toxcrusadr
Omelette au Fromage
Are we sure these weren't owned by the Grateful Dead? 
Fabled RTR Towers on eBay - just wow!
- Thread starter damacman
- Start date
sheltie dave
Addicted Member
I did hear them 11 years ago, and they sounded quite nice with McIntosh and SAE amps driving them.
yesshows77
Well-Known Member
Yet another amazing vintage RTR speaker model. I can't wait to finish refurbishing my 600D's...I bet they will sound awesome.
swechsler
Frog Whisperer
Are there rear mounted mids and tweeters? The seller only showed pics of the front.Also the rear mounted mids and tweets - I've always wondered what that does to diffraction and dispersion.
First time I've heard of these. You don't see that every day!
Now for my nitpicks.
It seems like those parallel vertical arrays would just cause a mess of comb filtering...or am I wrong?
Also the rear mounted mids and tweets - I've always wondered what that does to diffraction and dispersion.
These look like a larger, and my guess earlier version of the RTR-DR1's.
RTR was a strong proponent of cylindrical and psuedo-cylindrical top ends. Though they made their share of flat-front speaker systems, they always felt that top-of-the-line speakers should not force listeners into a miniscule "sweet spot" listening area. They were always experimenting with how to keep high frequencies from beaming. They did it in their own higher end speakers, like these studio master 2500s, and they did it in e-stat assemblies they OEMed to other companies. They reached their sonic pinncle with the DR1 model, which cost them all their e-stat OEM business (Infinity and others decided that RTR was a serious retail competitor and stopped buying e-stat elements from them).
The top ends of these 2500's show RTR's attempt to curve the geometry holding the higher frequency outputs to expand the listening zone. I'm guessing that the way they mounted the mids and tweeters (behind the support structure) was an attempt to limit unpleasant sonic interactions among the line array outputs. No idea how well it worked with conventional drivers. I'm guessing these speakers were produced as RTR was attempting to take over the world ( earlly to mid 70's), rather than on the way to become the next DAK thunder lizard (80's). Can you imagine a DAK catalog hawking these monsters?
What I can say is that the DR1's, with the cylindrical e-stat top ends, are among my favorite speakers specifically because they don't confine the soundstage to a single seat.
markshan
Sir Thrift a Lot
Look again.
swechsler
Frog Whisperer
Actually I think he just pulled the woofer out and sat it backwards on top of the mounting hole. Its positioning is askew and there are no screws.
ETA: looks like the seller cancelled the auction.
markshan
Sir Thrift a Lot
Good eye. I totally missed that. I thought they were open baffle.
damacman
Resident Psycho
Where on EARTH did you come across an owner with a pair? I know that wasn't in HiFiFoFum's sound room! Man, I'd love to hear these - just to get it off my bucket list. A good friend of mine heard a pair when they were newly introduced in a showroom of a dealer in Mt. Clemens, MI. He's told the story many times but says Dark Side of the Moon sounded epic on these.
Several years ago, I reached out the gentleman that I believe owned these originally. I told him that if he ever sells them to let me know. He was like, "I don't know where I'd ever find a pair of speakers like these." I mean, after all - how many pair could there be in Spokane, WA? Fortunately, I downloaded all of the photos from his web site. Here they are.
Given that the auction has been ended, likely they've moved on to a new owner. Wouldn't it be interesting if that owner was an AKer . . .
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sheltie dave
Addicted Member
I was out there in Spokane a decade ago to decommission a uranium mine/mill, and somehow ended up with a listening session. There are four or five top flight collector/audiophiles there, and then an outstanding DIY guy up in Moses Lake, but you would never know about any of them except through the old timers, ham guys, and being lucky.
Lonnie Price
New Member
Hello all. I am pleased to say that these are not unicorns and they indeed exist as I own them. I will provide a little back story on the set. They belonged to an organist named Leo Christophersen, perhaps "on" for those wanting to research more. He made his mark writing Code for Tandy. If anyone remembers TRSDOS and the trs80. This guy was a genius. I bought his Rogers 900 organ, these, about 20 pair of the approximate 80 pair of other high end speakers and the amplifiers he was using. For now we will focus on the RTR's and the Rogers.. He had the organ midi'd and amped to voice each pipe section individually.. yes there were that many amps and speakers. I will focus on the RTR's.
The RTR's were wired up to a carver TFM-55. The amplifier was one of a pair that had been worked over by Carver to match. The organ sat unused for a time after Leo's passing for approximately a year. AN estate company got ahold of the estate and It was all I could do to keep most of the virtual organ together. When we got to sorting and finally running them up, one VC was open on one woofer. We tossed them out on a sale sight as my girlfriend is the true owner and wanted to see what response might arise. We got a ton, some hateful, some helpful. Either way we ponied up a pile of cash, thousands.. for the rescue. The Rogers 900 is a 15-30K$ instrument to give an idea. I drove the organ to an organist in Estes Park, Colorado from the west over trail ridge planning to bring these to him after repairing them.
For now I run them, with a subbed 18" LF driver bolted on a baffle bolted into the factory mounting. Incredible to say the least. Even "lopsided". The 24" woofer is certainly amazing. I have heard Patricians amped by Capehart WE Brooks 2a3 amps and I can tell you they are formidable in comparison even with my whimpy Mcintosh MC250. I don't know which speaker is rarer, but the 2500's in my system are staying until they are back to restored and perfect. I have for two years been trying to find a tech to perform the repair.. perhaps this is the year. definitely worth the wait.
24" diaphragm, 11# ALnico V, 6" vc on what appears to be a hard plastic of some sort. By size looks like schedule 40 pvc.. huge scale. Full sine butyl surround gives them a ton of excursion. I tamed em back with a MC250 Mcintosh and 112 pre. These speakers actually came with a warning label about the LF reproduction. PS. They are all in one cab. The top and bottom are one piece. I estimate them at 200# each.
The RTR's were wired up to a carver TFM-55. The amplifier was one of a pair that had been worked over by Carver to match. The organ sat unused for a time after Leo's passing for approximately a year. AN estate company got ahold of the estate and It was all I could do to keep most of the virtual organ together. When we got to sorting and finally running them up, one VC was open on one woofer. We tossed them out on a sale sight as my girlfriend is the true owner and wanted to see what response might arise. We got a ton, some hateful, some helpful. Either way we ponied up a pile of cash, thousands.. for the rescue. The Rogers 900 is a 15-30K$ instrument to give an idea. I drove the organ to an organist in Estes Park, Colorado from the west over trail ridge planning to bring these to him after repairing them.
For now I run them, with a subbed 18" LF driver bolted on a baffle bolted into the factory mounting. Incredible to say the least. Even "lopsided". The 24" woofer is certainly amazing. I have heard Patricians amped by Capehart WE Brooks 2a3 amps and I can tell you they are formidable in comparison even with my whimpy Mcintosh MC250. I don't know which speaker is rarer, but the 2500's in my system are staying until they are back to restored and perfect. I have for two years been trying to find a tech to perform the repair.. perhaps this is the year. definitely worth the wait.
24" diaphragm, 11# ALnico V, 6" vc on what appears to be a hard plastic of some sort. By size looks like schedule 40 pvc.. huge scale. Full sine butyl surround gives them a ton of excursion. I tamed em back with a MC250 Mcintosh and 112 pre. These speakers actually came with a warning label about the LF reproduction. PS. They are all in one cab. The top and bottom are one piece. I estimate them at 200# each.
Lonnie Price
New Member
Hey thanks. I have had some pretty unique projects come through the last few years. These were love at first sight. I couldn't bear to see them fall in the wrong hands. The MC250 I use to run them was one of the amps from the buy. It is a super low serial first run. They are something else. The top arrays are incredibly transparent.
damacman
Resident Psycho
Lonnie - I'm sure glad that you found this thread. Leo is the very same gentleman that I spoke with via Email many years ago. It's a good thing that I saved all of the photos from his web site! Sorry to hear of his passing. That's kind of what I figured happened when I saw the speakers listed for sale.
Wild Man David Miller of Speakerworks in Tulsa, OK purchased all of the speaker parts when RTR shut their doors. Until about 5 years ago, he actually had a pair of new in box 25" woofers. He purchased two pair originally from RTR and hung onto one pair for posterity. So, he's the guy to get your dead woofer back operational. Here is a link to his web site - http://www.speakerworkstulsa.com/ Tell him Tony from AZ referred you. David is a great friend.
Keep us all posted on how things go and Welcome to Audio Karma!
Lonnie Price
New Member
Right on! I will look him up. Yeah I personally transported the organ and all the pipe speakers to an organist in Estes Park. I tried to get everything I could but the estate company had a coach piecing it out. It was a pain in the wallet to get what I did. I really tried to keep the whole system intact. There were two huge apple towers running to monitors and amps, processors, effects.. a 10' 2k$ theater screen. pretty hard to describe. The whole house became the instrument is the best I can say.
damacman
Resident Psycho
This is one of those - you had to see it in person to grasp it - kind of things. Kind of like the home in Grand Rapids, MI that was home to a giant pipe organ that sold recently . . .
Welcome to AK, Lonnie!
