Richter shakes up the market with radical Series 7 Special Editions
Richter has a world-shaking announcement: it is not a new speaker but a new four-power series, with each model – Excalibur, Wizard, Dragon and the standmount Aurora – presenting a ‘Special Edition’ version.
The new series was designed “to combine aesthetic sophistication with acoustic performance,” said Brian Rodgers of the Australian speaker company. “Our brief was clear – to design a speaker you’re as proud to look at as you are to listen to. Speakers that feel at home in today’s living spaces, but deliver the power, precision, and engagement that Richter is known for.”
The development saw Richter’s long-time acoustic engineer Dr Martin Gosnell work closely with industrial designer Adam Hobbs to create a sleek, modern form – reducing the visual dominance of traditional big black boxes, while maintaining the integrity of Richter’s sound.
Their solutions include newly curved cabinet designs, with real natural walnut and anthracite-grey baffles and mottled-grey fabric grilles and “just enough shine to grab your attention”, says Rodgers.
In terms of drivers the mid-bass drivers are new and improved, with strong, lightweight cones in precision-engineered cast alloy baskets, while the bass drivers get larger voice coils.
But the biggest change is the arrival of a new high-frequency module, the ‘SE Teardrop’, featuring a 25mm high-output neodymium tweeter and a new 70mm soft-dome midrange; mounted directly on floorstanders but pivots sideways in the Aurora standmount design.
For the larger Dragon and Excalibur models, Richter uses a teardrop D’Appolito type, surrounded by two 6.5-inch mid-bass drivers. This creates a symmetrical “wall of sound” that should disperse more of the room while maintaining the accuracy of the dual domes.
Unsurprisingly then, the 119cm-high Excalibur requires a 4.5 crossover network, with dedicated circuits feeding the SE tweeter and mid-dome, while parallel midrange circuits drive twin 165mm (6½-inch) speakers, supported by a bass shelf extension design (double 6 ½-inch chamber tuner).
The 109cm-high Dragon is a 4-way design with a bass-shelf extension, and the 101cm-high Wizard is a 3.5-way. Even the Aurora standmount is three-way, its crossover split between the tweeter, mid dome and 165mm mid-bass woofer.
Large mid-domes are rare in this price bracket. They come with both pros and cons. The dispersion pattern is very similar to that of a dome tweeter, and its frequency response can go higher than that of a cone, taking more of the workload from the tweeter and moving the crossover to a higher point where the ear is less sensitive. Medium domes can provide a faster, more natural sounding response than a traditional cone. A ‘teardrop’ curve may help reduce contrast, while making the tweeter and mid-dome as close together as possible improves phase coherence, creating a more stable stereo imaging. Richter emphasizes this advantage, promising “superior detail and image”.
The drop in the dome mid includes limited travel, and the need for a very precise offset in the tweeter to avoid the appearance of a break in the mid dome. Domes are also more prone to power compression under high loads, and may require the woofers to handle higher upper-bass than they would otherwise.
And medium domes are more expensive to engineer than an equivalent medium diameter cone. So we commend Richter for choosing this path, and we look forward to hearing the results, Brian Rodgers promises this 40th anniversary release: “this is Richter at his best – 40 years in the making!”
The prices are as follows; stay tuned for updates – and don’t miss your chance to hear the new range at the upcoming Australian Hi-Fi Show in Sydney, May 1-3!
Richter Excalibur S7SE $9999
Richter Dragon S7SE $7999
Richter Wizard S7SE $5999
Richter Aurora S7SE $3999
