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Richter Audio Owners & Discussion Thread


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2 hours ago, Spinnergeoff said:

 

There were a pair of Sabre speakers advertised some years back, and you can find that ad with photos by searching on Richter Sabre in classifieds audio. I think  these were produced by the next phase after Ralph sold the company to Audio Products, but I don't recall them precisely. They appear to be a development along the lines of the Excalibur, and should deliver plenty of oomph!

IIRC, John Fahey formerly of Yamaha was involved and told us that bass impact was an important factor! 

Len Wallis used to stock them and he might have something on file. 

Thanks for your prompt reply.

 

Might try him as I still have a pair of great Jamo D450's operating in one of my setups that were purchased from Len about 15 years ago and may have seen a pair of the Sabres at that time, though don't recall listening to them.  At the time speakers such as the Sabres looked so plain and boxy compared to the nice lines and shape of the 450's that I shunned the like, plus and despite multiple cost, the highs on the Jamos were too sweet to resist.

 

Haven't hooked the Sabres up yet, as I am not staying at home at the moment and only got them and Medusas as part of a purchase with the Thor mk2 sub that I was after, so yet to sample their notes.  As you mentioned, the layout and porting suggests separate enclosures for bass emphasis, which is okay by me.  It will be my first taste of conventional Richter speakers, having had a set of the very different Precious Metals that I moved on at the start of the year, but keeping the Krakatoa sub that came with them.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I did find up my brochures on Excalibur,Unicorn, Evokator which i had the few pages of the user manual but have put it away somewhere I hope and forgot where ! They were before the brochures pictured at the top of this post as it was just the dragon in  the whole product range brochure i have, which has a picture of an fx? holden on a beach-rocks above a child picture on the back of it.

 

When i saw the post from someone whom had acquired a pair of Excalibur's which needed reconditioning and was asking if it was worth doing. Definately!

 

Years ago, when having a bonfire 50 meters fro home,  my nephew screwed the volume up way too high with the Marantz sr82 receiver with the input gain turned up high which blew the Aaron speaker on the rear which is driven by an ME550 amplifier, the Excalibur's on the front were fine. Was using a input switch so that i could run either twin stereo---front and back pairs or surround sound.  the Aaron speakers came nowhere near the quality of sound coming from the Excalibur's! The oval mesh covers look terrific too!

 

Looking at the brochure the Merlin, Harlequin, Wizard, Dragon and Excalibur speakers all had the oval mesh cover at the time. Only the Evokator sub woofer,Unicorn center and Hydra rear were square- rectangular covers. 

 

My Excalibur's are still in original condition and  the best sounding speaker i have heard, dragons way back then were nowhere near as good sounding to me. i run them with an ME550 mk11 amp with extra capacitance capacity? I have not heard the dragon-v.

                           Since acquiring them in the late 90's i have not been able to listen to music in a vehicle due to the terrible sound by comparison! 

 

originally the Me's were fed by a Marantz sr82 receiver and now by an onkyo txnr 801 after the Marantz was zapped, lightning? and lost its video capabilities.

 

I  had to have the Evokators  paper-foam replaced a couple of years ago where it rotted away?

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Now that I know there are Richter fans here and those who have worked with these speakers, I now have TWO sets of early Richter speakers that require new drivers or driver repairs. 

Firstly, is a pair of early Merlins that has a damaged 116mm bass driver - not seized - in one cabinet. The whole cone will need replacing, both driver sets measure 6.2 ohms. 

Cabinets are 320mm x 190mm x 210mm and beautifully dead to the rap on the sides. Very impressive! 

 Secondly, I have picked up a pair of early Oracles that will need both bass/mid drivers replacing, or at least the cones and coils. One is seized solid and the other has a badly damaged cone. It never fails to amaze me the lack of respect some people have for hifi gear. One driver I could put down to a nasty accident, the other, seized solid? Hmm. 

 Anyway, there are quite a lot of folks with these speakers out there and I'd really love to get both of these speaker pairs running to perfection again. 

 Does anyone have spare drivers for these units, OR any advice from those Richter folks in the know? 

I did send Richter photos of the Merlins (the ID has worn off the serial number patches on both sets) and they said they could do nothing for me because they didn't recognise them. Funny, many other folks on-line knew exactly what they were, as they own or have owned them personally. I will have to have another go with Richter. 

 The Oracles also turn out to be earlier models: sized 484mm x 212 x 298mm with 140mm bass/mid cones to the outside of the foam.  The cabinets are I think Jarrah, really rather nice, solid too. 

 It would be really great if someone can help me out here. I live in Palmwoods on the Sunshine Coast and will likely need to ship drivers to Sydney if there is no good repair shop closer to home. 

 Pictures show the little Merlins first. Thanks everyone. 

 

PC310904.jpg

PC310906.jpg

P7210003.jpg

P7210004.jpg

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P7210008.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi Ralph.

I remember visiting your factory and meeting you. I am listening to my Richter Mentors right now. They needed new foam surrounds on the drvers. I got the foam from Speaker Works and carefully installed them. Thanks for these winners.

Regards Nick Little.

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  • 4 months later...

Hey all, a quick question. 

 

Came into possession of a pair of Panther II speakers, and one of them sounds great! However, with one of them, the tweeter and woofer doesn't output any sound at all. 

 

I'm fairly new to the speaker world (bought these on recommendation from a co-worker at the second hand shop I work at), and I'm a bit lost. Would anyone have any advice on where to start troubleshooting? I've tried both speakers on various AVRs, just to make sure that it's not the amp or the channel causing me grief. 

 

Thanks in advance! 

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Guest Muon N'

You can first check inside the faulty speaker and make sure all connections are as they should be, and there are no broken or dry solder joins anywhere on the crossover.

Could be bad drivers, you can check this by swapping those ones that are not apparently working with the ones in the working speaker and see if they still don't work.

You can also test the impedance or resistance on the terminals of the non working speaker drivers out of circuit, and compare those readings to the working ones.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi there. 
new member here. I’ve just come into possession of some mk1 Wizards and have been scouring this forum and the rest of the internet for info. I was wondering if anyone could tell me the nom impedance of them? I see the mk2 is 4ohms and assume the mk1s are the same. 
 

also, related question; my amp (Yamaha rx396) states when running 1 set of speakers they have to be 8ohm min. And if you want to run both sets they must be 16min. 
I have been running the wizards through this amp and they sound great. But I haven’t really pushed them. Am I likely to damage them if they are indeed 4 ohm?

 

thanks in advance. 
james. 

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  • 7 months later...

Hi, I listened to the Wizards way back in 92 and really liked them, especially  for the price. I ended up getting something else …

I know the current ones would be a lot better. But for occasional use in  a second system, I have the opportunity to get some second hand, no model badge but on on the wire plates on the back DR 1093

Does anyone know which model they would be?

Thank you’

Richard  

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2 hours ago, rick575757 said:

Hi, I listened to the Wizards way back in 92 and really liked them, especially  for the price. I ended up getting something else …

I know the current ones would be a lot better. But for occasional use in  a second system, I have the opportunity to get some second hand, no model badge but on on the wire plates on the back DR 1093

Does anyone know which model they would be?

Thank you’

Richard  

Hi Richard, they'd be Dragons.. Check the the brochure at the top of the first page, to see if yours are similar, or post a couple of pics, and someone should be able to tell you which iteration they are.

Edited by bob_m_54
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  • 2 months later...

Hi all, can anyone advise what the UM series are? I have a set labelled UM 1194 so presume they are from 1994 but would like a bit more info if anyone knows please?

 

They run 2 small drivers and a tweeter in between, size wise midway between bookshelf and floorstanders, and sound lovely (currently used at our holiday home so not used enough unfortunately). 
 

can post some pics if needed?

 

Edit: Updated with Pictures. Just keen to know what these are if anyone knows?

Richter 1.jpg

Richter 2.jpg

Edited by MrVUMeter
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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

I recently acquired a pair of ‘93 Dragons and I have to say they are absolutely brilliant with my setup. One thing I’ve done is plugged the top port (with a sock!) to hear any differences and wow, it’s sharpened up the upper mids without losing any bottom end. 
They certainly like to be driven - right now Lee Morgan is blowing the roof off!
Do anyone know where I can get proper foam bungs, I’m thinking they’ll be better acoustically. I’ve searched but can’t find any locally ??
Thanks in advance...

Edited by markielinhart
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Does anyone have specs on Richter Predator Chancellors. 

These were made by a subsequent incarnation of the Richter company after Ralph Waters sold it and moved on to SuBsonic. If nobody has a spec sheet (and I don't, unfortunately) it might be possible to find the basic specs on the Wayback Time Machine on the Len Wallis Audio website in the early 2000 period. No real correlation between these and things like Dragons and Excaliburs from the series I illustrated above.

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The largest selling models were the Wizards and Harlequins, the Mkll models of both improved in the first ones and were also sold in large numbers, and both were recommended with an Australian magazine award of the time.

 

Both models can be improved replacing the iron core inductors on the Audax mid woofers with large air core types, at least that is my personal experience with these.

 

Some other models were standouts but never gained the sales numbers, Ralph Waters owner and designer at the time had two favorites, a small stand mount model called Fairy Tales (spelling?), and a limited version of the Excalibur that had lead lined cabinets.... if I recall my correspondence with him correctly.

There are some specs on some of the 90's models here...

 

https://www.richter.com.au/wp-file-browser-top/manuals/Specifications/Legend-I-II-Spec-sheets.pdf

 

There is a mistake in the Harlequin Mkll there, it states they were 5 ohms nominal but they were 6 ohms if I recall correctly.

 

The Mkll Harlequins retailed for $999 while the Mkll Wizards were $1199.

Edited by muon*
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  • 1 month later...

I am hoping someone can enlighten me. I have an old pair of Richter Harlequins from 1994. I have a couple of questions. Although the tweeters  function perfectly, the cloth domes on the tweeters are badly discoloured (refer pic).  Has anyone experienced this before? It looks like a previous owner may have coated them with something and the coating has deteriorated - or perhaps this is a problem with that particular tweeter. I am also keen to know what drivers were used in the Harlequins. I attach a pic of the rear of the mid/bass driver and the high frequency driver. There is no information stamped on them in regards to the make, model, ohmage or power rating. Any information on them would be greatly appreciated.

Richter drivers (4).jpg

Richter drivers (2).jpg

Richter drivers (1).jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

@Peter J Warren @Spinnergeoff

 

Hopefully the link below works,  

 

https://www.richter.com.au/wp-file-browser-top/manuals/Specifications/Sovereigns-Spec-sheet.pdf

 

Looks like the Chancellors are No.2 in the pecking order.

 

Now does anyone have the specs or any literature for the Paladins?

Edited by 5L15
more info
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