Review: Reimer Wind River GS Speaker

Category: Speakers

I recently took delivery of a pair of Reimer Wind River GS speakers, manufactured to order by Rick Reimer in Wyoming via Neil Solina of Clearsound, NY. Let me firstly say that both Neil and Rick (to whom I spoke at length prior to construction) are consumate professionals and true aficionados of high quality sound. My experience with these people was beyond reproach.
Straight out of the box the speakers themselves are immediately and obviously a labour of love for Rick Reimer, and the quality of the workmanship is simply stunning. They are heavy. Very heavy. But they come shipped in indestructible containers braced to a shipping pallette and arrived in perfect condition.
The speakers themselves are a three-way design, with both the midrange and woofers doubled. The tweeter is a ribbon design, and thus there are five drivers per speaker. I believe the drivers are all made by HiVi in China (anyone interested in these drivers should look up the Swanns range of speakers, only the cheapest of which are available in the US). As with many high-end audio products these days, these Chinese-made drivers are seemingly as good as any made anywhere.
Rick uses his own custom-made crossover system (which I frankly admit to knowing little about), but the results are truly impressive. The speakers are fitted with three sprung 'feet' which are designed to sit in contoured aluminium plates, negating the need for spikes. The grill-cloth is in a seperate wood-enclosed panel and attaches to the speaker via magnets at the four corners (which quite amazingly manage to align the panel square to the speakers every time!).
OK. Enough of the pre-amble. These are serious speakers. Straight out of the box I knew they were going to be special, and they improved sublty as they ran in. They also showed up various problems - problems I have been vaguely aware of before with my Celestion SL5000 ribbon-hybrids - in the accoustics of my room. In the final analysis, the Reimers are probably a fraction too big for my room (so those of you who feel you might want the Tetons, maybe you don't really need them!), but I have persevered with placement and now believe I have them sounding very well.
These are extremely dynamic speakers. They will go plenty loud no matter what your tastes run to. They are pretty efficient as well, so your amplifier will sound as if it has more power than it would with virtually all comparable designs.
Try, for example, the opening 5 minutes or so of Szymanowsky's opera King Roger (EMI Rattle). If this is not THE most impressive and overpowering opening to any opera ever I don't know what is, and the chorus, orchestra, organ and massive percussion of the opening climax explode into the room effortlessly and without hardness or distortion even at levels approaching the ridiculous.
Instrumental and vocal timbres are also beautifully rendered on the Wind Rivers. Listen to any part of the wonderful new recording of The Marriage of Figaro (Harmonia Mundi- Savall) and the original instrument plangency is beautifully captured, as is the immediacy of the closely (but compellingly) recorded vocal parts.
There is a lovely sense of space and air in the soundstage too, as evidenced by great modern orchestral recordings like either Bruckner 4 or 8 with the Berlin Philharmonic under Wand (RCA).
Choral recordings are also nicely captured on these speakers. One of my test recordings for speakers for the last few years has been 'The Cry' by the Canadian choir that I conduct, Ensemble de la Rue (www.ensembledelarue.org, and the extreme overtone information here, which can send even good systems into distortion, is clean and clear on the Reimers.
Accoustic Jazz is also lovely on these speakers, as evidenced by such excellent recordings as 'Blue Moon Daughter' by Cassandra Wilson (try the instrumental pallette in 'Solomon Sang').
One of the options Rick suggested I might be interested in was the slight offsetting of the treble (ribbon) driver to aid imaging. While I clearly have not had the opportunity to compare to the conventional in-line array, I have a feeling this was a good idea, as the speakers image very nicely, although room placement is pretty important here.

So, for around $4,000 - including shipping - what do you get? Well, I would say you get about what you might ordinarily expect to be paying around double that for if you were to go with a more commercial brand (I looked at, for example, some Dalis about double the price, trying to pick up a pair second hand. They are no better than these).
If you wanted to go with one of the outragious high-end designs consistently sponsored by Stereophile you would most likely spend 5 - 10 times this without better results.
In short, if you are interested in a beautifully made and lovingly thought out pair of speakers that are going to last you the rest of your life you would be nuts to not consider these exceptionally fine and beautifully executed speakers from Rick Reimer.
Rick and Neil are a pleasure to deal with and you won't be dissappointed; indeed, you will feel you have scored an amazing bargain!
Happy Listening!!

Associated gear
Monarchy Audio 22C DAC/Line stage, Monarchy Audio 48/96 DIP Upsampler, Marantz SA 8260 SACD player, Forte 55 Power Amplifier, various fancy cables

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Auditioned a wide variety of speakers in the $3K - $7K range