Product Review -
Newform Research R8-1-30 Speakers - March, 1997
By J.D. Moretti
Click to see larger photo |
Newform Research R8-1-30 Speakers;
Ribbon hybrid; Two quasi-ribbons (each 15" high, one on top
of the other); one 8" cone mid-bass driver in vented
enclosure; Frequency response 36 Hz - 20 kHz ± 3 dB; Sensitivity
88 dB/w/m; Nominal impedance 8 Ohms; Power handling 150 w/ch;
Size of woofer enclosure 30"H x 10 1/4"W x 14
1/2"D; Size of ribbon assembly 30 1/2"H x 3"W x 2
1/4"D; Weight 63 pounds each; Black oak vinyl; $1,236/pair
(includes all taxes and shipping by UPS to the consumer's door);
Newform Research, Inc., P.O. Box 475, Midland, Ontario, CANADA
L4R 4L3; Phone 705-835-9000; Fax 705-835-0081; E-Mail [email protected].
I really like ribbon speakers, planar magnetics, and
electrostatics. You know why? It's because they have a big sound
stage due to their dipolar nature (sound comes out the front and
back, front out of phase with the back). The Newform Research
speakers are quasi-ribbons, but in this case, they are not
dipoles. Newform has come up with their own design, giving the
quick transient response of light weight ribbons, but not the
difficult-to-place problems that dipoles have. The ribbon sits in
front of the magnet which sweeps around it like a horseshoe.
Quasi-ribbon means that the foil is attached to a plastic
substrate rather than being just the foil suspended by itself.
The foil is laminated with the substrate, which results in a
purely resistive load (about 7 Ohms), making it rugged, with all
of the resistive area exposed to the air for heat dissipation.
Newform has been shipping complete systems for about 5 years, and
recently began offering the ribbons to DIY enthusiasts. The
R-1-30 uses two 15" ribbon assemblies on top of each other,
and the ribbons sit on top of the bass enclosure, which houses an
8" cone woofer. The enclosure is a vented design, with the
flared port on the front. This design allows the user to place
the speaker relatively close to walls if desired, unlike regular
dipolar ribbons. Of course, the soundstage is different with the
Newforms, because they are not dipoles. The ribbons are used for
their transient response. Crossover is at 1 kHz. Other hybrid
ribbon designs use a lower crossover, so the 8" driver in
the R-1-30s have to take care of almost half the 10 octave audio
spectrum.
The Newforms have to be assembled by the user. Each ribbon
assembly is attached to the woofer enclosure with several screws,
and then the ribbon must be connected to the crossover in the
enclosure with a banana plug audio cable that plugs in at the
back of the ribbon and the top of the enclosure. Two pairs of
speaker binding posts are on the back of the enclosure for
bi-wiring or bi-amping.
Sensitivity is rated at 88 dB/w/m, and we tested the Newforms
with several of our high powered amplifiers, including the Silver
9ts, Sunfire, and LLano SA-3s. CD source and preamping was with
the McCormacks. Cables were Nordost Flatline and AudioQuest.
The first thing I noticed is that I had to sit rather far back (8
feet) in order not to hear the tweeters separate from the woofer.
Other designs have the woofer side-by-side with the ribbons, so I
took the tweeter off and set it on the rug, next to the woofer
enclosure. No good. The highs were muted. Then, I turned the
ribbon on its side and put it on top of the enclosure. That
messed up the dispersion. So, the ribbon has to go right where
the designer placed it. On top and vertical. There was good
side-to-side dispersion this way, better than some other ribbons.
Of course, the others are dipoles, so this isn't a fair
comparison. In any case, this is not an up-close type of speaker.
It works best at about 8 feet away and farther. The ribbon itself
is a neat design. What I really like about it is that it has a
wire screen across the front to protect it [click here for
photo]. Curious fingers can't
damage the ribbon. The gold strip in the center of the foil is
the Kapton substrate, which Newform calls "Gold-Line
Performance".
The bass was very tight. We could play the system rather loud,
and the woofer did not break up. During the frequency response
tests, I noticed that they did not rattle at < 20 Hz sine
waves. These ultra-low frequencies are torture on woofers, and
the lack of buzzing or rattling is an indication of good
enclosure design. There was just a little bit of boominess, which
I could eliminate with an EQ adjustment, using our AudioControl
C-131 1/3 Octave equalizers (I know that is heresy to audio
purists, but EQ can be very helpful to tame resonances now and
then when nothing else works). Other than that, the mid-bass was
natural and clean.
The ribbons handle all > 1 kHz sound. We used some powerful
orchestral pieces as well as vocals. Even though these are not
dipoles, the sound stage is still larger than with cone speakers.
That's because of the line driver nature of the ribbon. I thought
them to be just a little bit forward in the sibilants, and again
used just a touch of EQ. Cool. Now everything was fine. Until, I
cranked the volume. Somewhere around 92 dB of full spectrum music
resulted in audible harmonics that made the sound harsh. I have
to point out that this is not unusual for ribbons, and I have
heard it in other designs (but not all of them). I hung around
for the frequency response tests and could hear the harmonics
that were introduced by the ribbons with 1 kHz - 5 kHz sine wave
fundamentals. I didn't hear them during the near-field tests, but
I did when the microphone was moved back to 13 feet, and the
volume had to be turned up to get about 80 dB at 1 kHz. The
harmonics are more prominent during sine wave inputs rather than
when music is played. Ribbons tend to mellow with age, and some
of this harshness could go away then. We didn't have a year to
wait for this to happen. Probably shouldn't be listening to music
above 90 dB anyway!
Since the Newforms have a large sound stage, but without the
placement problems of regular dipolar ribbons, they make a nice
front left/right for home theater situations (nice for rear
surround for that matter, especially with DD and DTS). A big
sound stage can make quite a difference with movie sound tracks.
Also, because the Newforms have good lateral dispersion, the
movie viewer gets that sound stage even when sitting off axis.
The only concern here is matching the Newforms to the center
channel, which would have to be done very carefully.
Frequency Response Test Results - 1 meter, left speaker, grille
cloth on, SPL set to approximately 80 dB at 1 kHz (Note: these
tests are in a live room, not in an anechoic chamber. The results
you get in your own room may be different.):
20 Hz - 63.5 dB
25 Hz - 62.2 dB
31.5 Hz - 68.4 dB
40 Hz - 66.7 dB
50 Hz - 75.4 dB
63 Hz - 76.9 dB
80 Hz - 67.8 dB
100 Hz - 77.6 dB
125 Hz - 72.9 dB
160 Hz - 77.4 dB
200 Hz - 71.6 dB
500 Hz - 67.1 dB
800 Hz - 80.7 dB
1 kHz - 79.0 dB
2.5 kHz - 75.6 dB
5 kHz - 75.2 dB
8 kHz - 75.2 dB
10 kHz - 78.1 dB
12.5 kHz - 77.4 dB
15 kHz - 74.2 dB
18 kHz - 72.9 dB
Frequency Response Test Results - 13 feet, left speaker, grille
cloth on, SPL set to approximately 80 dB at 1 kHz (Note: these
tests are in a live room, not in an anechoic chamber. The results
you get in your own room may be different.):
20 Hz - 78.3 dB
25 Hz - 81.4 dB
31.5 Hz - 84.6 dB
40 Hz - 66.7 dB
50 Hz - 60.4 dB
63 Hz - 83.7 dB
80 Hz - 88.9 dB
100 Hz -79.4 dB
125 Hz - 79.1 dB
160 Hz - 82.5 dB
200 Hz - 86.5 dB
500 Hz - 86.0 dB
800 Hz - 80.2 dB
1 kHz - 78.1 dB
2.5 kHz - 84.9 dB
5 kHz - 86.1 dB
8 kHz - 85.6 dB
10 kHz - 84.8 dB
12.5 kHz - 81.9 dB
15 kHz - 78.6 dB
18 kHz - 82.2 dB
Summary: The Newform Research R8-1-30 hybrids are an interesting
design. Quick transients, no dipolar placement problems, slightly
forward highs, nice sound stage. In the looks department, I think
I would rather see them with the ribbon having some sort of a
grille that matches the front dimensions of the bass enclosure.
Newform apparently offered full grille fronts in the past, but
they were expensive to ship. Sounds like a good DIY project!
J.D. Moretti
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Secrets of Home Theater & High Fidelity
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