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Ram electronics norwich uk

Z

zelda_n64

New Member
Hi All,

I am a lucky owner of a very nice pair of RAM Electronics 150 Monitor speakers.

Ram Electronics were based in Norwich, United Kingdom from 1974 - 1982.

Here is a picture of the 150 Monitor Speakers - how lush.

If you own a pair of RAM speakers or have in the past, please join in, what do you think of the sound quality?

I have had these hooked up to a Sony STR-6055 receiver, that sounds fantastic and also an Acoustic Research A-05 integrated amplifier.
 

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Welcome to the forum Zelda.

I am always excited to learn about new (old?) gear I have not yet or may never get to see first hand. Would be great if you could post several pics here as this will or could become the best thread for RAM Electronics speaker enthusiasts to contribute information.
 
Thanks for the Welcome Audio Fan :)

I would be happy to post pictures of them, so for those interested here are some:

Audax Tweeters
Serial Numbers and handwritten letters showing I believe factory pairing for speaker matching
Another photo of the pair of them together.

If more are required, I will happily take some - although I don't think I want to take them apart.
 

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Zelda n64 what do you think of the midrange sound of the woofer in the Ram 150 speakers?
 
Most RAM speakers used Dalesford bass/mids although I'm led to believe that export versions often used higher quality drivers.
The Dalesford range of drivers were almost copies of equivalent KEF's such as the B200 and B110 with tweeters from Audax for the most part.
I had a pair of RAM Compacts and found them to be a little bass light and too polite, but that was a long time ago and with completly different system so I'd like to try some again one day if the chance comes along.
 
Gary that is true to a certain degree of them being Kef copies.

They were made under the Cambridge/Dalesford name after the company closed in 1983. Mission Electronics bought the tool and die. A & S Speakers marketed them for a short time. I tried to purchase some of the polypropylene D153 that were on back order and never available. Kef never made a 6.5" bextrene cone.
The specs on the Dalesford 5' were much different then the Kef B110.
I have 2 spec sheets that give different specs for the same drivers.

There were oem versions that came in my Fried speaker kits that were nothing like the stock versions. The voice coil mh on my 6.5' are .5mh. I was told they had thinner cones. They also had larger magnets and extended pole pieces compared to the stock versions. They also have a higher sensitivity.

I have corresponded with Jerry at Falcon Acoustics and a few others to find out more about the history of the company. Radford used some of their drivers in their line of speakers.
 
@ sm19422,

Sorry for the late reply.

I set the speakers up properly on Friday night to an Acoustic Research A-05 amplifier.

Not knowing what to put on I hooked up a Dual CS 5000 turntable with stock cart and a Arcam Alpha CD palyer. The system used all original interconnects and teh original speaker wire from the 1970's - so no expense spared there :).

To be honest, with CD and Vinyl - I was totally blown away with the whole sound. There were sounds coming out of the tweeter that I hadn't heard before and the depth of bass was just like having a sub-woofer in the room.

The whole room was alive with sounds that I hadn't heard through other speakers that I have owned. As no one else was home and the neighbours were out, I decided to turn it up, about 11 o'clock on the volume control - all other settings were flat and boy were they pumping.

I am no audiophile, but these speakers did not sound from the 1970's, they handled modern dance music in the name of a group called Schiller to old school late 1970's punk, from Mike Oldfield Tubular Bells to JMJ Aero.

What got me, was the way these speakers threw out the sound - you could nearly see the layers as the sounds entered your ears and you could nearly tell the type of studio they were recorded in. For instance - Flogging Molly (CD), this was recorded straight at you and it came out of the speakers straigh at you, there was no thowing the sound to the left or right - it was like they were all crowded in a small room when recording.

On the other hand - Aero (I know you really can't compare), but the sounds were high up in the air, down on the floor, way over to the left and way over to the right, straight at you at at the same time. And did that sound just wicked - loud.

As you can see, I am no pro, I am not an expert - these speakers have to be heard to be believed - perhaps with better interconnects and speaker cable they will again sound even better, but they knock socks off of my NAD amp and Bose speakers and they also walk all over my Friends B & W floor standers.
 
I am not sure who made the RAM compact woofer. The Dalesford bextrene cones were highly praised in their day. A few articles in Speaker Builder about their sound far surpassing the Kef and Audax bextrene cones. One reason I asked Zelda n64 his opinion of their sound. Good listening to your Ram 150 speakers.

Just saw this on ebay a pair of stock D153. Most of the times they come up it's in the U.K.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dalesford...omeAudioHiFi_HiFiSpeakers&hash=item3a7258777b
 
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The SGD what speakers did the D153 come from? Did you ever have any of the oem versions? The stock D153 have the 93mm magnet and the Fried version were 102mm magnet and 33mm long pole piece. I wonder if any companies still use Feroba 2.
 
ooo

well i dont think anyone uses feroba 2 on the basis of price, AlNiCo is fancied at the moment and feroba isnt, thats fashion i suppose.

they came from a pair of knackered cabinets from a car boot sale. You dont have them in the USA so imagine 'The Hoff' in a field, selling the contents of his loft/basement out of the back of KIT, due to the demands of a 'loving' wife, for cash to anyone willing to buy. times that by 200-300 and you have a car boot sale.

anyway the speakers were kits and the tweeters were sadly knackered (coles 3000k as well!). i regularly come across dalesford (and ram speakers), both are excellent. i dont think dalesford ever made any rubbish, absolute leagues ahead of KEF. but then KEF made their own speakers and Dalesford didnt.

let me know if you want me to keep my eyes out for anything particular.
 
Thanks for the info The SGD. Many U.K. Kef users over the years have put down their construction. The Dalesford drivers with foam rubber surrounds never made their way to the U.S. Do you know if the Kef bextrene used Feroba2 ? I built a number of speakers using the Audax bextene in the early 80's and the magnets on those were a different color. So I would think it was a different material. Very few people left that know of the defunct company.

I was told by a speaker reconer that mine have underhung voice coils. Jerry at Falcon thought it was beyond the company to manufacture underhung voice coils?

I have had to reglue the surrounds to the frame on mine but no big deal. I think anyone who purchased the Fried kits with oem Dalesford are probably still using them.
 
i always thought dalesford were quite well made, i certainly have never had a broken one. they dont get top dollar on the used market but that is no indicator of quality.
 
I've had 2 pairs of Dalesford 'D' speakers and they used different construction methods, internal wadding and crossovers yet neither were marked as mark 1 or 2 and their serial numbers were only a few 100 different.
And they sounded totally different! The first pair were like JR149's/ LS3/5a and the second pair forward sounding, little bass and ill defined tizzy treble.
Same bass drivers in both but a different version tweeter in the first pair.
Both had the slowly detaching bass driver cones requiring re-gluing to the baskets.
The pair of RAM's I owned also suffered with the glue starting to fail on the bass driver cone to basket join, odd as I've seen reference to this before but only with Dalesford drivers!
 
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I recently found out that Dennis Jaeger was the Dalesford distributor and Sonkit dealer in the USA back in 1980. He did not think the driver specs from the company were very reilable.

At least the surrounds have not dry rotted like foam rubber on other drivers.
 
Used to be involved with marketing RAM Loudspeakers WWide.

The really clever guy was Vince at Norwich who was both a very knowledgeable and a real gentleman who always had time for everyone. He is on one of the forums occasionally, but can't remember which one.

Of all the models, the 150 was the most versatile, including the 200 which was meant to be more of a Spendor BC1 competitor than a Kef 104AB (never their best IMO). The range competed against and surpassed many models from Audiomaster through to Wharfedale.

Selling 150s was a doddle, it performed well with just about any combination you could throw at it and was my favorite, both to listen through and to sell. The 200 was always too bloated on the bass for me. The 100 was also a great little speaker and very underated, pretty much the same d units but without the ABR.

I think I still have a sales brochure filed somewhere if interested. The passing of the company was sad to relate.

Regards
Pete
 
I seem to remember these Ram speakers get good reviews by "What HiFi?" magazine back in the day.

Lee.
 
Bogle111 was it a coincidence that the RAM closed after Dalesford closed who sourced some of their drivers?
 
sm19422 said:
Bogle111 was it a coincidence that the RAM closed after Dalesford closed who sourced some of their drivers?
Click to expand...

Ram, as I remember, had a tough time after we relinquished WW marketing rights. It was all too political and costly. RAM themselves tried at marketing themselves. People think that good marketing is cheap, it isn't.

Shortly after, I remember they were bought out by a European (Belgian, I think.) and the marketing was different. I think it is fair to say that there was more co-incidence than knock-on effect of Dalesford and RAM going about the same time. Others like Audiomaster, JPW, etc. all started to fade about a similar time and some of them used Dalesford. B&W, KEF and some other big guns started to get their act together re dealer commitment, and the rest is history.
 
RAM glistening sound

After finding a cherry matched pair of RAM BSM MK2's I have to agree with earlier testimony. The sound image is quite remarkable and I punish them with full range key and piano sounds...I am powering them with a BOGAN Goldseries3 that pushes 60 watts at 6 ohms...Cheers!
 
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