Fried speaker comparison

Hey Trelja, I knew you'd jump in on this post.

I've owned(still own) many of the "higher in the line" Fried's going back to a pair of C/3L's I built about 30 years ago. I still have them.

My brother owned several of the entry level models, Betas, A/5's, Studio IVs, and that's how I became a fan. He and I first met Bud Fried at Jemstone Audio in Lansing, MI around the time the C/3L's were introduced and after hearing them, we both agreed, we had to own them.

Over the years, I kept in touch with Bud and when the C/5's came along, I upgraded my brother's pair of C's with the new drivers, crossovers and better parts. I wanted to keep my C/3L's original so ended up building new cabinets(furniture grade Honduras mahogany) for the C/5's and Bud's preferred O-4 transmission-line subs; still own them too and if I'm not mistaken, Trelja still has Bud's personal C/5's & O-4's?

Some years later I ran across a nice used pair of Studio V's and decided to snatch them for a second system. They turned out to be one of the best sounding one box full range speakers I've ever owned. The reason you almost never see them for sale is because owner's won't part with them!

When the Studio 7's came along, I decided to "upgrade" and sold the V's. Big mistake! While the new 7's have many virtues, they lost the top end extension, air and transparency of the V's. The 7's use a 1" ring radiator tweeter and it sucks compared to Bud's old fave, the 3/4" Hiquphon. So... the 7' are gone but I still kinda miss the V's.

I'm still living with speakers that were spawned by Bud Fried's passion for 1st order series crossovers and transmission-line loading but things have come a long way since then. Bud was never into "designer" caps, inductors or resistors(didn't like tubes either) but instead concentrated on good quality drivers like the Danish made Hiquphon.

Long story short, many of the old Fried models would still embarrass much of the current crop of speakers made today and considering the prices of some of them, they should be embarrassed. Any of the old Fried models employing 1st order series crossovers and transmission line type loading would be worth seeking out, particularly, the C/3L, C/5, C/6 and Studio V.

As Joe(Trelja) mentioned, upgrading passive parts in a crossover doesn't necessarily guarantee better sound. Perhaps the "major leap forward in resolution" and "accuracy" was pointing out weaknesses elsewhere. Then again, replacing inductors with equal value but different AWG/DCR may change the crossover point making the speaker sound brighter and more aggressive.

With Bud's(or anyone else's) first order series crossovers, there are a minimum of passive parts and everything matters. Say you go from a junky 18 or 20AWG coil to a 12AWG Goertz to provide maximum protection for a tweeter, you will hear big differences.

Joe and I have a friend who designs first order series crossovers for the "C" cabinets. After selecting the drivers he wants to use and the optimal crossover point based on computer modeling, he then goes with good quality coils, caps and resistors(if used). Then he spends many hours/days voicing the speaker by making small incremental changes to the values of the passive parts. As Joe said, sometimes it's "trial and error" but, like fine tuning a cartridge, when you get it dialed in, it's worth the effort.

My "C" satellites use the newer OW-4 Hiquphon tweeter which is a huge step up from the old OW-2 with ferrofluid that Bud used to use. The midrange driver is a pricey but excellent ScanSpeak and the entire external series crossover consists of one Mundorf Silver/Oil cap(soon to be replaced with Dueland Cast) and two Goertz 12AWG inductors; no resistors anywhere! Add in the matching subs, good down to 20 Hz, and as my designer friend Joel will tell you, we'll put this system up against anything on the planet.