Anyone have UHF mag issue 30?

[jandl100]

Ultra HiFi mag (UHF) - Issue 30. A Canadian hifi mag - I'd like to know about the Castle Winchester speaker review.

Anyone got a copy & can tell me about the review?

Anyone have any views on the Castle Winchester speakers?

Someone's offered me a swap deal for my ProAcs - I could go see them, but it's a 6 hour round trip so some advance info could save a long journey!

Thanks :)

[Ashley James]

Are they those monsters with two 8" (poss 10") and two tweeters, a sort of transmission line affair with one forward and one upward facing tweeter?

If so I've heard them a few times, they don't have much power handling, have loads of wuffly bass and a slightly recessed mid. Pleasant but you'd need to 1. hear them before deciding and 2. make sure they didn't boom in your room.

Ash

[jandl100]

The info I have is that they are 4 ft tall, 7 inches or so wide, and 18 inches deep. 90dB/W and bi-wirable. Top mounted midrange (as well as a front mounted one). Oh - and they "sound wonderful" (which is what a poster on Audio Asylum said as well).

As well as sound quality - I am also concerned about market value - not sure what a fair price for these is (I have a very vague recollection that they retailed for £1500 .... ?).

I think I might have auditioned these way back when and wasn't very impressed - your description 'pleasant' might be spot on.

Here's a pic the guy sent ...

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii114/jandl100/CASTLE_WINCHESTERS.jpg

[Ashley James]

Second had big speakers are impossible to sell. I recall a dealer of ours offending the owner of a pair of IMF Monitors by offering him £50 as a part ex and telling him that he ought to be charging the customer that much for taking them to the Tip. Furious, he left the shop and put them on Ebay where they fetched £450! Allegedly.

Castle made some quite good and extremely well priced small speakers, sort of old fashioned, good quality and very good value. Then they decided to make 1/4 wavelength speakers as the behest of Colin Walker, the turntable chap and I didn't rate them as much as the core product.

[jandl100]

There's still a market for big speakers - you just have to address a large enough set of the hifi enthusiast population to find a buyer, and eBay will do that for you quite often.

Not everyone's into teeny-weeny lifestyle things! ;)

[Ashley James]

You're right! It's probably only about 95% of the hi fi market.

And I see that they've now sold 141,000,000 pretty little lifestyle things too.

Somewhere on this Forum I explained the pro's and con's.

Ash

[Mike]

Oi!.... I like Castle's quarter wave speakers. There are two quarter wave pipes in each of mine. (he said, sticking up for his 'Inversion 100's')

So there! :ner:

[Ali Tait]

Not heard any large Castles,but have heard a great pair of huge transmission lines (IMF inspired design I think) belonging to the moderator of another forum.Never heard such deep (free of box-boom) free flowing bass.He did have a rather large room to play them in though,lucky bugger.Never really knew the meaning of"Trouser-flapping bass" till I heard them.I loved them!
I've seen many pairs of IMF and similar go for 400 plus on fleabay.Now if I could just have that bass response allied with the gorgeous mid and top of my ESL III's......

Regards,Ali

[jcbrum]

Oi!.... I like Castle's quarter wave speakers. There are two quarter wave pipes in each of mine. (he said, sticking up for his 'Inversion 100's')

So there! :ner:

Ouch...... uurrrrrgghh...... pant........ strain........ ahhhhhhhhh..... it's gonna hurt...... getting this out........... and saying ............

spendors are better

Phew ..... that hurt :steam:

[Ashley James]

You can't beat 40 kilo sealed box sub with an Xmax of 48mm and whopping big Amp for proper bass.

I've just demm'd ACDC with a tiny lifestyle system at a continuous 108 dB with peaks of 118dB or pretty much the SPL's you'd have heard at Knebworth when they made in into the Guinness Book of Records as the loudest Band in History, but with a completely clean and clear sound. A 1/4 wave system wouldn't be comfortable in a 425 wpc system.

And I have 600 Classical CDs.

[Mike]

A 1/4 wave system wouldn't be comfortable in a 425 wpc system.

Eeek!..... I don't think I would be either! :help:

[Mike]

spendors are better

I'm sure some of them are. :)

[Ashley James]

When I was at ATC, we built an extra 500 12" drive units for ACDC to use at the Monsters of Rock Concert at Knebworth. They had 500,000 Watts of amplification and went into the Guiness Book of records as the loudest Band in History.

A year later another PA Company we dealt with used twice as much power for the Pope's visit to Madrid.

I believe Health and Safety regulations preclude the SPLs of those years now but it's might interest you to hear how the Drums were recorded for the Song "For those About to Rock". They used a Warehouse in Wapping, it was a room about 50ft sq. with a ceiling height of a little over 6', the drums were positioned centrally and in each corner they set up PA systems with about 10,000 Watt of amplification and miked them up to the drums. The engineer told me that the sound of a stick rolling across the snare was absolutely deafening. The drummer found it impossible to hear the rest of the band through his headphones so they attached a pair of Auratones to his head with Gaffer tape and blasted him with a suitably powerful Amplifier.

They also had the Largest Church Bell they could get cast made for Hells Bells and 21 American Civil War Cannons made for another track.

They were extraordinarily good musicians for the genre and they took it to extremes that few could equal and I admire them for it. If you're going to do something then that's the way to do it!