Diural's Roman Centurion Spk:Good or already Gone?

I don't own them, but I did hear them at the High End show in New York in 2002. They were being played through a Plinius 8200 integrated amp.

They sounded quite good; I went back a few times to hear them.

If you think they are a lot of money for a two-way, you probably don't want to hear about the Kharma Ceramique 3.2 References!

I heard them at the Stereophile show in NYC a couple of years ago and thought they were very impressive (powered by big Krells). The bass and imaging were quite good as I recall and the speaker did something special with violin and cello that made the instruments sound very real. It seemed like it had extremely fast transient response and was very coherent. I'm not sure how extended the highs were, that was hard to judge from my demo, but the speaker seemed to have a nice balance.

Will Roman or any other speaker company still be here next year? If anyone can say, their crystal ball is way more accurate than mine. If I could get a pair of these for a good price I think I'd be interested, regardless. They look very well made and are very attractive in my view.

I've owned the Roman Audio Centurions for well over a year now and love every aspect of them. You mentioned that you feel they are quite expensive for a two-way speaker, if you spend any amount of time with them. I think you will find them well worth the money. I have seen on many threads, here on Audiogon, about people wanting to add subs to their 2 channel system. The 8" driver in the Centurions plays low enough that it can easily handle the lowest tones of a pipe organ. After I had these for a while and got real familiar with them, I stated going around to hi-fi shops and listening to other brands, just to compare, and nothing that anyone had on display would come close. IMO, these simply blow-away the B&W 802's, which is a very popular speaker. As far as the imaging goes, they're like the other, one you find the right positioning in your room, pure heaven.
The one thing that you have to remember, like any other high-end speaker, if you run entry-level components and cables, you won't hear the full potential of these speakers. If you have any questions, or would like recommendations, call Roman Audio and speak to Mr. Fontenot. He has been a tremendous amount of help to me. If you would like, feel free to e-mail me and I will help in whatever way I can. I personally don't feel that you can go wrong with these speakers.

http://www.onhifi.com/product/roman_centurion.htm

I hope this gives you a little more information.

I own the pair reviewed by Wes Philips at the above webpage. These speakers sound great, but need power. Don't be fooled by the 93db sensitivity. Fontenot now imports and distributes Cabasse speakers, and if you call the telephone number on his website for Roman, the phone is answered as Cabasse North America. I think Dale is devoting more time to his new distributorship than the old speaker company. He didn't even show his Roman speakers at the 2003 CES, only the Cabasse speakers.

Zspradlin: I've yet to see ANY 8" woofer reproduce 16 Hz with authority. The fact that the same driver would have to cover the mids too is quite a task. That must be one helluva driver / speaker design. Sean
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Some one was talking about not knowing how the highs sound because they did not have the correct music to play. I have talked to many people who say the same thing. The reason for this it that the diural x-over is working to make both speakers work like they are one speaker. It is not that you can not tell how the highs sound. It's that you do not know where the mids stop and the highs start. You can not tell where the x-over point is. One person said they did great things with violins. So you think the 8in driver was playing the upper end of the violin? Other people have said that they are priced up to high for a two way speaker and that the mid has to cover too big of a range. I think every one would agree that the best speaker in the world would be one driver that could play from 15hz to 25Khz. If you could do that you would not need a cross over at all and would not be changing the sound with it. The diural crosover is doing a great job of making two or three drivers sound like one driver. Because of that you do not know at what point one speaker stops and the other one starts. Most people are only using other high end speakers to grade the Roman audio speakers. Other speakers are built with the standard type x-over that everyone has been using for 40 years now. What you should use is live music as your ref point. Other things that were talked about are that the Romans need lots of power.They so not realy need lots of power. If you use a tube amp be sure to put it on the 4 ohm tabs. I have been working with Roman Audio speakers for 5 years now and I know they are 8ohm drivers but because of the Resistor you need them on the 4 ohm tab on tube amps. If not you will get only half the output. I have put the Centurions on a basic 50 X 2 Jolida amp that is only about $950 full retail. On that system They have lots of output. They do have more output on solid state again becaus the amp is closer to a 4 ohm load. One of the cool things the x-over is doing is if you look at the Ohm,s it the speaker is the same from 20 to 20 you do not have 2ohm at 20hz and 8 ohm at 6Khz. because of this you get the same out put from the amp from 20 to 20 and I think everyone likes that idea. The way they rate speakers is 1w 1m 92db. At one watt the romans are 92db but because they use a resistor not a cap, as you add more power the resistor becomes used more and makes the speaker no longer work the same way with power.The fact is Dale has changed the 92 db on his web sight because of this. As to him and Cabasse. Dale has been getting Cabasse raw speakers from a US importer for many years now, and when the chance came about to import Cabasse speakers and raw drivers at a big discount,as a good CEO he forked out the cash and did it. Roman audio was at CES this year. They had Centurions at the Plinius room and the Diural room. Ray Kimber the Patent holder and person behind Diural has a new upgrade that he is working on and had a prototype of it with some unfinsihed speaker that he built. He was using them in the Diural room and so the Romans did not get shown.I think Plinius change for some reason in the last few months and as you know you can not just order a extra room at CES at the last min. I would be happy to answer any questions you or anyone else might have About Roman Audio or Cabasse. My name is Greg Weckerly and I am the Indiana Rep for both product lines.If you went to CES I was the one in the Cabasse room with way too much energy. Oh by the way Roman Audio is not going away they are only growing and with the import of Cabasse directly more good things are on the way.

I've heard them at the last two HE shows and have been very impressed. They do something magical in the midrange, which must be the diaural xover, right? But I find them assertively unattractive and don't think I could live with them in my living room. And they are pricey. Assuming the diaural's the thing, I hope some other designers jump on it.

My name is Allen, I also have a set of Centurion speakers. I run them with a Denon receiver (till I save more $$ to step up) and I have tons of output. When friends bring over their high end amps, yes, they get louder and more detailed. In fact these speakers are louder than the last few sets of speakers I have had: Whatmough and PSB.
I have enjoyed these Centurions so much I bought the Roman Audio Pro Console center channel, the Senator's for rear fill, and the 12" powered subwoofer.

Greg - as far as power, I know that Dale used to show these speakers with the Cary V12 monos, and told me that they ran out of gas in the bass. I have tried using them with a 23 watt Wyetech Topaz that is a much stronger amp than my 50 watt Jolida 302B. Neither has great bass and sounds thin in the mid-bass. They are driven, but the tonality isn't correct. The Creek 5350SE does a better job than either. Could it be that solid state amps work better with the Centurions?

Rt_utopia, how do you like the Roman Audio Subwoofer.

use the Cabasse it uses the same woffer or better and has no middle man mark up.