Journey of starting a hobby speaker company!

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iQ Speakers

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Had a busy couple of days, Macspur of this parish came for dinner last night after a stay in Cheltenham, we had a busy evening of CD playing and beer and wine drinking!, hopefully he will share his thoughts when he arrives home latter.

This morning I had a demo, a chap from Wolverhampton who's Electro ECI-3 whent pop replaced with Quad Pre power but didn't like it. Googled Electro came across Abrahamsen and then iQ. He bought a Abrahamsen V40 Power amp! But was blown away with my S2 speakers. He assured me they were far better than his Sonus Faber Venere 2.5 Speakers and would order a pair as soon as his redundancey came through! He was blown away and we all had a few enjoyable hours shareing each others music and they even passed the wife test! Im well happy.*clapping*
 

Macspur

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Earlier this week it was my birthday so my darling wife decided to take me away for a couple of days. She left the location up to me, so I thought what better than visiting a lovely town like Cheltenham Spar and at the same time get to meet Boggit after all this time.

Of course whilst visiting Mr B and his lovely family, thanks for a fine dinner Mrs B, I just had to take the opportunity to hear the IQ speakers for myself.

Dinner completed, we ajurned to the listening room and left the long suffering wives to chat and my hound Henry to get to know the cats.

Fortunately we have similar taste in music so I knew it was going to be a pleasure what ever I thought of the kit.

I brought a few CD's along with me to try out the Abrahamson CDP. We started off with Ruby the RabbitFoot "New Is Due" spinning on the CDP, plugged into the Abrahamson V20U, hooked up to the smaller M1TLM floor standing IQ speaker.

They were good, but no comparison to my Harbeth SHL5 and nor should they be for the price... a very accurate sq, but a little on the bright side for me.

However, Mr B then swapped them out for the S2TLK's in Santos Rosewood and the upgrade in SQ was immediate... a much more natural sound with greater dynamics, scale and crystal clear resolution without the brightness of the smaller M1's. The base was immense and superbly controlled by the V20U.

I would have to do a side by side demo between my Harbs and the S2's to make a fair comparison, but what I will say if I was looking for a quality HiFi set up and that includes the Abrahamson gear, at a very attractive price, I wouldn't look much further.

Mac

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iQ Speakers

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Morning, Cheers Mac. I guess one of the reasons to start all this was to get more involved in this Audiophilic passion of ours and its certainly working! Next up Mac was comparing his £6K Accuphase 3.7K Electro EMC1UP and 3K Harbeths to £899 V20UP £599 V1.0 CD £1399 S2 speakers not a bad result i suppose? I guess if Mac has to stop and consider SQ compared to his kit and not dismiss it straight away it must be reasonable.

As for the M1's I like there immence accuracy. When i bought them it was boarder line to room size if the S2TLK would be to much. And yes they are OK for the room. You can tune the trebble by altering one resistor in the crossover IPL will supply 2 more resistors to either increase or reduce the treble, bass can be altered by adding or reducing long haired wool in the back of the cabinet, be warned, cats love this stuff and will deposit all around the house!

@Drummerman Not done a side by side test yet but the guy who demoed it yesterday to replace his Electrocompaniet ECI3 bought one! As they "The say proof is in the pudding" "Put your money where your mouth is"
 

drummerman

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It was very tempting (as was a certain s/h ADM which I believe you bought) but I am ultimately very happy with I have and would change speakers first rather than amplification.

I have great mains, interconnect and speaker cables so am sorted there (Hi TrevC, Anderson etc) :)

You got quite a little business going there now Boggit. Speakers, amplification, source.

Perhaps you could have your own cables made to spec and offer an upgradet internally re-wired version of your Transmission Lines? - Add a room treatment service and you're completely sorted :)

Going completely barmy, what about teaming up with Martin and Ash and see if they would consider making you an amplifier/receiver/activeXover module to offer an active version? - There are, I believe, rumours that AVI is slowly stopping production of complete speakers. I may be wrong there but that would enable them to continue to be involved without the headache of sourcing drivers, cabinets etc.

The world is your lobster
 

iQ Speakers

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Oh I see, i put a request and he offered them, the Chap was a gentleman and they are immaculate. I draged those out for Mac to listen to as well but by that stage I think we all had to much wine, my dem room was carnige in the morning! Your more than welcome to come over and have a play, no sales pitch i promise.

Both Abrahamsen and IPL offer cables but as I dont really belive in them It would be hypocritical!

Internally i use this from IPL its incedibally tough! A single core cable using 19 strands of 0.29mm SILVER PLATED HIGH PURITY COPPER with a conductor area of 1.4mm and a PTFE dielectric. This cable is ideal for ; internal wiring of amplifiers, and speakers, and can be used to make a very high quality speaker cable .(WHENEVER USING HU1 always solder right up to the insulation to avoid cable fraying)

Yes its all going pretty quikly considering I had to buy a new tel number as my business partner called to say are you having a sale as he had 3 calls and only one rang my mobile. As to Ash, i was supossed to go for a visit, you never know and they are local!! Build quality and finish are superb and yes they seem to be on the edge of retirment The dark side beckons.
 

iQ Speakers

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Im glad you do, I had to unpack them and hook them up. I quiet liked them. Though not the holy grail. But for what they are and cost I think they are brilliant.
 

iQ Speakers

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Following a demo of my S2TLK I rang Graham (who drove from Kent) to discuss, I knew he was impressed with the sound. Graham runs Bryston pre and power, into Spendor A19 speakers and has also demoed FACT8 speakers. He has also built his own speakers in the past and is a builder by trade. I guessed he was less than impressed by the finish of the Santos Rosewood S2's and i was right!, he said he would of bought them there and then if the finish was better, which I already knew and he's right. a) The real veneer is a ****** to cut and you have to make bookmarks to get the pattern. b) My carpenter tried iron glue sheets which did not work very well.

So I have found a source of engineerd veneer that looks fantastic and other speaker manufactures use. It comes in 8' x 2' sheets is flat and suple, no joining required. Ive offered to build a pair in this and if Graham is not entirely happy, pay his petrol money from Kent!

So on we go, on we learn. But just shows the sound is there to an amazing degree! They are £4500 speakers he our to!

As to the AVI's I installed for my mum this weekend, they are very good and she is pleased as punch. Very simple setup, they lack in ever single area compared with my setup.
 

iQ Speakers

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The latest chapter is a NI chap who took a chance on the Abrahamsen V20UP currently runs Albarry M408 monoblocks 20 years old into Kef Ref 205's, (now to me the Albarry was one of two stand out sounds when i wents to the Bristol show 2-3 years ago along with Heed.) Rang me to say what an amazing amp, so musical laid back but dynamic, and very close to his Albarry's and getting better with 30 hours on it. He also so if anybody wants to listen they are more than welcome he is in Larne NI, and cno, he knows of your reputation!
 

iQ Speakers

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So I have a new cabinet maker with lots of veneer experience. Two sizes of bookshelf's finally made, ready for veneer. Problem with joins showing in paint solved by veneer front and top. Can not wait to hear them sing.

New veneer and specialised glue = easy and perfect finish! Next up is high gloss Lacquer. On one of the bookshelfs.[/b]

A very good May. Made the decision to sell my business and do this full time!

A big thank you to all my supporters and clients who have taken a leap of faith and have helped me to get to this stage. Very exciting times. Really enjoying it!
 

The Mad One

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Colin congrats on taking the leap of faith and turning your hobby into your business.

The Abrahamsen Amps you sell are brill and im still going to get you to upgrade mine to the UP version in the not to distant future just waiting for a price from you for the upgrade i'll give you a ring very soon to discuss.

Then my maybe an upgrade to the IPL speakers.

Good Luck*clapping*
 

Electro

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Fantastic ! *drinks*

I really hope you do well and sell loads of IPL speakers and Abrahamsen equipment because you really deserve to do well , you are one of the good guys that puts others before yourself .

Very good luck to you .*smile* .
 

michael hoy

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iQ Speakers said:
A very good May. Made the decision to sell my business and do this full time!

A big thank you to all my supporters and clients who have taken a leap of faith and have helped me to get to this stage. Very exciting times. Really enjoying it!

All the best with this, you have put a lot into it.
 

Macspur

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Electro said:
Fantastic ! *drinks*

I really hope you do well and sell loads of IPL speakers and Abrahamsen equipment because you really deserve to do well , you are one of the good guys that puts others before yourself .

Very good luck to you .*smile* .
Here! here spot on Electro.
Mac
www.macsmusic.blogbubble.net!
 

jonathanRD

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iQ Speakers said:
A very good May. Made the decision to sell my business and do this full time!

Good luck with this!

What I like is how successful you seem to have been in getting these products into the conciousness of many of us - particularly the Abrahamsen amps. Looking for a new £1000 amp? - its going to be very difficult not to include the Abrahamsen as an option. *smile*
 

iQ Speakers

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Cheers guys its not a done deal yet have to sell my car company and take a gamble. Ordered a 4.5 x 3.5M log cabin will be garden workshop also bought a Vacuum Veneer Press bag system for veneering.

In the minds of everybody? Johnathon not really yet! but would be nice even if they only considered them and to be honest anybody after a £2.5K amp this is where they really score. Plus Electro and others that have bought them helped, but there will be lots of people wandering into dealers paying more for somthing that will not perform so well. Its the sheer quality and price, plus mine and others passion that has made it possible, even with no budget for advertising, we make very small margings on these. Abrahamsen wanted pricing as close as possible to there price.
 

iQ Speakers

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Macspur said:
Electro said:
Fantastic ! *drinks*

I really hope you do well and sell loads of IPL speakers and Abrahamsen equipment because you really deserve to do well , you are one of the good guys that puts others before yourself .

Very good luck to you .*smile* .
Here! here spot on Electro. Mac www.macsmusic.blogbubble.net!
Exactly I had to sit through an Elton John concert for 3.5 hours yesterday miss the Grand Prix all beacuse Mrs Boggit thought it would be an oppurtunity!

PS I can only post on progess as long as I know other people dont find it offensive so cheers.
 

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