Boston Acoustics Reflection Series RS 326 Floorstanding Loudspeakers First Look

We visited Boston Acoustics a while back when they were announcing a few new product lines. One thing we took away from the experience was Boston's commitment to design integrity. While other manufacturers outsource drivers and cabinets, Boston not only models all their drivers in-house but they can build them as well. Add to that their in-house anechoic chamber, the Snell manufacturing facilities next door, and multiple listening rooms, and you can rest assured that they are designing, modeling, prototyping, and testing their speakers themselves. When they release a new flagship speaker product, this is doubly true.

The Reflection Series is the "middle of the line" series from Boston Acoustics. The Classic line would be considered their entry-level or value line with the Vista line being the high end. The Reflection Series is meant to take a bit from both at a price maybe a bit high for the average consumer but well within the scope of what an enthusiast is willing to pay.

The new flagship of the Reflection Series is the RS 326 floorstanding loudspeakers. These 47 pound speakers come in a scratch-resistant gloss black finish with thin profile magnetic grills. The base consists of a wider plinth to stabilize the 44" x 10.5" x 12.25" speaker. The fronts look to be a duller black though that might be a bit of an optical illusion. The grills cover from the entire front of the speaker anyhow. According to Boston:

...the super-shallow grilles use an invisible magnetic attachment and create a seamless alignment with the baffle plane, significantly reducing unwanted sonic barriers. The resulting sound is equally pristine with the grilles on or off.

The drivers consist of a 1" Extended Wide Bandwidth tweeter, a single 3.5" midrange, and two 6.5" woofers. The midrange and woofers are constructed out of a Fiber Ceramic Copolymer Material (FCCM) and have aluminum phase plugs. These drivers are all proprietary to Boston and are designed with linearity in mind to maintain the purest audio as possible. The drivers are all magnetically shielded for use near CRT displays or magnetic drives.

The RS 326's are boxy looking but their high gloss finish should help them stand out. The back of the speaker features dual pairs of gold plated binding posts for buy-wire or bi-amping. They are rated for a 38Hz – 26kHz (can't have an "Extended" tweeter if it only goes to 20Hz can you?) frequency response with 3dB of variation. This is a fairly impressive spec considering the size and price of the speaker. At $2000 a pair (technically $1999.98), you should be able to use the RS 326s for most any music without a sub. While the speakers are rated 8 ohm nominal, and 89 dB sensitive and should play nice with most receivers, we're betting a little extra amplification wouldn't hurt one bit.

Conclusion

Should you be interested in the new Boston Reflection Series RS 326 floorstanding speakers? The fact is that they are in a very competitive price point. The ~$2000 a pair category is full of people that have stepped up from their first (and maybe second) set of speakers and are ready to get serious. Even in an up economy (which we are definitely not in), that's a chunk of change. While you might get away with marketing hype, name recognition, and an interesting design aesthetic at lower price points, people willing to shell out $2k are really looking (mostly) for one thing - performance. They'll forgive a lot but not poor performance. Luckily, Boston Acoustics has the know-how and equipment to make sure that their reputation for performance stays intact. With dealers all over, if you're looking to spend that kind of money, you'd be remiss not to at least give them a listen.

For more information, please visit www.bostonacoustics.com.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.