RBH Sound is not a brand well-known in Australia, since it is only now making its first appearance here. But it is well known in its native United States by those who care about high end sound, writes Stephen Dawson.

Established in 1976, RBH Sound is in large known for its imposing three way, nine-driver T-30LSE Tower Speakers. The RBH Sound Impression Series R5Ti tower stereo loudspeakers are, in a sense, at the other end of its range.

Indeed, within the United States itself, these speakers are sold under the company’s other brand: EMP Tek. This brand appears to have been developed to offer high quality products at relatively modest prices.

Drivers
The R5Ti loudspeakers are from a range that also includes the other elements of a full surround system, including a subwoofer, so you can assemble a complete home theatre loudspeaker system should you wish.

They stand just a little over 900mm tall and are 216mm wide and 311mm deep. Each weighs just under 16kg. The cabinets of the review speakers were finished in a high gloss ‘red burl’, a veneer of some dark, maroon knotty wood with a beautiful piano-like finish. The finish was so nice, in fact, that it was hard to believe the claimed selling price. Closer examination revealed that the loudspeakers were actually made in China, a common dodge employed these days by companies that seek to make a sharp advance on the usual value-for-money equation. But with suitable design and quality control, Chinese-built equipment is as good as any.

And if the finish is anything to judge by on the review speakers, the quality control is certainly in place.

The cabinets are bass reflex loaded, with a port near the bottom at the back. The enclosures aren’t the usual boxes, but looking down from above, they assume a curved shape. They are only 210mm wide at the baffle, and increase to the maximum of 216mm wide about a third of the way back, with the curve then narrowing them to just 125mm at the very back.

Although three-way models, in contrast to common practice only one set of binding posts are provided. If you have managed to convince yourself that bi-wiring is essential to high quality sound (it most certainly isn’t), then you will need to look elsewhere.

As for the drivers themselves, treble above 3,000Hz is provided by a 25mm fabric dome tweeter. The middle frequencies, between 120 and 3,000Hz are handled by what the company calls an ‘Aluminized Poly-matrix Woofer’, measuring 133mm. Using ‘Woofer’ to describe a midrange driver seems to be a standard practice of the company.

There are two real woofers – handling the frequencies below 120Hz. These are 165mm units.

RBH Sound rates their sensitivity at 87dB, which is one or two decibels below the average and their impedance at 6Ω, which should make them a comfortable load for virtually all amplifiers. It recommends having between 50 and 150W on tap to drive them. Their frequency response is rated at 40 to 20,000Hz in the manual (no decibel range is specified), and 50 to 20,000Hz +/- 3dB on the EMP Tek website.

Listening and testing
I always reckon that the loudspeaker sensitivity is an important measure for most people. Every 3dB increase in sensitivity is equivalent to having twice as much power available. So after having set up these loudspeakers (with my regular centre and surround channels remaining in pace) and doing quite a bit of listening, I was having trouble reconciling RBH’s claimed 87dB (for 2.83V input, measured at one metre) with what I was hearing and seeing.

You see, to balance the system up I had to turn down the front left and right channels to which these loudspeakers were connected rather more than normal. Significantly so.

So one of the last things I did before sitting down to write the review was to measure their sensitivity in my room. In some respects this measurement is kinder to speakers than a formal lab measurement (which is generally performed – or should be – in an anechoic chamber). But in other respects it is harder because I use bandwidth limited (500 to 2,000Hz) pink noise.

In short, the result I measured was about 91.5dB for 2.83V average input. That’s like having 180% more power available from your amplifier than the 87 claimed decibels.

That allowed them to produce surprisingly high volume levels cleanly, since they weren’t having to struggle with anywhere near as much power as most speakers for a given volume level.

Which makes me wonder two things: First, why would RBH understate the figure so severely? The true result was something to be proud of! Second, did it make the same mistake with T-30LSE Tower Speakers? They are already claimed to be good for 91dB!

Still, volume is not the only thing in a pair of loudspeakers. Another is tonal balance. In general this was good and quite natural, with perhaps a slight elevation in the lower treble that brought forward tape hiss a little. At the same time, this added a touch of bite and presence to percussive elements in music which was quite attractive.

At the bottom end there seemed to be a couple of frequencies in the upper bass that stood forward just a little, very slightly masking some bass and lower midrange detail. I noticed this on the opening tracks of the SACD version of Dark Side of the Moon (playing the stereo DSD tracks). However as I advanced the volume this seemed to even out.

The articulation of the midrange driver was excellent and perhaps contributed to an occasional sense of unusual airiness in the sound. Generally the imaging was precise and had some depth; phase effects that make (properly implemented) stereo speakers produce sounds that seem to be coming from elsewhere were faithfully reproduced.

On Money on the same CD, and on Dara Factor One on Weather Report’s 1982 self-titled CD, the bass seemed to perform as suggested by the claimed frequency response. Normal instruments were fully represented down to their fundamental frequencies, but the solid underpinning of the kick drum was muted. This didn’t manifest as a lack of tonal balance, just an absence of something few people will miss.

Having said that, the speakers are still capable of producing some deep bass. As I write, I am enjoying the SACD version of an ancient (1960) recording of Scheherazade (Fritz Reiner conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra). The massed violins are sounding particularly sweet, but there is a very deep rumbling, which sounds like ground noise from traffic transported from that US recording venue over a period of five decades to my Canberra office.

Conclusion
With a combination of a reasonable price, beautiful finish and high quality sound, as demonstrated by these loudspeakers, RBH Sound is a brand that should be welcomed into Australia.