Russell K RED 100 Loudspeakers

Russell K is the new speaker brand from designer Russell Kauffman. It’s an unusually designed speaker which gives it some really audible strengths. Whilst it may look from the outside as if it’s a normal ported speaker, in fact it’s rather more complex. The box is internally divided with the rear output of the bass/mid driver being loaded into a small undamped cavity, then through carefully sized vents this loads into a more conventionally reflex ported cabinet chamber. This complex cabinet design means that the boxes are very stiff thanks to the bracing of the internal divisions, and due to the small volumes it has been possible to completely dispense with damping material.

The sonic result is bass with great speed, timing and tonality, there’s an absence of obvious box colouration throughout the registers and none of the normal hump in the bass that a lot of manufacturers engineer into the response of smaller boxes. The midrange is also similarly fast and natural sounding (thanks to the paper cone) and the treble (from a large soft dome) blends seamlessly - real evidence that a lot of work has gone into voicing them properly. Ultimately these are an exceptionally engaging, transparent and agile all rounder which ‘gets out of the way’ more convincingly than a speaker has any right to at this sort of price level.

What also surprised us is how easy they are to drive for a small speaker, with a 7 watt single ended 300B valve amplifier being a great match for them, so basically any quality amplifier, almost regardless of power, will make a great combination.