The R58 is a very high quality small monitor. It can be used for fine stereo in a small room without a subwoofer or as the mains, surround or center channel in a home theater.
The Newform Story
Newform Research manufactures new technology Ribbon loudspeakers and sells them factory direct worldwide. Planar loudspeakers, with their open and natural reproduction of music, have been the first choice of experienced audiophiles for decades. In addition to superb hifi stereo capabilities, our Ribbon speakers easily handle the great dynamics and scale required for the finest home theater applications. We believe high end music and high end home theater systems should be acoustically the same thing.
Newform audiophile loudspeakers are designed around our groundbreaking technology Ribbon drivers. These Ribbons were developed to produce the transparency and detail of the large classic Ribbon and electrostatic panel loudspeakers. The objective was to offer the audio magic (transparency and detail) of the classic panels in updated speakers which are vastly easier to live with in terms of demands on the amplifier, room placement, reliability and dynamics.
Newform Ribbon loudspeakers offer a great musical experience in a far more practical package at a lower cost than any other truly high end audio speaker. How? Look at the speaker designs. They are extremely narrow which reduces diffraction and baffle bounce, both of which smear the sound quality and reduce a listeners’ ability to hear into the music. Almost the entire front of the speaker is composed of diaphragms. These diaphragms only radiate to the front so there is no back wave to complicate room setup or compromise home theatre applications.
The parts used are world class yet the cost is very, very competitive. This is the result of new technology breakthroughs, tight design and true factory direct sales. No one can better support our loudspeakers than we can and no one knows your listening room and musical tastes better than you do. Involving anyone else only increases costs and reduces the chances for superb results. We can discuss your system, your listening room and your taste in music.
This consultation process doesn't have to be very time consuming, it just has to clarify the basics.
Sound Quality Equals Sound Delivery
Wide dispersion, tall linesource speakers ideal for most listening rooms and amplifier friendly with their high and even impedances, Newform Ribbon designs offer higher musical performance with fewer compromises than any series of loudspeakers previously offered. Just as importantly, these loudspeakers can be quickly set up with basic electronics to produce great musical results. If you have an application involving a public meeting area where intelligibility is or musical purity is paramount, we have systems to tame the acoustics of your space.
This is one of the largest loudspeaker sites on the web but, in a nutshell, Newform Research delivers uniquely high performance loudspeakers at very reasonable prices. These internationally reviewed and acclaimed loudspeakers may be purchased by themselves, in loudspeaker kits, with amplifiers and processors and subwoofer packages.
The world of hifi audio, home theater and home entertainment is changing rapidly but human hearing and room acoustics are not. Newform Research Ribbon loudspeakers will deliver the full musical potential of constantly converging and improving home entertainment electronics and music formats. That is, they will deliver unsurpassed performance and value for the long term.
The World is going Newform
Take a look at the trends in advanced loudspeaker design over the past 5 years. Gone are big boxes with lots of drivers all over the baffle. Gone are short loudspeakers which project a waist high soundstage. In their place is a new generation of tall, narrow loudspeaker cabinet designs which try to minimize diffraction, baffle bounce and off axis anomalies. Most tellingly, some form of Ribbon driver is now very common where dome tweeters were the order of the day just several years ago.
If you took these trends towards narrower enclosures, taller linesources, free standing Ribbon drivers and extrapolate it into the future, you would have loudspeakers which would look very similar to our current designs. But unlike conventional manufacturers, we aren't modifying old designs and trying to make them current. Our loudspeakers are clean sheet, ground up designs, and now well proven in the field.
Are loudspeaker designers from all over the world copying Newform Ribbon loudspeakers? No, but they are beginning to recognize the importance of the real world performance factors which drove the development of our Ribbon drivers and radical new designs over 20 years ago. We have been leading for a long time. Now that the rest of the world is starting to march in the same direction, maybe our leadership is becoming a little more obvious.
Design Philosophy
Newforms design philosophy is very simply to eliminate errors. Loudspeakers cannot make music, they can only reproduce it. The fewer errors a loudspeaker makes in that reproduction, the more lifelike the music is going to sound. The more character a loudspeaker adds to the reproduction, the less like real music it will be.
Our loudspeakers look unique because they are designed to get out of the way of the music, not attempt to "improve" it. Our designs consider the real world rooms in which they will be required to perform.
In terms of room acoustics, a tall wide dispersion, monopole linesource is by far the best match for most domestic rooms. They keep muddying reflections off the ceiling and floor and afford many listeners in the room an excellent soundstage whether they are seated or moving around. Tall linesources have the scale and the dynamic capability to properly image match the large screens now common in many home theater systems for a realistically sized presentation combined with excellent detail and focus. The above holds true for public venues of any size.
We use the highest quality components in our designs that sonically justify their cost. Embellishments either aesthetic or marketing based are left out. Our loudspeakers are very tight, integrated designs and produce the maximum musical bang for the dollar.
Making sure the customer understands the logic of the "proper fit" with our designs and their application is an integral and final step to what starts as research to design a characterless loudspeaker. Only a characterless loudspeaker can deliver a truly musical experience and acoustically disappear in the room.
The loudspeaker which is best able to deliver the life of the music most faithfully through the obstacle course of room acoustics is the loudspeaker which will remain in your home for many, many years. Try buying a used pair of Newform Research Ribbon loudspeakers. People hold on to Newforms.