There’s no better value and no one as willing to make bespoke speakers out there than Fritz and these forums treat his speakers as if they cost $200K. They don’t. They are remarkably affordable and yet potential customers put him through the absolute ringer, asking for custom features, going through 2 or 3 models of home auditions and maybe not even buying any of them.
Look, you buy what you want to buy, but I think not enough credit is given to the man or his speakers in terms of the overall value proposition and I think this is a disservice overall. If you write a 5 page review, please keep this very much in mind that you are not reviewing Wilson or Focal's flagships. Maybe he doesn't deserve quite the same scrutiny.
Very good point Guppy , that was exactly what I was trying to convey the Xover being the heart or brain of all Loudspeakers That use a Xover to dictate in part it’s resolution and refinement and the Higher Quality selection of Xover parts is instrumental in the final outcome and a builder get parts at least 30% off retail since it is no extra cost in labor at time of build just same charge the retail price of the cost into the SE cost ,at minimum of 10-15% increase in resolution and fidelity. That is my point and All I have nothing to add to the conversation .
People are nit picking Fritz in a way no one would analyze Wilson, B&W or Joseph Audio, or Magico.
Because he's a small shop, who uses comparable drivers, suddenly a handful of arm chair speaker builders (whose opinions on this subject are entirely questionable) we are asking him to get special parts for the purchase cost.
Give me a break. No one sells parts for even retail. You can't run a business this way and it's not worth the phone call.
Fritz? Great Guy and Great Speakers! Have owned a pair of Carbon 7 for 8 years. Very pleased. Since COVID has basically shut down our travel plans for 2020 I have decided to treat myself to a pair of Carrera’s. Why Fritz speakers? Well aside from his pleasant personality, I enjoy dealing with a great craftsman, who loves what he does, that produces a high quality product that completely meets my expectations. For the last 8 years I have been shuffling different gear and cables in and out of my audio setup. The only gear that has remained through those years are Fritz’s Speakers.
How do we know they are "comparable"? Maybe his drivers are better than standard versions...
It’s not entirely impossible Fritz has as special order line made to spec for his particular drivers - on some models. Dynaudio and others were doing this for years with Totem and other manufacturers starting out with custom quality wound voice coils, better magnets, or surrounds, and different baskets in special circumstances for some "signature" models requested by the builder. I’d bet the cost of the Be tweeter alone used in his Carerras is more than what some may have guessed until looking closer.
Not saying this is the case with Fritz for his tweeters or woofers. It could be though...However, as you mentioned its easy for "armchair" folks to make assumptions on the cost of the drivers, or get one digit off on a model number on a part and not realize when higher grade version drivers and components are used by a builder in a particular speaker. As already mentioned, same goes for internal crossover parts people never see, not fully understanding true cost of what’s on the inside.
Dynaudio and others were doing this for years with Totem and other manufacturers starting out with custom quality wound voice coils, better magnets, or surrounds, and different baskets in special circumstances
Why arent these supposedly better versions already being produced and offered for sale to the public then?
Some people look at a speaker from a photo and make assumptions on parts and materials used inside, and the manufacturer total cost for each component used. It’s not always comparable in function, sound, or cost just because it looks the same from the outside.
From my knowledge, Fritz does not use modified drivers. What he does have is great knowledge of the different drivers. He stays up to date with any revisions made to drivers as well. He memorizes the weights of the cones and which drivers use what drive systems. He understands that Seas Excel Drivers, while being great, and drivers he has and will use, actually ring above a certain frequency. In order to overcome that ringing, you need to make a more complicated crossover. Fritz likes to use the highest quality drivers and keep his crossovers as simple as possible. Fritz is a speaker chef. He knows what ingredients to put together in order to create delicious dishes. The ingredients are the drivers he pairs together, the seasoning is his crossovers, the dish is his speakers as a whole. His house sound, to me at least, is like those vintage speakers in their warmth, tone and fullness, combined with the accuracy, imaging, detail (sparkle and shimmering- Carreras) and accuracy of a thoroughly modern speaker.
Some things in life are more special than the sum of their parts. Fritz’s speakers are one of those things. His Carreras are awesome and if you are on the fence, just get a pair already. Im sitting here listening to them right now and I promise you, you would love what I’m hearing. I’ve spent hundreds of hours listening to good sound at Audio Shows so I have some frame of reference. Fritz knows how to build a high quality, fun to listen to, rock the house monitor speaker at a cost that I don’t think can be matched except for a few rare others (tekton, salk, etc).
Fritz never said that his speakers were perfect and flawless. Only a few manufacturers have told me that at shows and their speakers generally were very imperfect. Fritz builds really nice smaller speakers for a reasonable price.
No they are not. They are not even full range. They suffer from lobing just like other speakers. Nobody would buy Wilson or Magico or Vivid if the Fritz were superior. So lets be realistic.
It must be hell being that miserable. I have never seen anything quite like it. He is clearly not capable of doing better himself than what he criticizes. He can't tune a speaker to his own ears, he can't build the perfect speaker, he can't design a crossover, he doesn't know what measurements matter, he doesn't know how to design and build a cabinet. If he could, he would have done it. He has come to the stark realization that there is no way that even he could build a speaker that would make him happy.
He has come to the stark realization that there is no way that even he could build a speaker that would make him happy.
He has actually come to the realization that THEY, i.e. the criminal speaker industry, is unable to satisfy his ultra high standards due to their incompetence and low standards.
You are right that he is miserable but only because he has been betrayed by the speaker industry by false grand promises of high sound quality for years and years which were never realized.
He is the epitome of an audiophile yet is victimized by his fellow audiophiles. How ironic.
Question: I’ve wondered about Fritz for awhile now. I have a pair of Spatial M3 Turbo S’s that are completely satisfying, but I wish Fritz offered a floorstander. Does he? or do his monitors compare to the Spatials?
Fritz explained to me that there is too much risk with floorstanding speakers because if 1 is damaged in shipping, you have to re-veneer both in order to get the veneer bookmatched. I also think that the floorstanding ones got damaged more than the smaller monitors. He packages his speakers really well but I could see being concerned about damaging floorstanding speakers.
I’m sure Fritz would build a pair of floorstanding speakers but you’ll pay and there will be no trial or refund.
I knew a lady who made violins, violas and cellos. She was a silver medalist in the US. I loved the sound of her instruments, and the horror stories she had over selling direct were such that she never sold direct even to friends. The care and feeding of the musicians was so great she couldn't possibly make violins AND take care of them, and this was in fact something her dealers did very well.
This is also something I think about when I think of Fritz and other one-person shops. They not only have to make the speakers, they have to market them, they have to put up with people nickel and dime ing them, criticizing them like they would do no major brand, and deal with the entire sales process.
I simply cannot imagine wanting to be in that business at all, so if you find a bespoke speaker maker you like and trust and buy from, please, treat them well.
I still haven't been told what improvements you could do to the SNR1 which incidentally were heavily criticized by the engineers over on diyaudio. Feel free to share your thoughts.
The goal of speaker design is PERFECTION. If you cannot or will not agree to that, you are in the wrong job. It is all about winning and trying to outdo the competition. There is a war going on and YOU yourself as a speaker engineer are a part of this whether you know it or not. Which faction do you belong to Duke? I have only one interest and that is to find perfection.
I am not interested in how wonderful the KEF meta LS50s sound, or how wonderful the Audiokinesis Ginas sound. I wanna know how BAD THEY ARE! I wanna uncover all the dirty secrets that so many people are desperate to suppress. Show me why they are flawed and tell me how they can be improved!
criminal as in deplorable.I stand by that statement. If you are a regular reader of this site you will realize that there are no negative reviews or posts EVER. Perhaps they are all deleted just like many of my posts, that mysteriously disappear? If you look at any speaker companys website the same pattern emerges, No matter cheap the speaker is, you will never see anything negative being said about it. It is deplorable that speaker companies can make any claim they like and produce no evidence whatsoever. I refuse to apologize for trying to reveal these nasty facts to the wider community of audiophiles.
Wow. Perfection will never be reached in any walk of life of any physical thing. So your argument is false Kenjit. People should be comparing speakers to each other because there is no perfection. Ok.... box uh rocks
So yeah, you think they are gouging us? I think not. These are objects made out of passion. And, after setting up a shop, designing/testing/re-testing and finally going into production, its going to take a while before a decent living can be made.
Never mind the time it takes to develop the skills necessary to understand how a component works, the cause and effect of making changes, having the ability to decipher what is heard and how to fix, you also need the physical skill to actually build the thing.
These folks are not pumping out a 1000 speakers a day
There are some here who can just shove it with their opinions, cause they don't know $h11T
And lastly, I don’t think you’d even know what perfection was if it slapped you across the face, which by the way, I’d pay good money to see.
and you would? How?
Also, I have never ever seen you talk about amps, preamps, dacs or cabling.
I start with the thing that makes the biggest difference which is speakers. Amps make no difference. I have heard dozens of amps at home and in stores. Cabling makes no difference at all.
Why cant you tell me what the bad aspects of the Fritz speakers are? All i have ever heard you do is extol the virtues of speakers but never any criticisms
I don't have any Bose cubes. And when did I ever say that i was using Bose cubes to try to hear the differences between amps and dacs? You're just making things up in order to try to insult me but you have now failed because the assumptions you made were FALSE.
like most deeply troubled internet forum trolls, their getting the response, getting ’a rise’ out of the crowd IS the objective - focused on their unfortunate inner need
only way to defeat is to ignore completely... emphasis on completely
doing anything more is to feed into a ’co dependency’ - part of what is being craved - thus YOU become part of the problem not the solution
ok? got it?
now, lets cue up some heavenly music... let's enjoy this lovely evening
You must have a verified phone number and physical address in order to post in the Audiogon Forums. Please return to Audiogon.com and complete this step. If you have any questions please contact Support.
