Did you listen to them before buying them? Or work out a return agreement? Or go off of Gene's opinion (which has been pretty good to me).
When I checked on RBH speakers in the Atlanta area, no one had them in stock. Their business was going to rich peoples houses and installing sound. These are not customers who know or want to know anything about audio. Freestanding speakers did not seem to be a consideration! They had a couple of showrooms with wall or ceiling mount speakers and anything I was interested in would require me to order them. At the time I was just giving an initial listen to different speakers and I wasn't ready to commit to anything. If I know how you managed it, it allows me to contact them just a bit more informed on possibilities.
I can understand your preference for active bass via external amps, but why place a premium on "built-in subs" over separate subs?
If memory serves, you had both Funk and Rythmik. Did you find them inadequate?
Yes, actually I listened to the RBH T2 towers BEFORE I bought the Salon2, 802D2, KEF 201/2, Linkwitz Orion, Phil3, etc.
At that time, which I think is about 5 years ago, I thought the RBH T2 were the best sounding speakers I've ever heard - better than Salon2, 802D, KEF, Linkwitz, etc. But at that time, RBH had not come out with the SX-series. I thought the old classic series were just too square and not something I would want in my house.
SQ is salient, but aesthetic is also just as important to me.
The SX series have nice curved cabinets, which is exactly what I was looking for. But by the time they were released and by the time I found out about the SX series, I had already bought about 12 pairs of speakers and subwoofers.
Dedicated subs, including Rythmik and Funk, are great. But subjectively, I don't think they give me the same sound I get from the SX-1010 or SX-8300, which to me sounds more like bass from towers rather than subs. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's all in my head - kind of like how people think some amps sound differently to them.
But the bass from the RBH 8300 and 1010 sounded more to my taste.
But anyway, you know how it is when you were growing up and you thought to yourself, "When I grow up, I want to be like ".......", I want to marry a woman who is like ".......", I want a house that is like "......", I want a car that is like "......", etc." ?
Well, I wanted a full-range tower speaker system that could deliver earthquake bass output, yet gives me that intimate tower bass. I don't want to have to buy additional subwoofers because my towers can't give me enough of that bass I want. My towers need to be able to give me all the bass I want. That is my personal IDEA of the perfect system.
Even if I had 11 KEF Blade towers costing $165K total, I would still need to buy ADDITIONAL subwoofers.
And I know a lot of people rave about this one tweeter or this one midrange, but I've heard enough of them to know for myself that it is mostly diminishing returns. Yes, they all sound different, but not significantly "better" IMO.
The overall total design of the speaker is a lot more important than any one tweeter or midrange.
