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RSL speakers, am I alone?

I keep coming up on RSL Speakers in my CL! What are these howards? Serial number 629

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They look like bose!
 
They were called RSL Eros. The were designed to utilize a large amount of reflection off a hard surface. They were made in the early 70's. They used 2 8" woofers and 2 cone tweeters facing the rear. The woofers were tuned similar to the way Dynaco A25s were. There was a tweeter facing the front. People mostly hung them from the ceiling in front of a wall or window. I'm sorry that I don't have any literature on them. How do they sound?
 
Cool anecdote I found online: by Ernie Bornn-Gilman here http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/forums/viewpost.cgi?215038

In the early seventies, in the Los Angeles area, I worked at Rogersound Labs. These were hifi stores started by a guy who figured that a company's in-house speakers can sound damn fine and cost a lot less than the competition. He built quite a business starting with this philosophy, and being honest, fair and sharing with his customers and staff filled out the rest of what it took to have a GREAT business.

Early on, we had the Bose 901s on stands in front of the window. Man, did they sound like Bose 901s! (thought I was going to say great? no way!) Howard (the owner's name) decided that it would be interesting to take a couple of the two-way 8" speakers, make a triangular box, put a tweeter in front, and see how they compared to the 901s.

They blew away the 901s, and we had a new model.

We needed a name for them. I suggested that, since these speakers might be used as a romantic tool, it would be good to name them after the god of love: Eros.

So we did. And then, for about a month, until the Bose speakers were yanked by the rep because he could not stand seeing them demoed next to good speakers, we had to reflecting speaker models in the window:

Bose and Eros.
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Another RSL ID

Hey guys. I came across these yesterday. I'd love some help identifying them. They seem to work great, but they have the dandling coil in there that I've read about on this thread.
 

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Hey, thanks. I actually saw that ID on somebody else's post earlier in the thread. But when I googled up some images on it they looked a little different, with controls at the bottom.

I'd say you're probably the guy to trust though.

And these seem to be pretty well built. I bought 4 pair of speakers from the GW, all from approximately the same vintage, and these were the only ones that were plug and play, all the others were broken or in need of some serious work.
 
I have a pair of the 3600s. I had a set of RSL 3300s that I found for $30 that were pretty beat up on the outside and I ended up giving them to a friend. He loves them.
You cannot beat a good pair of RSLs for some nice rock and roll listening....
 
New foam for tweeter trap

What is a good replacement for the foam covering around the tweeter? the foam on mine has deteriorated. (RSL 3300)

I apologize if this has already been covered in the thread, I looked through before but didn't see anything about it.

Thanks.
 
I imagine you could probably use the replacement diffusion rings meant for JBL L36, L100s. Look about the same size.
 
Search "jbl foam rings" on eBay. You should be able to find what you need.

Measure your RSL tweeters diameter and see if it'll fit. If the ring is too small on the inside diameter you could always trim it to fit.
 
I picked these up at a pawn shop last year. I think I paid too much, heh but when you see what the original owner paid in 83' then I got them for a song. I think they are pretty much a JBL L-166 and thats what I have mine paired with. I like the pleated surrounds they are built quite well. Sound pretty good too.
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Sales Tax

...was 6.5% in CA (Los Angeles County) back then! 29 years ago. WOW! It's 8.75% now, with ballot initiatives to go even higher. Not a political announcement...jus' sayin'.
 
vintageaudio said:
I must be the only one to have what I believe to be a very early version of the Formula Forty's. They sound excellent! Recently had the mids refoamed by GordonW--he did a super job as usual.
Here are photos:

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If anyone knows more about these...please share.

thanks
Bob
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Hi guys,

I bought these from Bob a while back. They bear an "uncanny" or rather "unbelievable" resemblance to Marantz Imperial 7s! There are NO markings on the back, so I suspect someone may have done some crossover work in the past, removed the ID.

How many of you believe these are actually RSL 40s and not Marantz 7s?

I find it hard to believe that a speaker that seems to use the same three drivers as the Marantz, have the same "configuration" and exact cabinet dimensions of the 7s is an RSL 40. Plus, like the 7s most of the bass on these speakers does not truly reach below 50-60 hz. They put out a lot of sound, but they don't seem to dig as deep as they should if they were really RSL 40s.

For now, I'm re-titling them Marantz Imperial Sevens. I should add that they've been painted over with a flat black paint by someone. Underneath is a Faux wood finish.

cnh2
 
cnh2 said:
Hi guys,

I bought these from Bob a while back. They bear an "uncanny" or rather "unbelievable" resemblance to Marantz Imperial 7s! There are NO markings on the back, so I suspect someone may have done some crossover work in the past, removed the ID.

How many of you believe these are actually RSL 40s and not Marantz 7s?

I find it hard to believe that a speaker that seems to use the same three drivers as the Marantz, have the same "configuration" and exact cabinet dimensions of the 7s is an RSL 40. Plus, like the 7s most of the bass on these speakers does not truly reach below 50-60 hz. They put out a lot of sound, but they don't seem to dig as deep as they should if they were really RSL 40s.

For now, I'm re-titling them Marantz Imperial Sevens. I should add that they've been painted over with a flat black paint by someone. Underneath is a Faux wood finish.

cnh2
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After all these years, I can finally release the top secret information to the public and nobody has to die. Back in the mid 70's we were looking to produce a lower cost speaker. I thought I'd have to use vinyl cabinets. Then one day, I received a call from my cabinet man, Bob Randall. He also built cabinets for Marantz (they were located near us). He said that Marantz stuck him with a bunch of cabinets and would I be interested? I saw the cabinets and liked the fact that we could offer a genuine walnut veneered cabinet for the price of a vinyl speaker. In this case, I used drivers that were very similar to Marantz and designed a crossover that tailored the sound to our taste. So, it's possible that what you have is really an RSL. The first series was called "The Performance Speaker." Later models used vinyl cabinets and were the Formula series. So, I'm not really sure what you have.

If you wish to put Marantz logos on them, feel free as I will not personally come over your house to scold you.

Regards,
Howard
 
Corbin Gross said:
What is a good replacement for the foam covering around the tweeter? the foam on mine has deteriorated. (RSL 3300)

I apologize if this has already been covered in the thread, I looked through before but didn't see anything about it.

Thanks.
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I really don't think you need to replace them. There's not much difference in the sound. I think it was more done for appearance.
 
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