If they catch on I can see 1000's of starving Pandas.
Eco-friendly Bamboo ply speakers
Anyone hear the Escalante Design bamboo speakers at the NYC show this year, i missed that room somehow. They make some pretty cool claims in their ads, but how do they sound? Thats a lot of money for monitors so they have some stiff competition in that range. Can anyone respond on the sound? Thanks for listening
30 responses Add your response
I don't think there are thousands of Pandas, but here's a quote from the website"Bamboo harvesting does not kill the bamboo plant. The bamboo plant sends up new shoots to reach its full size in just a couple of months. Some bamboo species grow 48 inches in 24 hours, and can reach 100 ft. in 60 days" In my book that sure beats cutting down the rainforest! |
The problem with the claim of "Some bamboo species grow 48 inches in 24 hours, and can reach 100 ft. in 60 days", this is only a partial truth. It takes consistant watering of the plant for 8 to 10 years before it reaches this stage of phenomenal growth. During the 8 to 10 years it does not grow much. I understand their point that 8 to 10 years is faster versus the 50 to 75 years for an oak tree, but they seemes to omit the complete picture. It is a good idea for a speaker finish, thought. We have bamboo flooring in our home and we love it. I wonder if I need speaker to match our floor. There is an idea.......let me go and ask! It is either mahogany to match the furniture or bamboo to match the floor. Hmmmmmm, hey Baby, is it okay for me to purchase a new set of speakers to match the..................... |
| Post removed |
If the speakers are like the bamboo cutting boards I mentioned previously, it's not a veneer. It is plywood of sorts. And SOLID. I mean SOLID. A rap of the knuckles on one of the cutting boards revealed amazing "inertness". It was about 12" x 20" x 1/2" and felt like I was knocking on Corian of similar dimensions, only much lighter. |
Creeper, You are exactly right. Bamboo that is "manufactured" is amazing. I have seen it in laminations up to 3" thick. And there are many different grades and types of Bamboo. If one doubts the strength or resiliency of Bamboo, ask anyone who has shot Bamboo longbows. I have shot then numerous times and they are incredible. I have just ordered a Maple cutting board, but I have been contemplating ordering a Bamboo cutting board. My wife was recently given a small Bamboo cutting board as a gift and I was shocked when I tried the "knuckle" test on it. Dead, dead, dead. If I do end up ordering one, I will post my impressions. |
I installed bamboo floors in my house...yes...it's hard as a rock...but...beware...wood dents...bamboo breaks...and then the fibers that it is pressed from can start to peel away...and then there are the splinters...man oh man...bamboo splinters SUCK! next house...maple floors the speakers do look cool though! |
Hi Newbie, Parts Express may not be advertising it yet but you can contact them as they already have a part number for it, I don't have it now. Brief specs on the W4-1320: Fo = 75 Hz Vas = 5.9 L Mmd = 3.243 g Mms = 3.490 g BL = 4.802 TM Qms = 1.488 Qes = .484 Qts = .366 Xmax = 3 mm No = .501 Full range to 20 Khz. Very light, extremely low resonance and much better Xmax and Q than most all Fostex. No whizzer. I'm, building one if I can get the cabinets roughed out. What an ordeal, geeeez!! |
Hi Creeper, thanks for the interest. No JTM clone. Because I only listen at 70dB, a single driver speaker is practical for the way I listen. Furthermore because they beam above 3-4kHz, I don't have problems anymore with boosts in HF from wide dispersion drivers reflecting around the room. And this happened with every speaker I tried, even the soft dome ones. This speaker has just the single 4" driver (no whizzer) in a box with no T-L. I have my current Tang-Band 871s 3" paper driver against the wall. Measures flat to only 80hz which does not cut it. I don't know if the new speaker will be sealed or vented. Will have to see how much bass it produces sealed. As Sean wrote, less bass but greater *extension* because of more gradual LF rolloff. If I tuned the box to 70Hz bass may drop off fast below the 70Hz and so a sealed box will give less bass at 70hz but more bass at 30 hz. No big deal to put in a vent later. Fostex has such low x-max (usually .35mm) that I don't see adequate bass. They seem to start rolling off at 200hz vs. the 3mm x-max Tang-Band's 100hz. Also some have mechanical Q as high as 8.5. Maybe they sound good but the ones I've heard sounded bright. I think partially from the lack of bass and partially from ringing of high Q driver. I was considering the FR-125 from www.creativesound.ca but I don't need 9mm xmax when the speaker is against the wall. Also because of the bass output, No (Musical power) is only .242% and SPL is 85 dB while the Tang-Band is .501% and 89dB. Not high efficiency but without an x-over still plays quite loud on low power. I guess the x-over on the Mission speakers (with some sort of bass boost circuitry) lowered *effective* efficiency to 2-4dB lower than x-overless speaker. So this is the best I've come up with on paper. The Tang-Bands are only ~$32 each and my speaker design has a removable front and back panel sealed with foam tape. They will sort of look like Epos. I'm getting extra front panels so I can just drill out a front panel for a different driver hole, drop the new front panel in the speaker cabinet and voila - new speaker. Or may go with a standard 2-way front panel which I can drop in if I get tired of a single driver. After this, I would like to build an amp3 kit from 41hz.com. Costs $25. I think the T-amp will complement a warm sounding driver like the Tang-Band very well. T-amps are said to have good detail and stereo separation but can sound thin, and bright from HF garbage. Single driver don't have much HF extension to begin with so I don't see this as a problem. This is just my opinion, but I see a lot of people (myself included) moving away from hi-rez metal tweeters, etc. towards "lower res" vinyl, tubes, etc. Until a stereo can remove ALL the HF distortion from the electronics, power supplies, cables, power from the wall, you're listening to a lot of HF garbage along with the HF music. So hence the move away from this type of high resolution. Where I differ is the thought of "why spend a lot of money for "low rez"?" My single driver speaker tends to have a tube-like/ vinyl-like sound quality. And I'm not paying for the high rez of B&W. Or high price tubes and vinyl to subsequently reduce the resolution. I'm not worried about the nice tonality of tubes and vinyl, doesn't matter so much to my ears. Plus I still have the convenience of CD's where I burn all my favorite songs onto one CD so I don't have to switch every 10 minutes. The realy cool thing is this $32 pre-built remote control kit with motorized volume pot I found. So I can have remote volume on the power amp for $32. Not some stupid $350 rip-off priced Creek unit. No pre-amp which is a problem but my CDB puts out 2v so it's not as bad as some others. This is more fun than audio just being a money hobby where all it comes down to is saving up money for the next purchase, IMHO. |
Hello to the group. Thanks for all the informative and funny replies, but out of the 20 replies so far, no one has even mentioned the speakers! Guess i should have left out " the b word " in my post, No problem, i emailed the distributor and found out they hope to have their speakers at RMAF in Oct. I was planning on attending anyway, i had a great time at last years RMAF. I will definitely try some of the " b word " cutting boards as isolation shelfs and the Tang Band " b word " drivers too. I put non " b word " Tang Band drivers in the four doors of my car ( 4", can't remember model # )and i'm very happy with them, very inexpensive too. Thanks again, lets hear some more! On the lighter side, I had a dream last night that i was at a concert, it was 9,999 Maniacal Endangered Species performing and i was surrounded by, yes you guessed it, thousands of Pandas, they were not starving, but looked in pretty good shape(fat), most were smoking bamboo. I was offered some by a few of the very friendly Pandas, but graciously refused, not knowing what i was getting into, some Pandas that weren't smoking said that they had chewed some bamboo earlier for a more potent high, but said you have to wait 2 to 3 hrs before peaking so you have to plan ahead. I must have gottin' a contact high from all the second hand smoke, wow , did i have a buzz going! The band never sounded so good, even without their female singer who left the band years ago to pursue a solo career. I felt a little light headed, so i went to the bathroom to wash my face with cold water, and when i went to dry my face, there was no paper towels or toliet paper, just leaves! On the way back into the venue, i stumbled and fell to the floor twice, getting a few very painful splinters in my u know what! The rest of the show was great, with 3 encores, the Pandas went wild! On the way home i decided to take the long way home to try to " level out ", when i walked by the local hi end hifi store, a place called Best Buy( they sell nothing but high end equipment, it's incredible ), i looked in the window and couldn't believe my eyes, a bunch of pandas had smashed the window and were in there walking all over the high end speakers and laughing furiously, they had little bandit masks on but i recognized some of them from the concert by the outfits they were wearing. Within hours, the police arrived, they were fat and furry and looked like...........well, they looked like policemen, except that their nightsticks were not black, but a light tan/yellow color,hmmmm? When the two groups clashed, pandamonium broke loose, the bandit Pandas ran off and the policemen sqeezed back into their copcars and also left the scene. Having had enough excitement for one nite, i continued home, went inside where my ladyfriend was chopping some kind of nuts or something on her new chopping board. We munched down the "nuts" and headed for bed. I felt so good and relaxed as we cuddled up "spoon style" with my arms around her furry little waist. We eventually passed out and in the morning everything was fine until i went into my listening room only to find my precious $50,000 Lirpa Labs model 1 speakers smashed into pieces, woooooow, good thing it was only a dream! |
I have a pair of Pinyons and Unita subs. I have them on the Escalante stands 75% filled with Star Sound Tech Microbearing. The fit and finish on these speakers is top shelf. My TacT Millennium MKIII digital amp upgraded by Dave Schulte drives the Pinyons. The TacT also provides stereo subwoofer outputs. The Pinyons and Uintas replaced the discontinued Talon Khorus X MKII. Dave Thomas's review in stereotimes.com is right on for both the monitors and subs (see March 05' review). The Seas Ring Revelator tweeter is the best tweeter I have ever heard and for having only a pair of 6.5" woofers the bass is extended, fast and tight but not as extended as the Khorus (that is where the Uintas strut their stuff). In terms of musically and pinpoint imaging, the Pinyons compare against any front firing speakers out there and the Unita are the best subs I have ever heard. The Unitas easily integrated into my room and totally disappeared. For subs the bass is extremely detailed and fast. IMHO the combination of the monitors and subs far exceeds the performance of a long list of full range speakers I have owned. Definetely worth a listen. |
Hey Mike, Thank you, thank you, finally, someone who has not only heard the Escalante Designs Pinyons and Unitas subs, but owns and lives with them! Your descriptions are tantalizing, i'm exciting about hearing them myself at RMAF in October. I have a couple of questions, you mention a Seas ring revelator tweeter, do you mean a Scan-Speak ring revelator or does Seas also make a ring revelator. I checked the Escalante Designs website and they just say ring revelator in their specs, but their picture sure looks like the Scan-Speak tweeter on their website. Also i looked for the review of the Pinyons/Unitas you mentioned by Dave Thomas on Stereotimes.com and could only find a CES 05 report with one glowing paragraph. Is there a full review somewhere, i couldn't find anything else, no mention of a Escalante Designs speaker review in their archives. Thanks again for the teasing review, and also for not mentioning the "B WORD"! Regards, Alan |
"Getting the Listener Closer to the Heart of the Music" StereoTimes March 2005 - Dave Thomas Tierry and Matt It would be easy to dismiss the arrival of a new loudspeaker company by saying, "High-end audio needs another speaker company like it needs a hole in its head," but that would mean potentially being denied that special musical experience that so many of us are searching for. So we continue to get excited over the "next big thing" in loudspeakers. What we end up with are cabinets made of granite or slate, synthetic ribbons, planars, ceramic drivers, beryllium drivers, and drivers with names that seem better suited for a nativity scene. There's always something different entering the marketplace that promises to give you more bass or more detail or more extended high frequencies. What they all too often forget to give you is more real music. Not that these entities don't produce enjoyable results, but too often they simply result in just a different way of getting to normal levels of performance. Yet, many of us are always looking forward to what's next. Fortunately, we've figured out that no such animal could ever exist. There is no magic speaker out there that will give us the perfection we so desperately seek. The reason for this is that even if we get close, we'll simply change the parameters for what we consider perfect. So what we're really looking for is a loudspeaker that replicates musical reality as truthfully as possible. The Pinyon loudspeaker and Uinta subwoofer from Escalante Design may be just what the high-end needs. Escalante Design is a new loudspeaker company, based in Provo, Utah. It is co-founded by Tierry Budge and Matt Waldron, two of the most amiable people you'll probably ever meet in this industry. Should you be fortunate enough to own one of their products, getting to know them will be one of the biggest benefits of doing so. They're not here to introduce us to any exotic woods harvested by Tibetan monks, or some new drivers made from materials procured from some NASA garage sale. Instead, they're seeking to bring to the marketplace speakers that maximize the reproduction of a live musical performance ... each and every recorded octave of it. Tierry Budge is one of those speaker designers whose down-to-Earth demeanor and thoughtful family man persona belie a man who is technically gifted and a demanding perfectionist. He constantly looks for every possible way of getting all there is to be had out of his speaker designs, and then looks to improve them. Don't get me wrong, he's not prone to designs that are in a constant state of development. Instead, his philosophy is to build speakers that are well thought out, finished products that will perform equally well with any type of amplification. "My goal is not to build a speaker that is best suited only for low-output tube amps or high-powered solid-state amps," says Budge. "My goal is to build speakers that will always sound their best regardless of the amp. What's important is to get the listener close to the heart of the music." Budge started his speaker-building career more than two decades ago as Manager of Research and Development for Wilson Audio. While at Wilson, he was directly responsible for the WATT III, Puppy II (arguably, along with the model 7, the best sounding Watt/Puppy combo), WHOW II, WAMM VI, and much of the groundwork for the original Grand Slam. That is, he worked on the concept of the speaker itself, and designed all the drivers for the original model. After leaving Wilson in 1992, Voce Divina commissioned him to design a sub-woofer to compliment their full-range loudspeaker models. His expertise in building subwoofers such as the Talon Roc and Escalante Uinta was already being developed. He then went on to co-found Talon Audio with Mike Farnsworth where he was responsible for the design and implementation of all the Talon loudspeakers. This included the design and development of the original and X model Khorus, Peregrine, Khite, and Roc subwoofer. The popular yet controversial Khorus and Peregrine loudspeakers were constantly discussed on Audio Asylum and in many other audiophile chat rooms both lauding and questioning their performance claims. Perhaps you remember the magazine ads that showed the Peregrine X next to a picture of a speedometer. Speed is what they were all about and believe me these babies were fast, detailed, and capable of tight bass down to around 19Hz! It was when Talon launched the "X" versions of its two biggest designs that I jumped on the bandwagon and bought the Peregrine X. To this day they are still my reference loudspeaker, and with their "Nest" stands are by far the most stunning looking speakers I've ever owned. But after what I will diplomatically refer to as a difference of philosophies, Tierry and Talon parted ways. On the same day Tierry was leaving, he got a call from an acquaintance named Matt Waldron who himself had considered seeking employment at Talon. Matt is a highly energetic young man with an infectious personality whose demeanor - like Tierry's - belies a deep musical talent. Matt is world percussionist and lead vocalist for Hoodooh, a local band that plays an exciting blend of funk and folk-rock. When Tierry told Matt that he was leaving Talon, Matt asked Tierry to meet with him before he went home, and in a restaurant parking lot of all places, the idea of what would become Escalante Design was born. Matt is the owner of the company and Tierry is the Chief Designer. Matt admittedly is not a speaker designer though he spent years selling pro audio gear and repairing JBL speaker systems. Instead, he'd rather run the business and leave the technical stuff to Tierry. It was Matt's desire to provide Tierry with a vehicle to build speakers his way that was art the heart of the decision to start Escalante. And the appeal of starting a speaker company that would give him absolute freedom to design and build speakers the way that he wanted to was immediately appealing to Tierry. This gave him the opportunity to fully pursue speaker building that would incorporate many of the lessons learned from his experiences while still letting him bring something new to the overcrowded speaker marketplace. "Each of my previous experiences provided, as you would expect, major cornerstones to the foundation of what's being done at Escalante," said Budge. "My experience at Wilson led to the initial establishment of individual driver design and "time" circuits, which are a major advancement in both dynamic and timbral betrayal. Both of these elements directly affect what occurs through the midrange. In the case of the drivers, I would be more than happy to be able to use 'off-the-shelf' items, however, transparency and detail more than double when the right combination of driver design elements are implemented. As for overall dynamic range, I learned that this could be increased by several hundred percent (!) through very specific driver/crossover elements. My experience leads me to very pointedly designing drivers that can be used to accomplish all aspects of music reproduction." Budge's work with Voce Divina led to expanding the frequency range in which this "increased dynamic range" was being used - in both large and small scales - to the bottom four octaves. Additionally, he began to learn how to decrease cabinet-based sonic contributions by more than 30dB. Having learned these things, it became even more obvious to him that he needed to design drivers that would take advantage of these new possibilities. He knew this covered the bottom six octaves fairly well. However, he felt the upper four octaves were not being taken care of to the same degree ... at least as far as he was concerned. "I had hoped that the appropriate solutions would be found while I worked at Talon, but circumstances arose that made the development and implementation of these answers next to impossible to fully advance." In the Pinyon, Escalante Design's first offering, Tierry Budge finally got to those other four octaves. The Pinyon Aesthetically, the Pinyon is my kind of component: sophisticated yet understated and timelessly elegant. There are no sloped baffles or chamfered corners, but this is hardly just a black box. The cabinet has a nice black grainy texture combined with smooth veneer inlays on the sides. The veneers come in a nice variety of colors and finishes. On the front of the cabinet are a pair of direct-coupled 6.5" woofers (one woofer faces outside of the cabinet and the other is coupled to it internally) and a slightly modified Scanspeak Ring Radiator soft dome tweeter. "I learned about the development of this new tweeter design and for the first time in the 30+ years that I've been involved with the high-end, I felt this was the only tweeter being made that offered a superb balance between detail/openness and musicality," said Budge. Beneath the woofers is a slotted port that helps the speed of those woofers and allows them to cover more of the frequency range than many comparable designs. The front grill frame is magnetized and can be easily attached and removed. On the back is a single set of Cardas speaker posts and a tweeter level switch that when put in the up position, gives you an additional 2-dB of high-frequency openness. This is one of many thoughtful touches. There's one additional touch that I would have liked to have to go with my evaluation and that's a custom-made stand to go with the Pinyon. It has always been a belief of mine that any speaker that costs as much as the Pinyon and is designed to be stand-mounted should have a stand designed specifically for it. Sure you can use a Sound Anchor stand or any of a number of good stands (I used a very nice stand from Tyler Acoustics with a set of 1" high Audio Points on top), but I've seen too many instances of wonderful speaker designs being brought to their knees by an inadequate stand. Fortunately, there is a substantial three-legged stand in production as I write this that should enhance the performance of the Pinyon even more. At nearly $7,000 for the speakers and a good pair of stands, the Pinyons face a lot of stiff competition from not just a host of other capable stand-mounted speakers such as the Talon Hawk, JM Lab Micro Utopia, and Dynaudio Special 25, but also from comparably priced full-range floor standers such as the Usher 6381, Penaudio Serenade, and Von Schweikert VR4jr. But this is where it is important for you to seek out the Pinyon at your nearest Escalante dealer and hear this speaker for yourself. Budge has put in many, many hours of listening and tweaking and trying out different drivers and crossover topologies just to make sure that you will get every last drop of musical realism out of the Pinyon as possible. To my ears he succeeded. The most important part of the musical performance for me (and most people) is the midrange. This is where the Pinyon excels. Sade's smoky voice is given added sensuality on "Killer Blow", one of my favorite of her songs that she did for the soundtrack to a little known (and seen) movie called Absolute Beginners [Virgin CDV2386]. This tune also features a slick upright bass solo that is rendered with incredible clarity and detail. I've never enjoyed this tune more than as portrayed through this speaker. Another favorite old disc that was given new life through the Pinyon was the 1988 release of guitarist Jonathan Butler's More Than Friends [Jive records 1136-2-J]. It's basically "smooth jazz" fluff but Butler's classic R&B voice and excellent musicianship are undeniable, particularly on track four "Take Me Home" and the R&B favorite, "Sarah Sarah." Before long, I had literally gone through dozens of tracks from dozens of recordings basically rekindling my love for some really good old favorites. That is the power of a really great transducer. But this is not to say that the Pinyon is without its shortcomings. While it recreates everything from the midbass up with a realism not found on any speaker I know of, it does not reproduce very much deep bass. Now please don't misunderstand what I'm saying here. The bass performance of the Pinyon is very good for the size of its enclosure and in a moderately sized listening room, will be more than enough. But as we all know, power corrupts and in larger rooms you will want to crank up the volume and that's when you'll notice how much bass you're not getting. What you are getting though is an unrivaled level of detail, image separation, and musicality. But never fear the Uinta is here. The Uinta The Uinta is simply the best subwoofer I've ever heard. It does exactly what a good subwoofer should do: add presence, stage size, and depth. Mike Wright, a long time user of Muse subwoofers, was gracious enough to come by and help me get this behemoth properly loaded into my room. After wrestling it into a number of positions, we finally settled on facing it into a corner about six feet to the left of my left channel. Instantly, my life was transformed. There was not a single disc in my possession that did not sound gloriously real through this system. Listening to live jazz in particular became more of a musical event than ever. Patricia Barber's Companion [MFSL UDSACD 2023], which was recorded in the legendary Green Mill jazz club here in Chicago, placed me right in front of the stage at one of those little bistro tables and had me ordering a vodka martini. The Uinta helps the Pinyon reach such an incredible level of realism that if you close your eyes your other senses can be tricked into believing that you're seeing and smelling the club as well. Or if you like bigger venues, how about the great outdoors as in the forests of Santa Cruz, California where Kenny Loggins' Outside: From the Redwoods [Columbia CK 57391] was recorded. The Pinyon/Uinta system made listening to this disc tremendously exciting and fun. There is a lot of interplay with the audience and the size of the soundstage that gets projected makes you feel drawn into and among the crowd. Particularly on familiar songs like track two, "What a Fool Believes," a track duet with Loggins and former Doobie Brother, Michael McDonald. Track six, "Angry Eyes" is another great tune. This system does a splendid job of placing singers and musicians in real space. This is what the hobby is all about. The Uinta carries the added bonus of being an excellent home theater sub as well. Now for anyone who has ever seen The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (who hasn't?), you know how cool the walking trees sounded when they arrived at the battlefield and began stomping the Uruk-Hai. This is room-shaking stuff folks but without dominating what's happening on the screen. The Uinta knows its place and once put there, it seems to enlarge the size, scale, dimensionality, and realism of the music and the action. Like the Pinyon, the Uinta is elegantly styled and thoughtfully designed. In fact, the Uinta basically looks like a Pinyon on steroids (the Jose Canseco variety). Inside of its massive enclosure (23" x 16" x 22", 140lb) are two 12" direct-coupled woofers and a 500-watt amplifier. The amp helps give the sub uncommon speed and virtually resonance-free performance. On the back of the unit are the stereo inputs, a low frequency effects (LFE) input, a set of knobs for volume control and crossover setting, a phase switch, and a set of knobs for a three-band parametric equalizer. I won't go into detail over the design specifications which Tierry Budge does a great job of discussing on their website. Actually, for a real treat, I strongly suggest giving Tierry a call and getting some of his design philosophy for your self. Tierry is a very kind and thoughtful man who has a wealth of knowledge that he won't mind sharing it. Conclusion At the end of the day, Escalante Design is just another speaker company but Tierry Budge is not just another speaker Designer. The Pinyon and Uinta may be the first offerings from this company but they are the result of decades of work. While the Pinyon is an excellent performer and sets a new standard in musicality, the Uinta sub is a flat out steal! Combined, they bring new meaning to the term "reference system." My listening room hasn't been the same since FedEx came and ripped them away from me. It is important that you ask yourself if you are really getting every octave of music that you can from your current speaker system when considering these products. That is the goal that Tierry Budge aims for with these designs, and in my humble opinion, he delivers. Highly recommended! - Dave Thomas Specifications Pinyon Loudspeaker Design Type: Direct Coupled Woofer: 2 x 6.5" Tweeter: Scanspeak Ring Radiator, soft-dome Freq. Response: 34Hz - 50kHz Amp: 1 - 1000 watts Sensitivity: 89 dB Impedance: 8 Ohms nominal Dimensions: Height: 17.75 inches (46cm) Width: 8.25 inches (21cm) Depth: 12.75 inches (33cm) Weight: 52 lbs. each (23.5kg) Shipping Weight: 160 lbs. (73kg) Uinta Subwoofer Design Type: Direct Coupled Woofer: 2 x 12" Freq. Response: 18Hz - 800Hz (40-80Hz recommended crossover frequency) Amplifier: 500watts (installed) Transient Power Rating: 3000watt at 10mS Sensitivity: 94 dB SPL @ 10 Watts input: 104 dB cont. (107 dB peak, 1m) SPL @ 100 Watts input: 114 dB cont. (117 dB peak, 1m) SPL @ 500 Watts input: 121 dB cont. (122 dB peak, 1m) Impedance: 8 Ohm Dimensions: Height: 23.5 inches (57cm) Width: 16.5 inches (42cm) Depth: 22 inches (56cm) Weight: 140 lbs. each (64kg) Shipping Weight: 210 lbs. (95kg) Address: Escalante Design 3585 North University Avenue Suite 200 Provo, UT 84604 Website: http://www.escalantedesign.com |
Wow!, great info guys, Thanks Mikeg and Cable_isolators for your sincere and helpful posts. I've never read anything from Stereotimes.com before but i will start checking that out now. Dave Thomas's rave and extensive review covered everything you could possibly want to know about the Escalantes. If Dave Thomas's reviews are all this detailed, i'll be looking forward to his writings from now on. The only other question i could think of is what amplifier was used for his glowing review? Dave quotes the speakers designer, Tierry Budge saying" My goal is not to build a speaker that is best suited only for low powered tube amps or high powered soild state amps. My goal is to build speakers that will always sound their best regardless of the amplifier. What's important is to get the listener close to the heart of music"! Wow, pretty bold statement, if that is true and tube guys and SS guys will be satisfied, "regardless of the amplifier", then the Pinyons/Unitas are a bargain! If you could spend more of your total budget than you planned on for the Pinyons/Unitas, and possibly spend much less on your amplifier choice, then their prices would be truly justified. It's kinda hard to believe they will sound their best "regardless of the amplifier", so i hope that they will bring an assortment of tube and SS amps, of different price ranges to their exhibit at the RMAF in October to demonstrate this. Imagine how many more music lovers could step up to the Escalantes, that never dreamed of spending that much on speakers! Maybe i should bring my little Sonic Impact Tripath amp or a Teac Tripath amp to RMAF with me, wouldn't that be interesting! Thanks again guys. I'm kinda new to Audiogon but have already met some great folks! This is a cool space. Regards, Alan |
07-25-05: Tvad Plyboo... So if you consider 3/4" thick solid bamboo plywood to be a veneer...then yes E.D. uses a bamboo veneer. ;^) |
| Post removed |