Brentworth Type III Speakers

Holman, since you may not be able to audition the rather scarce BSLs first hand, I'll try to provide a complete assessment. First of all the BSL speakers are an exotic design in that they are actually crossoverless, high-efficiency, phase aligned, and fairly small for the sound they can produce. They are clad in a stone-like material, which doesn't look great in all decors, but will knock your socks off with their finish if you happen to like granite countertops. Sonically, with the right equipment and careful setup, they combine the effortless dynamics of horns with close to the 3-dimensionality of monitors. I've auditioned them and found if anything they can place demands on the equipment feeding them--that said, if you already have neutral, musical equipment, and you're looking for a compact (relative to horns), high-efficiency design, the BSL Type IIIs could be the last speaker you will ever consider buying. I know, I bought the Type Is. If I had to put my finger on what they do best, it would have to be how they simply bring the full emotion of the performance into your room. They recreate the recorded event with such presence (read dynamic nuance and timbral rightness) that musicians just seem to be arrayed in the room. I'd describe them as a "they are here" rather than a "you are there" speaker, which probably won't sit well with the analytically minded. For example, listening to the Eagle's live Hell Freezes Over CD is a chilling, mind-boggling experience. You revell in the vocal harmonies and soaring ("incendiary") guitars, instead of sitting and picking out details like you've heard that disk for the first time. Because the single-driver design preserves great harmonic information, guitars and piano are much more interesting. The BSL Type IIIs (as opposed to the smaller Type Is) work well with a wide range of amplifiers, yet none too low in power (less than 20 watts) or too high (over 200 watts). The better the equipment you use with them, the better your system will sound. Oh, and if you haven't played with 95+ db eff. speakers in your room before, you might be surprise how much noise they will reveal--noise that many speaker with crossovers conceal from our ears. I've tried to identify a few of the pros and cons of the design, but if you have the patience and willingness to work with them, I have no doubt that you will be rewarded with great sound plus great music for many years. Hope this helps. Ralph

Rrgordon, don't know if you will see this, but how does one audition & purchase the Brentworths? How much amplification does the Type I need? Thanks,