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In Reply to: RE: Randall Research Cables posted by couter@gmail.com on July 06, 2012 at 10:18:37
I also still have a pair of Randall Research SP's somewhere!
Think they were produced during the 80's and maybe into the 90's.
Small independent company.
Believe their most popular speaker wire came in solid core 32 and 64 stand bundles.
Early on, they used only clear insulation and no binding; just braided, so DIY termination was kind of difficult.
The dealer here had a special thermal wire stripper that would not nick the wire during termination.
Over time, they copper wire will start to show signs of oxidation which always baffled me...
Hope others will chime in as well as they were pretty popular SP's back in the day.
Follow Ups:
Yep: Randfall,McWhorter, I beleive was the anme of the manufacturer: worked out of his hose. Was the first wire manufacturere wo ustilize the low temperature FEP teflon insulation. At trhe time the temperature was just barely under the temperature at which the copper would oxidize, which is why occasionally the speaker wire would exhibit oxidized strands. Rnady kept the better non oxidized wire for his interconnects. A favorite of among others, The Mod Squad, it featured very good dynamics and an openness of sound unmatched by others in its time.
After the company went out of business, The Symdex people in New England revived the design and manufacture.
Stu
His name was Randall 'Randy' McCarter.
Randy and I were good friends. In fact, I was lucky enough to attend WCES as a part of "Team Randall" way back in 1983. Randy was (like Uncle Stu) very, very intelligent, and likewise willing to share his seemingly encyclopaedic knowledge of all things electrical with everyone, including morons, such as myself.
I was even more lucky to own Randy's 64 speaker cables, his Symmetrical ICs, a hyper Randall modified Electron Kinetics Eagle 7a, a wonderful custom built preamp by Randy, a pair of custom Randall-built battery-powered head amps (awesome!), a super-tweaked out SOTA Sapphire 'table that Randy hand-built for me, and (of course) a pair of his super-modded Dahlquist DQ-10s, all of which synergized in such a stunning fashion for 1983 that my friends were always left in audio bliss whenever they came by for a listening session (as was I!) It was a full Randall system, sounded incredible, and cost me a small fortune way back then, especially for a young kid! But I was simply ecstatic with the system's performance, and incredibly thankful, too! Randy was great!
Randy got hit with some tough luck that wiped out his cable business and took him out financially. He began again doing full-time audio modification work, and when I got a pair of the just introduced Magneplanar MG IIIa speakers, Randy was there to make the most INCREDIBLE cross-overs I have ever seen. Even he said they were among the finest things he ever did, and I was so grateful to him, I could really never repay him. The Maggies sounded absolutely awesome, and I only sold them a year ago, when my family and I moved from Southern California to New Zealand. The guy who got them excitedly called me the day he hooked them up, claiming they were the best speakers he had heard in his life, thanking me profusely for them. They were THAT good, and all because of Randy.
When he moved away from Orange County to Dallas (Plano, actually) I flew out to stay with him a number of days, and really saw what a party animal that guy was! He was simply incredible to hang out with, and again, I just felt so blessed and lucky to be able to share some awesome moments with him.
Later on, he moved away, started to work on getting an internet company going, selling big-ticket items with excellent margins, but we lost touch, sadly, and I haven't heard from him since.
The guy was an audio legend, a real pioneer who always had time and patience for a know-nothing dork like me, and it was Randy who got me hooked into the high-end, incessant tweaking and ridiculously exotic audio esoterica.
And for that........... (my wife will forever hate him!) :-)
Just kidding!
Wherever he is, I hope he is doing great, living large, and having a ball!
What a guy! :-)
WS
Randy was a great guy. I purchased his mod kit for my DQ 10's and after they were installed incluidng his magic woofer goop, the DQ 10 sound great and even by todays standards, all the weaknesses were gone. I sold my pair then one day I had a chance to by a set he done back, and I remember they blew away the Proac's that I had. I had them setup once so good that the speaker was gone and just the performers in the room.
I like to hear them again today with the good 300-400 watt amp, I bet they be something to hear still. Back ten I drive them with MRT 101's mono block amps, no power houses by it still drove the DQ 10's well.
I owned his speaker wire and interconnects also. Last I sope he was really up set that MIT who he felt built crap for cables, but had the money to promote the cable was putting him out of business. The guy was smart and like the posters have said he knew crossovers and everything he did sounded great, no BS artist.
PJB
i had a pair of randall dq10s driven by a hafler 500 and MY GOD! that amp took CONTROL of the bass like you wouldn't believe and the bass was better and deeper than with other amps i had heard the DQ10s with before.
the amp also grabbed my Fried Model RIIs by the scrotum and shook the structure of my house. otherwise, the frieds only seemed to go to 40Hz or so. this was more like 35 or 30.
i will bet this snaps you into the past.
...regards...tr
Unclestu's shop's reference cables in the mid to late 1980s...
Lucky You Live Hawaii
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