testimonial - tricia ells

Dear Arthur,

I apologize for not posting a response to your message of 1/5/99 far sooner than this. Your words have been on my mind since that time. I certainly understand your passion for Beveridges and I want to share my experience of them.

When my late husband and I were first married, here in Minneapolis, we mutually agreed that we didn't really care if we owned any furniture or not - that a really fine speaker system was the most important thing to us. We agreed we would go into debt to buy one if necessary. (I am a professional musician - piano and viola - and my husband was a psychologist/violinist.) As soon as we moved into our house, we set about finding our dream speakers. We used an audiotape of the two of us playing together, plus various other recordings we were very familiar with to try systems out with.

Our third stop was at Hi Fi Sound here in the TwinCities. We had been reading about Beveridge 2-SW2's in "Absolute Sound", and were really curious about them. The store showroom was huge, with lots of wood surfaces. When I first heard our audiotape, I went into shock! Not only did I hear my husband's violin and my piano reproduced with absolutely accurate timbre, but I could "see" where he was standing, relative to the piano.

We went on to audition orchestral and chamber music. The imaging was simply astounding. I remember being moved to tears at the wonder of it.

We went home in a state of euphoria. Then we started thinking about the cost of it. Pretty soon the thinking set in: "What if we could find something nearly as good for a way lower price?" So we went all over the state auditioning other speakers. Nothing even came close. To make a long story short, we just said "To hell with it, we're going for it." Then we set about finding the components to go with the Bev's. We set the speakers up in the house, then A-B'd them by switching back and forth between Van Alstine's $150 modified Dynaco PAT5 pre-amp and Beveridge's own $2500 pre-amp. We were prepared, by then, to spend any amount to get the best sound we could. The Dynaco, however, won hands-down. To this day, it does a marvelous job.

When the Bev 3 came out, we auditioned it. It was clean and clear, but its imaging never matched the 2-SW2 and it didn't seem able to reproduce any really big orchestra sound at a lifelike volume.

The 2-SW's subwoofers (crossover at 100 Hz) have always sounded a little "tubby", compared to the crispness and fast response of the columns, but this has come to be a loveable fault. It seldom bothers me.

As time went on, my husband and I used to nitpick about certain frequencies not coming through at the same volume on various recordings. Sometimes we would get irritable with the speakers and blame them. But when I now listen to CD's, instead of 33's and 45's, I realize even more how far ahead of their time these speakers have always been. With CD's, they really deliver up to their full potential. I never find myself fatigued listening to CD's. The speakers have "headroom" that makes the sound enter the room effortlessly and expansively. The soundstage of a cathedral is reproduced as easily as that of a tiny chamber music concert hall. And I never realized how capable they are of reproducing the entire dynamic range of the piano until I purchased recordings of 2-piano music on CD's.

The speakers died about l988, 3 years after my husband died. I knew that Beveridges were no longer available. I could find no place in the area where I could contact someone about repairing them. I was told that "there was too much voltage across the plates, and that no one had the equipment to measure it." So, the speakers just stood mute in my music room.

Then I met a tremendous cellist/engineer named Jim Haugland. Jim had read about Beveridges, but had never heard them. He volunteered to take on the task of restoring them. He found where to purchase the appropriate vacuum tubes, then replaced them along with other worn-out parts. I'll never know what else he did - but when he was through, they sounded better than ever!!!! I will be eternally grateful to him for this restoration. It has returned something invaluable to my life.

In answer to how well they have held up since we bought them in about l980: Like I said, with their recent overhaul they sound better than ever. The wood of the cabinets is still beautiful. The grill cloth disintegrated years ago. I'm looking for suggestions on what to do about this. But, it's no big deal. I feel they are worth every penny we paid for them. All the time we were paying off the loan, we got to listen to them. And that was all the reward we needed!

Sincerely,

Tricia