Speaking of RTR, first, in 1971, senior year in HS, my very first system apart from a little JVC console type thing for a young teenager, featured, actually, Marantz speakers, which were large stand-mount and two way. This was prior to the sale of the company. I just loved these speakers. Upstream were a legendary Marantz 1060 integrated and a Lenco manual giving a hitch to a Grado elliptical. I saw and heard Large Advents often, and did not feel that they bested my Marantz's by much as configured by me. This system sounded impressive when I compared it to what I heard at frequent concerts. In the very early 70's, my hometown featured one of the nation's leading concert venues, where I was usually in attendance. But the next speakers, floor standers used with separate cabinets containing RTR electrostatic drivers, were breathtaking, mine had 6 RTR membranes, which one simply placed on the top of the floor mounted cabinet, which contained conventional drivers -- these were three-ways, called HPR 12s. With the RTR augmentation, they truly were glorious, it was was if one had very little Infinity Servo-Statik's. These came to university with me, where they were driven by Heathkit and the famous Philips table -- this is 1973 -- with the green-lit, touch-type, switch gear. When the audiophile journey genuinely took flight years later, Avalon Radians were the culmination of the speaker search, these were driven by ML 33H's, an ARC Ref 1, tubed ARC phono-stage, and an Aries with a JMW hosting an Urushi. Sound always was OMG; cavernous soundstage, imperceptible distortion so deep black noise floor, owing to uber-expensive but virtually donated to me, tri-wire networked MIT speaker cable created for the Radians & Spectral amplification. One dearly loved demo album on this system that everyone should search for given the extraordinary sound and I'd argue fairly good songwriting in some instances, don't laugh, was Gino Vanelli's Storm at Sunup. This album sounds incredible, Graham Lear on the drums.
