The Fritzspeakers Carrera BE is a stand mounted 2-way speaker. The Scanspeak Revelator mid-woofer has a 7 inch diameter paper cone. The tweeter is made in the US by Transducer Labs and has a beryllium dome. Overall response is listed as 36 Hz to 40 kHz +/- 3 dB. Like other Fritzspeakers that have been reviewed here and here on 10 Audio, the extened bass power delivered into the listening room defies the physical size of the ported enclosure, which is 16H x 9W x 12D. Each Carrera BE weighs 30 pounds. The cost is $3,500 per pair in your choice of real wood finishes and include grilles which attach magnetically.
The review system includes a custom Windows 7 music computer running JRiver Media Center 22; Cary DAC-200ts and Mytek Brooklyn DACs, the latter with external power supply; Lynx Hilo AD/DA converter with external power supply; VPI Aries 3 turntable with a Kuzma 4-Point tonearm, ZYX UNIverse Premium, Miyajima Madake, Clearaudio Titanium V2, Lyra Atlas and ZYX UNIverse II moving coil cartridges; Pass Labs XP-25 phono preamplifier; Mark Levinson No. 52 and Bent Audio Tap-X and Acoustic Imagery Jay-Sho preamplifiers; Rogue Audio Stereo 100, Cary Audio CAD-805AE, Pass Labs XA30.8, McIntosh MC152, Quad Platinum Stereo, and Dennis Had’s “Hot Rod” Inspire Fire Bottle SE power amplifiers; and Emerald Physics 4.7, Magnepan 3.7, and Focal Chorus 714 loudspeakers, augmented with a pair of JL Audio e110 subwoofers. The cabling is Audioquest WEL Signature, Nordost Valhalla 2, Audience SX, and Mogami interconnects and speaker cables. USB cables include Wyred4Sound USB PCOCC Premium and Lavricables “dual head” cable. Power protection and purification are provided by a PS Audio Dectet for the preamplifiers and source components, and a PS Audio Quintet for the power amplifiers. The latter provides remote turn-on and -off of power amplifiers that lack a 12V remote trigger.
Depending on the size of your listening room and preferred volume levels, you might find that a high powered amplifier is not necessary. Even with the Carrera’s sensitivity of 87 dB, the Inspire amplifier, with KT150 power tubes and about 15 Watts, delivers peak sound pressure levels (SPLs) of 85 dB at the listening seat (C-weighted fast response). This loudness level is satisfactory for over 90% of my listening. More recently, a pair of Cary Audio CAD-805AE SET amps, with 211 tubes, was installed. This might very well be the best, most satisfying, most real sounding music that this writer has heard outside of a concert hall.
This review is a work in progress, but I wanted to post something quickly because this is a superior loudspeaker that you need to know about. Here is the summary of my almost 10 pages of listening notes:
The Carrera BE speaker delivers a human voice that sounds more like a real, living, breathing person than any other speaker I have heard. After hearing this clarity and truthfulness from your audio system in your listening room, there is no going back.
The Carrera BE has the best qualities of a single driver speaker. This completely coherent performance is at least partially due to the series crossover between the two drivers, which is inaudible. However, the Carrera BE has much better bass and the entire treble range is far more extended and much higher resolution than single driver speakers.
Application Note: Add a subwoofer. Set the sub’s low pass crossover to 55-60 Hz. And plug the rear ports on both Carreras.
This review will be completed as time permits. If you are thinking about a new 2-way speaker, at any price from any manufacturer, the Carrera BE should be included in your considerations. This review began with review loaner speakers, and is now a work in progress with reviewer owned speakers, which are the same pair. The Carrera BE speakers are stunning in their ability to communicate extraordinarily realistic performers.
Overall Rating: 10 LPs
Link to manufacturer: Fritzspeakers
This review would not have been possible without the very kind support of Fritzspeakers. Thank you, Fritz!