BG Radia R18i speakers

[peterpioli]

There are a couple of pair of BG Radia R18i speakers on Audiogon for a good price.

Does anyone have experience with these speakers?

Would they be good surround speakers?

Do you think the BG Radia R18i speakers would blend well as surround speakers with Martin Logan or Sound Lab stats?

 

[kach22i]

I know nothing about them. However if you Google "BG Radia R18i speakers" you will get to everywhere else you asked the same question.

Try them out, what the heck.

 

[peterpioli]

I know nothing about them. However if you Google "BG Radia R18i speakers" you will get to everywhere else you asked the same question.

Try them out, what the heck.

I just wish someone knew something about them. There's almost no user information available about them, but they look nice.

 

[kach22i]

While we wait for someone familiar with the Radia to speak up, why don't you list your system and room dimensions for reference?

Is your 2-channel and Home-Theater the same system?

 

[peterpioli]

I have Martin Logan SL-3 speakers, Sunfire 400x7 amp and Denon A-1. I want to upgrade. My room is 17x23. 2-channel and Home-Theater is the same system.

 

[aaronk]

We have a pair of those in my showroom. They are actually pretty good speakers. The ribbon tweeter can rotate around, so you can aim it at sitting area, or face it forward and back, and make it a dipole. Yes it would blend very well, BG makes the ribbons that ML uses in there in-all and less expensive towers. Ribbons and stats work well together.

From my experience anyway

 

[peterpioli]

Has anyone compared the BG Radia R18i speakers to the Martin Logan Encore TF speakers? I believe they are both wall mountable and would be good surround speakers.

 

[TomDac]

BG makes the ribbons that ML uses in there in-all and less expensive towers.

No MLs use ribbons, so you're misinformed there, Aaron.

 

[aaronk]

/shrug i was told that the montage, and mosaic, or whatever they where, plus the in-walls ATF, or ribbon drivers where manufactered by BG, at least thats what BG told me lol. dunno, lol

 

[TomDac]

not sure who makes the ATF drivers for ML, but they are definitely not ribbons...


Ribbon and planar magnetic loudspeakers

A ribbon speaker consists of a thin metal-film ribbon suspended in a magnetic field. The electrical signal is applied to the ribbon which moves with it, thus creating the sound. The advantage of a ribbon driver is that the ribbon has very little mass; thus, it can accelerate very quickly, yielding very good high-frequency response. Ribbon loudspeakers are often very fragile—some can be torn by a strong gust of air. Most ribbon tweeters emit sound in a dipole pattern; a very few have backings which limit the dipole radiation pattern. Above and below the ends of the more or less rectangular ribbon, there is less audible output due to phase cancellation, but the precise amount of directivity depends on ribbon length. Ribbon designs generally require exceptionally powerful magnets which make them costly to manufacture. Ribbons have a very low resistance that most amplifiers cannot drive directly. As a result, a step down transformer is typically used to increase the current through the ribbon. The amplifier "sees" a load that is the ribbon's resistance times the transformer turns ratio squared. The transformer must be carefully designed so that its frequency response and parasitic losses do not degrade the sound, further increasing cost and complication relative to conventional designs.
Planar magnetic speakers (having printed or embedded conductors on a flat diaphragm) are sometimes described as "ribbons", but are not truly ribbon speakers. The term planar is generally reserved for speakers which have roughly rectangular shaped flat surfaces that radiate in a bipolar (i.e., front and back) manner. Planar magnetic speakers consist of a flexible membrane with a voice coil printed or mounted on it. The current flowing through the coil interacts with the magnetic field of carefully placed magnets on either side of the diaphragm, causing the membrane to vibrate more or less uniformly and without much bending or wrinkling. The driving force covers a large percentage of the membrane surface and reduces resonance problems inherent in coil-driven flat diaphragms.

 

[heynelly]

the ML in-walls use midranges and tweeters supplied by BG ... no they are not ribbons, they are planar magnetic drivers but are supplied by BG

 

[JonFo]

There are a couple of pair of BG Radia R18i speakers on Audiogon for a good price.

Does anyone have experience with these speakers?

Would they be good surround speakers?

Do you think the BG Radia R18i speakers would blend well as surround speakers with Martin Logan or Sound Lab stats?

For rear-surround duties, I'd say these will mate quite well with the ML's.

The one challenge they present in this application is that depending on model and mounting, they might be a bit directional.

So if you have a good bit of distance between your seating location and where you plan to put the BG's, it might be OK. I'd suggest a minimum of 5'.

If you have a tight spacing between your seating location and where rear/surround speakers go, then I recommend a model with broader dispersion characteristics, such as the Mirage Omnipolars. Which also mate quite well in this application.