tuffy_puppy
New member
ditdah, sir, as far as classical music: just about any mozart or debussy. don
Blumenstein Ultra Fi
- Thread starter Doc B
- Start date
Clark B.
New member
All my best to your wife, Joel! I hope she has a swift recovery. Running the shop a bit more I too have had to really focus on my health, what I eat and how much I excersize especially as it is a really physically demanding job. Luckily, music therapy is part of my routine at the end of each day 
Grainger49
New member
Sounds like my 20s. Music all day selling stereos and my music in the evening to relax. It was a daily routine.
Grainger49
New member
I had this thought last night. So, getting back to Clark & Molly's speakers...
Many people have asked me how my system floats images so well. I often say that it, "gets out of the way of the music." I describe it that way because there are so very few passive and active devices in the signal path. I add that each of these active and passive parts impart less of a coloration or phase shift onto the music that is fed into the system.
The Blumensteins do just that. I believe their speakers get out of the way of the music and allow you to hear what was comes into the system to start with. I became aware of the mess a crossover can make of music sometime in the 70s. The Orcas having no crossover the phase relationships of the incoming signal are not affected at all. I'm of the opinion that soundstage has a lot to do with phase relationships between the two speakers and the music being played. Phase is time, which is position to our ears and brain.
Many people have asked me how my system floats images so well. I often say that it, "gets out of the way of the music." I describe it that way because there are so very few passive and active devices in the signal path. I add that each of these active and passive parts impart less of a coloration or phase shift onto the music that is fed into the system.
The Blumensteins do just that. I believe their speakers get out of the way of the music and allow you to hear what was comes into the system to start with. I became aware of the mess a crossover can make of music sometime in the 70s. The Orcas having no crossover the phase relationships of the incoming signal are not affected at all. I'm of the opinion that soundstage has a lot to do with phase relationships between the two speakers and the music being played. Phase is time, which is position to our ears and brain.
Grainger49
New member
Joel sent me Clark's email about price increases. I got my lovely wife to understand, I ordered a pair of Caramelized Orcas.
My head will explode with anticipation.
My head will explode with anticipation.
Clark B.
New member
Wow thanks a ton Grainger and Glynn! Y'all are first in line for them once we've got our current backlog out in 3-4 weeks. Y'all are going to really enjoy these!
Re: Pat M., I missed your post earlier and just now saw it. It warms my heart so much to hear how much you are enjoying your complete system! What a helluva retirement gift to yourself! Rock on, man!
To all:
here's a link to our website's post about the coming price increase.
http://www.blumensteinaudio.com/news/2012/11/5/notification-of-price-increase-january-1-2013.html
As we mentioned in the blog post, Molly and I were really wracking our brains over the increase, as to us it is definitely unwelcome in terms of maintaining our business/ethics model. In the modern day, business and ethics are rarely terms used together in the same sentence to mean a good thing, but in our case it is indeed for the sake of the good kind of ethics that we do what we do.
With the Orca line (including the stands and subs), we are trying to distill prettymuch everything learned at Feastrex and Cain & Cain (and on our own) but to make it into as hollistically ass kicking as possible. Miniscule in terms of price and physical size per the punch, just the right amount of customizability, acoustic adjustability and room tailoring, and convenience. And then we discovered the unexpected added benefits of this entire approach in the final sound quality.
During this last year in the journey especially, I believe that we are onto some truly new technologies in terms of what is possible for the size, and price and blah blah blah... and then woah! We just weren't charging quite enough in order to grow the business gracefully and practically. And so it is in this way that many makers are reminded that they are actually businesses. Business plans get ammended, and then life goes on.
While we know that the new prices will still be more than competitive in the marketplace and will still afford us the ability to keep production here in the states in the coming years, our true mission, what is really behind the persistently low prices is that we simply wish (and still wish) to connect alot of people with honest to goodness great speaker designs and it is all too often that price of admission which is the barrier for alot of people into the realm of phenomenal sound quality. I am just not interested in merely "good" sound quality and neither should anyone else be. Its been almost a hundred years since the direct radiator was invented. Isn't it about time that there were truly phenomenal sound systems out there for ~$1500? (speaking of the Orcas and SEX here).
Certain business saavy friends and audiophiles have asked us over the last several years: "Don't they sound good enough already!?! They're only $600 bucks! Can anyone really hear the difference!?!" And these questions have sometimes gotten me to really quiz myself if we were really cut out to be in manufacturing, in possession of the all mighty ability to coldly consider our hand made goods and hard fought design innovations to be "widgets," to be bought and sold in mind numbing quantities on the free market, or were we to consider ourselves to be members of the art world, always trying to push the envelope and be "different," for the sake of amusement to the few people who will invariably cross paths with a small, albiet beautiful body of our life's work.
The truth is that we are a little bit of both, and while its not the textbook definition of a business, we don't see anything wrong with that. We've so much energy in our daily work to see where this mindset takes us in the long term. Where its gotten us so far is that we have a pretty respectable number of pleased customers, and we are still definitely counting alot of die hard "ultra fi" audiophiles as our friends and customers as well, even for a "lowly" $600 pair of speakers.
So in conclusion, thanks to everyone over all these past years for joining our community, making it even better!
Cheers,
Clark
Re: Pat M., I missed your post earlier and just now saw it. It warms my heart so much to hear how much you are enjoying your complete system! What a helluva retirement gift to yourself! Rock on, man!
To all:
here's a link to our website's post about the coming price increase.
http://www.blumensteinaudio.com/news/2012/11/5/notification-of-price-increase-january-1-2013.html
As we mentioned in the blog post, Molly and I were really wracking our brains over the increase, as to us it is definitely unwelcome in terms of maintaining our business/ethics model. In the modern day, business and ethics are rarely terms used together in the same sentence to mean a good thing, but in our case it is indeed for the sake of the good kind of ethics that we do what we do.
With the Orca line (including the stands and subs), we are trying to distill prettymuch everything learned at Feastrex and Cain & Cain (and on our own) but to make it into as hollistically ass kicking as possible. Miniscule in terms of price and physical size per the punch, just the right amount of customizability, acoustic adjustability and room tailoring, and convenience. And then we discovered the unexpected added benefits of this entire approach in the final sound quality.
During this last year in the journey especially, I believe that we are onto some truly new technologies in terms of what is possible for the size, and price and blah blah blah... and then woah! We just weren't charging quite enough in order to grow the business gracefully and practically. And so it is in this way that many makers are reminded that they are actually businesses. Business plans get ammended, and then life goes on.
While we know that the new prices will still be more than competitive in the marketplace and will still afford us the ability to keep production here in the states in the coming years, our true mission, what is really behind the persistently low prices is that we simply wish (and still wish) to connect alot of people with honest to goodness great speaker designs and it is all too often that price of admission which is the barrier for alot of people into the realm of phenomenal sound quality. I am just not interested in merely "good" sound quality and neither should anyone else be. Its been almost a hundred years since the direct radiator was invented. Isn't it about time that there were truly phenomenal sound systems out there for ~$1500? (speaking of the Orcas and SEX here).
Certain business saavy friends and audiophiles have asked us over the last several years: "Don't they sound good enough already!?! They're only $600 bucks! Can anyone really hear the difference!?!" And these questions have sometimes gotten me to really quiz myself if we were really cut out to be in manufacturing, in possession of the all mighty ability to coldly consider our hand made goods and hard fought design innovations to be "widgets," to be bought and sold in mind numbing quantities on the free market, or were we to consider ourselves to be members of the art world, always trying to push the envelope and be "different," for the sake of amusement to the few people who will invariably cross paths with a small, albiet beautiful body of our life's work.
The truth is that we are a little bit of both, and while its not the textbook definition of a business, we don't see anything wrong with that. We've so much energy in our daily work to see where this mindset takes us in the long term. Where its gotten us so far is that we have a pretty respectable number of pleased customers, and we are still definitely counting alot of die hard "ultra fi" audiophiles as our friends and customers as well, even for a "lowly" $600 pair of speakers.
So in conclusion, thanks to everyone over all these past years for joining our community, making it even better!
Cheers,
Clark
My Orcas, stands and sub all arrived today and I just got done assembling them, so this is the first of the new design, and the stands that I'm *seeing* and feeling and you guys are in for a real treat. Still need a preamp to get the sr-45s to play through them, but I may just temporarily connect my LM Mini 218 SE el84 amp (which is now temporarily driving the Nagas) up to these guys and give them a first listen in the new room. That won't come until tomorrow at the earliest though.
These, if it was possible, seem even better in terms of finish than the last pair I got (now in our living room). Can't wait to hear them, but I also know it's still going to be a couple of weeks before the majority of my system is all together and playing smoothly.
And for those who were following, I worked out in my garage shop today and got things organized and the remainder of boxes from our move unpacked. And as Murphy would have predicted, all my soldering gear was in the very last box to be unpacked from the entire move... natch.
I'm exhausted, so off to bed but I do hope to chime in with some initial sonic impressions tomorrow sometime.
-- Jim
These, if it was possible, seem even better in terms of finish than the last pair I got (now in our living room). Can't wait to hear them, but I also know it's still going to be a couple of weeks before the majority of my system is all together and playing smoothly.
And for those who were following, I worked out in my garage shop today and got things organized and the remainder of boxes from our move unpacked. And as Murphy would have predicted, all my soldering gear was in the very last box to be unpacked from the entire move... natch.
I'm exhausted, so off to bed but I do hope to chime in with some initial sonic impressions tomorrow sometime.
-- Jim
Grainger49
New member
Clark,
Good news for Glynn and me!
But I'm posting primarily to congratulate you on the proper use of "Y'all" in both instances. Are you a well spoken Southern boy, like a number of us? Or did we infect your use of English?
I think the response of the Bottlehead community, diverse as it is, should answer any questions that you have about whether or not you should be manufacturing musical instruments. We don't want to see you going down the path of Saul Marantz.
I hope you don't lose the cottage industry aspect that you have even if you have a troop of helpers working with you.
Good news for Glynn and me!
But I'm posting primarily to congratulate you on the proper use of "Y'all" in both instances. Are you a well spoken Southern boy, like a number of us? Or did we infect your use of English?
I think the response of the Bottlehead community, diverse as it is, should answer any questions that you have about whether or not you should be manufacturing musical instruments. We don't want to see you going down the path of Saul Marantz.
I hope you don't lose the cottage industry aspect that you have even if you have a troop of helpers working with you.
Grainger49
New member
I am of the opinion that fine wood finishes should be touched. My best friend my senior year was our foreign exchange student, Rolf. Rolf stayed with the Moulthrops. Mr. Moulthroup is known for large wooden bowls (Google Phillip Moulthrop). He says his works are as tactile as visual.
Clark B.
New member
Grainger,
Haha! Yeah, I am a Seattle native, but partly grew up in Jacksonville, FL. Molly too, partly grew up in the south. I've got a ton of family all over tennessee, Florida and NC and also up here. Been back in the PNW since Whitman College days. So I've only got an accent that comes on if I've been drinking. Y'all is one of many useful Southern inventions. Otherwise the English language does not have a distinct second person plural.
Re: touching woodwork is so important. Hanging out with Jim Rebman and looking at one of his bottlehead bases a month ago showed that with woodwork, there are so many qualities to be appreciated from a primarily tactile standpoint that are the same exact qualities that can be appreciated from a visual standpoint. Spalting, quilting, grain density, you name it. Especially if you don't hide the features under a really thick finish.
Yeah, I totally hear you on the growth of the business. We are going to keep really focusing on our production (and therefore sound) quality. In regards to employees, we are hoping to attract folks who are even more physically/mentally capable than we are into the future.
Its so easy to keep making musical instrument speakers when we have such fine bottlehead musical instrument amplifiers to pair them with!
We've been jamming so hard in the shop these past weeks, weekends, and into this week non stop 14+ hour days. Barely winded. Super excited about everyone who's going to be getting their speakers soon!
-Clark
Haha! Yeah, I am a Seattle native, but partly grew up in Jacksonville, FL. Molly too, partly grew up in the south. I've got a ton of family all over tennessee, Florida and NC and also up here. Been back in the PNW since Whitman College days. So I've only got an accent that comes on if I've been drinking. Y'all is one of many useful Southern inventions. Otherwise the English language does not have a distinct second person plural.
Re: touching woodwork is so important. Hanging out with Jim Rebman and looking at one of his bottlehead bases a month ago showed that with woodwork, there are so many qualities to be appreciated from a primarily tactile standpoint that are the same exact qualities that can be appreciated from a visual standpoint. Spalting, quilting, grain density, you name it. Especially if you don't hide the features under a really thick finish.
Yeah, I totally hear you on the growth of the business. We are going to keep really focusing on our production (and therefore sound) quality. In regards to employees, we are hoping to attract folks who are even more physically/mentally capable than we are into the future.
Its so easy to keep making musical instrument speakers when we have such fine bottlehead musical instrument amplifiers to pair them with!
We've been jamming so hard in the shop these past weeks, weekends, and into this week non stop 14+ hour days. Barely winded. Super excited about everyone who's going to be getting their speakers soon!
-Clark
tsingle999
New member
Just took the plunge (thanks to this thread - theres too many people whose ears have similar tastes as mine that like these speakers not to give them a chance) and scored a pair of lightly used orcas in natural bamboo. Looking forward to them! I think i remember seeing them at vsac 2008 in their iteration at that time. I didnt pay much attention to them because of the small size and driver but the one thing i discovered at vsac was how much i liked the zigmahornets despite thier small driver. (I bought those drivers but couldn't find an easy way to build the cabinets as my woodwork skills are not good and ended up with a used pair of abbys - the drivers are currently for sale) So it will be fun to compare it to my 8" fostex bookshelf speakers too...
Terran,
I've had and heard the zigmahornets, and I liked them too, but the Orcas are far more refined sound with probably a good bit more bass than the ziggies, but also at least as good in the imaging/soundstaging aspects as well.
I'm pretty confident you'll really like them.
-- Jim
I've had and heard the zigmahornets, and I liked them too, but the Orcas are far more refined sound with probably a good bit more bass than the ziggies, but also at least as good in the imaging/soundstaging aspects as well.
I'm pretty confident you'll really like them.
-- Jim
caffeinator
New member
On the "all y'all" usage, this, from the Wiktionary, seems to square with what I've heard and observed over the years as a transplanted southerner:
All y'all is used in the Southern United States when a speaker wishes to include everyone being addressed. Y'all may refer to an indefinite set of members of a group, but all y'all definitively includes everyone in the group.
I recently attended a conference where the speaker, a PNW native who had recently relocated to the South, was recounting what he'd learned as a newcomer to Atlanta.
He said he was feeling especially welcomed, since everyone seemed to be so nice. Remarking to his wife, a native Southerner, he mentioned that when he had a question, say, at the supermarket, people would often start out with some kind of sympathetic words, such as "Well, bless your heart..." which he found warm and welcoming - at least until she pointed out that translated loosely to "Hey, Dumba$$," or "OMG, what a moron"
All y'all is used in the Southern United States when a speaker wishes to include everyone being addressed. Y'all may refer to an indefinite set of members of a group, but all y'all definitively includes everyone in the group.
I recently attended a conference where the speaker, a PNW native who had recently relocated to the South, was recounting what he'd learned as a newcomer to Atlanta.
He said he was feeling especially welcomed, since everyone seemed to be so nice. Remarking to his wife, a native Southerner, he mentioned that when he had a question, say, at the supermarket, people would often start out with some kind of sympathetic words, such as "Well, bless your heart..." which he found warm and welcoming - at least until she pointed out that translated loosely to "Hey, Dumba$$," or "OMG, what a moron"
