Review of Fritz Speakers (long winded)

Speaker Asylum

General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

There is a review of Silverline speakers in the most recent edition of TAS that opens with a great line: How would you like to buy a pair of $12,000 speakers for $3,495? Great hook, huh? The review then briefly describes the breakdown of where the money goes when and if you do buy a pair of $12,000 speakers. Specifically, about $5,000 stays with the dealer. Another big chunk goes out to cover marketing, shipping, warehousing, R&D and administrative overhead. While this can sound a little harsh, you have to remember that profit is not a bad word by any stretch of the imagination. Thatâ€™s what our economy is all about.
But everyone wants to make sure their money is well spent. We all look for bargains, and we all look for those diamonds in the rough, so to speak. So here is my hook: How would you like to spend $1,500 for some speakers that would normally retail for $5,000? Speakers built from top-notch components, with excellent fit and finish and attention to detail. I am not talking about just a pair of speakers, either. I am talking about front left and right, center channel and surround speakers. I am sure that has some appeal to everyone, except those rare individuals who derive some pleasure from spending obscene amounts of money just for the bragging rights (well, I know a few people like that, anyway).
For many years my reference speakers were Legacy Classics. Thanks to some major changes in my life, I was forced to use far less expensive speakers for a couple of years while I rebuilt my finances. When the time arrived for me to actually go buy what I wanted, I looked at my listening room and came to the realization that speakers the size of the Classics just werenâ€™t practical. That realization set me on a mission to find something else. I wanted some truly special speakers, something that could rival or better the Classics in terms of finesse and imaging. Cost was still an object, as my budget, before taxes and shipping, was $3,500.
We all know the usual suspects when it comes to speakers. The number of speaker manufacturers is somewhat staggering. But if you really start searching the internet, you will find a huge population of smaller manufacturers scattered throughout the world. One web-site I encountered, Fritz Speakers, caught my eye for a couple of different reasons. First, it gave some pretty good information about the technical aspects of the speakers. Next up, it was, by Southern California standards, a local speaker maker. I also noted that the web-site appeared to be under construction, which could be attributed to a number of different reasons. I wound up sending an email off to www.fritzspeakers.com to see if an audition could be arranged. Fritz called me a few days later and we talked for at least an hour about speakers in general, and his approach to building them. I was impressed by his knowledge and decided to proceed with the audition. After a few hit and miss attempts we finally connected in June, and Fritz made the drive from Redondo Beach to my house, way the hell out in the desert.
Prior to Fritzâ€™s arrival I spent some time carefully selecting the music I would use for the audition. While I expected to be impressed by the speakers, I also had the smug idea that I would be able to quickly demonstrate whatever shortcomings they had. I have a knack for ferreting out problems with certain goods and services, and I was sure this would be no exception.
I had specifically asked Fritz to bring me something in an MTM configuration, and I wanted front left and right and center channel speakers. He brought out three identical speakers, all 22â€ high (or long for the center channel), about 7.5â€ wide and just shy of a foot deep. All were finished in oak veneer, weighed about 30 pounds each, had brass binding posts and were bi-wire and bi-amp ready. Each had two Seas 6.5â€ drivers and a 1â€ tweeter (the left and right channels had Scanspeak tweeters, the center channel had a Vifa ring tweeter). Fit and finish were superb, and they passed the knock test with flying colors. All of the speakers operate at 4 ohms.

After the speakers were set up, Fritz first inserted a test CD into my player. There was audible bass starting at 30 Hz, but it didnâ€™t turn into usable bass until about 36 Hz. From there on up, everything sounded clean as a whistle. I have a sub, so the bass performance was fine for me. But now it was time to play some real music.
For the next several hours we played a wide range of CDâ€™s and then Peter Gabrielâ€™s Secret World DVD. Imaging was incredible, and the soundstage â€“ something I had long ago written off for most rock and pop music â€“ was astounding. This was the first time I had experienced such transparency as well. I obviously donâ€™t have any test equipment in my house, but I would guess that the efficiency of these speakers is about 90 db. (Now that I have had these speakers in my system for a little bit of time, I have noticed a great deal more about these speakers. They radically altered the dynamics of all of my upstream components, all for the better. And I have discovered I no longer need to change the settings on my sub every time I switch sources. That last one mystifies me, but it is something I more than cheerfully tolerate.)
Remember my smug thoughts about quickly finding those shortcomings? Letâ€™s put it this way, I felt like that Yankees bench coach that got tossed for a loop by Pedro Martinez, the Red Sox pitcher last Saturday. Towards the end of the audition, I asked Fritz what it would cost to have those speakers in my house. Before he answered I winced internally, expecting to hear numbers starting at $1,500 each and upward. He replied that I could have the same left and right channel speakers in a floorstanding version (think Thor) and the same center channel for a total of $1,400. My jaw dropped, and Fritz grinned. â€œWhat, you donâ€™t think I am charging enough for my speakers?â€
How do you get such value? No overhead. Fritz is R&D. Fritz is manufacturing. Fritz is administration and management, and Fritz is sales. Fritz even handles delivery. Of course this also means that Fritz doesnâ€™t carry a big inventory of speakers enabling him to grab a pair off the shelf for every order that comes in. I get the impression the speakers built to order, which makes them that much more special.
Before my speakers were delivered, we made some changes to my order. I wound up getting the same configuration I auditioned and two Fritz Junior monitors (5.25â€ driver and 1â€ tweeter, same finish and voice matched to the mains) for a grand total of $1,500. By the way, those monitors have become the main speakers in my bedroom system, and only come out for surround duties when I decide to use them as such. Given the performance of the three front channel speakers, that isnâ€™t very often. Oh, before I forget, when Fritz delivers your speakers they are already broken in. (When is the last time you got that kind of service?)
The coolest experience I have had with these speakers so far was when Mrs. bwk accidentally sat down in the sweet spot and spent some time listening. This time it was her jaw that dropped, and there was an instant understanding of my interest in this hobby. Suddenly there was even some understanding of at least part of what fuels my interest in AA. She summed it up in one word: â€œWow!â€ Just watching her experience that made the $1,500 worthwhile. The second coolest thing has been me eagerly rushing home every day to listen to my music library anew. I also fell in love with my Parasound amplifier again. Itâ€™s high output and bandwidth make it an excellent match for these speakers. ( I bought the HCA-1000A on an earlier speaker expedition. I went to The Good Guys to check out the Veritas speaker line, and walked out with an amp tucked in my arm. These speakers brought back the reason I was so impressed with it.)
Now that I have heaped all of this praise on these speakers, I have to acknowledge there are a couple of issues that you would have to consider before making the same purchasing decision I did. First there is the bass performance. If you listen to a lot of organ music, for example, you would probably want to look elsewhere or talk to Fritz about a different configuration. The other issue is that these speakers have only a hair of forgiveness in them, and I mean only one hair. If you are like me and have some type of allergic reaction to poorly-recorded material or music that was recorded hot, that one hair is enough to keep you from throwing some of your music library out. But these speakers will show any flaws that exist in a recording, and that can be a painful experience. For example, I rushed home a few nights back eagerly anticipating putting Trainâ€™s Drops of Jupiter on the player. I was especially looking forward to listening to the song Get Away. What I once thought was a good recording was quickly shown to have been recorded too hot. I still consider the CD tolerable, but that is only because of that hair of forgiveness. That CD will not be in â€œregular rotationâ€ on my player any longer, however.
Some of you may wonder what I did with the rest of my hi-fi budget, since I theoretically had a $2,000 reserve left over. The truth of the matter is that for me to get new speakers, Mrs. bwk got new carpet. Getting new carpet meant pulling all of the furniture out of the house for 24 hours. When it came time to put everything back in, Mrs. bwk discovered the furniture had become ugly during the 24 hours it spent in the garage, so it was off to the furniture store. My reserves were gone within the hour.
If you are looking for speakers, I encourage you to take a look at my new reference speakers, Fritz Speakers. And when and if Fritz comes to your house, be sure to have a couple of cold Amstel Lights on hand. Fritz enjoys testing his speakers with different systems, so you are pretty much guaranteed a long audition session. He is good people too, so youâ€™ll have a very enjoyable audition. If I were you I would hurry, before he realizes he could be charging a whole lot more.
Equipment used:
Parasound HCA-1000A amplifier
Harman Kardon AVR65 as pre/pro
Denon DCD 970 CDP
Sony (?)ES DVD
Monster ZR1 speaker cable
All premium Monster interconnects with RF/EMI filters installed
Marantz 1152dc integrated amplifier
JBL PD110 sub
Run-of-the-mill speaker stands
Monster power conditioner, dedicated power, great care in setup
Anticipated upgrades or additions:
Parasound HCA-1500A amplifier
Better speaker stands

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Topic - Review of Fritz Speakers (long winded) - bwkendall 17:51:02 10/16/03 (5)

Re: Review of Fritz Speakers (long winded) - Maxxc 21:47:53 10/17/03 (1)

Oh, but other recordings shine like you have never seen! - bwkendall 11:55:07 10/18/03 (0)

Nice review - Grover 20:32:32 10/16/03 (1)

Another bwk reader checks in - Neil49 21:01:48 10/16/03 (0)

Enjoyable review - psgary 18:58:57 10/16/03 (0)

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