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RSL speakers, am I alone?

Bigears

Bigears

Manager of my own day
I don't read much here about RSL speakers, but I'm an avid collector and having A/B's these with almost every other speaker I can get my hands on, I keep coming back. The clean and powerful sound that these speakers produce combined with the beautiful cabinet work (many were solid oak) and solid build quality have me almost obsessed with these. Plus, how can you not love speakers made in Canoga Park, CA? So how many of us are there on AK?
 
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RSL Eighty's

I bought this pair for 40 dollars on CL here in LA. I don't know that much about them, except that they sound real good.
 

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Estring said:
I bought this pair for 40 dollars on CL here in LA. I don't know that much about them, except that they sound real good.
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Appearently we ARE alone...now you know why you got those speakers off of CL for $40. Here is a good link to more info about RSL.

edit: Estring, what you have I believe are "post sale" speakers that were not of the same quality as the pre sale units. The lettering on the binding post bezel may have a different manufacture city and the cabinet's are vinyl clad I believe. Still nice, but not the same.

I've also been lucky enough to have recent dialog with Howard Rogers. Super nice guy and more than willing to talk about the company.

More info here...

http://www.rslspeakers.com/dev/About/index.cfm?page=AboutHome
 
bully said:
RSL is Rogersound Labs. They are listed in Orion. Looks like they made some fine speaker systems.
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Yes Bully, Rogersound Labs started out in SoCal as a speaker manufacturer, and grew to a 9 or 10 store HiFi chain before being sold to an investor group, which promptly mismanaged the company in to bankrupcy. They used to audition their speakers side by side with the best from other manufacturers and usually converted buyers to their speakers by the time the demo was over. They even offered a 5 year warranty and a 7 day "love em or return em" return policy. Almost all were internally wired with Monster cable and utlized nice air and iron core chokes with mylar or prop cap's and high quality L pads. The speakers were also very high quality and seem indestructible. These so far, are flying under the radar.
 
They were quite popular in our dorms in college in the '70s. I never had them because I liked what I got better, but they were good speakers. Went with a friend a number of years ago to pick out speakers and indeed, he ended up with the RSL, and I thought it quite fine for his needs. I got a great Sheffield demo CD out of it, with tracks that I previously only had on disc. Hard to find a phonograph at a dealer these days to audition with, eh? I did see one pair of rather small towers at a local GW a few months back. Something like an 8" and a tweet, cabinets and grilles were a little beat. I do not need them so passed (they also these days put everything in a package and want to sell you a bunch of lousy electronics to go with....). I don't know how many may have made the trip out of So Cal - but good stuff.
 
I have had two pair of RSL's. I still have a pair of Elans. They are in my daughters room with a Sansui AU-G99X. Sound great. Gotta love the rear passive and the rear firing tweeter. The other pair I had was a bookshelf or monitor style. They did not have model numbers on them.
They sounded nice. I gave them to a buddie at work with a Pioneer SX-450. He thinks it's the best system he has ever had.

I like the Elans better than the L-100's, but not the other pair. Thats why they are gone and I still have two pair of L100's.

Rob
 

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When I was growing up in LA during the 70's it seemed like RSL speakers were the speakers of choice at every record store in the San Fernando Valley.I lived very close to the original store,so maybe that had something to do with it.I heard a pair side by side with some L100's,and I liked them as much,if not more.
Thanks for the thread.I havent thought about RSL in at least 20 years.
Jimmy
 
we just got an ipod for christmas, so i began to research putting together a system on which to listen. that's when i found audiokarma, and all the related pages. in the meantime i was given a pioneer sa-7100 amp and a pair of rsl 3300 monitors. the monitors had scratchy pots, but sounded really great. just REALLY ugly, and low, low WAF. so, they went to goodwill after i got my ar-4ax's, and baby advents. those will be rotated out when i find me a pair of ar-3a's, though if i could find a really nice set of 3300s (with the non particleboard cabinets) i would get those, too.

i grew up in socal (westwood) and remember the ads from the 70s. my dad had a pair of epi 70s hanging in the den, so i just listened to those...
 
Some RSL speakers are in the dollars and sense form for 75.00 in Cali somewhere. Look like big towers, described as 4' tall.
 
Bigears said:
I don't read much here about RSL speakers, but I'm an avid collector and having A/B's these with almost every other speaker I can get my hands on, I keep coming back. The clean and powerful sound that these speakers produce combined with the beautiful cabinet work (many were solid oak) and solid build quality have me almost obsessed with these. Plus, how can you not love speakers made in Canoga Park, CA? So how many of us are there on AK?

These are the RSL's in my collection that I'm allowed to keep in the house...



RSLfamilyportMedium.jpg
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Those are some really cool looking speakers, especially the ones on the far outer sides of the pic. I'm just glad your TV isn't a CRT...:yikes: :D
 
I kinda forgot about this thread, but here is some more info. The tall pairs are RSL Elan’s, The outside pair are walnut veneer, and the inside pair are solid oak. Very well made and solid with minimal cabinet resonance and very good wife appeal. I have these running off a pair of bridged Soundcraftsmen PCR 800's at 600 WPC. While the imaging is not what it should be with the quad pair, the low level bass is equal to a live performance and when I push the amps, I can see the windows and the TV screen in my listening room flex. Few individual speakers can handle that much power, the pairs are nice that way.

As a “pair of pairs”, the whole system sounds fantastic for concert DVD’s. The Cream reunion concert, Robin Ford Live and Pat Methany are favorites with this setup because of their very clean audio, not often found on concert DVD’s. For more accurate reproduction, I just run the outer pair, using the inners for whatever vintage unit I’m testing. So far the wife is being a good sport about the pair of “Twin Towers” that dominate the living room.

The RSL Elan’s where often demo’d and compared against the JBL L-100 T’s. I have a set of JBL 4311’s and I’m more impressed with the RSL Elan’s extended bottom end. These spec out with a 12" rear firing P/R, 12" woofer with 6.5 lb magnet and 2 or 3" VC, 5" closed back mid, and front and rear firing high output 1" soft dome tweeters. High quality L pads for every speaker but the woofer, Monster cable internally wired, high quality X overs, and a claimed response of 25 Hz to 25kHz with a spl of 98 db and a max power rating of 300 watts. They are also fuse protected and came with 5 year warranty! I think the pair was around $1000 in 1988 and weigh in at 65 lbs each.

I have had open dialog with the creator of these speakers, Howard Rodgers, and he told me they had a difficult time finding tweeters that could balance the bass driver output and ended up having them made custom in Europe. I would agree even delicate passages at low volume sound amazingly realistic. I have many other RSL’s and can highly recommend the pre-takeover speakers. After the sale of the business, the quality went downhill pretty fast along with the entire company!
 
Bigears said:
I have many other RSL’s and can highly recommend the pre-takeover speakers. After the sale of the business, the quality went downhill pretty fast along with the entire company!
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Bigears,
How are the pre-take over ones identified please? Do you have the takeover date?

Vito
 
I worked for RSL between 1988 and its demise in 1992. The three models pictured in the first post are two pairs of Elan's as mentioned, a later (final series) pair of 3600 studio monitors (the JBL L-100 type), and the "Magnificent" 8 inch two ways. These were among RSL's best sounding, high sales volume models over the years. All of the 3300 and 3600 models sounded good even though many different tweeter types were used over the years. I think the final series with the dome tweeter pictured above were the best sounding.

The model 3800 monitors (with polypropelene woofers and mids) are to be avoided as they did not sound good under any circumstances. The model 2600 monitors have a midrange peak that will cause listener fatigue in minutes. The vinyl clad RSL models (called something like the Performance Series) were offered as low cost "starter" models and offered decent sound at a low price. Other models of the same vintage as those pictured in the first thread include: the Nevada model featuring both 12 and 8 inch woofers which sounded bass heavy and a bit muddy to me, the Sierra model which was similar to the Elan without the dual front/rear drivers, and the 6600-H tower with two 12 inch woofers. These models contained (to my recollection) horn tweeters that looked like Electro-voice T-35's and had that characteristic peaky horn sound. The use of the dome tweeters in the Elan's made their response much smoother than the horn tweeter equipped models.

RSL made many various models over the years but those in the first post are the models that should have near universal appeal. The CG Compression Guide models, the last models designed while Howard was still in charge of the company, are also very good once you tame the bass down a bit. They made one time aligned model with an upper baffle that slanted back at an angle that sounded fantastic, but they were expensive and few were ever sold. I've never seen a used pair of those models for sale.
 
I've got a chance to check out some 4200b's. What's the scoop on these towers? They look a lot like Vanersteens to me. Seller says there are 2 8" woofers in each cabinet. Are they foam or rubber surrounds? Check 'em out.....or pass? I happen to have a used pair of 3600's in oak with the flat front baffle AND mirror imaged!!
 
hi guys i'm new here i have the RSL CG-6 internally with monster cable they are in very good condition ,how much these speakers worth because i never seen before this kinda of speakers thanks.
 
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