Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => The Knowledge => OT Knowledge => Topic started by: Wowbagger on 22 November, 2017, 10:23:43 am
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http://www.ruarkaudio.com/
Has anyone any experience of this company's products? It is produced in a factory less than a mile from my house and is being pushed quite hard by John Lewis/Waitrose. I had no desire for any at present, but it is quite a refreshing change to find a high quality (or at least expensive) product that, so far as I can tell, is genuinely locally manufactured.
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I've got the MR1 Active Speakers. I wanted straight stereo sound in a small package for my TV without the changes to the soundscape enforced by home cinema or a soundbar.
Mostly happy, certainly no problems. Quality of build and electronics seems pretty good.
Apparently the MK 2s have better bluetooth handling.
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At a tangent : Southend has some form with audio stuff - E K Cole (as in EKCO Radio etc) was based in Southend or if my memory serves me correctly more precisely on the A127 just before Rochford?
Rob
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http://www.ruarkaudio.com/
Has anyone any experience of this company's products? It is produced in a factory less than a mile from my house and is being pushed quite hard by John Lewis/Waitrose. I had no desire for any at present, but it is quite a refreshing change to find a high quality (or at least expensive) product that, so far as I can tell, is genuinely locally manufactured.
On their website, they only say UK designed, and there's no info on where or who makes their products.
https://www.whathifi.com/ruark-audio/mr1-mk2/review
the back of the speaker says "made in China".
I think it's safe to say there's no factory in Southend and manufacturing is outsourced.
Rega is another audio company in Southend or just outside Southend.
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I have the Ruark mk2 (in the kitchen) and a Rega amp upstairs. Hope that helps.
Very happy with them both.
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At a tangent : Southend has some form with audio stuff - E K Cole (as in EKCO Radio etc) was based in Southend or if my memory serves me correctly more precisely on the A127 just before Rochford?
Rob
It was an Art Deco building opposite Priory Park. The site is currently having houses built on it after many years of having been flattened. There were some fascinating war-time underground shelters there which I visited over 15 years ago when we were campaigning to stop the council from "dualling" Priory Crescent. I'm pretty sure they were listed but that didn't count for anything once the developer moved in. It's the local authority who administer the scheme and Southend BC never do anything to stand in the way of big business.
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Rega Research design & make turntables, CD players, amplifiers & speakers at their Southend plant. Quite highly regarded.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-UhuMuVJG8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7elN5KCPvU
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My wife is from Southend and she doesn't even have a volume control.
I, however, do have a Seventies Comedian Mode.
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My wife is from Southend and she doesn't even have a volume control.
I, however, do have a Seventies Comedian Mode.
I thought of you earlier...... I've just escaped from a "360 degree" process improvement workshop and the guy running it actually used the term "thought leader"..... :-D
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Pah, there's thought leaders and there's Tidy Haired Thought Leaders™. Did he explain complex concepts with an otter stuffed toy, a crudely drawn kitten on a whiteboard, and a boxed Double Impact DVD? If not, he wasn't me.
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Pah, there's thought leaders and there's Tidy Haired Thought Leaders™. Did he explain complex concepts with an otter stuffed toy, a crudely drawn kitten on a whiteboard, and a boxed Double Impact DVD? If not, he wasn't me.
Homemade cardboard props are the mark of a true thought leader.
PowerPoint that of the thought follower
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The East of England in general was home to a large part of the British high-end audio industry. As well as Rega and Ruark in Southend, there was Arcam (formerly A&R Cambridge) near Cambridge, Celestion in Ipswich, and Audiolab, Meridian, Quad and Mission in Huntingdon. All of those companies are still in existence but Celestion no longer makes high-end audio products.
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but Celestion no longer makes high-end audio products.
Yes it does just not for home stereo. They make some of the most respected and used guitar amp speakers in the world.
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but Celestion no longer makes high-end audio products.
Yes it does just not for home stereo. They make some of the most respected and used guitar amp speakers in the world.
I meant high-end home audio. This stopped in the late 90s (a little after I left the company). But you are correct: their guitar speakers are the best you can get :thumbsup:. The premium ranges are still made in the UK as well in their factory just outside Ipswich.
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I’ve an R2. Not as good as a true stereo of course, but pretty good compromise with limited space. Better at higher volumes.
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The East of England in general was home to a large part of the British high-end audio industry. As well as Rega and Ruark in Southend, there was Arcam (formerly A&R Cambridge) near Cambridge, Celestion in Ipswich, and Audiolab, Meridian, Quad and Mission in Huntingdon. All of those companies are still in existence but Celestion no longer makes high-end audio products.
It seems Audiolab, Quad, Mission, Wharfedale are now brand names owned by International Audio Group Ltd (IAG), who makes all their products in one factory in China.
https://www.whathifi.com/news/china-behind-scenes-iag
IAG also owns the Ekco brand name,
http://www.ekcoaudio.com/history
2005 - International Audio Group Ltd. (IAG) acquired the trademark EKCO and it was added to it's portfolio of British and Japanese consumer audio brands including Wharfedale, Audiolab, Quad, Mission and Luxman to name but a few.
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Linn still make their own stuff in Scotland.
Mine, bought c.20 years ago, are still good.
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Still centrepiece in my home studio are the Celestion Ditton 25s I bought when I was 18, some 41 years ago. I still love their sound.
Yes I had a pair of 25s back in the mid-'70s. Probably the best speakers I ever had. I replaced them with Celestion 66s - bigger but decidedly not better - replaced those in short order with Cambridge R50s which I kept for 35 years until the ageing KEF woofers got too high-maintenance. They went to the tip. Now I have a pair of tall B&W speakers which are not a patch on any of the above. :(
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I've had several sets of celestion loudspeakers. I quite like them. A short history of celestion here
http://www.bygonetones.com/the-history-of-celestion.html (http://www.bygonetones.com/the-history-of-celestion.html)
cheers
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I think there might still be an Amstrad establishment in Shoeburyness. That's not low end, that's arse-end.
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When I told my son that the SL6's were going to have to go because of the extension that we were going to have built he was very upset, until I asked him if he would like them.
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Thanks, Brucey, that is a lovely history to read, a pity about the numerous buyouts in tough times.
Indeed it is. However, I think it's misleading regarding the buyouts though. The first, given as taking place in the 1970s, was due to Danny Prenn's diversification into clothing and I think it's simply Rola Celestion Ltd being absorbed into Celestion Industries plc rather than a buyout. The clothing businesses went up and down but the audio division was always strong. Later, in the early 90s, Mr Prenn's son led the sale of the entire company to a venture capital group that wanted to invest in the clothing side so the audio division was put up for sale as a profitable going concern. We knew something was up when the Gold Peak people came back for a second visit. Cue KEF going bust and GP had enough critical mass to form a UK-based high-end audio company - KH Industries - backed with manufacturing operations in China.
Unfortunately the people that GP brought in to look after domestic audio made a right arse of it so it's no longer a credible brand in that market sector (whereas KEF, for example, is).
Also, Celestion is no longer based at the Foxhall Road site. Houses occupy the site now (Celestion Drive) and everything moved to a new site just outside the town.
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It seems Audiolab, Quad, Mission, Wharfedale are now brand names owned by International Audio Group Ltd (IAG), who makes all their products in one factory in China.
Aye, Mission bought Wharfedale (in a reverse takeover to become Verity Group) and later Quad. Verity Group changed its name to NXT plc. It sold Wharfedale and Quad to (newly formed?) IAG and Mission was bought by its management. NXT plc (a technology R&D and licensing company) eventually ran out of cash in the late noughties and disappeared. I guess that IAG must have bought Mission/Cyrus some time after that.
Audiolab was bought by Tag Mclaren in the mid 90s but when Tag realised they were getting nowhere with their overpriced carbon-fibre clad offerings they shut down. After this I assume Audiolab was just a brand that was also snapped up by IAG.
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We have a Ruark R1 in the bedroom, for use as a bedside radio/alarm clock. I really like it - good sound for such a small unit. And a good range of features too.
We've had several Pure devices before but I've gone off them and the Ruark has proved to be a more than capable alternative.
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Some interesting Stuffs there, Woofage. Have to say that I prefer the noises that come out of my couple-of-years-old Mission MXs over the output of Miss Von Brandenburg's early-1990s Missions, even though hers are bigger :P
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I think VOX AC30s were made on Canvey for a while. And I'm talking proper AC30s, not the reissue nonsense. I have one, but I lent it to an AWOL friend. I'll get it back one day - even if it is the most impractical amplifier ever made....
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... Celestion ... in the late 90s (a little after I left the company).
I didn't know you worked for Celestion; I do now. Still centrepiece in my home studio are the Celestion Ditton 25s I bought when I was 18, some 41 years ago. I still love their sound.
Mine are still in use! Ditton 15s IIRC. Dunno how I afforded them as a newly-married man!
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Monitor Audio is in Rayleigh, which is a few miles from Southend.
They bought Roksan, and moved them to the same site.
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Celestion do still do drivers though. There's also Genesis (Gordon) in Southend but he closed up shop in the late 2000s.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=39&v=HJHul8HgbPs
A guided tour around the ATC loudspeaker factory in Stroud. I used to have one of their amps, 150W per channel, a bit of a beast.
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I've got a Ruark R2 in the bedroom and an R4 in the kitchen. Both lovely sounding units somewhat marred by having really awkward remote controls. Living room has a Naim Uniti driving Linn speakers, so that's my only properly British system.
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It would appear that my Monitor Audio centre speaker in the Great Hall hails from Rayleigh, while the Tannoy rears are from Scotlandshire. This goes some way to allaying the disappointment of finding fine upstanding BRITISH names like Mission and Wharfedale are the property of Johnny FOREIGN.
I'm not about to start dismantling the furniture to find out where the 30-odd year old JPWs were made.
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I'm not about to start dismantling the furniture to find out where the 30-odd year old JPWs were made.
Dartmoor Prison
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There's been a pair of those pushing out the tunes on my desk for the past 22 years.
^ That's exactly what I was told by the man in Richer Sounds when I bought them.
ETA Tannoy used to have a couple of premises in West Norwood when I was a sprog.