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Purifi-6R, built by Bran, Malaysia
Copyright 2022 © Troels Gravesen

Hello Troels, 
 
Greetings from Malaysia! I've been meaning to send this to you but as it turns out, I've been too engrossed in listening to the Purifi-6Rs and figuring them out in the grand scheme of things (to me, that is). So it's been 3 weeks since I've completed mine and I have to say, these are amazing speakers that deliver sound quality well beyond my expectations.
 
I've reached a point in my hifi 'career' where I can no longer really afford significant speaker upgrades and have swirled the idea of DIY around for a few years now. The idea that building your own speakers with quality components will trump production speakers a few times the price, is something that appealed to me. At the end of 2020, I made the first step with a semi-DIY SB Acoustics Rinjani kit, that came with pre-built cabinets and crossovers. The Rinjanis are good but didn't quite meet my expectations for what I paid for them, although they fulfill their role very well as part of my home theatre rig. This year, I decided to take the plunge with one of your kits. 
 
I had been visiting your site for a while now and had been eyeing a 3-way design but on the day that I decided to pull the trigger, it occured to me that I should start with something a bit smaller and simpler to build. After all, I'd never done serious woodwork before and this would be a test of my hypothesis. I could move on to more complicated projects later. Despite wanting some Scanspeak and/or SEAS goodness, I was drawn to your description of the Purifi-6Rs clarity and have to admit that the Viawave ribbon tweeters were a big plus too. I'd never had speakers with ribbon tweeters before and was always curious to know what they sounded like. That plus the unique looking and well performing Purifi drivers sealed the deal. And so, I fired my order off to Mr. Jantzen and started looking for wood workshop rentals.
 
As it turns out, my area is a DIY desert. For the life of me, I could not find a suitable place to use, so instead, I pivoted and looked for someone willing to take a speaker cabinet commission. That was also a struggle but I eventually found a willing furniture maker, who not only gave me a good quote - US$200 - but offered to make the cabinets out of ash wood. I did understand why we don't use solid wood for speaker cabinets but I figured that bitumen pads would help and if the wood ever warped, that would make a good excuse to experiment with a new box build. I had them screw in the back panels to make it easier for me to work on the build.

When I received them, it was just before a major local holiday which meant that I could spend the next few days working on them. Putting the crossovers together was fun but time consuming, due to my forgetting to get a better soldering iron. At least I had a multimeter on hand to check continuity. It was just my luck too that the tweeter holes were 1mm too small and it was at this point that I cursed the decision to use ash wood. Ash wood is not conducive to manual sandpapering or filing. And so I dremeled, which eventually got the job done but made for some not so perfect circles and a huge racket. Note to self: next time, drivers need to be around during the woodworking phase! Also, source more internal wiring! Admittedly, the woofer holes aren't chamfered as the furniture maker neglected that instruction but I do hope to take care of it at some point.


Tested in my home theatre rig in the living room.

When I first heard them in my main rig, it was immediately obvious how transparent and clear they sounded. Instruments were clearly and sharply defined in space. Foreground and background sounds were distinct from each other, evoking a solid sense of depth in the soundstage, especially for orchestral tracks from large venues with natural reverb. My Harbeth Super HL5+ are no slouches when resolving details but the Purifi 6Rs took it to another level. While I wasn't hearing the cliched 'things that I'd never heard before' - credit must be given to the Harbeths - everything was just resolved better. I was in awe of the Purifi-6Rs portrayal of classical/folk spanish guitar - quick, dynamic and super detailed in the style's characteristic fast staccato strumming, beyond what the Harbeths were capable of, which was smeared in comparison. If I were to use a PC monitor/TV analogy, the sound portrayed by the Harbeths was in 1440p, while the Purifi-6Rs was in 2160p/4K. This makes the Rinjanis 1080p, by the way. 
 
The Super HL5+ are my dream speakers, love at first listen at a show many years ago and took a few years after for me to obtain. I've had them for about 3 years. Midrange is the strength of the Harbeths, in that with the right tracks, they can realistically convey the presence of the vocalist in the room to the point of goosebumps. What the Purifi-6Rs showed me was that the Harbeths were doing so at the expense of some treble extension, soundstage and ambience. As for the 6R bass, there was no contest - the bass was deep, well extended, well defined, dynamic and oh so quick. I found my head nodding along to the music, even though I was trying to be critical. To make sure that I wasn't being taken in by the novelty of the experience, I switched to the Harbeths. I was glad to switch back to the Purifi-6Rs a few days later, having confirmed that I did in fact prefer to listen to them. To be fair, ever since I happened to listen to a pair of Dynaudio Evoke 20s that surprised me with their enveloping soundstaging, that presentation piqued my interest. And so, it appears that my taste in sound has also changed.


 
I was not expecting the Purifi-6Rs to do so well that they would better my Harbeths in almost every way. They were meant to be a trial and if they were good enough, replace the Rinjanis. And so is my hypothesis proven? Can DIY speakers with good components beat production speakers multiple times the cost? Well, the total cost of the Purifi 6Rs to me - with shipping, import duties, woodwork commission and additional tools - was US$2200. The Super HL5+ used to go for US$6000 or thereabouts. They now do home theatre duty. I think the result speaks for itself. 
 
My main rig (there is some serious quality, refinement and value with this under-appreciated Chinese brand, by the way:
DAC: Audio-gd R7
Preamp: Audio-gd Master 9
Amp: Audio-gd A1
Thanks,
Bran