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Reference Fidelity Components Raptor speakers Review

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Above are the measured anechoic response (red) and the octave-smoothed in-room response (blue) at 1m on axis. The in room response shows a slight dip from LF to HF meaning in-room the Raptors will be close to ideal and non-fatiguing. Loss of some HF energy is expected due to typical absorption of HF energy by soft furnishings and carpeting etc.

The Raptors don’t quite plumb the full-range depths, extending only as low as 32 Hz (-6dB) although backing them up against the front wall can provide reinforcement if you really want it. Still, as CD test disk proved in my listening room, a usable 32 Hz is quite a deal for a standmount, and after a few days of concerted listening I didn’t find that I was missing the full-fat performance of my own Audio Note E quite as much as I had anticipated.

Reference Fidelity Components commissioned a set of independent measurement tests in order to demonstrate to potential buyers that the engineering quality claimed is not simply smoke and mirrors. Audio Components (UK) is an independent test lab used by a good number of UK speaker manufacturers including ProAc and has an unimpeachable tell-it-like-it-is approach to business.

Above is the step response of the Raptor stand mount speaker showing very good integration between the mid-woofer and tweeter… the negative going initial response shows the tweeter connected out of phase, necessary for this design.

Above is the on-axis and 10 to 80 degrees off-axis response at 1m (zero degrees is normalised at 1 kHz to provide a reference curve). The plots demonstrate very good off axis performance.

As the directivity plot shows, the Raptor has a very good off-axis performance. That doesn’t make the speaker unique, but it is further measured and aural evidence of the proper engineering behind it. In my listening room, the highly scientific shift-sideways-on-the-sofa test caused no detectable change in tonal balance or sound stage, which is as it should be with speakers that don’t suffer from beaming or other aberrations.

Readers of my previous reviews will know sound staging is way down the list of priorities for any audio system that I want to own, but I do recognise that for many people it’s right up there at the top. So, for whom that it matters, I can confirm that the pair of Raptors throw a very well defined image when it’s there to be extracted from a recording. The Vincent monoblocks let them do it well, but a pair of Audio Music 805 monoblocks here on test did it even better. If I continue to keep mentioning Joe Jackson recordings in my reviews someone soon is going to call me out for having a bit of a fixation on him. Nonetheless, I happened on a copy of Jumpin’ Jive (A&M393 271-4) recently, and like the later Body & Soul, it is wonderfully well constructed. Pick any track and hear Jackson and his mates signing with lusty enjoyment. What the Raptors did particularly well when driven by the 805s was in revealing the separate voices as more individual and distinct, each with its own defining nuances.

Above is the sonogram of the previous measurements (these are mirrored by the presentation system which is not a true picture for the Raptor which has asymmetrical driver positioning). From the above, good off axis performance can be seen. The crossover point exhibits very good off axis performance with no step in off axis behaviour.

RFC-Raptor-9

Of course, all this forensic ability is useless to us unless it is delivered along with emotional content too. I had some pals around for a few beers. The Reference Fidelity Components Raptors were doing their stuff, and sometime during the evening I played the Jackson disc. Listening to the riot going on in the studio, one pal turned to me and said: “Wow. I want some of what they’re drinking.” The Raptors had won another fan.

I think the biggest complement I can pay the Raptors is to compare them to another European standmount that is of similar size to the Raptors but whose RRP is around three times as much. It’ll remain unnamed but the pricey rival uses the same Revelator midwoofer as the Raptor and also has a sloped front baffle to effect time alignment. What I didn’t tell Coupe when we were discussing the alternatives to the Raptors was that I’d heard three pairs of these more costly European rivals in recent years – one pair in my own home for a month – and that I have abiding memories of how they sound.

In comparison to them, the Raptor is more room-friendly thanks to its front (as opposed to rear) port, has a superior bass extension and overall tonality, doesn’t have a top-end tipped up for instant showroom appeal and is otherwise more accurate right across the audio band.

I think what all the foregoing shows is that while we might quite reasonably take some convincing to buy from a small brand rather than a big audio name – indeed it can require a real leap of faith – sometimes doing so can really pay dividends. RFC doesn’t have a marketing budget like the big names, but Coupe’s pedigree as an engineer, and the thoroughness with which he approaches the business of designing, manufacturing and supporting his products means he need defer to no-one.

In the case of the Raptors, Reference Fidelity Components has in my view created speakers that, as their name suggests, bite damn great lumps out of the competition by delivering benchmark accuracy along with musicality – and at less than half the price.

2 Responses to Reference Fidelity Components Raptor speakers Review


  1. Anonymous says:

    After reading this review, I can only mention that many “audiophiles” should be focusing on the room as much, if not more than the equipment being purchased. I know, that most of us just want a good/great stereo and that’s where we typically spend our money, but if we spend the time to have our rooms properly treated for broadband absorption, low frequency absorption (probably the most costly and the biggest problem associated with small room acoustics) and diffusion, the speakers will be a lot easier to drive and to sound their best. I’ve been in rooms that had proper room treatment and they made what was considered to be mid-fi speakers sound like a high end system and it will have a profound effect on higher end systems. What I have seen/heard is that the room can make/break a system. So, for those people that sell their speakers saying they can’t get them to work in their room, then it’s probably the room that needs to be treated so you can get the room to work with the speakers.

  2. Right on, except you can also tune your room to sync with your speakers for a unified, accurate, very musical sound simply with digital EQ, pulse control, digital phase control and digital time alignment of all drivers involved. The only thing digital sound control cannot fix is excessive reverberation such as slap echo and room with wall construction that is way too stiff and has no flex to them (such as a concrete wall. Only room mechanical room conditioning with absorbent and sound wave scattering devices can remedy the issues those type of room situations cause.

    Digital room sound control as mentioned above cost less, is clearly adjustable to the speaker AND the room to put them both together as an idea musical instrument reproduction system that is accurate and real sounding. Further, should you move from your apartment or sell your home, you don’t have a lot of room sound conditioning to tear out. With digital, its portable and can be used again to configure the next sound room in which you set up your speakers. In other words, “think out of the box”… think digital control, tuning and conditioning of your speakers AND the room together. It cost far less, takes way less work and as an audiophile, it is fascinating and fun to set up on a lap top computer, then disconnect your computer and its set to work perfect every time you spin up your favorite music.

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