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What is your favourite Royd speaker

The Minstrel is a great little speaker. The Abbots - which I've lived with until yesterday - are also very good, especially for the price you can pick them up for these days.
 
I cannot say that I have heard them all, but I've had a few pairs of different Royd models in my time, from the very basic Seven up to the sublime Sorcerer, and have heard others in other people's systems. I guess my favourite has to be the Minstrel. It's such a fun little speaker to listen to music through. I still have a pair, sadly resting in their original box for now as I don't have the space to use them properly, but I can't bring myself to let them go, which perhaps says it all.

But should another nice pair of Sorcerers come my way...
 
Doublets for me, auditioned them against Minstrels, but much preferred the fuller, rounder sound of the Doublets.
They've worked well with my 72/140 system, and now with my Uniti.
 
Abbots are a great speaker, I have had a set for 18 years from new.
SBLs are in my active system now, but if I only had the Royds I would not feel that I was missing out on a great deal.
Value for money for sure.
 
My favourite royd is the eden, in fact i still own a pair, but one of the bass units needs repairing or a another one from somewhere if anyone knows were i cauld source one i would be gratefull. i also use to own royd connistons these are nice speakers, but not as good in my opinion as the edens.
 
Yomanze said:
For me the RR3 is Royd's masterpiece. Quite the opposite to usual Royd standmounts, the bass goes deeeep for their size, but with no flab or overhang. Needs a very powerful amp (not necessarily high watts) to sound their best due to the crippling 84db sensitivity.

I have also owned Sapphire MK1 (very similar to Sintra), still own Sorcerers, Minstrels & RR3s of course. The Revelation series still have the Royd house sound, but with more refinement & flatter response. Some might prefer the 'feisty' and 'raucous' presentation of classic Royds though.
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Sorry I forgot to address the recent question urgh sorry for the self-quote... Having spent around 5yrs now with many pairs of Royds thought this'd be interesting.

If you don't mind light bass then go for the Sintra as it is much better in the midrange than the Minstrel. The Minstrel is very fun, bouncy, engaging, ridiculous imaging, but is also rather ragged and in the long-term this can grind. The Sintra & Sapphire series are snappier & purer in the mids and highs, but are bass-light. The Sorcerer is a lot more fleshed out and balanced than either of these speakers, but does lose some 'immediacy'. The Sorcerers themselves are more immediate than the Revelation series at the expense of bottom to top balance and refinement in the treble.

In anycase every Royd speaker has made me think 'stuff the flaws so much addictive music', so please do try them! The more the better. Nothing today is made to the principles of Royd speakers. When you have over £10k of HiFi driving a £200 pair of speakers from eBay you know there's something special.

The Royd speakers I've enjoyed the most are:

Sapphire MK1
Sorcerer (SE)
RR3
 
Yomanze said:
Sorry I forgot to address the recent question urgh sorry for the self-quote... Having spent around 5yrs now with many pairs of Royds thought this'd be interesting.

If you don't mind light bass then go for the Sintra as it is much better in the midrange than the Minstrel. The Minstrel is very fun, bouncy, engaging, ridiculous imaging, but is also rather ragged and in the long-term this can grind. The Sintra & Sapphire series are snappier & purer in the mids and highs, but are bass-light. The Sorcerer is a lot more fleshed out and balanced than either of these speakers, but does lose some 'immediacy'. The Sorcerers themselves are more immediate than the Revelation series at the expense of bottom to top balance and refinement in the treble.

In anycase every Royd speaker has made me think 'stuff the flaws so much addictive music', so please do try them! The more the better. Nothing today is made to the principles of Royd speakers. When you have over £10k of HiFi driving a £200 pair of speakers from eBay you know there's something special.

The Royd speakers I've enjoyed the most are:

Sapphire MK1
Sorcerer (SE)
RR3
Click to expand...

After all that I've read this is exactly my conclusion. It seems that it doesn't really matter with which model to start since they all sound great.
Thanks to all.
 
Ende neU said:
can anyone tell if this is an early or late Minstrel and if it has been repaired from gumming?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/135212627@N06/shares/dJi9a8
Click to expand...

Hi

My serial number is 011691 and had minor gumming issues. So those are earlier.

Any Minstrel with a dry patch where the doping should be round the pole piece has had the doping run somewhere.

Patches of black goo around the core ring especially where the piece splits. Any black you see there is where doping that turns to gum. It can only be picked out with paper which can be a labour of love. If you can get the driver back the front edges pole piece can be picked and swabbed. Luckily mine could be repaired and the gum was only in a small area. Its very delicate job cleaning the central pole and not damaging the metal ring surround. It takes awhile as you cant rush it and have to keep coming back over a number of days.

Small pieces of paper pick it out until everything moves super freely. You never get it all off of the inside ring but smooth it down enough so the driver doesn't stick

Very delicate as the driver picks up fingerprints and I had to wear some of those disposable gloves. Obviously manipulating drivers has to be done extremely carefully

Those have a large dry patch. When I bought my minstrels I didnt know about a potential gumming issue. Its something that has to be considered and I dont see many pairs that I would be happy to buy now.

Its almost essential that they are inspected and demonstated. I took a big chance picking them up boxed. it would be easy to end up with a duffer. I nearly did and took a deep sigh before finding I could tackle the problem. Spare parts are off the radar unless you want to buy another pair

In a way Im glad I didnt know because it would have put me off. I had to hear them because I was intrigued ever since first seeing a pair in 1994? I have never said that the Minstrels are the best speaker but I have had great fun using them
 
OK, thanks. So what would you do regarding this pair? Would you buy them or is it better to skip and wait for a better pair?
 
I've got edens and conistons. I like both but don't know which is the better. The bass driver was heavily reworked on the Eden it seems.

I'd like to hear some larger Royds.
 
The Eden is a better speaker than the Coniston which was the next lower in the range. If I remember correctly, the Eden had a much better braced cabinet. They're both glorious though.
 
alan47 said:
They look fine to me..
Click to expand...

Same here.

That light coloured patch around the pole piece is exactly as I remember them.

EDIT: After doing a Google image search I wonder if Joe changed his doping technique at some point on the Minstrels?
 
I have an early and a late pair of minstrels and they both have that light coloured patch around the pole.But having done the same google image search it seems that he did change his doping from time to time,maybe he used different dope sometimes.He seems to have played it all by ear.
 
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