RSL speakers, am I alone?

[stickman]

The drivers look correct except it appears the woofers may have been painted with a graphite gray colored paint which should not affect their performance. As long as the woofers have the treated cloth accordion surrounds, they are most likely the original woofers. I'm not aware of Elan's ever being offered with that kind of finish (that looks like the kind of stuff that used to be sprayed in automobile trunks decades ago), but who knows. As long as the drivers are stock and all function properly, then these speakers should be okay. The foam surrounds on the rear facing passive radiator usually rot away over time and the tweeter and midrange level potentiometers will oxidize, but those issues are not hard to fix. An in person listening test is highly recommended before making such a purchase.

 

[mightythor]

What’s up everybody! Anyone know if these black RSL Elans are legit or to be avoided?

Hopefully you have better luck contacting the seller. I asked for more pics, about 2 weeks ago, specifically the rear to see the condition of the passive radiator and I’m still waiting. Either the seller is too busy to sell his items or the radiators are shot, is my guess.

 

[kineticaudio]

20 threads on this garbage

 

[mightythor]

What’s up everybody! Anyone know if these black RSL Elans are legit or to be avoided?

Were you able to purchase these? I see the seller marked these sold. If so, 1st impressions??? Thanks

 

[Jesus Lemus]

Were you able to purchase these? I see the seller marked these sold. If so, 1st impressions??? Thanks

purchased! Still waiting on my amp to come in but seller allowed me to do a listening test at his place and I was literally blown away by how amazing these sounded. You were correct the radiators were down bad but I’ve already ordered a new pair. The seller was a big fan of RSL and lived super close to the Canoga Park show room where these were originally purchased. He mentioned these were all original by the way(not sure how much of that was true, but the work on them is damn near perfect). Here’s some close ups

 

[mightythor]

purchased! Still waiting on my amp to come in but seller allowed me to do a listening test at his place and I was literally blown away by how amazing these sounded. You were correct the radiators were down bad but I’ve already ordered a new pair. The seller was a big fan of RSL and lived super close to the Canoga Park show room where these were originally purchased. He mentioned these were all original by the way(not sure how much of that was true, but the work on them is damn near perfect). Here’s some close ups

These look amazing. I'm jealous...I am not sure why the seller never responded to me. I am glad you were able to buy these. Enjoy and let me know how the replacement goes, as I am sure I will need to do this once I find another set for sale.

 

[mightythor]

I recently picked up a set of CG-6a with some stands. @stickman I know you have some pairs of these speakers as well as worked at the store. Do you recognize these stands as 'official' RSL stands? Or maybe Roger @RSL Speakers can help identify these. The spikes on the bottom of these stands will secure these to some nice shag carpeting and may be rated for up to a magnitude 8.0. Thank you for your input!

 

[Tubamark]

I bought a pair of ELAN s with one white and one black woofer. I can confirm that they are identical.
Took them out of the cabs, when I was refurbishing the radiators. Exact same magnet, basket, voicecoil, dust cap, everything. Only difference is black cone color.

 

[stickman]

MightyThor, RS did make a wide variety of wood speaker stands and those could very well be some of them. The stands were not marked in any way so there is no way to make an absolutely positive identification but the build quality looks up to RSL standards. Those spikes could do some real damage to a hardwood floor, and maybe even a concrete slab! Yikes! (lol)

TubaMark, thanks for the information on the RSL black cone woofers as I've never encountered any of those in person.

 

[mightythor]

I picked up a pair of Nevada speakers from the original owner to go with the collection. She had the original brochure and sales receipt from her purchase from the Westminster store in 1981. The brochure is nice as I also have the 3600 and 6600h which are also included. She mentioned that she also purchased an oak RSL rack, which I informed her that I would purchase, so she called her sister, whom she believed she gave it to years ago, and her sister mentioned that when their mom passed away, the rack went to a thrift store. Oh well, it never hurts to ask.....

The grill cloth is not original and the speaker connectors need to be replaced, however, still very impressed with these 42 yr old speakers!

 

[superdog]

I picked up a pair of Nevada speakers from the original owner to go with the collection. She had the original brochure and sales receipt from her purchase from the Westminster store in 1981. The brochure is nice as I also have the 3600 and 6600h which are also included. She mentioned that she also purchased an oak RSL rack, which I informed her that I would purchase, so she called her sister, whom she believed she gave it to years ago, and her sister mentioned that when their mom passed away, the rack went to a thrift store. Oh well, it never hurts to ask.....

The grill cloth is not original and the speaker connectors need to be replaced, however, still very impressed with these 42 yr old speakers!

That's a lot of money for a setup at the time.A friend picked up some Nevada's recently.The rear drivers need refoaming.

 

[fredgarvin]

It's nice to see some of those old RSL's looking so nice.

 

[mightythor]

OK, I know I am obsessed, so you don't need to remind me....

I just picked up another set of the Studio 3600's and probably paid the most ever spent for a used set. I am not going to divulge how much, however, if the other bidders are on this forum (thanks for bidding me up....LOL), they know....maybe at least Roger would be proud!

I picked these up as these appear to have the original accessory stands. In addition, the grille covers are brown (I have not seen a set with brown as yet).

When I inspected these prior to the auction, I thought that there was a tremendous amount of dust build up on the woofer bottom, however, upon purchasing these, it appears to be some kind of crystalized solution. Perhaps from lack of playing. I am almost sure I was the first to pull the covers off. I am reaching out to @stickman and Roger @RSL Speakers and others to see how I might clean this off.

The oak veneer soaked up a good amount of Trader Joe's organic coconut oil!!!

Thanks to this forum and the awesome members!!!

 

[stickman]

Thor, if the residue build up at the bottom of the woofers on the accordion surround does not impede cone movement, then I would leave it alone. Any kind of solvents you might consider to clean that stuff off would likely damage the cloth surround and probably discolor it as well and it would leave an untreated area of the surround. My advice, If it ain't broke then don't fix it even if it looks a bit rough.

The thing to test on 3600's is to make sure the midrange cones can still be gently pushed in say 1/8 of an inch with moderate evenly distributed pressure placed on the cone surface. Since they are a sealed back driver frame the cone will take awhile to come back out to the resting position. The mids on my late production 3600's were sourced from Amperex (EIA Code 1056 transferred from Fisher in early 1970's) and they got stiff and to the point I couldn't get any cone movement under pressure! I replaced both with Pyle mids (EIA Code 1098) sourced from early 3600s and some Model 3300s which still move freely when gently pressed in and I hope they stay that way!

Also, regarding your newly acquired Nevadas I was never a fan as I felt the added 8" upper woofer added tubbiness to the sound in the mid to upper bass region. I own a pair of 6600Hs and 3600s, so we have similar taste in sound quality.

For other early (pre CG models) RSL speakers the holy grail is probably the rare tall column Grande model very few of which were ever made. I think I've seen one pair listed on LA's Craigslist over the years. I also really liked the Elan (which many would argue is the best sounding pre-CG RSL model ever offered) and the far more rare Sierra. You can't go wrong with any of those as long as all of the original drivers are still functioning properly. Avoid the MAX which was RSLs attempt to make a moderate price party speaker blaster to compete with the Ininity SM 150 which RSL sold at their retail stores.

 

[mightythor]

Thor, if the residue build up at the bottom of the woofers on the accordion surround does not impede cone movement, then I would leave it alone. Any kind of solvents you might consider to clean that stuff off would likely damage the cloth surround and probably discolor it as well and it would leave an untreated area of the surround. My advice, If it ain't broke then don't fix it even if it looks a bit rough.

The thing to test on 3600's is to make sure the midrange cones can still be gently pushed in say 1/8 of an inch with moderate evenly distributed pressure placed on the cone surface. Since they are a sealed back driver frame the cone will take awhile to come back out to the resting position. The mids on my late production 3600's were sourced from Amperex (EIA Code 1056 transferred from Fisher in early 1970's) and they got stiff and to the point I couldn't get any cone movement under pressure! I replaced both with Pyle mids (EIA Code 1098) sourced from early 3600s and some Model 3300s which still move freely when gently pressed in and I hope they stay that way!

Also, regarding your newly acquired Nevadas I was never a fan as I felt the added 8" upper woofer added tubbiness to the sound in the mid to upper bass region. I own a pair of 6600Hs and 3600s, so we have similar taste in sound quality.

For other early (pre CG models) RSL speakers the holy grail is probably the rare tall column Grande model very few of which were ever made. I think I've seen one pair listed on LA's Craigslist over the years. I also really liked the Elan (which many would argue is the best sounding pre-CG RSL model ever offered) and the far more rare Sierra. You can't go wrong with any of those as long as all of the original drivers are still functioning properly. Avoid the MAX which was RSLs attempt to make a moderate price party speaker blaster to compete with the Ininity SM 150 which RSL sold at their retail stores.

Stickman, as always, thanks for the great advice and insight! I will check out the mid's when I get home tonight. I had a pair of 6600H's up until last week, now these sit in my son's shop/warehouse. The cabinets were not "house" worthy.

I do have a pair of the CG-6 and CG-6a's and love these. I have not hooked up the Nevada's as yet. I am still looking for a nice pair of Elan's and of course the holy unicorn Grande speakers. I missed out on "a" Grande speaker about two years ago. I was bidding on it, however, it was just a single speaker and I did not have time to do a pre-auction inspection (there wasn't any pics provided of any of the drivers). The search continues....

 

[Jesus Lemus]

Hey everyone just tapping in to see if anyone can ID this piece of hardware on an RSL Elan Speaker and point me in the direction of a generic or original replacement? The treble tone knob pot is bent and bothering me on what would otherwise be a perfect RSL Elan haha. Thanks in advance.

 

[mightythor]

RSL Grande speaker. For reference.....

The auction had this listed at 61" tall. Beast!

 

[mightythor]

Just picked up another pair of 3600's, including the Depth Charge subwoofer (from the original owner, who thinks he paid around $800 for the set up back in the day). @stickman or @RSL Speakers, can you chime in and let me know why the speaker hook ups (pass thru?) are on the subwoofer? Perhaps due to older receivers not having a separate output for the subwoofer....

Also, these all have the oak veneer that appears to have a clear coat on it. I want to remove the clear coat, either by lightly sanding or perhaps stripping it off. Which procedure would be recommended? I am afraid if I strip, it might unglue the veneer somehow. I just want the oiled bare wood look.

Thank you for all your helpful insight!!

 

[Mr.Heatsink]

I've got a pair of 3800's I bought new in 1989. My younger and dumber self thought these would be a great substitute for JBL L-112's at the time. Not!

 

[JayHam79]

Hello all… Can anyone here confirm if I would be correct in assuming this set of RSL’s would be the 3300 series studio monitor? The major differences being the rear mounted tone controls and the rather thin lip at 1/4” compared to others in this thread with front panel tone and a much thicker 3/4” lip. The back panel indicates they were made and sold during their time in lovely Van Nuys… about a mile from where I currently live. @hifitommy I found you… Check your text messages.