Probably more of a strenght than a weakness, but if these are being used near a Television, order them shielded. They have huge magnets and as the purple spot (permanent) on my T.V. will attest, they can cause damage.

Review of the Rhythm 9500 (Formerly Value project) First let me say that you can’t touch a loudspeaker with the same quality components for anywhere near the $950.00 I invested in the Rhythms. The Scan Speak Drivers employed are often found in speakers in the 6-10k range and the North Creek Crossover networks are in a class of their own. How do they Sound? Fantastic! As several of the other reviewers have pointed out, they do take some time to break in, but after a few weeks they open up and become very detailed and musical with tight quick bass. Although they definitely do not require a subwoofer, I have been experimenting with crossing them over to a powered sub at 70-80hz for home theater and music and it seems to open up the sound of the Rhythms even more (if that’s possible). My next purchase will be a North Creek Sub to replace my Klipsch. The North Creek site has some specifics on integrating the rhythms with a sub. One piece of advice.....when I purchased the Rhythms, I bought the 9500 series. My rational was “how much better could the upgraded Unlimited or Revelator versions really be?” I figured the upgrade was probably an attempt to squeeze a few more bucks from the consumer with minimal benefit. Well... it wasn’t until I ordered and received my new North Creek “Vision” Center Channel speaker with the upgraded crossover and Revelator Tweeter that I realized how much of a difference there was. I would never discourage someone from the 9500’s; these are hands down the best speakers I have ever owned and they sound wonderful (far better than the Vienna Acoustics I replaced) but if you can afford the upgrade, its well worth it. The smoothness and detail of the Revelator tweeter is absolutely astounding! I highly reccomend both the North Creek "Rhythm" and my newest addition the "Vision" Center.

Similar Products Used:

Vienna Acoustics Dalhquist KEF

Very true to the music.

Hmmmmm

Review of North Creek Rhythm system.

In the past, I have been involved in audio for a living in the following ways.
Have had a small company that built near field monitors for recording studios.
Have sold Hi-End audio gear in London.

With this experience, I have been exposed to most of what is on offer out there as far as sound reproduction goes.

As far as systems, I have had a few with amps ranging from Krell, to AR to Aragon and Sumo.
Pre amps from Croft, AR, P.S.
Speakers from Sonus Faber, Kef, Epos.
CD players from Marantz, Sony, Micro-Mega, ext.
Turntables from Pink Triangle, Linn Ect.

My current system consists of the following:

A very modified Sony CD player.
Alpha Core interconnects.
A modified Electronic Tonalities valve Preamp.
Alpha Core interconnects.
A Michael Elliott modified Counterpoint SA-100 / NPS-100.
Alpha Core Speaker wire.
Own design two way floor standing speakers.

Recently, while looking for new speakers, I was getting frustrated.
The problem was one of not being able to find any commercially available system that had the quality of sound I was after at a price I could afford, i.e. under 10K.
Some had some of the qualities, but none had all of the qualities I was after.

Criteria I was looking for, not in order of importance.

Musical Realness:
Natural sounds need to sound real.
Birds need to sound like birds.
Water, clapping, foot stomping, it all needs to sound real.
Voices need to sound like real people. ( Easy to judge, you hear them every day ).
A 40 year old southern woman singing needs to sound like 40 year old southern woman singing, not a 20 year old New Yorker.


Sound Stage:
I like a 3D sound stage that doesn’t really have limits.
It needs to extend beyond the boundaries of the listening room in all directions around the listener.
It needs to be able to do this with focus and separation even on complicated pieces.

The majority of good speakers I’ve listened to can image well in the area behind the speaker but don’t do so well in front of the speaker especially if the image is out left or right beyond the room walls. Most of them seem to also loose focus as the image becomes more distant.
Height is also important and it should not be limited by the room height.

Dynamics:
I like speakers that don’t loose focus, change their tone and compress/ uncompress as the dynamics change.

Range:
Full range.

So, not finding any thing commercially and having sold all my measuring gear, I was left with looking at kits.

I came across a company called North Creek on the web.
Read there bumph, saw that they seemed to have a good grasp on XO design and used drivers I had used in the past and really liked.

The layout of the speaker is a floor standing speaker about 42 inches high, two 7” Carbon impregnated Bass Midrange drivers and a 1” soft dome Tweeter. All the drivers are from ScanSpeak.

One of the things that concerned me was the driver layout. The D'Appolito layout.
I have seen, heard and played with this layout in the past and in two way designs, have not though much of other peoples designs or my own using this system.
Often it’ll posses a forward sound with very odd off access response and phase curves in the vertical plane that has a character of sound I don’t like.

Saying that, I really don’t like three way designs and a normal two way with only one Bass / Mid device cant deliver the dynamics I’m after. Going any larger than a 7” unit is asking for trouble as the mid then gains distortion as the Tweeter either cant come low enough or the Mid / Bass high enough.

Rambling on here.

In the case of the D'Appolito setup used by North Creek, they do something a little different.

The Tweeter they use has a very wide frequency range and can produce good energy at the bottom of its range with out real distortion penalties.
So designing an XO with a low cross point in combination with a trap and phase adjustment at the Tweeters FAR, should result in a very nice treble and upper mid with no phase problems.

The Bass / Mid drivers are then XO’d out low in the frequency response.
The end result is very good dispersion and it gets rid of most of the vertical access beaming that can be an issue on the D'Appolito designs.

The end result is that I though the design of the XO, in combination with the drivers used, components used and cabinet design, if nothing else, wasn’t going to sound any worse then any thing I had already heard, so why not give it a shot.

I ordered the system, built the cabinets to North Creeks speck and installed all the bits a pieces of the kit.

So, how do they sound you might ask ?…

Horrible. Wasted money….That was my first thought.
The upper mid was distorted and the sound stage was hopeless.
My opinion at that point was that the tweeter was being asked to work below its range.

Any way, all speakers need to break in so I left the system playing with an odd cd that has loads of tones and music on it. I left it this way for a few days and did not pay much attention to it.

So, sitting at my computer one day doing some work, I started getting distracted. At first, I did not realize the source. Getting a bit annoyed at being distracted, I gave it a little attention to see what it was.

It was then that I realized that it was music. Yes, music coming from my living room.
No, it did not sound like reproduced music, but real music.
All the tonal balance’s where right and the phases where right. It sounded like music.

The end result is that after about 4 days of 24 hour a day playing , the speaker started to break in, the drivers loosened up and the end result is delightful.

Strings, voices, drums. The imaging. The dynamics. The whole sound package.

I can honestly say that these are the best speakers I have ever heard at any price point with the exception of the very low Bass.
There is no problem with definition, it’s simply that the systems does not produce much energy below 30hz in my room. Saying that, considering they only have two 7” drivers, they do have very good Bass.

The end result is this.
If your seriously after a high end speaker system that has really good components, a really good design and most importantly, reproduces music that sounds like music, build your self a set of these speakers.
If you don’t like building, get some one to do it for you because you will be hard pressed to find a commercially available system that will better these.

Branwell

p.s. Some of my system is a little odd. If interested, visite these sites.

North Creek
http://www.northcreekmusic.com/

Electronic Tonalities
http://www.bottlehead.com/et/et.html

Mike Elliott
http://www.altavistaaudio.com/

Alpha-Core
http://www.alphacore.com/goertz.htm

You can't buy a speaker USED that can play music as well as these. Digs out macro details from recordings, yet top-end is very relaxed (unlike the screechy top-end found in some other high-end speakers), so "bad recordings" are still bearable. Fantastic imaging, dynamics, etc. A speaker that can do justice to rock AND fancy pants audiophile recordings. Bass is impressive for a two-way (MTM)

None, esp. for the price paid!

I spent over two years researching first factory direct savings (ACI, etc), then decided on a kit to save even more money. There are a number of good to great kits out there (BESL, Zalytron, Madiousnd, Selah Audio, etc), so it's not always an easy decision to make. When I found Northcreek Music, I was impressed with George Short's designer pedigree and knowledge of crossover design (the most critical aspect of speaker design, without question!). Long story short, I found a speaker builder who had over five projects in his home, and wanted to sell a couple to make room for his next mega project. He had gone with the budget system. I bought the cabinet and used woofers from him, then ordered an ultimate crossover and a pair of 9700 tweeters matched by Northcreek (the crossover was modified for the 9700). The woofers were broken in at this time (Scanspeak drivers are reputed to need over 100 hours of break-in time to reach max. performance specs). The 9700 tweeters had about 60 hours on them, but when I fired the speakers up, they sounded magnificent! Details I had never found in records and cds before became quite apparent, making me want to stay up all night putting on old albums to see what I've been missing all these years. As the tweeters have burned-in, I've noticed even better imaging, and a slight bit of sibilance with some recordings has vanished. If you build these, give them some playing time to come into their own.

These speakers do all the required audiophile jumping through the hoops sort of stuff you would expect from speakers costing many thousands of dollars: wonderful soundstage (when the recording has it), macrodetails, dynamics. Two things I love about them: A) the top end seems to be quite detailed, but not harsh like I've found in some audiophile speakers. This means that while bad recordings still become apparent (compared to good recordings), they are not unlistenable. My taster runs the gamut from classic rock to punk to experimental music to jazz, some folk, whacky sound effects records, modern composer stuff,spoken word, you name it. These speakers suit my varied taste.

B) They do justice to rock music (!), yet subtle and more detailed music (jazz, folk, classical) are done equal justice. Some speakers are good for more or less one thing, these are well-rounded.

I have enjoyed the imaging magic of Audio Physic speakers in stores, I'm happy to report that these are more than up to the task. They can disappear. A favorite new song is the first track of Radio Head's "Amnesiac" album, imaging and macro-details are scary! (this album is a rock record with wonderful and other-worldly sonics, and it's scary with the Rhythms!)
It can split the sound field down to left, right, center, and various points in-between, as well as height, depth, etc.

Vocals are great, Nick Drake is playing right not, wonderful presentation of voice.

While they may not be SET friendly (not sure of this yet), they played great with 40 watts of tube power, I'll bet 15 watts would do it fine. While it is a 4 ohm load (not always the best for tube amps), I don't think it drops much below 4 ohms. George has told me that many folks who have built this kit are using all-tube set-ups. I'm switching between amps for fun right now, always a tube preamp, then either a solid state or tube power amp. I like it with both, just different flavours.

OK, guess I've gone on enough here, I'm just pleased that I have a speaker that would probably cost at least $5000 to $8000 in the store (if you know anything about audio sales, mark-up is often up to five times original costs!). You should see the crossovers for the Ultimate, jaw dropping! Speakers that cost $4000 dont' have the quality of components used in the Rhythms.

Gear:
Pramp: Audible Illusions Modulas 3 (with NOS 1970's Sovteks purchased from Upscale Audio, if you have this preamp, you must try these!)

Power amps:
tube: Music Reference RM9, Dynaco MKII monoblocks
sand amps: Acurus 200X3, Tandberg 3026 A (am thinking about trying Musical Fidelity AC3R or Monarchy Class A amps. However, I'm pretty happy with the tube amps most, but it's fun to pop in the solid state for tighter bass for some rock stuff)

Turntable: Rega Planar 3 with Rega Exact cartridge (these speakers make me want to try moving coil now, for more details. Also thinking about building a Teres DIY turntable, all acrylic, another DIY bargin!)

CD: Rotel 950 (will upgrade this at some point, either to seperate DAC, or Rega Planet 2000 or Ah! Tjeub 4000)

Bass, imaging, overall quality

none

I've had the Rhythms for about a month now, and I think they're fully broken in. I performed two tweeks that the North Creek manual suggested and both helped the sound of the speaker very well.
These speakers image extremely well and have excellent transparency. The bass, while not all the way down to the last octave, is incredibly good, being tight and definitive, without being dry or flabby. Some of the best bass I've heard, and definitely better than anything in it's price class by a wide margin. The treble was just a tad too bright until I added a small value resistor in the tweeter crossover as the manual said, which nudged the hard edge out of the response perfectly. This took all of about twenty minutes and was very easy. Another ten minute tweek brought the midrange into it's best, in my opinion.
These speakers have no competition in their price class. They are just giant killers. You owe it to yourself to give these a shot if you want top quality at a very reasonable price. If you're not a pretty decent woodworker, have someone else build them, as they aren't a rookie's project and might frustrate you and force you to settle on just a fair job. The manual leaves a bit to be desired, so let an occomplished woodworker wadethrough the instructions and write up a plan which includes rabbet and dado joints which make it a much stronger box that's easier to put together.
Overall, this is a first class product. If you're ready to quit looking around for that last pair of speakers, give these a chance and take the time to build them right. You will not be disappointed.

Similar Products Used:

Dynaudio Gemini, MB Quarts

Natural

Still, hmmmmm, dont know

Just thought I would give a quick update.

I have had the Rhythms ( Value Kit ) for close to two years now. Over that time, I bought several other speakers. Some panels and other similar sized dynamic speakers. Seems no matter how hard I try, I just cant find a speaker that I prefer.

Thanks George.......

Branwell

They are up to the task of making music

They will show off any weak link in your system

First, I think of myself as an audiophile only because I appreciate accurately reproduced music and not because I have access to expensive audio equipment to make comparisons too. So you might want to keep this in mind as you read my review.

My speakers are not true Rhythms because I have substituted an active crossover and biamped instead of using the passive crossover that is standard to the loudspeakers. Other modifications include deflex panels inside the cabinets and thicker walls than was spec'ed in the excellent plans that George has posted on the Web.

After I had built the speakers I initally plugged them into some lowfi equipment that I was using at the time and was very disappointed with the results. Until they are broken in they are hard to listen to. The sound stage isn't well defined and they have a mechanical sound to them, not very musical at all.

As the hours accumulated things got better but they were still not sounding much like a live performance.

As my budget permitted I substituted better components to my system and only when all of the weaker elements were eliminated from the system did the Rhythms really show their stuff.

These speakers are ACCURATE, they will reproduce very faithfully whatever you feed them. If the source is poor quality you will know it in an instant. These babies don't hide a thing.

Placement of the Rhythms is critical, they do not like being close to a wall, and your room acoustics have to be up to snuff if you want the full benifit of these wonderful speakers.

upstream of the Rhythms,

Ah Tjoeb 99
Marchand XM9 active crossover
Homegrown solid silver innerconnect cables
Audible Illusions Modulus L1
Cary SLA 70 Mk II amps
DIY stranded silver & Teflon speaker cables

I am putting together a turntable so that I can spin some vinyl next. I think that it just might sound fine coming through my Rhythms.

Similar Products Used:

Speakerlab Cornerhorns

I spent nearly a two year period investigating various options for building a new set of loudspeakers. There are any number of technologies avaliable: horn, electrostatic, ribbon, planar-magnetic, etc. All of these options have pluses and minuses. I wanted to strive for simplicity. I investigated all the various kits that are available, the type of drivers that are used. The task seemed endless. I looked at the Scan-speak drivers and noticed that they had a magnetic system that reduced modulation and dynamic distortion. I believed that these distortions ruin the "harmonic rightness" of voice and music. It seemed to me that most nonpaper drivers just did not do it right.I have been an avid Speaker Builder subsriber since the magazine began some 20 years ago. This magazine contains all kinds of projects and info on loudspeakers. It is the best source of info for those of us who love to build. North Creek Music, run by George Short III, advertised in the magazine, and I sent for his catalog. This was it. The Rhythm was it. The journey was over.
The cabinet is 9 1/2 "W x 12"D x 43" H. It contains two Scan-Speak 18W/8545 7" drivers and one Scan-Speak D2905 tweeter (either the 9300 or 9900). North Creek sells the kit in three different versions, the kit with the 9900 tweeter and the best inductors and capacitors was the one that I built--it is called the Revelator Project. All capacitors and inductors and speakers are matched. The result is that the two speakers are identical. I measured them with the LAUD speaker computer software system and they are literally identical.
I also built two subwoofers to get the bottom octave (actually crossed over at 100 hz using an active crossover) using two Scan-Speak 10" drivers per cabinet. A simple capacitor in my tube amplifier allows sound above 100 hz to go only to the Rhythm speakers. The cabinet is made of Baltic/birch plywood and 3/4" MDF for the sides and 1 1/2" MDF for front. This is a solid cabinet. I chose to assemble the crossovers in their own separate cabinets. No grill cloth for the front. Since the speakers are black I painted the front of the cabinet black.
They almost disappear.
For the sound: I expected these speakers to be better than my old Fulton Premiers, afterall, the technology was improved. But I was not ready for how good these would be. I broke them in for about 72 hours of continuous sound using the XLO burnin CD. I then sat down and listened. Simply Marvelous!!! Human voice is recreated with an immediacy and presence that has that 'in the room ' quality. Listen to Kendra Shank, Shirley Horn, Patricia Barber, Ella, Sarah Vaughn. The dynamics are just right.
I love contemporary Big Bands. Listen to the Jack Jeffers NY Classics Big Band on the Mapleshade label. The brass has bite without being bright-- no tweeter ringing here (the tweeter is a silk dome with a moving mass including air of 0.35 gm). The highs are articulate. Excellent depth with great imaging. If you use these speakers with a subwoofer, you only need a 40 watt amplifier on the Rhythm, as long you don't want to peel paint from your walls. I measured them and they are + an - 2 DB from 100 hz to 20k hz. Quite remarkable.
The total cost of building these with the subwoofers was about $3200-- a bargain. Currently ProAc and Nova offer virtually identical system to the Rhythm costing $7200 and $5600 respectively. If you put the subwoofer in the project, you get a system that Nova is selling for $32,000!!!
It took me about 6 months to do all the construction-- cabinets, crossovers, speaker wires and electronic filter for the subwoofers (use a transistor amp here).
This was a very satisfying project, one that creates a great musical experience Highly recommended !!!

North Creek Music - Rhythm Revelator Speaker Kit
Conclusions: Money can buy happiness. I spent about $2,300 dollars (U.S.), to build one pair of the North Creek Music Rhythm speakers. They clearly out perform anything readymade that I could purchase for $2,300. Plus, they are competitive with any readymade speaker (that I have listened to), in the $4000 to $6,000 range.

General: The Rhythm comes in several incarnations. From a plain vanilla "Value" project to the top-of-his-line "Signature" model. The kit I settled on and eventually built was the Signature model. This system is based upon the ubiquitous Scanspeak 18w/8545 midrange/woofer and Scanspeak D2905/9900 Revelator tweeter. All speakers are broken in and matched. All associated electronic components are provided in matched pairs. The inductors are massive 8 gage air coils (in a new house with a 200 amp. service the main lead to ground is 8 Ga.). The capacitors, resistors, internal wire, and binding posts are all boutique electronics and will make any gear-head proud (I mean that kindly).

Sound: Glorious vocals. Tight, fast drums. Small details in recordings that I thought I knew, just keep appearing. Stable imaging; these speakers pass the stand up sit down and the left vs. right side of sofa tests with flying colors. The sound is warm and recording hall ambiance is abundant. In complex music (e.g., symphonies, multi track rock), individual instruments are distinct. No discernible peaks. Overall the speakers are smooth and neutral. This makes me really happy because the Scanspeak Revelator has a reputation as being a hard forward beast if not tamed. Also, the Scanspeak 8545 woofer can have a nasty spike in the upper midrange if crossed over improperly. In the Rhythms they both perform beautifully.

Direct comparisons are made against my center channel speaker, a B&W Matrix HTM. I do this because the B&W Matrix HTM is relatively new technology, a quality speaker in its own right and currently part of my system. Relying on sonic memory after visiting a show room has too many problems (i.e., different: equipment, room, time). Note: I always leave all tone controls set out of the circuit. All comparisons are made after 200 hours of break in.

The B&W Matrix HTM is a Matrix 805 turned on its side. Some refer to the 805 as a "mini 801." The B&W is driven by the same amplifier as the Rhythms (an ADCOM 5503 three channel amp), so all things are basically equal. Yes, there are two Rhythms and only one B&W, so I will not make comparisons concerning imaging, etc. Also, I do not fault the HTM for lack of bass, it has only a single five inch mid/woofer. I do want to make the point that (I really like that B&W HTM but), the HTM has an ever so slight sibilance on "th" sounds and words ending in "s." I may be allergic to metal tweeters. Also, in comparison to the Rhythms the sound of the B&W is fatter with a slight hazy veil. I think B&W tried to squeeze a little too much low end out of the five inch woofer.

From a subjective guess (samples provided by the Stereophile Test CD #1), the Rhythms are good down to just below 40 Hz, and falloff rapidly through the 30’s. Don’t get me wrong there is good tight bass here. However, there are head bangers out there who will not have, (or can ever get), enough low end. For movies, I do bring in an extra set of speakers plugged into the pre-amp sub-woofer outputs. Sometimes you just have to feel that T-Rex coming. In the future I plan to add a set of (4) Scanspeak 10" woofers, active crossover and bi-amp them. This is one of the reasons I went with this system is that there is an integrated upgrade path. Many of the subwoofers added to satellite systems are afterthoughts, and sound it.

Cabinet Construction: Nothing succeeds like excess. I followed the basic NCM construction plans (i.e., MDF cabinets, internal volume, and brace placement, etc), where I departed from plan was in the thickness of the walls. A stock NCM cabinet calls for a three quarter inch side wall, plus one and a half inches for the back and front plates. I used one and a quarter inch side walls, a two inch back, and a three and a quarter inch thick front plate. My cabinets weight a nominal one hundred pounds without drivers and crossover. Even when the volume is loud these cabinets do not move, they just solidly sit there. The extra thick front plate also allows me to isolate the tweeters from the woofers. This is done by routing just two and a half inches deep, and not all the way through, thus creating a tweeter pocket. Note: I am an accomplished amateur woodworker. It took me about six months, off and on, to build these puppies. I cannot recommend trying to build these unless you have some experience with cabinet building, patience, a 10 inch table saw, a router and a lot of clamps.

Why I Am Writing This: I am writing this now lengthy review in the hope that it helps someone trying to select a speaker kit. In late 1998, when I got the bug to build a set of premium speakers (I have built a set of ESL’s with mixed results), there was no data on the web as to who the heck North Creek Music Systems was or what their product(s) sound like. Ordering from them (or any kit), is a major break of the first rule of speaker acquisition; "Listen to them first." Plus, I had major reservations about sending $2000 off into the mail. Allow me to allay some fears, North Creek Music is legitimate. You now have one point of data. Hope this helps. See: www.northcreekmusic.com.

My Equipment:

Dish Network Satellite System (main audio/video source)
Tuner/Preamp - ADCOM FTP 550
Amplifier - ADCOM 5503 (front three channels), NAD 2200 (rear two channels)
Center Channel Speaker – B&W Matrix HTM
Main Speakers - North Creek Music, Rhythm Revelator Signature