I've been an audio buff for over 20 years, nearly all that time a Fried fan(cult member as some would have it). Fried speakers have been great values, high quality, and easy to live with (my favorite consumer product of all
time, all catagories). The last speakers I bought were Q5's (the next
model up from the Beta) with 8" woofer and larger cabinet. These produce
substantially more bass and give up little imaging (paid $400 for the pair
5 years ago). One of the most amazing speaker available is the model C
with 3/4" tweeter, 6.5" woofer in a very small truncated pyrimadial cabinet
featuring Fried's famous transmission line design. Except for extreme bass
this speaker lacks nothing (and kits used to be available for $500)!

Soundstaging
Bass (for bookshelf speaker)
Good imaging

No major weaknesses

I own the Beta V . They do not have the M.A.R.S. technology. For bookshelf speakers they go fairly low in the bass as compared to the Allison 110. They have very good imaging and a deep and wide soundstage. Due to furnishings and the constraints of my listening room I have them on shelves as opposed to stands as the manufacturer recommends. Probably, I am not getting the most that I can out them due to the positioning. However,what I do get out them I truly enjoy. They go fairly loud in my room and the music sounds natural and full. Unfortunately, the company is out of business and you can no longer obtain these fine speakers in retail outlets. If you find them used in a store or in an auction, and your looking for a small speaker with big sound, I strongly recommend them.

Similar Products Used:

Allison Acoustics AL110

I recently went on a hunt for a pair of good bookshelf speakers for a professional musician friend of mine. Considering that even great NYC Jazz musicians make squat, he was looking in the price range of around $400-500. He already had a Jolida 302A and was looking for a good quality match.(considering the sound quality of the JoLida there was no way that we were going to cut corners on the speakers, even in our price range we figured there must be something out there) I took my friend all around NYC. We went to Sound by Singer and many other high-end stores that aren't as well known. We tried the B&W 602's(both found the sound to be sizzely on top, very unnaturally colored in the mids and uncontrolled on the bottom....not to mention no depth in the sound stage!) Needless to say it was not a very musical speaker and we scrapped it immediately. We then tried the NHT 1.5s. They were a more neutral, better step from the 602's, but still the music didn't sound right. with the 1.5's the music sounded dry and even stale. The cymbols were tinny and the bass was non-existant.

We then tried others in this pricee range like the Legacy Mini-Monitors, Phase Technology 5T's and many others that aren't even worth the mention. To tell you the truth the PT's were not too bad. They were the closest thing we found to a musically pleasing and neutral speaker until the Frieds(that's pronounced 'Freed'). My friend still wasn't content with the PT's sound and felt that he wanted to wait until he could afford another few hundred to spend on something he actually liked like the JMLabs Micron Carats or (dreaming of course) the Audio Physic Steps :-)

I then was then later talking with a dealer in Michagan about our delema and he said that we should try the Fried Beta VI's that he sells. He said that if my friend didn't like them he could send them back for a full cash refund! I figured we couldn't lose so I gave the Fried Beta VI's a shot. The price on them was also just right, retail was $480 and we made a deal for $350 shipped!

I had them sent to my place first to see how they would compare to my Apogee Stages(very neutral on the mids and highs). Right out of the box I could tell that these were not your average $480 speaker. The Beta's cabinets were beautiful and of definate quality. Their cabinets are entirely a glossy black color with rounded side corners for less cabinet resonance.
They were pretty good on the knuckle wrap test and the binding posts were actually gold plated with gold plated tightening bolts! I tested the Beta VI's with everything from my $5000 OTL amp to the McCormick DNA 0.5. Being very critical I did see some flaws besides the limmited bookshelf bass extension. The highs were a little soft(probably due to the soft dome tweet) and there was a little leaness in the lower mids. Despite these minor flaws let me enlighten you to this little speakers strengths. For $480 retail I was truely impressed!(which is not an easy task)The low level detail in the highs and mids were wonderful. This little guy was capturing almost all of the ambiance and subtleties of the music. It was quick, tight and for its size it actually produced a reasonable amount of solid bass (~48Htz). One other thing that I have to mention that the Beta did better than any other speaker that we auditioned was soundstageing! It threw a wide (about three feet to the left and righ of the speaks) deep soundstage(about as deep as my rear wall ~6') with solid, realistic imaging. I again was floored by the hi-end qualities of this mid-fi priced speaker.
Needless to say they were a match made in heaven for my friend's JoLida. He was so excited about the sound and price of the amp, he took me out to dinner for my troubles(even though I enjoyed the adventure probably as much as he did).

I took so much time and effort explaining this to you because I feel when a company is doing something well and is also making the product affordable, everyone should bennifit from it. The more people who hear about (and actually hear) this little speaker the better.

I highly recomend anyone that is interested in either straight audio or home theatre and is looking for a speaker in a price range under $800 should give these little Frieds a try. If you are having a hard time finding a dealer just give me an e-mail (dsw127@psu.edu) and I will be happy to give you the number of the dealer that gave my friend the in home trial and good price.

The star rating is in terms of value for sound quality.


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