Koss 76 manual Castle Richmond, Summing It Up…, Price C$799

CASTLE RICHMOND 3I

The violins were first to tip us off and cry for mercy. Once we found the right compromise the Richmonds surprised us with their energetic sound and the coher- ent way they made sense of Beethoven’s complex orchestration. The music was, by turns, lyrical and lively. The stereo image was precise, each orchestral sec- tion well anchored in space. Well…space is perhaps the wrong word, because the depth was all but absent.

We were in the mood to make this speaker work hard! We turned to a DVD-A of the Ray Brown Trio’s Take the ‘A’ Train (from Soular Energy, Hi- Res HRM-2011). Through such small speakers this recording should have been unrecognizable, but that’s not what happened. Brown’s powerful bass was surprisingly lively and rhythmic, though of course we heard the slap of the strings more than the resonance of the instru-

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So here’s Castle again…with a new Canadian distributor, but then again new ownership too. Castle was founded many years ago by a

group of former Wharfedale executives, who had left when the aptly-named Rank organization had bought Wharfedale. Those execs are now retired, and Castle was bought by…a group of Wharfedale execs. Plus ça change…

This very small and inexpensive speaker is very much a Castle, though. Notice the 13 cm carbon fibre woofer (with a cast metal basket, which of course you can’t see), and the “upside down” configuration. Notice the subtle shape of the Skipton castle pressed into the soft dome tweeter face plate. Notice the fine finish, brighter in the centre, darker at the edges. Inhale the furniture oil while you’re at it.

Then look at the rear for the cheap plastic binding posts Castle has long used on its economy speakers. Only you won’t find them. These gold-colored posts are better than most.

We set the Richmonds up on our Foundation stands (which cost more than the speakers themselves do), connected them to our Alpha system, and pulled out a few potentially difficult recordings.

The first was our familiar choral recording, but from the SACD version (Proprius PRSACD9093). Albert and

36 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

Gerard had plenty of praise for the great clarity of the choral voices, for the way we could pick them out individually, and yet for the way they hung together. The rhythm was at least reasonable, the recording’s great depth reduced but not destroyed.

And yet not everything was perfect. In one passage the women took on a “honky” tone, and Reine liked neither the male voices nor the counterpoint with the flute. Albert would have liked a little more energy. Turning up the volume helped, but these little speakers are not designed to be run that loud, and we backed off again..

With a large-scale orchestral record- ing (Beethoven’s Symphony No.5, Penta- Tone 5186 102) we realized again how easy it is to run these speakers too loud.

SUMMING IT UP…

Brand/model: Castle Richmond 3i

Price: C$799

Size (HWD): 33 x 17 x 23 cm

Sensitivity: 88.5 dB

Impedance (claimed): 8 ohms

Most liked: Beautifully made, great energy and clarity

Least liked: Very limited depth

Verdict: The Energizer bunny in speaker form

ment body. Pianist Gene Harris really pounds the right side of his keyboard in this piece, and the notes had a decid- edly hard edge. “But that’s the way he plays,” said Albert. Both the bass and the (subtle) percussion kept the swing on track. “What I like,” said Gerard, “was that even when these speakers play too loud and they harden up, they never get blurry or fuzzy. They stay clean.”

We wondered how well they could render the expressive voice of jazz singer extraordinaire Margie Gibson (Say It With Music, Sheffield CD-36). They did more than honorably, with only a touch of hardness here and there, but lots of clarity and expressiveness in the song itself. We liked the sensuous way Gibson glides along a note before settling on its perfect pitch (actually we always like it, but the Richmonds didn’t spoil it). The accompanying instruments — piano, bass and cello — were very good, and their dialogue was coherent and pleasing. “It’s surprising how much you can hear in the background,” said Gerard, “like for instance the piano solo when she hums softly along with it.”

We ended with Victor Feldman’s Secret of the Andes, figuring it might have trouble with a couple of those exotic drums that make up the introduction. If a cabinet is poorly put together, this recording will spotlight it. The Rich- mond wasn’t quite perfect on this test,