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Realistic Optimus 27s, Rare And Surprising

Bodyblue

Bodyblue

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
I am always on the lookout for speakers that are strange or rare. On Wed I saw on CL these Optimus 27s and laughed at how strange they looked.......I mean, tall and skinny and that looks like something from Craig for $39.99?? So I kept looking around and a few hours later I looked them up in the RS 1980 catalog. I was expecting them to be next to the cheapest items but it was on the same page as the top of the line (for RS) Mach Ones with a price of $149.99 each! Hmmmmm ok that makes me at least read the entire page on them.

After I read the article I messaged @Lavane since he is a far more informed speaker guru than I am, and sent him the RS catalog page and the CL listing. After some research he found out the domed tweeters are actually Peerless units. After looking at what Lavane sent me and digesting the specs I sent the seller an offer (fairly lowball) and he accepted instantly.

When I picked them up I was surprised at how tall they were and skinny they were. I was also surprised at how heavy they were. They may look weird but they are build sturdy and solid. The usual high quality RS walnut veneer looks decent but it needs to sanded and oiled.....that will be done in the next few days. These speakers were used in the now closed Towe Ford Museum in Sacramento....the drivers are all in perfect condition and the grills are nice but there is a small hole in one of them that is not noticeable when installed.

They have the Peerless dome tweeter, six in driver and eight in drone cone. They seem to need a decent amount of power and are probably around 88 db sensitive I estimate. Even though they are skinny, they are tall and wide and have decent air volume.

How do they sound? Stupid good for how strange they look. The highs are excellent, not too bright but very detailed with great soundstage. The bass is so much better than I thought it would be. It does not go real deep but it is fast and tight and is just so surprising.

This speaker was a one year only design. The year after they lost the Peerless tweeter, made the cabinet smaller and changed the name to Nova. I bet they did not make any money on them and did not sell well because probably nobody believed they would sound good from the look of them.

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Bodyblue said:
Hmmm I never thought of that. Radio Shack was famous for aping other designs and making similar units.
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Yeah, look up the early BA models like the A100, A150, A200, etc. I'm guessing the RS product development people might have had a look at them. Which isn't a bad thing, because Boston Acoustics made good speakers.
 
maxhifi said:
Yeah, look up the early BA models like the A100, A150, A200, etc. I'm guessing the RS product development people might have had a look at them. Which isn't a bad thing, because Boston Acoustics made good speakers.
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Yep, you are right.....they do look a lot alike. Sometimes RS reached a bit above their market and came out with something really cool but then ended up with a sales dud. Radio Shack was a good quality low end shop that reached up to the middle and sold them like crazy. When they went too high they got bit.
 
maxhifi said:
Boy do those ever remind me about early Boston Acoustics speakers.
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That and they have kind of a Polk Studio series vibe to them. It took some digging to find info on them. Mostly "what are these?" Kinds of posts in various message boards and such. But I did find 6 or so reviews from people who had them. None were really bad. Most did describe the bass as being there, just tighter than other speakers they had. Several people removed the tweeter and were convinced they were Peerless. Every once in awhile RS would come up with something really good, but for whatever reason only lasted a year. Production costs too high or the looks were different, etc. The OP has a nice Receiver that never made it into the RS catalogs and was only sold part of one year. Its the best built RS receiver I ever saw. But for whatever reason it had a very short run. Its build quality is what you would expect from a higher end brand name.
 
maxhifi said:
Yeah, look up the early BA models like the A100, A150, A200, etc. I'm guessing the RS product development people might have had a look at them. Which isn't a bad thing, because Boston Acoustics made good speakers.
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Sometimes it takes hours and hours of listening to like a speaker. For these it was about 10 minutes for me to really like them.
 
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maxhifi said:
Yeah, look up the early BA models like the A100, A150, A200, etc. I'm guessing the RS product development people might have had a look at them. Which isn't a bad thing, because Boston Acoustics made good speakers.
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Do you remember what those BA units cost when new?
 
Sometimes you come across a speaker that just sounds good right off the bat.I have a unique set of 70s Toshiba ss330w speakers that are so musical that they will be with me forever.
 
superdog said:
Sometimes you come across a speaker that just sounds good right off the bat.I have a unique set of 70s Toshiba ss330w speakers that are so musical that they will be with me forever.
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I brought them in, hooked them to my front system (Marantz 33/Sony 330ES) dialed up Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" and I started laughing after about 20 seconds......I was gobsmacked from then on. I had zero expectation they would sound good at all. I either thought they would need to be recapped and then I might like them or they would just sound like crap and I would just put them in the closet. But I liked them after 20 seconds. I put on some acoustic guitar then some Chris Boti and his crystal clear trumpet and the love affair was on it's way!

I have so many speakers with really nice bass (Imperial 6, Large Advent, KLH 6, Optimus 5, AR 14) and even though the 27s dont go as deep, the bass they do have is such high quality that I still love them.

If one is a huge bass head or like really bass heavy music, then the 27s are probably not for you. But if you like most anything else and listen in a medium size room, I think they will be liked.

One thing they share with other RS acoustic suspension units is a love for power. I pushed a decent amount of power through them and they just soaked it up. I may recap them but they are so detailed I am not sure what difference it would make. I do want to open them up and look at the crossovers.
 
I found a set of Optimus 27's in a thrift store a while back.
The pair I had were bass reflex with a passive radiator.
The tweeter was made in Japan and the speaker seemed to be a take off of the Polk Monitor 7
 
tubed said:
I found a set of Optimus 27's in a thrift store a while back.
The pair I had were bass reflex with a passive radiator.
The tweeter was made in Japan and the speaker seemed to be a take off of the Polk Monitor 7
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The 27s were not bass reflex and neither were the Nova 10s that followed them. If you look at the pics above you will see they are not ported.
 
tubed said:
Maybe we are'nt talking about the same speaker.
The pair I had were 6.5" 2-ways with an 8" passive radiator and a Realistic tweeter made in Japan.
Passive radiator designs are considered bass reflex;)

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I think we are. I had heard that drone cones could be considered bass reflex, but the cabs are not ported.....that is where my confusion came in.
 
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