Proac Future Point Fives - Stop Press!

[jandl100]

Here's a pic of one of my new speakers - just out of the box - not even listened to it yet! How's that for dedication to this forum. :)

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii114/jandl100/ProacFuture1.jpg

[Marco]

Nice one, Jerry :smoking:

Looks interesting! Fill us in on how it sounds when you've actually connected them up ;)

Marco.

[jandl100]

A very interesting and quite unusual design .... trapezoidal cross-section cabinet (cabinet bottom width is 10.5 inches at the front and 18 inches at the rear). Ribbon tweeter plus cone midrange - both open baffle (open at the rear), with a ported box woofer with port opening on the bottom panel of the cabinet. Front baffle slopes backwards.

Some 42 inches tall, 18 inches wide at the bottom and quite shallow; depth is about 9 inches at the bass tapering to just an inch or so at the top. Metal stabilising extensions (bolted on) stick out a further 5 inches at the rear of the base. 4 cones per speaker then give it the required clearance for the bottom bass port.

Spec on the plate at the back of the speaker claims 28Hz to 30KHz - with no +/- dB specified. 87dB/W sensitivity. 8 ohms.

RRP is £3.5k.

___________

So how do they sound? Well, I don't really know - I have a really bad head cold at the moment and my ears are clogged up! Currently they have a top end extension to about 3KHz, I reckon! Sigh. :doh:

But the bass end sounds genuinely great for what is quite a small speaker - I wouldn't be at all surprised if the claimed 28Hz was realistic.

I suspect they are going to sound bloody great, from what my muffled hearing can make out at the moment. I guess I'll have to wait a day or so for my cold to clear up before I can say any more about them, though. :scratch:

[Filterlab]

...I have a really bad head cold at the moment and my ears are clogged up!...

Oh man, that's like bedding a supermodel and then having your wing-wang fail. :(

At least you could use this period for running the speakers in without forming an opinion.

[Mike Reed]

I'd be interested in your findings. I didn't know ProAc used ribbons (quite old-fashioned nowadays, I feel).

I'm onto my third Response ProAc pair, and can certainly aver that they're fine with classical music (but that's with soft-dome tweeters, of course).

Used to have Goodmans ribbon tweeters in my DIY speakers in the 60s, and they were ok., but amplificatrion etc. was a wee bit primitive in those days.

[Mike Reed]

The chap I bought my 4s from in 2000 replaced them with .5s (I think) for audio visual use. I also heard the 1 and .5 at Heathrow around then, but despite the fetching design, didn't think they represented performance progress over the Responses which were demmed concurrently at the show.

Likewise, the relatively new 3.8 was not a patch on the 3.5 (but it WAS cheaper,I suppose).

The little 2.5s were just lovely little speakers; too small for me but I was impressed at a number of auditions. Easy load, too, like most (all?) ProAcs

[jandl100]

Hi Mike

My Futures have only been with me for a day, and I'm kind of clogged up with a head cold that is only just beginning to clear this evening, so I certainly won't be rushing to judgement for a while. Current impressions are of a more 'sophisticated' and natural sound than other Proacs, with a nicely 3D soundstage when they are pointing directly at you. I have previously owned Response 2 & 3 speakers, and have heard more recent offerings in the Response series at Shows.

Ribbons old fashioned? Well, I've not heard that one before! I guess dome tweeters are old fashioned too! And cone woofers have been around for a while. ;)

My new Futures are certainly very valve friendly - I have a pair of 40wpc OTL valve monoblocks that chicken out pronto into difficult loads, and the speakers are sounding sublime with them at the moment. I also have a pair of 80wpc NVA A80 solid state monoblocks - they sound good, but initial impressions are that they are more outclassed than usual by the valve amps.

They seem quite fussy about speaker cable - with multi-stranded NVA LS3 they are a bit vague & woolly in the imaging department, but with solid core LFD Spiroflex 1 they sound very nicely focussed indeed.

From what I have read, the Future series are the speakers that Stuart Tyler (ProAc founder & boss) has always wanted to make - they are his dream come true, apparently. For some reason they have received very little publicity (apart from a so-so Stereophile review for the Future One back in 2000) and are not at all widely known. I'm definitely a little baffled by that after an initial listen.

I'll post here about my thoughts as I settle in with these speakers (and as my ears unclog as my cold recedes!).

[Mike Reed]

Hi Mike



Ribbons old fashioned? Well, I've not heard that one before! I guess dome tweeters are old fashioned too! And cone woofers have been around for a while.

My new Futures are certainly very valve friendly - I also have a pair of 80wpc NVA A80 solid state monoblocks - they sound good, but initial impressions are that they are more outclassed than usual by the valve amps.

They seem quite fussy about speaker cable

From what I have read, the Future series are the speakers that Stuart Tyler (ProAc founder & boss) has always wanted to make

Hello, Jerry,

Point taken re. ribbons, though I meant that you don't see that many nowadays!

Valve-friendly: doesn't surprise, as (certainly up to/including the Response series) Stuart Tyler used ARC amplification for everything.

Interesting about the NVAs, but don't tell Richard! (tongue in cheek).

Also about the cable fussiness; I've only ever used NAC A5, with excellent matching, but that's par for the course with Naim amplification.

It was said, and written, that the Response 4 was his acme of speaker design; goalposts and all that......

Look forward to further revelations, as cold viruses don't give up so easily.

Great weather for listening