• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

Radford studio 270/2

Nomolos

Nomolos

New Member
Howdy y'all!

First ever AK post after a long time lurking :)

I was offered to buy a pair of Radford studio 270/2 (Mint) but can't find any real reviews and even specs are not exactly available.

Wanted to see if any of the AK gurus have any ideas/opinions/experience/data that you'd be willing to share with me.

Thanks in advance!


P.S I plan to drive them with Sansui 9090db.
 

Attachments

  • Radford1.jpg
    Radford1.jpg
    32.2 KB · Views: 93
  • Radford3.jpg
    Radford3.jpg
    31.4 KB · Views: 83
  • Radford2.jpg
    Radford2.jpg
    30.3 KB · Views: 82
  • Radford4.jpg
    Radford4.jpg
    31.8 KB · Views: 88
Register to hide this ad
This is all I could find, from a Canuck Audio listing for a pair they had for sale:

"These are the famous RADFORD STUDIO 270 omnidirectional loudspeakers. They use 9 drivers per enclosure, including 12 inches woofers, and present a very easy 8 Ohms load for amplifiers (50 Watts).

Designed and produced by Radford Audio,England,they were imported and assembled by Audiorama in Montreal.

. . . light walnut cabinet and black metal grilles . . . . litz wiring was used throughout and all drivers membrane lining protected with a silicone coating."

Considering that Canuck claims that these speakers are "famous," you would think there would be more information available. And there is . . . somewhere.

Based on visuals alone, they seem to be quite serious speakers, and I'll bet they are.

Are you able to audition them before purchasing? The Canuck Audio advertised price was $575.00 Canadian.

GeeDeeEmm
 
Hey GDM - thanks for this!! amazing how little there is about these..

I am going to audition them later today. Owner wants almost 1K US and claims they were sold for 10K back in the day. (any way i will need a better deal to consider...)

Hopefully more information will become available in the next few days to go along with my "first ear" experience :)

Thanks again man!
 
Found some more info here: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/uk.rec.audio/8K-P8-2EF5I

Contacted the people involved in the discussion via social media and hope to get some discussions going :)



"From the dimensions you give, they must be the Radford Monitor 11
12inch bass driver, 3inch mid unit, 1 3/8 tweeter and 3/4inch super hf
Impedance 8-12 Ohms. Price (1971) was UKP 60.

Radford Acoustics was a part of Radford Electronics, who built very good
valve amplifiers about the same time. The STA25 was their best amp. I
have one of these, and also the STA100. They were very highly regarded,
and used in many studios and broadcast installations in the UK. The
company closed mid 80's when Arthur Radford died.

>Thanks very much for the info. Am I right in thinking that there are 5
>spkrs. per cabinet or are there 4 as you seem to say in your post.

There was in fact a Radford speaker known as Monitor 180/50 which had
five units. a 12inch bass driver. two mid range units of 4inches each
and two 1 inch tweeters. Its physical dimensions were 30x13x10. It cost
UKP 72 in 1973. Could this be the one?

One little additional piece of useless data. Radford were based at
Ashton Vale in Bristol. Until recently, one of their designers was
still in business under his own flag but he has now retired."

and this:

"These are the Monitor 180 speakers as Iain has noted. The drivers are the Radford
BD25Mk.II woofer and a pair of their 2way mid-high modules. The Monitor 90 had one
module, the Monitor 270 had three of the modules and the Monitor 360 had 4. The woofer is
loaded by a transmission line enclosure of increasing size going from the Monitor 90 to
the 360."
 
Thanks for this Radioactive. Do you feel the low end on your 90's are lacking a bit of coherency and detail?

Auditioned these suckers - mids and highs we're spot on! really easy on the ear and great detail. Not sure if it was the room/way the speakers were situated but the low end sounded a bit muddy and all over... Any additional information and personal experience with the Radford 270/2 would be great.
 
Nomolos said:
...Auditioned these suckers - mids and highs we're spot on! really easy on the ear and great detail. Not sure if it was the room/way the speakers were situated but the low end sounded a bit muddy and all over...
Click to expand...

Important question: how did the owner have his tone controls set? Loudness button? Equalizer in circuit? Do you remember what kind of gear he was using to audition the speakers?

None of these are the devil incarnate, but if they are misused, they could have easily been responsible for the aberrant low frequency behavior.

GeeDeeEmm
 
gdmoore28 said:
Important question: how did the owner have his tone controls set? Loudness button? Equalizer in circuit? Do you remember what kind of gear he was using to audition the speakers?

None of these are the devil incarnate, but if they are misused, they could have easily been responsible for the aberrant low frequency behavior.

GeeDeeEmm
Click to expand...

Pre Amp - Conard Johnson PV5
Amp - Musical Fidelity A3.2 CR
No EQ or Loudness.

The room was a bit odd, one of the speakers had a wall on it's side, the other had a hallway. Thing is some music (more pop hip hop) sounded pretty good and other (prog rock, oldies) was all over the place.
 
Well, since my Smiley-Faced Equalizer theory is in shambles, I'll have to go with your suspicions about room placement. Those speakers just seem to have an air of quality about them that causes me to think that they were built correctly and should perform correctly.

GeeDeeEmm
 
gdmoore28 said:
Well, since my Smiley-Faced Equalizer theory is in shambles, I'll have to go with your suspicions about room placement. Those speakers just seem to have an air of quality about them that causes me to think that they were built correctly and should perform correctly.

GeeDeeEmm
Click to expand...
Right. It's a big leap of faith... they are pretty massive and quite costly for me to just introduce them in to my (family's) life.

Then again....
 
As for the price of them I have no doubt that they probalay cost close to 10000 originally as my s90's were $3000.
As for what to pay I have no idea of what to offer but definitely not 1000 usd.I paid $200 for each pair of my s90's
 
Yep, feels steep.

I'm also looking at Vandersteen model 2 and KEF 104/2...

Will report back.
 
Last edited:
Hey folks,

Very glad I stumbled into this thread... was wondering if of you here are familiar with British made Speaker maker Radford Studio 12 sls.3??? Or with Radford in general. How would you describe them, are they worth buying as collection. With which Brit maker of those era would you compare them to: Spendor / B&W / Celestion / etc.. etc..?

Any feedback on these specific one would be very much welcome as I googled but nothing much is out there.

I'm about to maybe put my hands on a pair of Studio 12 SLS.3 and I'm intrigued

Cheers ;-)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom