sold me.
I'm a sucker for high range openess, that and women who like expensive purses.

What makes these speakers so much more expensive then the rest of the tower from decware?

I went to a local HiFi establishment today just out of curiosity to see what was what. I asked if they had somthing a little better than the surround sound systems that were in the main showroom.
They took me back into their "highend" room. Macintosh and B&W mostly, pretty nice looking stuff. They asked what I had, and from the blank look that they gave me it was obvious that Decware wasn't even on their radar.
Anyway, they fired up the best of what they had, sorry Charlie, pretty good but not near what I am used to.
Their $7500 speakers didn't sound as good as my MG944's and weren't even in the same zipcode as the HR-1's.
Truthfully, at that moment I became fully aware of how lucky we are to have people such as Steve and Bob building these wonderful products.
My brother, who is not into stereo's at all, was with me, and remarked how that my stereo sounded much better than what we had just listened to.
I'm offically a Decware junky now. I need to get enough money for my next fix!

I'm quite jealous. I really like those HR-1; they are just out of my price range for a while.

My original pair were one of the last prototypes before production models were made. They are a pewter sort of color. The new ones will be maple veneer. They'll go into my second system for thousands of hours. The ERRs in that system will go over to my Dad's system hopefully.

Yes, I have to send one speaker back, there's some distortion at higher volumes, but I love these speakers, and so will you. My oriiginal pair are ver well-seasoned and sound stunning. The Mk III and HR-1 combo are all I need.

You weren't supposed to notice!

In my opinion they would not be all that they can be in that location, it would be best to get them further out from the wall.

Well, I lived like that years ago. I won't say happily, but I did. Didn't have that great a stereo then, but still had fun.

Don't get me wrong, the HR-1s will sound great, but are not going to image and sound stage the way they could in that arrangement.

I can understand living that way, I just no longer could do so. Too much stuff, and even though I winnowed it down to move from Texas to Ohio to care for my parents, too much stuff, and I don't want to lessen what I have, the bulk of which is instruments, music and books I want to keep.

So I can't live in San Diego I guess. Good to know.

I know you would love the HR-1s and I follow your logic. In time perhaps your ship will come in and you could get them room to breathe.

I ordered a Pair.

12, 14 or 16 weeks out...I understand.

Question for Lon & Will? Is their an external Resistor used as found on the ERRx? Or, is their an internal Resistor and/or minimal crossover used because of the blending of the different drivers on different axises.

I ordered my HR-1's in Maple!  -Stone = Happy.

Stone. I look forward to your new speakers! You are going to have quite a collection to compare!

I had mine built with the caps and resisters outside on the recessed binding post panel. If Bob is still offering this as an option, and you don't mind seeing the caps and resister, and if you want adjustability on the tweeter tone and balance, I would recommend it.

You obviously don't want to work too far out of the design in values, but there are a lot of "flavor" shifting possibilities with different caps, very low value bypasses, and resistors. I experimented a lot and kept up with Bob about what I was hearing. I don't know what he is putting in now, but my experiments changed the speaker for the better here, and Bob may have used some of this.

Mine sounded really good from the start, but I had to explore! I think I recall that hey shipped with Clarity Cap SA 3.3s and I believe a 3 ohm Wirewound resistor. I settled on 3.3 Mundorf Supreme caps with one Russian PIO .1 K40Y-9 bypassing altogether...from the hot speaker wire direct to the hot tweeter post. Also I have a .047 K40Y-9 wired parallel with the Mundorf 3.3....these come in after a Mundorf 2.7 resistor. All broken in, the sound is as clear in general as the original, but more smooth and refined by my ear, with less grain and more micro detail.

Be interesting to find out how Bob is wiring them these days. I bet they sound great.

Thanks guys!

Sounds/looks like your awesome explorations Will...lead Bob/Zygi to implement the best Caps & Resistors on the inside cover of the Speaker binding posts....and leave it at that!

With your 2nd pair Lon having them (caps & resistors) internal/and chosen to be the best sounding of many combinations...I bet they burn in and sound as sweetly as your 1st pair. Is Bob doing a pretty quick turn-around for the one distorting Speaker? I bet the Maple is stunning too!

I am loving my ZMA. I now have 79.5 hours on it and counting. I went an Listened to all 49 minutes of the ZMA with the HR-1 Omni's from the the Zenfest Video. As best as can be discerned through my Beats Audio internal Speakers on my HP TouchSmart Desk Top....I like what I heard and seen. .......now the wait has begun.     -S

True Lon, one caps/resistors version vs. the other. It will be interesting to hear which ones you prefer, say...come late fall this year....with many hours on them.

Very interesting.

I plan on calling Bob, when I get the "Build" stage email (understandably-probably in late May).

I hear that....our first world problems.

Now that Bob is done with your speaker, maybe he'll start building mine.  On the build list there is one pair of ERR's ordered in August then My HR-1s ordered in September.  So it shouldn't be long, unless Bob decides to torture me by building all 7 pairs of ERRs  ordered before starting My speakers. Mark.

sorry if this has been mentioned previously. why the long wait on the speakers?

at 5k you would think they would like to get customers their order asap? if you make speakers then make speakers. if you don't then get stop offering a product...

Understood. I was not trying to be insensitive just curious. even at 80 hours in a work week for two people, you would think that they could produce 1-2 speakers per week. but I have never produced any speaker myself so I wouldn't know what it takes.

stellablues....I hear you, in fact I think the same thing sometimes.

A simple six sided box like the DM945's are what we call onion skinned where a "V" cutter crosscuts the MDF right to the veneer, with an over cut "V" grove then hot melt glue is used to wrap the speaker into a box. Many of these can be produced in a week this way. Steve has these done by a company in Cali which is why there are no options I think just cherry and black. This has taken those off my plate. I also was building amp bases, which don't show up on the order page that everyone gets to see. Since my heart attack, like Lon mentioned, these are also being done by the company in Cali., except for the custom woods, which I still do.

John AKA the deucekazoo, thanks for the compliment...

Lon, it is just two of us, but right now its my brother-in-law and my self.

I guess I'm a picky prick to work for, as I find it hard to find any help, right here in the middle of the largest us furniture manufacturers.

BTW, I am the second owner of a pair of prototype HR-1's.  The first owner did not include resistors for the tweeters.  Does anyone know what values and which brand to use?  Thanks in advance for any help.