Rethm

There is one unifying conceptual thread that runs through all Rethm products, and that is: that they will bring a product to the market only if it is something uniquely different from the competition; and only of it can be sold at " real world" prices.

They are not interested in bringing out "more of the same".

Having been in the Audio Industry for 16 years, we know that it is impossible to get a consensus on what exactly is the "right" reproduction. Rightly or wrongly, this has become a matter of personal taste. But that having been said, we at Rethm go to great lengths to convert OUR aural convictions into audio products that can be enjoyed by music-lovers. Apart from all the usual audiophile boxes that need to be ticked, the most important factor for us is whether an audio system has the ablilty to connect emotionally with the listener.

Almost as important as the sonic performance is the aesthetics of each model. As architects, both form and function are given importance when we design anything. Yes, here again, we are dealing with an area of great subjectivity. But the fact remains -- that painstaking care is given to the way the loudspeakers are physically designed. It is often said that most people buy products with their eyes.

Being Architects, we start with a distinct advantage over the competition – as innovation and "looking at things differently" are ingrained in our psyche.

Rethm believes that all truly great design embodies an "elegance" – that comes from simplicity. A full range driver is such an example within the realm of music reproduction. Loudspeakers designed around this concept are capable of an aural magic like no other - IF done right.

“It sounds so real and natural…” …….is a comment we hear time and again from non-audiophile music lovers.

“it has everything -- tonal accuracy. detail, dynamics, transparency, imaging, -- and yet is totally relaxed and relaxing to listen to. …...is what we often hear from the more experienced listeners.

Fundamental and critical to getting closest to a live reproduction, Rethm believe, is the use of wideband drivers….which reproduce the frequencies from 60 hz to 20khz.

Multiple drivers create multiple problems.

Wave interaction anomalies between the drivers, like the comb effect.

Tonal anomalies as a result of different drivers of different sizes and different construction and materials trying to reproduce the same sounds

Disturbances resulting from the the same music coming from more than one source.

And the cross-over -- which creates its own set of problems, including phase shifts, a subtle veiling of the signal, and the robbing of drivers of some of its dynamic potential.

And these effects -- combined -- also create inaccuracies in imaging. We are great believers in the importance of imaging. This is because, in the absence of a "visual" ( a live concert, or a video ), it is accurate imaging that creates very important spacial cues that allow us to "see" the performance -- in our minds eye.

In a word, the crucial phenomenon wide-band driver based loudspeakers present the listener with, is "cohesion".

While some of these effects are audible, others are not. But -- they can be “felt”. Critical to good audio is the absence of these aberrations that the mind picks up subconsciously. This is part of “psychoacoustics”. The brain is an amazing thing -- highly flexible and adaptable. It can work around these anomalies and present the listener with a “listenable whole”. However, there is a price one pays. Just as a CPU gets hot when it is “processing”, the brain gets tired when it is asked to do this subconscious work of smoothing over the problems created by a loudspeaker. And this is the “fatigue” that is talked about in Audio circles.

Which ceases to exist when a good single source produces all the music.

But -- not all wide-banders are made equal.

Rethm designs and manufactures their own custom drivers which underwent several years of development. And this is at the heart of the “Rethm advantage”. They have a different custom driver for each model. They use only paper for their cones as they believe it sounds best. They use Neodymium magnets as all their drivers are high-efficiency drivers because they believe that the subtleties and nuances of the music is best revealed and communicated through high-efficiency loudspeakers. Even at low volumes. There is also the added advantage of being able to use even the least powerful valve amplification. High efficiency loudspeakers are extremely dynamic and transparent as a result of its ultra-fast reaction to the inputted signal.

Any driver is only as good as the enclosure it inhabits:

Sealed or vented boxes, naturally, impart a "boxed-in" quality to the sound. It is also well known that because of the pressures these boxes are subjected to, it does add its own signature to the sound. The horn-loaded enclosure (one of the earliest enclosure designs) if designed well, can eliminate this problem as it provides the driver with an unrestricted free-breathing environment which, while extending bass response, also allows it to retain immediacy and naturality. Although they have chosen to adopt the horn-loaded enclosure as the basis for their loudspeakers, Rethm have broken with traditional horn-load design principles and geometries, and invented their own.

At ReTHM they believe that the flat-sided box favoured by most manufacturers (horn-loaded or otherwise) is anathema to good loudspeaker design because of the various "colourations" it induces. The use of bracing, damping/absorbing materials and massively heavy enclosures can only mollify these colourations, never eliminate them. They have chosen to take a fresh approach that enables them to circumvent these problems entirely:

The geometry of the enclosure eliminates standing waves, thereby removing the spectre of box colouration.

The curved surfaces of the enclosure eliminate performance – degrading baffle reflections and edge diffraction, thereby enabling the loudspeakers to image and reproduce soundstage depth and width with astounding clarity, scale and realism.

The curved sections minimize both standing waves and cabinet vibrations while simultaneously nullifying the detrimental effects of the propagation of any residual vibrations as these do not beam at the listener from a large flat surface congruent with the driver. They believe that attention to the smallest details do make a difference to the ultimate quality of our loudspeakers performance. They therefore do things "Their way" which is often a departure from what many would consider "the norm".

The compression chamber has been designed to eliminate, completely, any back-wave reflections re-impacting the driver. Driver colouration therefore does not exist.

The perforated driver surround rings: The diagonal patterned perforations break up upper-frequency reflections that typically come off the area surrounding the driver.

The phase plugs. With its unique shape ( a result of weeks of testing various geometries….) these were designed to smoothen out the frequency response. Each model has a different phase plug.

The internal wiring of the loudspeakers. Rethm believes in single-core wire. Splitting a signal at one end, allowing it to pass through multiple conductors and bringing it all together at the other end with absolute concurrence and coherence, we feel, is asking for a miracle. They therefore use a single flat copper tape; cryogenically treated (they could hear the difference the treatment made) .

The big question that is almost always asked about single-driver horn loaded loudspeakers: what about some REAL bass? This is because virtually ALL pure single driver loudspeakers do not have serious bass energy below 60 Hz. Rethm knows from the first hand experience of struggling to do this for 7 years.

They finally decided that the only way to achieve good bass – was to add a bass module to each speaker. Getting bass was not the problem. Any sub-woofer can do that. However, getting great bass that was capable of keeping up with the incredible speed and dynamics of the our wide band driver's blending in perfectly, seamlessly – was a BIG problem – and took several months of experimenting to solve.

The first decision was that each channel would have its own bass module – as they believe that even bass frequencies have to be reproduced in "stereo" to enable realistic reproduction of depth and texture.

The second was that it had to be powered – as there were NO bass drivers available that was 98 db efficient. They therefore have individual amplifier modules within each enclosure, driving a pair of bass drivers ( except for the Saadhana which has 3 drivers per enclosure ) in isobaric configuration, in sealed chambers. This they felt would produce the most accurate bass. It was decided that the drivers had to be small (similar in size to the wide-banders) so they could be light and quick. They also decided it had to be paper, to match the tonal characteristics of the wide-banders.

The greatest challenge? Getting the bass to integrate seamlessly with the high efficiency wide-band drivers. This is where most systems with “bass augmentation” tend to fall apart. And to help with this task, the bass modules are widely adjustable both in level and in its cross-over setting. They believe this is critical to getting the bass to suit the room acoustics, the front end equipment, or -- just personal taste. Each model also has different driver types, amplifier powers, and filter typologies and settings.

And this is where the story trifurcates into the 3 different models that we recommend.
 

Aarka powered monitors
$4750.00/pr
Add $500.00 for the matching stsnds
 

The Aarka is a fully powered monitor speaker system with excellent hi efficiency full range 5" driver driven by a 20 watt Class A internal amplifier with tube input stage. It is augmented by two 6" rear mounted powered subwoofers run by a 75 watt Class A/B power amp. Just run a source with a volume control into it for a full range system. It has the purity or tone that full range speakers offer wit the bass that they never have. These can also be done in a dark-stained wood where the white gloss acrylic on the front and back will become black gloss acrylic. And on either finish, Rethm can also do the front and back fascias in a metallic silver instead of the white or black acrylic.
 

• Rethm  5" full-range whizzer cone driver 

• 2 x 6" rear-firing custom woofers

• Custom 75 W Class AB Bass amplifier module with level control in each enclosure

• Custom 10 W Class A Full Range Driver amplifier module with 6922 Tube input stage

• Class A amplifier stage is by-passable for use with your own amplifiers.

• 96dB sensitivity - Full Range Driver

• 8 ohm nominal impedance

• Serviceability : Rethm has perfected a modular electronics system so that if ever there was an electronics failure, they will simply ship out an entire module to the customer who can swap out the unit very easily, making service a virtual non-issue. 

• Available as Bookshelf Loudspeakers or as Monitors with Rethm's stunningly beautiful dedicated stands.