UREI 813C Monitors - tell me more!

[Dave M]

Great! My 813C sounds so much better after replacing the electrolytic capacitors with not-so-exotic films.

[hjames]

Thanks for the comments Dave -
Can't wait to get started!

I'm still trying to sell off the 5 Vandersteens
I kinda figured it would take a while and I'm not going to cut my price in half just to move them ...
plus its outdoor season - the most I do is watch a movie or listen to some music now and then ...
mostly free time is outdoors!

[Ian Mackenzie]

There is some good information on the www about the Urie Time-Aligned monitors.

Edward Long developed a way of measuring delay of the horn and woofer with great accuracy.

This lead to research of a time aligned crossover network that used delay line principles in the form of a 10th order Bessel low pass filter. Bessel filter exhibit a flat extended group delay.

So this was hardly a gimmick.

Among other interesting features small light bulbs were used for current limiting.

[hjames]

Pre-Thanksgiving update ...
Been dying to get my living room back for over a year!
SO - I made up my mind and sold off the BIg UREIs about 6 weeks back,
(I pulled my back and they were too heavy to fuss over, plus I simply had no time to redo the x0vers)
On Monday got a deposit on the Vandy 3As - they'll get shipped to the west coast after the 1st of the year,
and I listed the Vandy 2CEs Monday and sold them last night ...

Now, all I have upstairs is the Von Schwiekert VR-4s ...
which still sound might good on the 60 watt Jolida 502BRC tube amp!

(- I still have the 2 pairs of UREI 809s downstairs)



If I get time this weekend - massive cleaning project!

Thanks very kindly - truth be told, I am in a holding pattern right now.
I've got both pairs of Vandersteen listed in the local Craigslist,
and I need them out of the way before I can pull down the 811Cs and rebuild the crossovers.
My experience has been that Vandersteens can be slow to sell
(I had some 2CIs before I got the 3As and they took a while).

But we are enjoying the heck out of the 2 pair of 809As I put downstairs where the Vandy's used to play -
(for front mains and side surrounds) ... We watched Looper last night and the sound was flat amazing!

Attachment 65525

[hjames]

Its an old post about a pair of UREI 809As with a carver PM-175 power amp ...
not sure I ever got back to you on this - but I did wind up making a saturday run to Richmond
mid-spring and picked up the speakers AND the amp, once I finally got her to move the price down further!

The carver sounds great but is in storage - the 2 UREIs needed surround replacement and are now
side surrounds in our TV/home theater room (and sound superb!

Let me know if you'd like me to pick these up for you!

[gestures]

Just came across this thread... long time 813C owner here. I find the coaxial design to be superior to just about everything at accurately replicating voices (they've scared the hell out of me multiple times during playback while in a different room).

I drive them with a Lab Gruppen PLM series amplifier (totally overkill; it does double duty in my PA). It has built in DSP (Dolby Lake) so one of these days I'll get around to bypassing the analog crossover to find out how much they can really shine. If anyone has done so already then please do send me a PM ! Would love to compare notes.

My (second) pair came from USC campus by way of Mr. Richard McIlvery, freshly reconed, when they upgraded to a pair of ATC monitors. I recall him mentioning that subjectively there wasn't $40k worth of difference ; )

Would really love compare with a pair of Tannoy System 215 DMT II's.

They really should be accompanied by a subwoofer when not soffit mounting, but they're quite impressive even without IMHO.

A view of my old livingroom taken right after they moved in:

[hjames]

Very very cool! Thanks for sharing!

Just came across this thread... long time 813C owner here. I find the coaxial design to be superior to just about everything at accurately replicating voices (they've scared the hell out of me multiple times during playback while in a different room).

I drive them with a Lab Gruppen PLM series amplifier (totally overkill; it does double duty in my PA). It has built in DSP (Dolby Lake) so one of these days I'll get around to bypassing the analog crossover to find out how much they can really shine. If anyone has done so already then please do send me a PM ! Would love to compare notes.

My (second) pair came from USC campus by way of Mr. Richard McIlvery, freshly reconed, when they upgraded to a pair of ATC monitors. I recall him mentioning that subjectively there wasn't $40k worth of difference ; )

Would really love compare with a pair of Tannoy System 215 DMT II's.

They really should be accompanied by a subwoofer when not soffit mounting, but they're quite impressive even without IMHO.

A view of my old livingroom taken right after they moved in:

[rusty jefferson]

Just came across this thread... long time 813C owner here. I find the coaxial design to be superior to just about everything at accurately replicating voices......

I couldn't agree more. Very natural.

They really should be accompanied by a subwoofer when not soffit mounting, but they're quite impressive even without IMHO.

Again, I agree about this point also. I have a pair of subs paired with my 813Cs. Here's a link to a thread I started last month about my set up. Probably as good a time as any to link it here in Heather's thread.

http://www.audioheritage.org/vbullet...o-area-meet-up

[hjames]

I couldn't agree more. Very natural.



Again, I agree about this point also. I have a pair of subs paired with my 813Cs. Here's a link to a thread I started last month about my set up. Probably as good a time as any to link it here in Heather's thread.

http://www.audioheritage.org/vbullet...o-area-meet-up

And what a fantastic sound your system has, Rusty!!

[Dave M]

I drive them with a Lab Gruppen PLM series amplifier (totally overkill; it does double duty in my PA). It has built in DSP (Dolby Lake) so one of these days I'll get around to bypassing the analog crossover to find out how much they can really shine. If anyone has done so already then please do send me a PM ! Would love to compare notes.

I'm currently using 813C in the living room. I recently finished installing multi amp driven DMS-1 for my home studio, and I'm pretty sure the digital crossover will work very well with 813C as well. Please report, I'm curious.

http://www.audioheritage.org/vbullet...nd-Measurement

[Mitchco]

You folks are so lucky to have those monitors! As an ex recording/mixing engineer from the 80's I worked in several studio control rooms with the 813's. I loved working with those monitors - so easy on the ears, and the time alignment is what made them sound so good - the depth of field was amazing. As Ian said in a few posts back, the time alignment was incredibly precise, I wish I had the TEF plots I took to show. The only way I have been able to come close after all of those years was using software DSP to time align monitors that can be read about here.

I don't know what happened to all of those monitors, but would love a pair. The original 813's with the Altec drivers were a wee bit smoother sounding in my opinion, but the 813C's with the JBL's could handle any amount of SPL, whereas the poor Altec cones would frap out. Enjoy the sound!

[gestures]

I'm currently using 813C in the living room. I recently finished installing multi amp driven DMS-1 for my home studio, and I'm pretty sure the digital crossover will work very well with 813C as well. Please report, I'm curious.

I will update this thread as soon as I have some time to bypass the analog crossover and run the system through SMAART. I'll do my best to document the measurements before / after but I'm also not an expert (yet...) so if anyone has some ideas on how to make an accurate comparison using RTA then I'm all ears. : )

You folks are so lucky to have those monitors! As an ex recording/mixing engineer from the 80's I worked in several studio control rooms with the 813's. I loved working with those monitors - so easy on the ears, and the time alignment is what made them sound so good - the depth of field was amazing. As Ian said in a few posts back, the time alignment was incredibly precise, I wish I had the TEF plots I took to show. The only way I have been able to come close after all of those years was using software DSP to time align monitors that can be read about here.

I don't know what happened to all of those monitors, but would love a pair. The original 813's with the Altec drivers were a wee bit smoother sounding in my opinion, but the 813C's with the JBL's could handle any amount of SPL, whereas the poor Altec cones would frap out. Enjoy the sound!

Well, they do come up on eBay for quite reasonable prices, a couple pairs per year (I watch it religiously, in case a backup pair comes available nearby). These just came onto market, in fact: http://www.ebay.com/itm/UREI-813C-SP...EAAOSwG-1WyHxg

I can't think of anything that sounds better for ~2kUSD... or several multiples of, for that matter.

[Dave M]

You folks are so lucky to have those monitors! As an ex recording/mixing engineer from the 80's I worked in several studio control rooms with the 813's. I loved working with those monitors - so easy on the ears, and the time alignment is what made them sound so good - the depth of field was amazing. As Ian said in a few posts back, the time alignment was incredibly precise, I wish I had the TEF plots I took to show. The only way I have been able to come close after all of those years was using software DSP to time align monitors that can be read about here.

I don't know what happened to all of those monitors, but would love a pair. The original 813's with the Altec drivers were a wee bit smoother sounding in my opinion, but the 813C's with the JBL's could handle any amount of SPL, whereas the poor Altec cones would frap out. Enjoy the sound!

Cool pictures! I also used to work in the studios in NY and London in 90's. Ureis were everywhere until Genelecs evict them . First time I saw 813 was in a small commercial studio in London. 813 were hung on the chain from the ceiling, LOL. Later, I saw many NY indy music producers were banging 811s in their pre-production studios (MPC-60+Amek etc.).

[Dave M]

I will update this thread as soon as I have some time to bypass the analog crossover and run the system through SMAART. I'll do my best to document the measurements before / after but I'm also not an expert (yet...) so if anyone has some ideas on how to make an accurate comparison using RTA then I'm all ears. : )

I use REW, which is an excellent FREE software. Mic is cheap Dayton, but it comes with data. I think it is pretty reliable. Pro audio interface ($100 or less) will make your life MUCH easier. Whole measurement tools cost $100-150. I use pro audio production / mastering softwares (Protools and Equilibrium) for crossover duty, because they are already installed in my music computer (free!) and I know how to use them very well.

[Mitchco]

@Dave M cool! @gestures thanks for the eBay tip! Wrt to time alignment, maybe this article helpful, in case you have not seen it: http://www.livesoundint.com/archives...lign/align.php I use REW as well, plus Acourate DSP.