rsl speaker
- Thread starter Leon54
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crazy-in-az
Uhhhh....
Welcome to AK!
They sound like RSL Nevada's. I'd google that model and see if they are the same. They should be pretty good...
They sound like RSL Nevada's. I'd google that model and see if they are the same. They should be pretty good...
stickman
Super Member
Jim249 is correct. The speaker is an RSL 6600H and both woofers should have white cones with the treated cloth accordion surround. The bottom midrange has its dust cap pushed in so I'm thinking a small child damaged the lower woofer beyond repair and could reach the lower midrange driver as well to poke at it. In stock configuration if they are functioning properly they are a fine sound speaker. I bought a new pair from RSL in about 1979 or 1980 and I will never let go of them.
orsen
Jukebox Hero
stickman
Super Member
I can't help you on that one Leon. I took my fuses out and put a piece of 12 gauge speaker wire with bared ends into the fuse holders long ago. I keep my volume levels under control these days so there is no risk to the speakers.
The RSL 6600H's are very efficient and don't take many watts to produce a medium room filling volume level. Any receiver or amp with a smooth high frequency response will work just fine as the E-V T35 tweeter will accentuate any harshness in the treble range. I originally ran my 6600H's with a new Pioneer SX-1250 receiver which sounded harsh at low volumes.
Fortunately the white cone, treated cloth accordion surround 12 inch woofers used in the RSL 3300, 3600, and 6600H models (among others) turn up on FleaBay all the time, so sourcing a replacement should not be difficult.
The RSL 6600H's are very efficient and don't take many watts to produce a medium room filling volume level. Any receiver or amp with a smooth high frequency response will work just fine as the E-V T35 tweeter will accentuate any harshness in the treble range. I originally ran my 6600H's with a new Pioneer SX-1250 receiver which sounded harsh at low volumes.
Fortunately the white cone, treated cloth accordion surround 12 inch woofers used in the RSL 3300, 3600, and 6600H models (among others) turn up on FleaBay all the time, so sourcing a replacement should not be difficult.
I have also heard the harshness from the T35 to the point I have sidelined my speakers. I also have 3600's and Elans that sound harsh to my ears. Changing amps does not seem to help. What can be done to correct the problem or is it just my ears getting old?
stickman
Super Member
Jim, that is unusual. RSL used pretty good capacitors in those speakers but it may be time for a recap. Unfortunately the cross-overs inside RSL speakers were never meant to be serviced and are usually attached to the back of the cabinet near the connection plate making them a pain to access through a woofer opening (which is typical for speakers of that era). In your case I would recommend that you not use Solen caps as they can be bright sounding compared to other name brand caps. RSL used good quality dome tweeters sourced primarily from SEAS but some good quality VIFA tweeters were used as well. I don't know if these tweeters had ferro-fluid, but if so it can dry out and become stiff and the tweeters lose some damping the ferro-fluid provided (although its primary function was to transmit heat away from the voice coil efficiently).
The midrange drivers on my 3600's suffered from a strange issue that caused the cones to become almost frozen in their resting position making it impossible to get cone movement with moderate finger pressure on the cone like they should have exhibited. This effectively turned the midrange drivers into oversize tweeters that did have a harshness to their output. I replaced them with mids from an older pair of 3300's that still work properly, have free cone movement and sound just fine. The 3600 mids that got stiff were marked with an EIA code of 1056 which means they were sourced from Gefco (even though all of the EIA Charts say Fisher). If the same mids were used in your Elan's then they could all be exhibiting "frozen cone syndrome". If you press gently on the cones on both sides of the dustcap you should get at least a sixteenth of an inch relatively free (but well damped) movement without much pressure if they are still working as they should.
And lastly what is the signal source you are feeding to the various amps you've tried? Do you get the same harshness issue from both a CD player and LP record albums? If you are listening to downloaded MP3's or streaming signals off the internet, then they will always sound harsh due to the poor quality of the signal (although 320 kps MP3s can sound close to a CD if converted well).
Good luck in sorting out this issue!
The midrange drivers on my 3600's suffered from a strange issue that caused the cones to become almost frozen in their resting position making it impossible to get cone movement with moderate finger pressure on the cone like they should have exhibited. This effectively turned the midrange drivers into oversize tweeters that did have a harshness to their output. I replaced them with mids from an older pair of 3300's that still work properly, have free cone movement and sound just fine. The 3600 mids that got stiff were marked with an EIA code of 1056 which means they were sourced from Gefco (even though all of the EIA Charts say Fisher). If the same mids were used in your Elan's then they could all be exhibiting "frozen cone syndrome". If you press gently on the cones on both sides of the dustcap you should get at least a sixteenth of an inch relatively free (but well damped) movement without much pressure if they are still working as they should.
And lastly what is the signal source you are feeding to the various amps you've tried? Do you get the same harshness issue from both a CD player and LP record albums? If you are listening to downloaded MP3's or streaming signals off the internet, then they will always sound harsh due to the poor quality of the signal (although 320 kps MP3s can sound close to a CD if converted well).
Good luck in sorting out this issue!
rsl 6600h I speaker order cap that fit , just change speaker terminal with banana plug , I remove crossover , like change the cap but there no number or identification on them , restore old veneer re stain with mid dark walnut stain , polyurethane clear . middle of body paint flat black I did this restore on pioneer hpm 1100
kby
Active Member
I realize this is quite late to the party, but for the record and future searches…
The fuses in my 6600H speakers are 5A 250V ATE type.
I'm fairly sure these are original (although I got the speakers new circa 1976…) for the following reasons:
1. I don't recall the fuses ever having blown
2. They both match
3. I typically don't have ATE fuses around, so if they are replaced I likely would have bought them especially for these speakers as I also can't recall anything else I have that uses ATE fuses.