Ralph Waters from Richter Acoustics believes that “One of the great delusions of the HiFi Industry is that loudspeaker designers are making something that sounds like music. We are illusionists..” Ralph Waters has a candid conversation about his philosophies on loudspeaker design and on life and shares strong opinions on sound vs music.
WORDS OF WISDOM FROM THIS EPISODE
“The HiFi Industry I found intensely interesting, the fact that the vast majority of the people involved in the industry were quirky, were peculiar, were esoteric, were extremely individualistic, were colourful, were on many occasions utterly bizzare…”
“What we should all be is lovers of music.”
“I’ve made some dogs (loudspeakers). If you make a dog, best thing to do is to shoot it and bury it and move on”
“I’ve never heard a speaker that sounded like music.”
“The best loudspeaker is just the one that creates a stronger emotion.”
“People who believe they have perfect speakers I think, spend too much time listening to speakers instead of listening to music”
“I think, if you ever get to the point where you say I’m happy with that speaker you’re about to end your career as a speaker designer.”
“(Designing loudspeakers) is a bit like panning for gold, you remain hopeful that you will find that giant nugget”
“I had one of the most disconcerting afternoons of my life (with the Garrott Brothers). It was quite strange and it unnerved me.”
“It’s very interesting that you had a personal experience with the Garrott Brothers… I feel like because they were involved with cartridges that they were mailing them in and out. I’m not sure anyone had actually met them except you, Ralph”
With Brad Serhan and Andrew Hutchison, Ralph’s candid conversation about music, sound and life make this episode an absolute hit.
Ralph Waters episodes, transcripts, history and pics on Not An Audiophile.
People mentioned on this episode –
Ralph Waters – Richter Acoustics
Brad Serhan – Serhan Swift
Andrew Hutchison – Dellichord
Richard Small – Thiele/Small Parameters
David Frith – Sydney Morning Herald
Ron Cooper
Peter Stein & Tina Stein – ME Amplifiers
The Garrott Brothers- John & Brian Garrott – cartridges
Brands mentioned on this episode –
Richter Acoustics – Richter Wizard
Serhan Swift
Dellichord
AUSFI – Australian HiFi Manufacturer’s Guild
Audio Definition – loudspeakers
Businesses mentioned on this episode –
Sydney Opera House
Len Wallis Audio
Music courtesy of –
Please Listen Carefully by Jahzzar http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jahzzar
Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported— CC BY-SA 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/please-listen-carefully
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/GGVFRIgP7uc
CREDITS –
Guest management, regular co-hosting – Brad Serhan
Host, audio production – Andrew Hutchison