Fried speakers...

[olddude55]

No, not "fried" like in fried eggs, but Fried as in Bud Fried. I've got a pair of Model RII that were given to me several years ago. Needed a tweeter replaced (replaced them both with the proper NOS tweets).
I've used these in my system before but they really sound good now. Seem to be a great match for my turntable if that makes any sense.
Hard to find much about them on the interwebs, mostly I get stuff about other Fried models and, well, uh, fried egg recipes. Anybody else got them, use them, love them, hate them?
Oh, yeah...the rest of the system is as follows: Hafler DH-101 preamp (recapped by me last February), Hafler DH-200 amp (professionally rebuilt just after I got it), Rega Planar 6, AT VM540ML.

 

[nolasally]

My studio IV. Love them.

 

[Miklos]

I've never owned any Fried's but I recall hearing some of them back in the day, early to mid 1970's. He always had models that I would consider "high end". I recall being invited to Mr. Fried's apartment just outside Philly with a few other guys to hear his top speaker offering of the time along with his selection of all the front end stuff.

 

[E-Stat]

No, not "fried" like in fried eggs, but Fried as in Bud Fried.

As a teen, I was amused seeing Irving's frequently used initials - I M Fried.

Sorry to hear that!

 

[sinewaver]

I always read any postings about Fried speakers. I recall many articles about his works in magazines from back then. Bring him up now and you get a mixed bag of reviews. Plenty of detractors and some fans. Little real info to be had. Some call him a huckster and others, a genius. I've collected many of his white papers and find them to be quite informative and well founded in theory. The web is almost devoid of useful / factual data. That said, I do have a pair of Q2's, which I suspect might be from the lower end of his line. They get as much or more use here as any in my collection. I did refoam them and did a careful examination of them at the time. There is a rather close resemblance to Dyna A25's. Dimensions nearly the same, porting and such. A smaller (8") driver is used. I have a pair of A25's and the comparison is more than physical. They sound quite a bit alike. The Q2's seem to have a bit more detail and perhaps not as much bottom end. This is to be expected given the driver compliment. In one of his papers, he stated his aim at a balanced sound and I would concur he succeeded in that. They are quite easy to listen to for hours on end. As always, preferences in speakers is more personal taste than anything. At the SPL's I listen to music at, they check off all the boxes. I doubt if they would impress many people on a first listen. Over my many years I've found that anything that jumps out at you becomes tiresome quickly. There is, currently, an upscale pair of Fried's available locally but quite far out of my budget. In general, these are not often seen.

 

[Andyman]

I was watching an auction today for a set of Rs hoping no one knew what they were or thought they were literally fried...
Well 2 guys knew what they were and they got run up to $140 and over my limit for a curiosity. I love lesser known, great speakers like my AR 10 PIs and Speakerlab S40s.

 

[Wolverine]

Was fortunate to find some Fried Model C’s a couple of years ago and more recently a pair of Signature Series R4’s with a couple of the original drivers with issues. I fixed them up with some replacements until I can eventually find at least an original woofer. Very impressed with them in any case. Here is a pic of them together in my stereo room.

 

[Neck Beard]

I read that Mr. Fried thought that the high roll-off should match the low-end roll-off.......makes sense, perhaps, in terms of balanced frequency output(?).

 

[Nat]

That was a common tenet of loudspeaker design in the early days of hi fi. Gilbert Briggs of Wharfedale advocates for it in his books.
He also approvingly quoted someone (PJ Walker of Quad?) as saying that a good loudspeaker should sound like an open window through which you hear the music.
It makes a good deal of sense - real sound sources as you get farther from them lose both bass and treble (perhaps this is just the Fletcher Munson curve), and I find modern loudspeakers which all aim to go out to 20k, regardless of the low end, bright sounding.