High Resolution Technologies Stage 8 Loudspeakers

[Ron Resnick]

I had a wonderful afternoon today at the home of Michael Hobson, who was playing for me a wide variety of Classic Records 45rpm reissues.

Michael Hobson, who founded Classic Records in 1994, is somebody to whom each of us very likely owes a large debt of gratitude. When most people were applauding and audiophiles were decrying the death of vinyl Michael made available once again on vinyl the greatest recordings from the golden era of stereo, with original cover art, pressed on 180 gram vinyl and remastered from the original RCA master tapes by Bernie Grundman.

Michael has a very large, dedicated, purpose-built listening room with gently curved corners and shallow V-shaped walls to minimize standing waves. His analog playback system and electronics are located in a large closet with fully closing doors on the right side of the room so that the equipment is largely insulated from vibration by the sound coming from the loudspeakers.




Michael’s vinyl front-end consists of a Kuzma XL DC turntable, with Kuzma 4Point and Air Line tonearms, and Kuzma CAR-60 cartridges.

The loudspeakers are High Resolution Technologies Stage 8 speakers. Originally conceived of as an extremely high-end computer speaker, Michael had the ingenious idea of fitting eight of them in a vertical line source array on a custom Sound Anchors stand. Each speaker module, consisting of three woofers and one tweeter, is fed a full range signal.




http://www.hirestech.com/product/?pid=1207


Michael supplements these Stage 8s with a Muse 18, a gigantic, down-firing subwoofer, in each corner.





Michael finds that these speakers uniquely project the soundstage into the room rather than developing the sound at the plane of and behind the speakers.

Overall the system was transparent, pleasantly rich-sounding (not analytical or bright at all), extremely dynamic, with great speed, dynamic range and “jump factor.”

Thank you, Michael, for your time today, and for patiently introducing me to a very wide variety of classical music on your amazing 45rpm reissues!

 

[BruceD]

Nice report Ron, thank you-- I've owned Muse 18 Subs--unless Michael has modified them they have 2 x10" Speakers rather than an 18"

BruceD

 

[Folsom]

That’s great that he’s open to friends in the hobby, and really likes to listen.

The forward sound is likely from the comb filter affect going on with tweeters. Maybe a little in mids depending on crossover frequency. There are a number of manufacturers that use tweeters in such a way to get a sound.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Nice report Ron, thank you-- I've owned Muse 18 Subs--unless Michael has modified them they have 2 x10" Speakers rather than an 18"

BruceD

Then I am wrong. I assumed “Muse 18” meant an 18 inch driver.

 

[cjfrbw]

Nice report again. I am always interested in these somewhat offbeat implementations. My setup is offbeat, but I always think that the offbeat stuff of other audiophiles MUST have a method to the madness, although I suppose it is sometimes just madness.

I assume the speakers are active. I remember when I was contemplating stacking two pairs of Apogee Stages and connecting them in series to make a larger ribbon speaker. Ish (Gallant Diva from Audiogon) had plans already for a suitable bracket, but I changed speakers before getting around to it.

 

[Lagonda]

Interesting Ron, thank you ! Truly a unorthodox system.

 

[Ron Resnick]

That’s great that he’s open to friends in the hobby, and really likes to listen.

. . .

Michael was a wonderful and gracious and patient host!

Michael ran a by-appointment audio salon in Manhattan many years ago. I never met him then.

Knowing and respecting immensely Michael’s critical importance in the survival and resurgence of vinyl, and having bought dozens upon dozens of Classic Records reissues over the years, it was quite a thrill to spend some quality time with this legend of vinyl and music!

(Oh, and as well as kindly telling me lots of fascinating stories about his work with Bernie Grundman Michael also told me all of the details about how he came to license and release Bill Henderson’s “Send in the Clowns”!)

 

[Folsom]

There’s nothing quite like hearing the real inside stories to any industry.

I wonder if he or another reissuer will eventually start doing some lesser known, but fantastic, albums. You basically have to be in the position he is in to do it right. Perhaps the millennials spending habits will shape that future.

 

[marty]

Do I understand correctly, that Mr. Classic Records uses a DSP-based digital system and that the Classic 45 LPs he played for you were all therefore converted to 24-192 digital for their playback? (This is not a criticism. Recall I did this with my Pipedreams/TacT system for many years so I am familiar with the approach. Rather my query is only a clarification.)

 

[Ron Resnick]

Do I understand correctly, that Mr. Classic Records uses a DSP-based digital system and that the Classic 45 LPs he played for you were all therefore converted to 24-192 digital for their playback? (This is not a criticism. Recall I did this with my Pipedreams/TacT system for many years so i am familiar with the approach. Rather my query is only a clarification.)

I saw that, too, on the High Resolution Technologies website.