Signature SE/R Design Overview & Setup

The 61-SE/Rs are a conventional two-way design featuring a 6.5" midbass driver and a 1" silk dome tweeter. They use a 2nd order crossover (Bessel filter response). The acoustical roll off of the bass driver is about 12dB/oct above 3kHz making the response appear more like a 4th order system. The speakers are rear ported.

The 661-SE/R is a two-way, 3 driver design in a D'Appolito (or MTM) driver topology. This loudspeaker arrangement involves placing the woofers vertically above and below the tweeter with equal spacing. As a result of the phase displacement and the related interference effects, the portions of the sound emitted upwards and downwards are minimised. This is an excellent driver topology for loudspeakers when placed vertically but some don' t do too well when placed horizontally such as a typical center channel installation. If you don' t use quality drivers and carefully executed crossover design, you will experience significant lobing in all seats but the money seat. The 661-SE/R crossover is asymmetrical. It combines a 2nd order low-pass filter and a 3rd order high-pass filter with the end result being more similar to an acoustic 3rd order than 4th order response, respectively. A minimum recommended crossover response is 2nd order for these types of designs. Choosing the right crossover point and slope characteristics are paramount considerations which RBH painstakingly executed about as well as I have seen in this type of design. This speaker contains two rear ports and comes with port plugs for installations near a back wall or integrated into cabinetry.

The 44-SE is a dipole/bipole speaker design featuring two 4" midwoofers and two 1" silk dome tweeters. It' s a hybrid dipolar/bipolar speaker system that functions such that the woofers operate in phase and the tweeters operate out of phase - combining the best of both worlds between direct radiators and traditional dipolar speakers. This speaker provides the listeners in front of the speaker a direct sound path via the front firing drivers and a diffused surround field plays into the room from the drivers on the back firing drivers. The front and back baffles are about 45 degrees off from the null of the speaker. It is usually recommended to have a back wall behind the listening area, but these speakers also function well in free space provided that the listener sits no further back than its acoustical null or center point of the cabinet. This speaker is a sealed (acoustic suspended) design.

Loudspeaker Filter Types & Crossovers

Inductor Coil Crosstalk Basics

Series vs Parallel Networks - First Order Comparison

I decided to use the venerable Axiom EP500 subwoofer to belt out the low notes. The electronics consist of the Yamaha RX-V2600 in conjunction with our amplifier of the year in 2005 - the Emotiva MPS-1 and Denon DVD-5900 Universal DVD player and the Yamaha MCX-2000 MusicCAST digital music server. All of the speaker cables are of course 10AWG Blue Jeans Cable and the interconnects are a combination of Blue Jeans Cable and Impact Acoustics. Power conditioning was handled by none other than APC with dual H-15s running on dedicated independent 20amp outlets.

This system was set up in Reference System #1' s Family Room. I installed my Decimos and the 661-SE/R on the same vertical plane a couple of feet above ear level. Though this isn' t ideal, it was a space savings call to appease to the wife and a likely scenario in many living rooms, thus I wanted to gauge their performance in this setting. I fortunately had perfect positioning for the 44-SE's (more on this later). To round the system out, I installed a pair of MC-615's in the ceiling to serve the Surround Back duties for PLIIx Music and Movie processing. The MC-615's were ceiling mounted about 2 feet back from the 44-SE's and 6 feet apart. A review of these speakers will follow shortly. It is certainly less than ideal to install speakers in the ceiling, but given the choice between in-ceiling speakers, and no speakers, I chose the former. In my opinion, no system is complete without back channels. I am too enamored with the expansive performance of PLIIx processing to not have it in my home theater.

Since I had no choice but to place the Decimo' s and 661-SE/R speakers above the TV in the open bay of my built in entertainment center, I had to find a way to fire them down slightly towards the listener to ensure a more direct sound path was being heard. Thus I used rubber felt pad to line the floor of the cabinet so that the speaker wouldn't make direct contact with it. I did this for two reasons: to protect the cabinet finish of the speakers as well as the entertainment unit, and to eliminate any potential vibration caused by cabinet resonance. I then purchased some door stops from my local supply store and wedged them behind the speakers. This angled the speakers down to the listener quite nicely. I also flush-mounted all of the speakers to the front wall of the entertainment center to minimize reflections.

The Axiom EP500 was placed in the best location I found in the room which was about 5 feet from the front wall and off to the left side wall behind one of the couches. For kicks, I always place uninvited guests in the seat directly in front of the sub. If they are bass freaks, they will love it, if not, it will usually turn them off from wanting to sit and watch the Lord of the Rings Trilogy while I have work to attend to.

The 44-SEs were placed on the side walls equidistant from the main listening area about 2 feet back and 5 feet off the floor. It is very important to NOT sit the listener any further back than the null of the speaker. We found sitting 2-3 feet in front of the speakers worked best to preserve the direct sound path of the speakers, especially when listening to multi-channel music. If you are using straight dipoles (or listen to more than 75% home theater) then typically you will want to face the null at the main listening position.

One important thing to remember during installation is to ensure you orient the speakers correctly when mounting them on the wall. The cabinet is marked with directional arrows towards the screen as illustrated in the photo. The drivers on its corresponding baffle are all wired in phase which is what you want pointed at the listeners sitting in front and to the null of the speakers.

For those installing the 661-SE/R or 61-SE/R into cabinetry or near a back wall, it is advised you stuff the ports with port plugs in order to minimize boundary effects which can lead to bloated bass and loss of vocal clarity. In my case, I really didn't need to since the cavity I installed them in was open and I already had the speakers bass-managed.

For more speaker installation recommendations check out our article:

Speaker Placement: Setup Tips for Upgraded Home Theater Systems

As a side note, I have had extensive listening experience with all Signature Series products in various listening environments, powered by a wide assortment of equipment. The 661-SE/R served as my reference center channel for over 4 years until it was replaced by their Signature T-2p System speaker package and the Status Acoustics Decimos / Signature 61-LSEs have continued to serve as my mainstay bookshelf reference speaker for over 5 years. By now it is quite obvious I am a big fan of the Signature 61-SE, 61-LSE/SER and Status Acoustics Decimo bookshelf speakers. To say I know these speakers well would be a gross understatement. But the test of any great speaker system is how well it can perform in a variety of listening environments. Read on to find out how the RBH Signature system faired in the most challenging listening room I have yet to install them in.