MSRP: $2200/pair
Starting Dec 2009, The RBS-1 speakers will no longer have the clear piano finish due to temperature differences across various countries. Instead the new finish will be as shown in the first picture. Thank you for your understanding.
Stereomojo.com has just published the world's first review on the Grant Fidelity RBS-1 Reference Morel Bookshelf speakers. Reviewer Lorin Elias compared the Grant Fidelity RBS-1 with the well known Usher Be-718 intensively and Grant Fidelity RBS-1 is preferred 2 out of the 3 critial listeners.
"The bass from these monitors is extremely robust, tuneful, and all without bloat or a midbass hump that tries to fool you into thinking that they can do things they cannot. If you are considering these RBS-1’s and comparing them to some similarly priced floorstanders, don’t chose the floorstanders in hopes to get better bass response."
Read full review here on www.stereomojo.com
Product description:
The RBS-1's (Reference Bookshelf Speaker) come to you from over 3 years of development to bring it to market. Cabinet is from Jungson Audio, crossover is special made by Grant Fidelity in Canada as a 1st order crossover. This speaker is tweaked to fit the North American music style, unlike the Jungson original version with a complicated crossover and more suitable for Chinese music listening and room setup.
For audiophile and/or music lover, these are serious contenders for the finest 2-way speakers available at comparable price. Designed around the famous Morel drivers and with a custom 1st order crossover that took over a year to perfect. Each component in these speakers are matched to less than 1% tolerance, which means a lot of testing goes into each component and part to ensure the crossover performs to intent with accurate imaging and soundstaging.
These speakers are beautiful in every regards, the sound is a superior balance between detail and musicality, deep and extended bass performance that will have you looking around for the subwoofer and a sweet midrange and top end that soundstage perfectly with instrument separation that you would normally only find in a lot more expensive bookshelf speakers or large flat panel speakers.
The Grant Fidelity RBS-1 speakers are powerful enough to replace many large floor standing speakers, yet still amazing at very low intimate volumes, in even very large rooms.
The authentic wood cabinetry is simply beautiful, huge WAF (wife appreciation factor), very low resonance and no equal sides rival speakers costing over multitudes more.
The following speakers were used in comparison when voicing the RBS-1 speakers:
- Sonus Faber™ - RBS-1 emulates the richness of this wonderful speaker, without being laid back
- Focal™ - RBS-1 emulates the sweet top end and detail Focal is famous for, without the treble edge.
- Paradigm™ Signature - emulates the tonal characteristics, without the colourization
- Rogers™ LS3/5A - emulates the perfect midrange, with better frequency extension and power
- Green Mountain Audio™ - emulates the time/phase relationship of drivers with a near perfect 1st order crossover
All of the above speakers were used in testing phases of the development of the RBS-1 to accomplish a well rounded design concept and sound performance.
The Morel drivers can take extended time to burn in, especially the woofer with its 3" voice coil. 400 hours of power applied is the general guideline. The RBS-1 speakers sound great out of the box, but the crossover only starts working properly after at least 75 hours, the tweeter after about 100 hours and the woofer after about 400 hours. After about 500 hours the speakers start to perform their true magic and with age only get better and better.
Features:
- Morel Drivers, matched to less than 1% tolerance
- True 1st Order Transparent Crossover
- High Grade Audiophile Capacitors, Tolerance Matching to less than 1% difference
- Real Wood / High Density MDF multi-layer, non-resonant cabinet, no equal dimensions
- Tuned port for natural, accurate and even bass extension
- Studio Reference Monitor accuracy and quality control
Specifications:
- Frequency Response - 40 Hz to 24 kHz, -6db @ 35 Hz
- Efficiency - 87db
- Impedance - 8 ohm
- Power - 10 to 100 watts tube, 20 to 200 watts solid state
- Dimensions - 13" D x 8.3" W x 16" H
- Weight - 13kg / 29 lbs each