RBH Sound Signature 61-SE Loudspeaker Review

RBH 61-SE Technology Overview

Aluminum must be bullet proof. At least that has been my experience when dealing with speakers from RBH Sound, Inc. My first impression of this company was made when I demoed the fabulous 1010-SEP subwoofer from their Signature series. I remember saying to myself, how can (2) two 10 inch woofers play so much clean, articulate, deep musical bass? The answer lies in the excellent proprietary aluminum cone woofers with powerful motor structures developed by RBH Sound. Such is the case with the new Signature 61-SE bookshelf loudspeakers.

The 61-SE model loudspeaker shares many of the virtues from their high end Status Acoustics line, namely the Decimo's. The 61-SE's house a 6 1/2-inch proprietary aluminum cone woofer with cast basket and a 1-inch silk dome tweeter. They measure in at 14 1/2 inches high by 8 3/4 inches wide by 11 1/4 inches deep and weigh a hefty 22lbs each. The cabinets are constructed of Medium Density Fiber (MDF) and are internally braced and insulated. They pass the knuckle wrap test with ease demonstrating their inert character and fine build quality. The samples sent to us for review came in a beautiful cherry finish with rounded corners. The upgrade for premium finish will cost you about $200/pair, but in my opinion it is money well spent because of the sheer beauty alone. RBH engineering also claims that the rounded corners on models with premium finish help to diffuse refraction from the tweeter.

RBH Signature 61-SE Setup

Over the past year or so, I have really taken a liking towards small speakers, and its not just because of the small footprint they occupy or because they are easy to move around. I like bookshelf type speakers because they have a much smaller baffle than conventional large towers and thus they tend to image better and disappear. Such was the case with the Decimo's, which is why I loved those speakers so much. My experience with those speakers left such a strong lasting impression on me that I still have not fully recovered from it. To this day I judge speakers by how they fair against the Decimo's.

OK, enough about the Decimo's, its time to move on.

Set-Up

Initially, I was planning on placing the 61-SE's on wall brackets until I realized their physical depth as well as the rear firing port. I 86'ed that notion and positioned them on metal stands courtesy of Plateau. After everything was set up in my listening room, I loaded the FL-8350 with 5 of my favorite test CD's and sat in the sweet spot of the room in anticipation...

1st Impressions

While listening to the 1st few chords from Santana's "Put Your Lights On" track, I found myself looking around the room for a hidden subwoofer. I asked myself, how could such small speakers produce such clean and authoritative bass?

I verified that the tone controls and loudness buttons were defeated on the AVI200iMKII and continued listening in awe. I waited for the track to finish, as I couldn't hold my curiosity in any longer about the internals of these speakers. Within minutes I had the screws removed from the woofer to take a peek inside.

RBH 61-SE Build Quality

I was surprised to find the same motor structure of the Decimo's in the less costly Signature 61-SE's. This cast basket, huge magnet motor structure system is rarely found in speaker systems of this price range. This is one of the major attributes to the impressive bass response of these speakers. The other is the internal volume of these speakers. At first, it troubled me that these speakers were so deep, as it made them difficult to place in the tight constraints of my listening room. However, when I heard their authoritative bass output, I soon realized in a moderately sized living room, there would be no need for a subwoofer for 2 channel music applications. Coming from me, that is a notable statement, as I tend to always be way too critical of a speaker's bass capabilities.

Another impressive point about these speakers is that the internal wiring is 14 AWG from woofer to tweeter. In addition, the wire is twisted to eliminate potential crosstalk between woofer and tweeter signaling. I was equally impressed with the choice of crossover components RBH has implemented into these speakers. The crossover is not pictured here because I would have had to remove the entire roll of insulation to do so, and I feared RBH would not have been happy with me messing these little gems up too much. In any event, they employed all air core inductors, metallized polypropylene capacitors in series with the tweeter (as opposed to electrolytics) and 1% film resistor pads.

Internal Cabinet of the 61-SE

I was stunned to see baffled bracing in such a small cabinet. RBH could have taken the cheaper route by using strips of wood to brace the cabinets as many of their competitors do. Instead, they choose the more expensive and better performing approach. This is yet just another example of commitment to quality of craftsmanship.

Allright, so I was blown away by the bass capabilities of these little giants. But how did the rest of the frequency spectrum sound? After all, good bass is nice to have in a speaker, but it is useless without articulate midrange and silky smooth, detailed highs.

The answer to my question took several days of scrutinizing to conclude, as I am very critical of how a speaker should sound. I listened to familiar songs over and over again to ensure that I was not being swayed by initial impressions, improperly broken in drivers, alignment of the sun and moon, etc.

So What's the Scoop?

The Signature 61-SE's have seductive abilities to capture your attention. They persuade you to listen to their uncolored presentation of music. I found the 61-SE's ability to convey a very wide soundstage with pinpoint imaging and focus and plenty of bottom end to be amongst their strongest virtues. Grant it they are not as open sounding as the Decimo's, but at 1/3rd the price, I can accept that!

They retained so many of the qualities that I loved from the Decimos that I almost felt a presence of Deja Vu. Oops, am I talking about those little Decimo's again? Sorry about that; my bad.

I was overtaken by the smooth and controlled nature the 61-SE's. They absorbed oodles of power from the Harman Kardon amp, remained extremely musical and begged for more. Let me forewarn you that even though these speakers are small in appearance, they are not so small in sound. They require quality amplification, and will truly sound there best if it is provided. Since they are moderately sensitive (87dB/1watt) with an 8 ohm impedance, they can be powered reasonably well with midfi receivers. However, watch out, these babies will hit hard if connected to a high end rig and they will squeeze every ounce of performance out of your electronics.

Instrumentation such as trumpets and saxophones from the Steely Dan CD " Two Against Nature" really shined on these speakers. I really got the illusion as if the musicians were standing right in front of me.

I was very impressed with the midrange of these speakers considering their price range. Usually companies tend to take the easy way out by attenuating the midrange to hide the deficiencies of the drivers and/or crossover components utilized. This in not the case however with the 61-SE's. The midrange of these speakers is slightly forward and very uniform and linear in sound from 200Hz up to about 3KHz. The cymbals and high hats sounded clean and smooth without fatiguing the listener as so many loudspeakers tend to do. I did notice that the highs sounded a bit thin for the 1st few listening hours, but after a few days, the speakers really opened up and my initial worries about this matter disappeared. In addition, I felt that these speakers sounded and looked their best with the grills off. I just loved the appearance of the aluminum woofers contrasted with the woodgrain cabinet and black silk dome tweeters.

I can't tell you that these are the best sounding bookshelf speakers I have ever heard, not since my experience with the Decimo's, but they are about the best value is bookshelf speakers I have come across. In fact, they do so many things right that countless floor-standing speakers costing 2-3 times more could never dream of doing. For under $1000/pair, you get a handsomely crafted pair of loudspeakers with high quality drivers, crossovers components, and internal wiring, that gives you a sense of pride of ownership, awarding many years of listening enjoyment, as well as envy from your friends.

RBH 61-SE Measurements

Bottom Line: I can without a doubt recommend these speakers for those who are looking for an attractive, dynamic, high performance compact loudspeaker system, with excellent bass capabilities, imaging and tonal balance for a very reasonable price tag.

Frequency vs Impedance and Phase Plots

The frequency response graph is a near field woofer response summed with a 1 meter on tweeter axis response that has been 1/3 octave smoothed. This graph does not include the port response which has its maximum output at 49 Hz as indicated by the woofer response dip at 49 Hz.

The impedance graph includes magnitude and relative phase. The smooth plot represents phase scaled in the right vertical axis. The bumped plot represents magnitude of impedance scaled in the left vertical axis.

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
Build Quality
Appearance
Treble Extension
Treble Smoothness
Midrange Accuracy
Bass Extension
Bass Accuracy
Imaging
Soundstage
Dynamic Range
Performance
Value