Speaker Asylum: REVIEW: AV Re 3D by audiojerry

Model:	3D
Category:
Suggested Retail Price:	$1500
Description:	Full Range Speaker in Tetrahedron Cabinet
Manufacturer URL:	AV Re
Model Picture:	View

Review by audiojerry on October 17, 2001 at 08:04:58
IP Address: 65.42.181.1

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for the 3D

For those of you who don't want to read any more, here is my humble opinion: The Reality 3D's overall, equal or exceed the best of any speaker of which I have spent any reasonable amount of time with, and at $1500 they are an extraordinary bargain.
This evaluation must be placed in the context of my personal perspective. This would take into account my equipment and listening room, speakers I am comparing to, musical tastes, and the 3D set up process.
My equipment and accessories: An important point about this - I have spent several years, lots of $$$, and much trial and error to arrive at my current system. While there is always room for improvement, I now feel that I have arrived at a point of relative satisfaction with the way it sounds. In short, the 'sound' that I favor would have these adjectives in this order: musical, transparent, fast, uncompressed, and airy. Unfortunately, 'musical' takes on different meanings for different listeners, but it's the 'x' factor. A system could have all the other qualities I mentioned and still not possess musicality. For me let's just say that a system is musical if it can re-create as much as possible the natural timbre and decay of an instrument or voice when heard in real life without amplification.
Leaving speakers out of the mix, I believe my system gives me these qualities, and I have not changed it for over 6 months, other than changing a couple of accessories. For me, that is a long time and represents stability. This is my current system:
GamuT D200 solid state 200wpc dual mono stereo amplifier from Denmark. I consider myself a tube lover, but this amp gives up little to the tube qualities I value. The main reason I converted from tubes to this amp was its silky smooth and transparent sound. It handles micro dynamics with the delicacy of 300B SET, but with the power and dynamics of 200wpc SS.
AudioValve Eklipse tube dual mono preamp from Germany. A balanced preamp which I love for its body, bass authority, and again, clean transparent sound.
Naim CDS CD player from UK. This is by far my most expensive piece of gear. All I can say is it changed my whole perception of what digital playback was capable of sounding like. Once I heard the Naim, I realized that there is not as much wrong with the Red Book format as everyone complains about. The problem has been in the design of the equipment used to extract the music from it.
Rega Planar 25 turntable with Dynavector cartridge and Lehman Black Cube. I really enjoy listening to vinyl, but ever since I got the Naim, I only use it for about 10% of my listening.
2 HSU Research VTF-2 subwoofers. Inexpensive, but versatile and very qualified to work in a high performance 2 channel audio system.
ZuCable Julian Bi-wire speaker wire. An incredible bargain at $275. It's better than Audioquest Dragon that I used to own at $3500.
Stealth PGS interconnect. This stuff really works in my system. It is extremely high-resolution, but not bright or biting.
Whale Elite and PS Audio power cords. They really do make a difference.
PS Audio Ultimate Outlet. Same thing
Aurios Media Isolation Bearings under my amp, preamp and cd player. I had used things like Black Diamond Racing, DH ceramic cones, and other isolation tweaks. All had an effect, but none had as dramatic and immediately noticeable improvement as the Aurios.
Tritium Triphazers. These are mysterious black boxes that are installed to the speaker terminals. People don't like to hear about snake oil types of products like this, but all I can say is I would probably replace every other item I have mentioned before I would give up my Triphazers. They are magic, and if you are not willing to invest a few hundred hours breaking your system in with them, even though there is a 90 day money back guarantee, don't bother me.
That leaves the speakers. Here is where I've gotten the most flack. I've either been told directly or with subtlety masked comments that I'm crazy to be going through so many pairs of speakers. I really don't have much of a defense, other than that speakers are my adult toys. I get a real kick out of bringing in a new pair of speakers and playing with them for a while to see how they perform in comparison to others that I've had. In all fairness, when I compare one set of speakers to another, it is within the context of my system and listening room, and you cannot declare that one speaker is better than another overall. I can only declare how it works in my system. Matching the right speaker to the right components is a very exacting process.
I've read where experts say that the speakers should come first, and that you should acquire components that work best with the speakers. It's also been said that the opposite is true. In any event, I've tried many well-known and some not so well known speakers, and I have really liked several of them. I honestly can't remember all of them, but here are the most prominent: ProAc Response 1SC, ProAc Response 2.5, ProAc Response 3.8, ProAc Response 2.0, ProAc Response 1.5, and ProAc Response Tablette Signature. I have a pair of the Tablette 2000 Signatures arriving this week. Dunlavy SC-IVa, Red Rose R3, Magnepan 3.6, Dynaudio 1.8, Dynaudio 1.3, Coincident Super Eclipse, B&W Nautilus 803, and Merlin VSM-SE. (yes, I guess I am crazy)
As I said before, my observations of the 3D's are based on my experience with speakers I have actually owned or have had in my home for an extended period of time of at least a week, but usually more than a month. I'm not trying to boast, but without the speakers, my equipment retails at around $23,000. Because of this I believe I set fairly high expectations for performance. So my expectations for the 3D's were based on whether they merit being part of fairly high-end system.
Man, I can't believe I haven't even started talking about the 3D specifically yet, and I'm beginning to run out of gas.
OK, first off I think it must be said, and Peter of AV-Reality will agree, the 3D's sound absolutely terrible when first hooked up. They definitely sounded worse than any other new speaker I've had to burn-in. Though they probably sound much better after 100 hours, I took Peter's advice and gave them 230 hours of non-stop burn-in before I listened again. With that said, when I finished my evaluation on Sunday evening, they had an additional 50 hours, and I think the sound was still improving. If you try to judge these speakers before 250 hours, your opinions won't be accurate.
Second, these speakers were very difficult to set up to get the optimal sound. They reminded me of the Merlin VSM-SE in this regard.
Speaker placement in the room and exact symmetrical placement in terms of toe-in/toe-out and distance from listener was critical. I could easily hear differences with just a couple of inches of movement or a couple of degrees change in toe-in. When I was off in my placement, the sound suffered, especially imaging and high frequency energy. I'm not sure how else to describe it, but if the angle of one speaker was different than the angle of the other, things would sound a bit bright and edgy to me. After a great deal of experimentation, I have concluded that the 3D's work best in a near field set-up. The ideal listening position for me was 7 feet between speaker and ear, and 8' between speakers. This is the closest I have ever sat to a pair of speakers. The toe-in resulted in the speakers pointing inward where a straight line drawn from each speaker would intersect about 2 feet in front of the ear. That's a lot of toe-in.
Speakers are positioned about 7' from rear wall, 4' from right wall and 10' from left wall. My room, by the way, is an irregular 27x22 basement area heavily damped with 3 1/2" of fiberglass wall insulation, behind 3/4" of rough sawn cedar boards; the ceiling is suspended to a height of 7 1/2' with 10" of fiberglass ceiling insulation behind acoustical ceiling tiles; the floor is wall to wall thick pile carpeting over 3/8" carpet padding; large padded sofa and armchair, other chairs, and lots of wall treatments. This results in a very acoustically dead space - not a good thing, but at least I can play my music loudly and not disturb anyone upstairs.
The result was an image that was the most precise of any I've ever heard. Prior to this, the Merlin's were the champs. With this nearfield set up, the speakers are well off to the sides, and this resulted in the speakers visually and aurally disappearing with a huge soundstage that spread across the entire space in front of me with depth as deep as the recording called for.
The precise imaging has to be attributed to many aspects of Peter's design, but his tweeter diffraction work and the tetrahedron must have a lot to do with it. The sound was so uncolored and clean. Every detail was extracted from deep within the recording: musicians taking breaths, microphones switching on and off, fingers sliding up an down strings. Transient speed also contributed to this quality.
Plucked instruments and percussion were reproduced with excellent quickness.
Others have remarked that the bass may be the weakest attribute of the 3D. Of course this is subjective, but based on how incredibly well the 3D performs from the lower midrange on up, the bass is not as spectacular, but I would not describe the bass as being weak. With my system, the bass easily went below 35hz. It was better than adequate for any speaker selling for $1500.
When you consider the size of the speaker cabinet and how little internal volume there is, I'm amazed at how much bass it has.
However, I do think that the bass could be tighter and quicker. I support the theory, which Peter doesn't seem to agree with, is that the cabinet is not inert or structurally rigid enough. This is a small criticism though, when taken in context of the things it can do extraordinarily well.

For me, the bass issue is not an issue at all, because I always run my speakers with my pair of powered stereo subs and a low-value capacitor placed between the amp and preamp. This cuts off any frequencies below 55hz to the main amp and main speakers, and lets the subs handle the lowest bass frequencies. In my opinion, any full range speaker and amplifier will benefit by not being asked to reproduce the lowest frequencies. This combination, to me, elevated the sound of the 3D to a level that qualified them as speakers worthy of being with the best components you can afford. I think Peter also points out that if you combine the 3D with the Reality Sub, the same thing would happen - maybe better. If he ever gets his new amplifiers ready to sell, they might make a killer combination. :lol:
The 3D is a highly resolving speaker. It will extract the tiniest detail in a recording. If it is used with an inexpensive, less resolving receiver, I don't think it would be a liability to the system. It would certainly raise the level of the entire system. It's just that the speakers would not realize their full potential.
I will try to finish this up then. In terms of where I would rate the 3D's with other speakers I've owned, which have price tags up to $9k, overall it is as good or better than any of them. Is it my favorite speaker? Not at this point. I may not be used to the resolving power of these speakers, yet. I may be more used to a polite speaker, like the N803, which probably rolls off the high frequencies more. For me the 3D's may have a little too much high frequency energy for me, but that's just personal taste. They are not bright, edgy, or too forward. I would have to describe the sound as very clean and accurate, but not forgiving. They are certainly not mellow. The other thing again, is system matching. I am speculating that these speakers might be magic with the right tube amp. I am still growing into these speakers, and the speakers themselves I think are still going through a change. My 20 year old son thinks they are phenomenal. My wife, who loved the N803's hasn't heard these yet. But she is very sensitive to high frequency energy, so it will be interesting to get her opinion.
Peter, what do you think about the HF energy? Would you recommend a possible notch filter or change of resistor value on the tweeter? I would bet that active crossovers with your new switching amps would be even better.
Peter, you are brilliant! I hope you will be able to build more Reality 3D's and S for others! I think I will keep mine - at least for awhile :wink:

Product Weakness: Should be run with powered sub, slightly limited in how loudly it can be played, but not when compared to other speakers this size.
Product Strengths: Clean, uncolored, highly resolving, artistic cabinet design

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	GamuT D200 fully balanced Solid State
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Audio Valve Eklipse fully balanced tube
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Naim CDS, Rega Planar 25
Speakers:	Reality 3D
Cables/Interconnects:	ZuCable, Stealth
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	All kinds of acoustical
Room Size (LxWxH):	27 x 22 x 7.5
Room Comments/Treatments:	very dead acoustically
Time Period/Length of Audition:	3 days
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	PS Audio Ultimate Outlet
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

Product Weakness:	Should be run with powered sub, slightly limited in how loudly it can be played, but not when compared to other speakers this size.
Product Strengths:	Clean, uncolored, highly resolving, artistic cabinet design