Richter shakes market with radical Series 7 Special Editions

Richter Series 7 — (Image credit: Richter - Firefly)

Richter has an earth-shaking announcement: not one new speaker but a four-strong new Series 7, with each model – Excalibur, Wizard, Dragon and standmount Aurora – launching in a ‘Special Edition’ version.

This new Series was conceived “to bridge aesthetic sophistication and acoustic performance”, says the Australian speaker company’s Brian Rodgers. “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 modern living spaces, yet deliver the power, precision, and emotional engagement Richter is known for.”

The development saw Richter’s long-time acoustic engineer Dr Martin Gosnell working closely with industrial designer Adam Hobbs to create a softer, more contemporary form – reducing the visual dominance of traditional large black boxes, while maintaining the integrity of Richter’s sound.

Their solutions include newly-curved cabinet designs, with real Natural Walnut veneers and matching anthracite-grey baffles with optional mottled-grey cloth grilles and “just enough shiny bling to draw your attention”, say Rodgers.

In driver terms the mid-bass drivers are new and improved, with ultra-rigid, lightweight cones in precision-engineered cast alloy baskets, while the bass drivers gain larger voice coils.

But the biggest change is the arrival of a new high-frequency module, the ‘SE Teardrop’, housing a 25mm high-output neodymium-backed tweeter and a new 70mm soft-dome midrange; it is mounted vertically in the floorstanders but pivots sideways in the Aurora standmount design.

In the larger Dragon and Excalibur models, Richter uses the teardrop D'Appolito-style, flanked by the two 6.5-inch mid-bass drivers. This creates a symmetrical "wall of sound" that should disperse widely into the room while retaining the precision of the double domes.

Remarkably, then, the 119cm-high Excalibur requires a 4.5-way crossover network, with dedicated circuits feeding the SE tweeter and mid-dome, while parallel midrange circuits drive the flanking twin 165mm (6½-inch) drivers, supported by a bass-shelf extension design (a dual-chamber tuning system) for the lower twin 6½-inch bass drivers.

The 109cm-high Dragon becomes a 4-way design with bass-shelf extension, and the 101cm-high Wizard a 3.5-way. Even the Aurora standmount becomes a three-way, its crossover splitting between tweeter, mid dome and 165mm mid-bass woofer.

Large mid-domes are rare in this price bracket. They come with both potential advantages and disadvantages. The dispersion pattern more closely resembles that of a dome tweeter, and its frequency response can extend higher than that of a cone, taking more of the workload from the tweeter and moving the crossover to a higher region where the ear is less sensitive. Mid domes can provide a faster, more natural-sounding response for vocals than a traditional cone. The ‘teardrop’ curve may assist in minimising diffraction, while having the tweeter and mid-dome as close together as possible potentially improves phase coherence, creating more stable stereo imaging. Richter emphasises this advantage, promising “superior detail and imaging”.

Downsides of a dome mid includes relatively limited excursion, and the need for a very precise crossover to the tweeter to avoid the mid dome’s break-up frequencies being evident. 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 mid domes are certainly far more expensive to engineer than an equivalent mid-range cone. So kudos to Richter for choosing this path, and we look forward to hearing the results, with Brian Rodgers promising of this 40th anniversary release: “this is Richter at its finest – 40 years in the making!”

Pricing is as follows; stay tuned for reviews – 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

See all our Australian reviews from Sound+Image and Australian Hi-Fi magazines

Jez is the Editor of Sound+Image magazine, having inhabited that role since 2006, more or less a lustrum after departing his UK homeland to adopt an additional nationality under the more favourable climes and skies of Australia. Prior to his desertion he was Editor of the UK's Stuff magazine, and before that Editor of What Hi-Fi? magazine, and before that of the erstwhile Audiophile magazine and of Electronics Today International. He makes music as well as enjoying it, is alarmingly wedded to the notion that Led Zeppelin remains the highest point of rock'n'roll yet attained, though remains willing to assess modern pretenders. He lives in a modest shack on Sydney's Northern Beaches with his Canadian wife Deanna, a rescue greyhound called Jewels, and an assortment of changing wildlife under care. If you're seeking his articles by clicking this profile, you'll see far more of them by switching to the Australian version of WHF.

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