I was in New
York during he first week of March and wanted to take the
opportunity to make some audio related visits. My friend
Cemil Gandur had informed me that Red Rose Music
headquarters was on Madison Avenue next to Whitney
gallery (in fact the correct address is 943 Madison
Avenue). So, one sunny afternoon I decided to walk
there.
In fact what I call "headquarters" is
a relatively small size store (1)
with a (approx. 6 m x 6 m) demo room (2)
at the back.
I've auditioned the R3 speakers
($3,500.-/pair) driven by Model 5 integrated amplifier
($8,000.-). R3's are a two-way design monitor-like
speakers (3)
using ribbon tweeters. Their efficiency is on the high
side: 97 dB/W/m @ 8 ohm. The Model 5 integrated amplifier
(5)
has two EL34 output tubes per channel with a rated power
of 45W/channel.
I've listened to various LP's and CD's
(unfortunately this time I did not have my own test CD's
with me) of mainly acoustic jazz and classical material.
Some of the recordings were house made in the very same
demo room. And they were excellent, by the
way.
What struck me most was the huge size
of the sound stage. It was as if the bigger R1 speakers
(at the back) were playing. The only limitation was of
course the bass extension but even this point was not
really apparent on most programs. Otherwise bass seemed
to be very detailed and crisp, mids had body and
naturalness and trebles were extended and silky. Again, I
must emphasize the amazing width, height and depth of the
sound stage. I found the result very satisfying on most
music material. The synergy between the speakers and the
power amp seemed perfect.
I had a conversation with Mr. Jonathan
A. Halpern who is the company manager (and who happens to
know my web site). Contrarily to my belief he told me
that Mark Levinson, the President and CEO of Red Rose
Music is not involved with the technical side of the
design. There are other people in charge of electronics.
Mark Levinson is a multi-instrumentalist musician,
playing double bass, trumpet and recently tambura (see
the bottom picture (6)).
He is basically the person in charge of "voicing" the
products (which is probably the most vital part of the
project).
I noted with much pleasure that Mark
Levinson: the man behind such reputable brands as Mark
Levinson and Cello, both of them exclusively producing
solid state amplifiers, now switched to tubes and high
efficiency speakers with his new brand Red Rose Music.
Well done Mr. Levinson! Better late than
never.
Although I was not lucky enough to
meet the legendary figure of high-end audio, I still left
the store with a smile on my face.
I strongly recommend all audio lovers
to try to audition the Red Rose Music
products.
For more information:
www.redrosemusic.com
