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REVIEW: Selah Audio Excelarray Speakers

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Model: Excelarray
Category: Speakers
Suggested Retail Price: $5,100.00
Description: Line Array with 6-7
Manufacturer URL: Selah Audio
Model Picture: View

Review by Brad V ( A ) on October 30, 2002 at 06:36:15
IP Address: 167.64.48.106
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Excelarray Review

Some history of the Excelarray:

Rick Craig of Selah Audio wanted to build a low cost line array. He teamed up with Jim Griffin and the Linus Array was built. The total cost of parts, not including cabinets was less than $700.00. For anyone wanted to build a pair, they can order the parts from www.selahaudio.com and Rick matches up the speakers that he sends you. After the Linus Array had been built, Rick had been chomping at the bit to build a line array, with what he considered to be the optimum drivers. I knew that Rick had said that the Newform Ribbon was the best ribbon he heard from 1000hz and up, which is what I was using in my upgraded R645s. I loved the sound I was getting out of my upgraded R645s, however once you have something for a while, you start looking to improve. Since I’m heavily into Classical and Jazz, I’m in love with hearing extreme detail. I went and heard the Avalon Diamond Eidelons, Linn Komri’s, as well as other very expensive speaker systems. I liked some of what I heard, however not everything. I loved the detail I was hearing from the Eidelon’s, however I was missing the warmth. Also the diamond tweeter didn’t sound nearly as good as the 45” Newform Ribbon. It didn’t have that magic on top. Then one day, an old Audiophile buddy came by with some speakers he built, which had the 45” Newform Ribbon, on top of a Sewer Pipe. He had installed one Seas Excel driver in it and dampened it heavily. The sound wasn’t as warm as my 2 Scan Speak 8545 drivers were, however I loved the detail I heard. Roger then told me how Rick Craig had wanted to build a line array with what he considered to be the best drivers and I should give him a call. I called Rick Craig and he was real excited about it. He said we might need to use 8 of the 7” Seas Excel Drivers, however he’d build a test box to see if 6 would handle it.

The Excelarray project starts:

I gave Rick the go ahead to build one side with 6 Seas Excel Drivers. Rick built the prototype in one cabinet, where all 6 drivers where in one open space, no bracing or dampening. I went to hear them in or around the July timeframe. What I heard was a step up from my upgraded R645s and I was happy to hear that the 6 – 7” Seas Excel W18 drivers gave a very warm sweet sound, where Roger’s singer driver system sounded a little thin and not warm sounding. Also, I thought it was pretty cool, that I could move 3 or 4 feet in every direction and get the same full sound. Rick also had very inexpensive crossover parts in this prototype. So, I knew that the final box would have the following improvements over the prototype:

High end Crossover parts, like Theta Caps

Heavily Braced (Each Excel Driver in their own closed off area)

Heavily Dampened

Different Crossover scheme to better integrate the ribbons

Rick gave the go ahead to have the cabinets built, however there was a hold up, as the Curly Maple had to be ordered. To make a long story short, I ended up getting the speakers about 1 month ago. I got the speakers a little sooner than I should have, as they weren’t fully complete. Suppliers had shorted Rick some parts and he couldn’t drill for the Spikes and it had to be single wired. So, when I got them in my house for the first time, there weren’t any spikes and it was set to single wire. Rick was going to have to come back to bi-wire and install the spikes and bi-wire hookups in the cabinet. Rick came back this past weekend and completed the work. Now they are bi-wired and on very nice 1 1/2inch spikes. They are also nice and level. I had no idea how far off speakers can get, by moving 200lbs or so around on the carpet. The spikes allowed for exact leveling.

Listening impressions of the Excelarray:

I decided to wait to make a review, to hear everything this system had to offer and to see if their was any break-in. Whether it be my own ears breaking in, wires, crossover parts and/or drivers, I don’t really care. I wanted to wait to be fair. First off I have to tell you what my wife said. After Rick left, the first day we set them up, I had to ask my wife what she thought of them. She hadn’t heard them yet, however I wanted to get the comment about the woodwork, etc… The first things out of her mouth were “They’re Big”. Then I asked her again and she said “They’re big, I don’t know if we’ll be able to fit the Christmas Tree in here”. She’s gotten a 10-foot tree for the last several years and she is Mrs. Christmas, if you know what I mean. Ok, enough about the wife comments. If some of you have read some of my posts, you probably know that I have a Tact RCS 2.2X (room correction system). One of the biggest benefits is doing away with room mode problems. I’ve had countless speakers in my room and they all had the problem of some really boomy bass. My Room is 15.5 x 25 x 14 foot high cathedral ceiling. Well, the first thing I noticed, was the articulation in the bass without the Tact. It was like I turned the Tact on. I started making a mad flurry through all the CD tracks that I knew of, that had given me bass problems in the past, like some of Diana Krall’s CD’s, Keb Mob’s and Patricia Barber’s. All of them, the bass was just wonderful. What I read about a line array is true I thought, that it would help with room mode problems and evenly distribute the sound. The detail was exquisite and almost like hearing the detail on my Sennheiser HD600’s, with the exception of hearing the soundstage. I was able to turn my volume down to an extremely low levels and hear the castanets and triangles in pieces from Falla, Ravel, Britten, Stravinsky, etc… I was probably down around 55db and loving it, where I normally would have had to be around 70db to clearly hear these instruments. Then I cranked it up to fairly high volumes, close to 100db. I listened to some complex orchestral pieces, like “Kabalevksy: Colas Breugnon – Overture”, “Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov / Dance of the Tumblers”, “Hopak from Mazeppa”, “Prokofiev – The Stone Flower”. Oh my God, while listening to the Stone Flower, the low level percussive sounds was like the music was dispersed by Angels dancing on the clouds. No matter how loud I turned it up, I heard the macrodetails and I could follow the instrument, no matter what else was playing. To me that is a dream come true.

These speakers image like nothing else I’ve experiences. Triangle sounds just floated in the air, which almost made me look for the soap bubbles just hanging there. The 3D holographic effect on Roger Waters CD made me keep making sure my surround sound speakers weren’t on, as the sounds were enveloping me from everywhere, including behind me. I heard somewhat of this imaging from the ribbons, when I had my upgraded R645s playing, however now with 6 Seas Excels playing, they all blended in perfectly with the ribbons. So perfectly, that it sounded like I had ribbons down to 30hz.

These speakers disappear like Houdini. There are no signs of any boxy sound. I’m sure that much has to do with the cabinets being well braced and dampened extremely well, with each Seas Excel W18 driver sitting in their own sealed area. There is a shelf physically placed between each driver, with only a small hole for wiring, which had been sealed off.

The sweet spot for these speakers is huge. Where many speakers I’ve experienced, had you confined to one exact spot or 1 or 2 feet, these speakers sweet spot is wide and deep, like 4 feet in each direction or more.

This system wasn’t at all congested. These incredible drivers, has led to fantastic transparency, extreme warm sweet detail, no cabinet resonance and extremely fast transient responses. It sounded like I had a wall full of drivers that were putting out an image that is to die for. The midrange is very lush, warm and sweet sounding, as well as being extremely detailed. The bass & upper bass is very tight and articulate. Hearing Ray Brown play his bass, made me feel like I was up there with him, feeling the strings, as he played. The sound from Nardis off of a Patricia Barber CD left me breathless. All instruments sounded like they were set up in my room. In liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2, the low bass chords that were played on the Piano, exalted that full meaty sound, one usually only hears at a live concert.

No matter how low or loud I play them, there isn’t any compression and they play everything with ease. I’m sure that much of it is due to 6-7” Seas Excel drivers not having to reach any major excursion, plus at low volumes, those 6 drivers move more air to hear the slightest detail.

The soundstage is dead-on accurate. I put in a LA Guitar Quartet CD and listened to them play “Rain”. This placed me about 4th row center. I know from experience, as I’ve heard them 6 times live in concert. I heard all 4 guitarists span the width of the stage, as they started with a few raindrops and built to a downpour. The mood they portrayed put me in the middle of a tropical rain forest. The tonal accuracy of their different brand guitars was uncanny.

I could be wrong, however I don’t see any speakers out there commercially, that have those many high quality drivers. For instance, the $47,780 Burmester Audio Systems B99’s, have 2 smaller Seas Excel & a 5 inch ribbon, where the Excelarray has 6-7” Seas Excel W18 drivers and a 45” Newform Research Ribbon. A fully complete Excelarray costs $5,100.00, without a doubt, the biggest bargain in high end audio, making dreams come true for many Audiophiles that would never be able to afford a speaker sounding this good. If a commercial company built the Excelarray, I would guess that it would be $50,000 plus.

I didn’t find one genre of music that didn’t excel with these speakers. Now, I didn’t listen to RAP, however that’s not really music, is it?

There are all these formulas out there that calculate how long an array needs to be to give you near field listening at given distances. You can read why this line array would meet certain criteria, if it was X feet tall for a given frequency. Bottom line is, this speaker sounds better than anything I’ve heard and probably most if not all people have heard.

All of the review up to this part has been without the Tact RCS 2.2X. With the Tact RCS 2.2X my ACI Titan II is digitally crossed over at 60hz and integrated seamlessly. My system is now playing completely flat to 20hz and then some. Bach & Saint-Saens Organ pieces are breath taking.

Now every time I sit down to list to the Excelarray’s, it is like an event, unlike anything I have ever experienced in audio. I have to admit, I feel a little intimidated by this magnificent sound.

Next, I have to hear what Vinyl, SACD and/or DVD/Audio sounds like through them.

On Rick’s web page, he has down, that the speakers measured 60-20,000hz in the near field. You can see on the following web page, how in the far field, with me sitting 11 feet from the speakers, that they’re playing about flat to 30hz. For Jazz and Rock, you could get away nicely without a sub. For Classical, a sub might be wanted to hear the force of the lowest octave on the organ and to really feel the big bass drums.

Anyone who wants to hear these speakers, is welcome to come have a listen.

You can pull up some pictures and a graph at:
http://members.aol.com/bvirgil311/excel.htm

If you can't get to it, try later as I've seen AOL does have it's problems.


Product Weakness: None found
Product Strengths: Strengths are listed in the product review


Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier: Odyssey Stratos Monos
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): Tact RCS 2.2X
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Vecteur D-2 --> MF A324 DAC
Speakers: Excelarrays
Cables/Interconnects: DIY
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Mostly Classical & Jazz
Room Size (LxWxH): 15.5ft x 25ft x 14
Room Comments/Treatments: No room treatments, however the Tact RCS 2.2X handles any room problems
Time Period/Length of Audition: 1 month
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner




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Topic - REVIEW: Selah Audio Excelarray Speakers - Brad V 06:36:15 10/30/02 ( 6)