I run the RAD store with some friends. It is derived from a small
business I had many years ago. The goal of this store is to get quality
products at affordable prices, truly dedicated to DIY’ers. We are doing our
best, but it is quite difficult to get the price points where we want them to
be. Because we are the distributor for Rival, (for now) we are not allowed to
sell competing products.
For the past year, we have been clearing out their NLA products at scary
low prices and market testing others. We will not carry anything that is not
popular and not at the price point we want, period. We want people to build. So, our profit
margin is extremely low. We try to make enough money just to keep everything
going and take advantage of product releases that will benefit DIY’ers.
Rival has a
number of woofer series that we are trying to get, but it is all about numbers.
Many of their woofers have a high MOQ that is unobtainable for us at this time.
We are working on ways to solve this.
We also
manage our store and like to have a little fun. Last year we had some excellent
give-aways. Not contests, which I don’t like. Some people received drivers and
some received Polar Cap Packs. We just put names in a box and pick a name to receive
whatever we are giving away. Sometimes, we put something extra in a shipment,
just for fun.
As I said
before, we want people to build and enjoy doing it. Isn’t that what it’s all
about?
We will be posting
updates from time to time on a ‘NEWS’ page and look forward to comments and
suggestions. Customer input is important. It’s allot of work to organize all of
this, so patience is greatly appreciated.
I thought the timely order confirmation email and shipment were awesome! Absolutely zero complaints. I wish your company well and will purchase from you guys whenever the need arises. Keep up the great work Gowa!
For everyone that attended Dakota DIY last spring, Curt's entry was based on a Rival Kevlar woofer and a Bozhen CQ76 ribbon. I was quite impressed with both drivers. The CQ76 is a hybrid ribbon design that'll cross comfortably at 2K and possibly below.
Bozhen has guaranteed me that CQ76 will cross at 1.5k. Curt designed that speaker for me. It is called HELIOS. I love them.They use Rival's fiberglass sandwich drivers. I'll have them painted this spring.
Yes Curt's speakers were very good! I had no idea who or what Rival Acoustics was back then. I thought the yellow Kevlar cone material looked nice but if I remember correctly they had shiny aluminum dust caps (yes/no?) that I didn't find very attractive.
The R176-GFSY woofers are fiberglass sandwich. The ones I have are natural aluminum dustcaps because that's all I could get at the time. I have seen them with black aluminum dustcaps as well. Rival also has a black version of these drivers called R176-GFSB-08.
Bozhen has guaranteed me that CQ76 will cross at 1.5k. Curt designed that speaker for me. It is called HELIOS. I love them.They use Rival's fiberglass sandwich drivers. I'll have them painted this spring.
No, but I was thinking about it. I think Rick at Selah audio sells them. I'm looking forward to the Viawave reviews. That looks like a very interesting tweeter.
No, but I was thinking about it. I think Rick at Selah audio sells them. I'm looking forward to the Viawave reviews. That looks like a very interesting tweeter.
I think Rick buys them for his own use. There are very few ribbons that will cross cleanly at 2K and below. The few that are out there cost huge money by my standards. I think its an impressive ribbon with very low distortion that would be nice to availability at a US retail outlet.
I'm in love with the Aurum Cantus AST2560 we used in the Bordeaux so I'm not in the market but if I was, the CQ76 would be at the top of the list as a candidate.
You can purchase them from Rick. As I understand it, they are more of a voice coil driver with a pseudo-ribbon as the output diaphragm. Quite a different animal they are, and Bozhen's woofers are also VERY different than what you see typically. I'd like to use the Bozhen CQ76 at some point as well.
I ordered a quad of the R176-CP-08 woofers and they arrived here on Saturday. Very nice looking drivers and I can't wait to measure them, but as soon as I cut the packaging tape and opened up the box flaps I was hit in the face with the strongest, nastiest smelling cigarette smoke smell!!! I thought for sure that I would find an ashtray full of butts in there somewhere. LOL I guess with our smoking laws here I have become resensitized to that...
We get the drivers in bulk and they are packaged by a small local fulfillment service. I'll speak to them about smoke odor. I'm trying not to complain too much right now, at least until I get the relationship a bit solidified. I've had allot of drivers go through here without any odor. Maybe I'm not as sensitive to it. Keep in mind that as long as the drivers are not used, they can be returned. Policy Here Send an email through the store contact.
Hi Gowa. I just checked my email and I received a very nice message from Sean regarding my comment here about the smoke smell. I plan to reply to him directly that it is not a big deal. It really isn't. I hope nobody reads my comment above and is steared away from buying from you guys. The service was great and I am very satisfied with the drivers.
Maybe others have seen this, but it was news to me: The Rhythm Audio Design website has a "Speaker Designers Extraordinaire" PAGE. They are Curt Campbell, Paul Kittinger, Dennis Murphy and Ben Shaffer. Congrats to all of you, you have done a lot for the DIY community.
Also - The Helios speakers are shown on the DIY Speaker Designs PAGE, but no plans are available yet. Hopefully the plans will show up in the near future.
Maybe others have seen this, but it was news to me: The Rhythm Audio Design website has a "Speaker Designers Extraordinaire" PAGE. They are Curt Campbell, Paul Kittinger, Dennis Murphy and Ben Shaffer. Congrats to all of you, you have done a lot for the DIY community.
Also - The Helios speakers are shown on the DIY Speaker Designs PAGE, but no plans are available yet. Hopefully the plans will show up in the near future.
Yes, it is very cool to
have these guys designing kits for RAD. Now that we have secured the
distribution rights to Rival, I'm hoping others will join in with some
nice builds using Rival drivers. Wolf is working on the FENRIR 2-way which uses
the R176-P-08 and the Wavecor 22 mm tweeter which I really like. Wolf was
trying to meet a date but the Big Freeze changed that.
Beginning to think that using my quad set of Rival 7" in an MTM would be a better application of their capabilities. A simple MLTL and a sweet tweeter and it should model in the 30's with ease. By looking at the measurements posted here and on FB it's apparent that Rival has a versatile driver in their lineup!
Beginning to think that using my quad set of Rival 7" in an MTM would be a better application of their capabilities. A simple MLTL and a sweet tweeter and it should model in the 30's with ease. By looking at the measurements posted here and on FB it's apparent that Rival has a versatile driver in their lineup!
Rival has some elite level drivers that are very cool
looking with beefy motors, different frames and custom cones. Sadly, those are
not available outside their regular OEM customer base.
RAD presently has access to their ‘J’ series
which are the ‘P’, CP’, PV, K etc. They are changing their Kevlar driver (K)
and should be available to RAD before spring. Rival also has two real nice woven
carbon drivers that RAD is hoping to add to inventory.
Probably not Junior, but maybe something along the line of the old Eros II's from back in the early 2000's. I've always loved that Scan Speak 2905/9700 (versus the original 9500) as it easily crosses at 2k and would match well in a simple MTM or maybe a 2.5 MMT. Something to ponder.
Ya those things sell out pretty quick. but we'll be picking up some more tomorrow. I don't think there are many left. The 'P' will be going on sale this weekend. So, keep an eye out for that one.
Ya those things sell out pretty quick. but we'll be picking up some more tomorrow. I don't think there are many left. The 'P' will be going on sale this weekend. So, keep an eye out for that one.
Got some this morning. Now what tweeter to use... I've got an AMT3-4 if it will reach up that high.
Comments
I run the RAD store with some friends. It is derived from a small business I had many years ago. The goal of this store is to get quality products at affordable prices, truly dedicated to DIY’ers. We are doing our best, but it is quite difficult to get the price points where we want them to be. Because we are the distributor for Rival, (for now) we are not allowed to sell competing products.
For the past year, we have been clearing out their NLA products at scary low prices and market testing others. We will not carry anything that is not popular and not at the price point we want, period. We want people to build. So, our profit margin is extremely low. We try to make enough money just to keep everything going and take advantage of product releases that will benefit DIY’ers.
Rival has a number of woofer series that we are trying to get, but it is all about numbers. Many of their woofers have a high MOQ that is unobtainable for us at this time. We are working on ways to solve this.
We also manage our store and like to have a little fun. Last year we had some excellent give-aways. Not contests, which I don’t like. Some people received drivers and some received Polar Cap Packs. We just put names in a box and pick a name to receive whatever we are giving away. Sometimes, we put something extra in a shipment, just for fun.
As I said before, we want people to build and enjoy doing it. Isn’t that what it’s all about?
We will be posting updates from time to time on a ‘NEWS’ page and look forward to comments and suggestions. Customer input is important. It’s allot of work to organize all of this, so patience is greatly appreciated.I got an email from Sean today - excited!
Jim
So are you a distributor for Bozhen too?
Jim
I think Rick buys them for his own use. There are very few ribbons that will cross cleanly at 2K and below. The few that are out there cost huge money by my standards. I think its an impressive ribbon with very low distortion that would be nice to availability at a US retail outlet.
I'm in love with the Aurum Cantus AST2560 we used in the Bordeaux so I'm not in the market but if I was, the CQ76 would be at the top of the list as a candidate.
Jim
InDIYana Event Website
Policy Here
Send an email through the store contact.
InDIYana Event Website
Also - The Helios speakers are shown on the DIY Speaker Designs PAGE, but no plans are available yet. Hopefully the plans will show up in the near future.
Yes, it is very cool to have these guys designing kits for RAD. Now that we have secured the distribution rights to Rival, I'm hoping others will join in with some nice builds using Rival drivers. Wolf is working on the FENRIR 2-way which uses the R176-P-08 and the Wavecor 22 mm tweeter which I really like. Wolf was trying to meet a date but the Big Freeze changed that.
I’m hoping an MTM with Rivals will appear soon.Yep- still a work in progress....
It just got cold too quick, and I have not been able to get back to it or really anything else that requires garage time.
InDIYana Event Website
InDIYana Event Website
https://rhythmaudiodesign.com/collections/clearance
Rival has some elite level drivers that are very cool looking with beefy motors, different frames and custom cones. Sadly, those are not available outside their regular OEM customer base.
RAD presently has access to their ‘J’ series which are the ‘P’, CP’, PV, K etc. They are changing their Kevlar driver (K) and should be available to RAD before spring. Rival also has two real nice woven carbon drivers that RAD is hoping to add to inventory.[edit: looks like the new batch is already sold out, guess I didn't miss anything afterall ]