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RTR Speakers... History? Opinions?

StarMover

StarMover

AlienToAllThingsAudio
I came across these today at the local thrift, I gave them a pass, but they'll be there tomorrow. They look like a good quality speaker. Two way, acoustic suspension and course they need a refoam, but otherwise completely salvagable.

I have never heard of this brand. A little research shows the company is associated with Bic America. Now I'm curious. ?? :scratch2:
 

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RTR once made a complete line of high quality speakers running up to some quite large speakers, this back around the late 1960s and 1970s.

Most interesting they made electrostatic drivers; some were OEMed out to other speaker makers (Infinity and Crown for instance, early ESSs too), some went in their own speakers and they also made two outboard ES tweeter arrays available to the DIYer.

It appears they went under and some company picked up the name and is using it.
 
I knew I had a picture somewhere.

These are RTR outboard ES arrays for the DIYer.

Back in the 70s a pal had Fulton Modular Js which used RTR ES tweeters and were some of the best sounding direct radiators I recall.
 

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Interesting to say the least. It looks kind of like a green marshmallow between two graham crackers.
 
I have a pair of RTR 180D speakers, while not my favorite speakers that I have, they are in the top five.

Those that you have pictured would sound pretty good in a small to small/medium sized room.

If you buy them just out of curiosity, they'd be worth it... if you want to buy them to be your main speakers,
I'd pass on them.

My two cents... :thmbsp:

Scott
 
Tom Brennan said:
I knew I had a picture somewhere.

These are RTR outboard ES arrays for the DIYer.

Back in the 70s a pal had Fulton Modular Js which used RTR ES tweeters and were some of the best sounding direct radiators I recall.
Click to expand...

Those sure look like Janzen tweeters to me. Like in my ESS Superquads...

ESS superquad-1.jpg
 
Celt said:
Damn, I bet those sound sweet (read: transparent) ! :yes:
Click to expand...

I do not have them running 100% but have been told by several people in the know that these are some of the best speakers you can buy. I can hardly wait to get them to 100%. What i did hear was fabulous. The Quad part sounds great on it's own but the Janzen planar tweeter array is amazing, super clean, super fast, very articulate yet still warm and musical. Pretty much the best top end I have ever heard.
 
Here are my RtR's - on the Martin Logan website they claim that RtR bought the Janszen tooling to make their electrostatics. RtR was a great speaker company before they went out of business and BIC bought the name. The RtR 280's were also a great speaker - all very power hungry.



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I know I am sidetracking (or is it hijacking) this thread with my RtR's but I cannot find any info on the ones I showed above, and I have had RtR's since 1975. The crossovers appear to be custom made - hand written on the coils is the actual "henry's (what a coil spec'd at ?) The crossover capacitors are also custom modified. I suspect these were custom made RtR's by the actual company - these are not the RtR 280's I mentioned earlier - I used to own a pair of those. . sooo any info would be appreciated. I do not even know if the subs are RtR but the walnut veneer is matched, the diamond veneer is matched to the other speaker, and the terminal strip I suspect is for different crossover frequencys.

And to stick to the original meaning of this thread - any ORIGINAL RtR's , not BIC, will be a good speaker so go for it !
 
I like the sound. There were many many 1" dome / woofer two ways all designed for college guys. Genisis, Infinity, RTR, Jensen, Avid, EPI. All were kinda the same. The dome is a Philips.
 
I remember the RTR's back in 1976 when i was going to college. I looked at some bookshelf models, and they sounded super. I moved back home and ended up with the Genesis 1+ model, but the RTR's I thought were impressive back then.
 
My first set of speakers were made by RTR, the brand was called Acculab. Well made 2-way speakers, nothing fancy, just solid dorm room sound. Probably good basement/garage stuff.
 
This is my RTR array. 280-DR in the front with ESR-15 on top; DR-1 on side flanked by Synergistics S-53.
 

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