Philharmonitor BMR / Salk BMR

[killdozzer]

Are there any differences among these two performance-wise?

 

[ryanosaur]

Shouldn't be.
Dennis has had several permutations over the years, but after some good conversations with both he and other owners, it doesn't seem like any of these perform much different. Perhaps the 28L and 22L cabinets have slightly different tuning for the Box and port, but we are talking somenthing like an F3 of 34 vs 37Hz. Moreover, after testing, Dennis claims that he didn't find any need to change the XOs and couldn't necessarily identify one being better than the other.
I have seen some discussion about the change from Offset Drivers to Inline Drivers... but again, as best I can recall, the differences were so minuscule as to be not worth fussing over.
Of course, if you read the ASR review page that Erin put up, (also did it here and over at AudioCircle and AVS), there are some Number Nazis that are tearing apart any little thing they don't like. Dennis' responses are pretty solid and largely amount to the fact that they sound fine and that the minor problems and tradeoffs aren't really audible, nor do they affect the performance in a significant enough manner to even trouble with.

That said, Jim built custom BMRs for Dennis prior to Dennis retiring from his home assembly line... and other than bringing the price inline with proper costing for American labor, I haven't heard that any other changes have ever been made.

Hope that helps!

You thinking about trying to score some!???!!???

 

[everettT]

Are there any differences among these two performance-wise?

I wouldn't worry about it all. As Ryan stated the most that changes is the cabinets, slightly. Order the kit so shipping is less.

 

[D Murphy]

I wouldn't worry about it all. As Ryan stated the most that changes is the cabinets, slightly. Order the kit so shipping is less.

There have been a number of versions of the BMR, mostly because of changing parts supply contingencies. But There is no difference between the Salk .75 cu ft BMR and the kit BMR, with the possible exception of front baffle roundover, where for the kit the decision on roundover is up to the builder. And that only affects the on-axis response a little, and not the overall room response.

 

[killdozzer]

@D Murphy @everettT @ryanosaur

Thank you all for your answers. (I hope this is not the real McCoy, I'd be embarrassed)

Ever since I read how you here write about this BMR, I had a huge desire to hear one. First and biggest problem me being in Central Europe. Then I heard Mr. Murphy slowed the output of his boxes and I thought it was over. Happy to know that Salk should perform equally good.

My biggest wish is to give these as a present to my brother (I'd listen to them whenever, of course!!).

My brother is a musician, he played all sorts of instruments from when he was 11YO. He was always running away from technical stuff. Since that is not entirely possible, he had to learn a lot about instruments and guitar amps, bass amps, his stage gear and so on, but there was no way he was gonna learn about audio on top of that.

When he listens to a system he is sensitive to something being off, but couldn't tell you what exactly for the life of him. He gets annoyed with overly technical stuff so he ends up listening to BT wireless JBL when he wants to show a song to someone. Funny thing is, the rest of the time he plays those songs to himself in his head.

I know, I know. You'll say I'm talking poop. But, there you go...

Although I only have my KEFs, I've noticed he really likes them. In a small room they are quite capable. He often sends me his recordings asking that I listen to them and tell him what I think. Then he rings me up and we go into all the details. For hours sometime...

I was constantly checking ebay and double checking shipping costs to see if opportunity finally arises for me to buy a pair and give them to him as a present.

It's nice to know there's still chane to at least get the Salk version.

 

[charmerci]

@D Murphy @everettT @ryanosaur

Thank you all for your answers. (I hope this is not the real McCoy, I'd be embarrassed)

Ever since I read how you here write about this BMR, I had a huge desire to hear one. First and biggest problem me being in Central Europe. Then I heard Mr. Murphy slowed the output of his boxes and I thought it was over. Happy to know that Salk should perform equally good.

It's nice to know there's still chane to at least get the Salk version.

You do know that the RAAL is made in Serbia so there should be some of their speakers in your area.

 

[killdozzer]

You do know that the RAAL is made in Serbia so there should be some of their speakers in your area.

Uuuuuu, boy, don't utter that sentence if you ever visit! Hahahhahaha!!!

I know, I know. But RAAL is only one part, ONLY one part! Still missing the rest. Maybe I could source the rest from US and the RAAL from Serbia...

There are some speakers around, but no Philharmonitors.