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In Reply to: I wonder what the difference is between the Best Buy speakers... posted by The Real Dick Hertz on June 12, 2006 at 07:02:29:
Just called Radian, and they are NOT responsible.
The guy from Radian looked at Best Buys web site, and went "Holy Sheet"
He quickly added "They don't have supertweeters" like ours.
No, they don't have super tweeters, but they are 1/4 the cost too!
Follow Ups:
Do these actually have a separate neo tweeter mounted on the pole piece like in the Uni-Q?
If so, they are in blatant infringement of the KEF Uni-Q patent, which is effective throughout the US and Europe. Unless of course, they are paying licensing fees. But in that case, there would be the word Uni-Q mentioned in the literature and on the speaker itself. If KEF gets wind of this, there could be big problems. They have strongly enforced this patent in the past and gone after knockoffs with major threats of legal action.
no one loves KEF more then me.
I met Raymond Cook years ago, but he is dead.
Laurie Fincham is gone, and so is Andrew Jones.
I heard KEF was bought out by the Japanese.But with all due respect, lets see em try and take on Best Buy, LOL
What is probably happening is the KEF patent expired ?
Uni Q's have been around for some time now, maybe they aren't protected anymore ?I would like to see KEF at least get the credit for these, and we should all be grateful to Raymond Cook, Laurie Fincham, and Andrew Jones for all their dilligent work on the Uni Q driver.
I bet if we could get into Heaven, and talk to Raymond Cook, he would be pleased that his invention has become so affordable to so many!
He was not a greedy man, and quite the music lover too.
> no one loves KEF more then me.
> I met Raymond Cook years ago, but he is dead.
> Laurie Fincham is gone, and so is Andrew Jones.
> I heard KEF was bought out by the Japanese.KEF is now owned by KH industries which is a UK subsidiary of Gold Peak, a Hong Kong company. They were bought in the early 90's. KH also owns Celestion.
> But with all due respect, lets see em try and take on Best Buy, LOL
Don't be so sure they wouldn't. As I said, KH has strongly defended their Uni-Q patent in the past. And they have the law on their side. Besides, they would probably go after the manufacturer rather than Best Buy.
> What is probably happening is the KEF patent expired ?
> Uni Q's have been around for some time now, maybe they aren't protected anymore ?Absolutely not. Their patent is still in force. The US UniQ patent was only granted in 1998 and has a long way to go before expiring.
> I would like to see KEF at least get the credit for these, and we should all be grateful to > Raymond Cook, Laurie Fincham, and Andrew Jones for all their dilligent work on the Uni > Q driver.
That's what royalties are all about, and the crux of the discussion. However, keep in mind that the scope of the UniQ patent is very narrow. It only covers the use of a neodymium tweeter on the pole of a woofer with the acoustic centers of both roughly aligned. Change the magnet material, the motor design, or unalign the acoustic center and you get around the patent. Which is why I asked the question about the tweeter in the first place.
The guy from Radiiant also didn't know that his company sells the exact same pair of speakers as Best Buy called the Helios without the Supertweeter.I sent an email to them last night regarding the Best Buy speakers and have yet to receive a response.
If radiiant is NOT responsible for these, it sounds like Best Buy may be outsourcing to the same factory in China that makes the Radiiant models. In which case Best Buy is selling these speakers illegally. But that seems to be a far stretch.
Dennis
The Radiiant site may have them, but what's to say that it's not a stock design by a Chinese (presumably) OEM that Radiiant is marketing?However, the question of the UniQ patent is more interesting. After all, while Tom Brennan says that there were similar drivers in the past (and I don't doubt him, though I also wouldn't consider something with a waveguide in the polepiece like a Tannoy Dual to be super-similar), there's also the reality that KEF shut down a previous knockoff UniQ maker (Synchron, which used to be available through almost all of the DIY speaker suppliers here - Madisound, A&S/Just Speakers, MCM, and maybe PE, too) and Seas pays for their rights to the design. Then again, Thiel does a riff on the UniQ as well, and I don't know if they pay for it or not. (Maybe they get around it because the woofer's underhung.)
As an aside, I haven't tried these speakers, and don't intend to. For my money, the best budget speakers were the KEF Q-Compacts, with their cast frame/vented spider Uni-Q's, shorting rings in the woofer motors, and far better build quality than KEF's older Q-series, a trio of which I owned from 1997 until last month. (Traded 'em for a Peerless XLS-based subwoofer.) Not to say that I wouldn't try these speakers if I didn't already have all of the speakers I need, and then some.
I think you are right. The speakers Radiient is selling are being sold in Europe under another name for less. http://www.htforum.nl/yabbse/index.php?topic=42380.0These seem to be the surrounds from the HT packages Radiient is selling.
I bought a pair today and they are very good for > $50. I hear a little cabinet resonance and a bass bump but imaging and clarity is very nice with 1 hour on them so far. Should go great with the $75 Panny XR-25 I bought off Craig'slist, and a $30 open box Toshiba DVD I score for the bedroom.
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