Fried speaker comparison

I used a pair of Fried Beta Signature's for many years (along with the matching Fried "The Subwoofer") and agree with Shubert's finding although I would add that tube amps really made the Beta's come to life. EL34 based amps were especially killer.

In addition, a sub is really needed with the Beta's as used on their own, they are satisfactory but due to their
"Distributed Loading" of the mid/bass driver, there can be audible "noises" that are heard over the music when bass heavy material, especially high level bass kick drum, is played at elevated but clean levels. If your musical taste is mainly classical played at low to mid levels, I doubt one would ever be aware of the distributed loading issues.

High passing the Beta's at ~80hz/6db per octave as is done in "The Subwoofer" solved the noise issue and also increased the dynamic range of the Beta's which enabled them to really come to life.

I have not heard the other Fried models you mentioned but if you come across some used Beta's, especially the Signature series, grab them as you won't be disappointed!

Cheers

Actually Trelja, I had the same thoughts about the "Radio Shack" quality crossover components and wiring in my pair of Beta Signatures and set about to upgrade those components. I changed the caps to some Solen polypropolene and upgraded the internal wiring to Teflon coated silver AudioMagic wire and you know what, the "music" that the stock signature series Beta's had was banished and in it's place was accuracy. Note my use of the word "music"...

That was my first foray into upgrading stock speakers and it did not bode well although later attempts with other speakers proved otherwise. Somehow, the stock budget component quality configuration of the Fried crossover components turned out to be the best although the Teflon coated silver wiring was a major leap forward in resolution as compared to the stock wiring.

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