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Does anyone remember a speaker company called Phase research? (1 Viewer)

Tim Stumpf

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This is my first post. I've been lurking for about a month and acutually was able to make decisions about what speakers to purchase for my small HT after reading these forums. Great information. My question is does anyone out there remember a speaker company called Phase Research? I bought a pair of their tower speakers around 1980 and I have always loved the way they have sounded. I heard somewhere that the factory burned down and the company was sort of scattered to the wind. If you have ever heard these speakers, what did you think of them? I guess I'm trying to validate a decision I made 20 years ago. I was wondering if I could still trust my ears. They sound great with recently purchased equipment.
 

Craig Chase

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I actually sold Phase Research speakers next to Infinity and Bose from 1980-1981... They were excellent... a mini-tower (or big bookshelf depending on who you asked...) and a full tower... both two way with transmission line bass, 8 inch bass drivers... and 1 1/4 in softdome tweeters...

They were fantastic... I sold my towers to a coworker in 1988, and in 2000 he still had and loved them...

Great bass ... nice !
 

padg

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John
I remember them. gr8 speakers! I had a pair of the 2-way floor standers model RT. Tweeters were super heavy and made in Switzerland, 8" long throw woofer with a seriuos transmission-line bass. Mirror imaged, phase aligned; these speakers blew away much more expensive ones. Played deep, tight bass; great mids and highs. I heard the same as you about what happened to the company. Shame, really. Did you know all components in their crossovers were hand-selected and impedance-matched specifically for the particular driver going into the cabinet, ie slight variations in speaker characteristics were accounted for so all Phase Research's speakers were consistent. Impressive. Wish I still had mine, but the butyl rubber surrounds wore out and I never did replace the woofers... wish I had of though.
The taller 3-way system had either the tweeter or mid-range sitting atop the cabinet and was the model RT/A.
 

Martino

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Martin O.
"I was wondering if I could still trust my ears. They sound great with recently purchased equipment."

With any speaker, always let your ears be the judge. If you are happy with them, then you made the correct decision. I'm glad you got so many years of good use from your purchase.
 

Audiophile54

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Frank
hi,
am new to the forum and was surprised to see someone still talking about phare research speakers. phil clements is the name of the designer of these superb speakers, i owned a pair of the little-d's, and now own a pair of the towers, model rt. i have friends in NYS who still own alot of phils speakers and not one has ever been sorry they bought them over the major names of those times back in the late 70's, early 80's. for anyone who still owns them, phil gave us one recommendation to keep them sounding as good as the day you bought them. every 6 months unscrew the woofers and turn them 180 degree's in the screwholes, as gravity tends to make the magnets of the voice coil eventually sag, and rub in the assembly. doing this every 6 months makes them last years longer and keeps the sound quality of them as new as possible. i also know the rep who used to sell phils speakers, but i have not been in contact with him in the years since i left NYS. the last i heard phil went out of business after designing the followups to his phase research company, calling them clements loudspeakers. if you're able to find phil and he still designs and sells speakers, buy them! you will find nothing that can match them in quality and sound for 3 times the money. my last contact info for him is:
Philip Clements
3450 W Baylor Ln
Chandler, AZ 85226-7600
President of Clements Loudspeakers

the url link i have is no longer active, but if you want to save it in case it once again becomes available it's :
Clements-prc.com
 

padg

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John
Just got off the phone w/ Phil Clements @ Solus Audio and he said he thought he'd have a new spin on the old Phase Research RT-7's probably available in the fall. Yee ha!
 

padg

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John
should be www. solusaudio.com don't know why link isn't working at present.
 

bruceif

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Bruce
I learned more about Phase Research in the past 10 minutes than I have in decades. I had a pair of rt's I believe. I loved them. I must have bought them around 1975. Was testing a cassette deck through the speakers and bought both. A very natural sound. Closing your eyes, you couldn't tell how big they were (as a friend pointed out). Now I know why. I also now know what happened to the company.


Unfortunately, my pair were stolen from storage after I shipped them to Massachusetts from California. That was over 20 years ago. I still miss them. My replacements are okay (Heybrook), but don't match up.

Thank you for all the information. I will look up Phil Clemens.
 

cordroad

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Tim
Wow, I couldn't believe I found some folk that know about Phase Research speakers. I have a pair of 2 ways marked ARxxxx and BRxxxx, think the woofers are 8". I bought them new in 1980 so my memory is a little fuzzy. The surrounds of the bass drivers went bad about 10 years ago so I had them redone. I've always liked their tight bass and clean highs.
 

nadtwins

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nadtwins
After way to long I am putting together a stereo - home theater system. way back in college (1980) I had a pair of Phase Research speakers which i played the hell out of man where those speakers great!!!!!!!!!! I had them hooked up to a little NAD3020 with Thorns turntable cant begin to tell you how many hours were spent with those things blasting! Any way I was looking to buy a pair (or two or three) for what I am doing now what a disappointment that I cant!
 

MrCreosote

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Tom Hoo
Old thread but Timeless Topic.

Yes I do.

I have (4) of the 6" 2-way transmission line towers. A buddy of mine in West Palm Beach FL would buy and sell audio/video stuff and found a pair and I bot them from him. Then he found another pair and I bot those too.

I've had Apogee Stage, Acoustat 2_2, Magnepan MGII, B&W 801, 801F, DM6 and the PR's totally smoked them all for imaging - they were so impressive I played just about every record I owned again to hear what happened.

To say the drivers were "time aligned" is an understatement - they were tuned by a Mad Scientist:
  • Top case was a tunnel with no baffle
  • The tweeter had two edges of its circular flange cut back (resulting in a right angle, square shape)
  • The tweeter was supported on a "blade" of vertical wood
  • The tweeter had an upward tilt of maybe 5 degrees.
  • Top case was set back about 2" from the bottom case
  • The 6" woofer protruded its baffle by about 1" - they used a spacer with the gaskets
I had to laugh, a friend was over and I said, "Gee, there might be some reflections coming off that exposed 2" inches on the top of the woofer case." So I laid a bath towel on that ledge and it completely detroyed the imaging!

To hear that the crossovers were tuned to the components is of no surprise to me because they sure did tweak the geometry.

They didn't have the deep base with only a 6" but that woofer was so fast you just couldn't not want to hear more.

Only downside was harshness around the crossover frequency.

I compared these with 801's back and forth many times and I always ended up listening to the PR's - the 801's were muddy and didn't image well at all - the soundstage was blurry and boring.

All those speakers I mentioned got sold - mostly because they were big and I was moving and never really had the room - I usually had 4 sets jammed on one wall of my living room so I never had room to spare. But I kept the (4) PR's!

I had to repair 2 tweeters with broken voice coil leads. I do this under stereo microscopes and if it is the "top" wire, there is no problem. If it is the bottom wire, the prognosis is not good. I shudder to think what I'd do if I had to replace a tweeter. And now that I've heard how the crossovers were tuned, it's pretty clear if I lose a tweeter, I'm probably screwed.

Anyhow, I was hoping for more quantitative replies for these amazing speakers.

Mine are still in moving boxes and where I live now, there is no possibility of my using them - but I WILL NOT SELL THEM EVER.

And I've been trying to find info on these on the internet for over a decade and have found NOTHING. What I'd do for a picture! I don't know what model mine are. R or RT maybe???
 

mrfixit0

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ken allen
I still own a pair of these. Just ordered some foam surrounds for them. Apparently I am a great packrat :)

Attached are some of the marketing documents, the original "instructions" as well as the specific sheet for the Phase R. The blurry page is actually a printing misregistration on their flyer (not a scanning issue).

I had relegated them to the garage for many years. I'm resurrecting them since they really were quite decent. The bass on them is perhaps a bit over the top, once properly set up with new surrounds, I'll see how they sound again. Perhaps a bit of damping in the bass port on the back will tighten them up a little, I'll likely use them with a sub anyway if they are brought in from the cold..

I recall spending quite a bit of time looking for speakers when I was young. These were the best sounding speakers I could afford at the time. Perhaps around $500??? I think I bought them new in 78 or so at an audio shop somewhere in the Philadelphia area. Sheesh that was a long time ago! They are actually not in too terrible a shape considering their age. I think the vinyl is intact for the most part. The foam grills are hanging in there reasonably well. Tweeters still unscathed by children's fingers etc.

The post above was quite interesting about rotating the drivers. Makes sense as the spider and surround will eventually succumb to gravity (logically speaking at least - I don't have any measurements or have any notice of that being an issue, but then again until the new surrounds are on, wont' know...)

If anyone has thoughts on who made the drivers: - my original "repair" on the foam surround was not as good as it could have been, so cleaning them up is creating a bit of thin paper at the outter edge of the cone :-/ Hoping the work to clean up the mess and some new surrounds will address everything.
 

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individualist

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Andy Henson
Mr.Fixit - I echo the thanks for the files!
I bought my Phase Research RTs new in 1980 and have owned them ever since. After blowing a tweeter they sat in storage for years until I resurrected them in about 2014. The woofer surrounds had completely degraded and the frames were rusted, but I found an expert to replace the surrounds and repaint the frames. I also found a source for replacement tweeter domes.
These are without a doubt the finest speakers I've ever owned. I drive them with a modernized Dynaco ST-70 tube amp and the imaging is phenomenal.
 

individualist

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Andy Henson
Does anyone have ideas on how to get replacement foam grills for a pair of Phase Research RTs? My foam is pretty bad. I thought about trying to get back in touch with Clements, but I'm not sure that would yield any answers. I spoke to him years back about how to replace the surrounds on the woofers - got that accomplished back in 2014. They still sound outstanding, but I'd like them to look a bit better (and have the foam grills stay put a bit better.
 

individualist

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Andy Henson
Bumping this thread - I'm still looking for replacement foam grills for my Phase Research RTs. I sent an email to Phil Clements but not expecting any joy there... he's moved on to Solus now and Phase Research is in the past. Love my RTs, but the foam grills don't love me back. Any help here?
 

individualist

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Andy Henson
Bumping this thread - I'm still looking for replacement foam grills for my Phase Research RTs. I sent an email to Phil Clements but not expecting any joy there... he's moved on to Solus now and Phase Research is in the past. Love my RTs, but the foam grills don't love me back. Any help here?
Re-bumping this thread... almost 3 years later and I've still not found any replacements for my foam grills. Any help?
 

individualist

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Andy Henson
I finally was successful in getting replacement foam grilles for my Phase Research RTs. A guy in Michigan created a set and while not identical to the originals, they look extremely good and stay put well.

Bob at http://foamspeakergrilles.com

Please tell him that Andy sent you!
IMG_3450.heic.jpeg
IMG_3452.heic.jpeg
 

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