RMB 18/3 LOUDSPEAKER REVIEW
RMB 18/3 Loudspeakers are made in the UK by Richard Best and have a unique and very individual design. They are a two-way design that are meant to be used against a wall, and cost £3240 direct from the company. Janine Elliot takes a listen for HiFi PiG.
“Very carefully designed and built in the UK” is the heading on RMB’s website, a company making loudspeakers based in the lovely (and loudspeaker) sounding “Burley-in-Wharfedale” in West Yorkshire and run by Richard Best. The audiophile and car enthusiast makes it clear that his speakers are designed to sound best rather than just look good, a bit like my favourite cars. They are certainly unusual, and the feet on the stand-mounted speaker do remind me of the wooden chairs I sat on at junior school with their steam-shaped birch plywood curves. “We just believe that you should not have to accept lazy or boring visual design in something that is placed on view in your home!”
These are very narrow speakers. I actually think the 18/3 look great in my living room; rather classic-looking “whisky” colour plywood with a 2-piece angled front that you just wish you could affix wooden knobs to, open them up and bring out the whisky from inside.
Available directly from RMB, their products really look good value for money at £3240.
Richard wants to achieve clarity of detail, good speed, great dynamic range and good soundstage depth; things that are vital in any successful loudspeaker. His loudspeakers are designed for the best sound, rather than being designed to a “price point”. Similar to the 12/3, the larger 18/3 achieves around 18-litre notional volume with the “3” standing for 3 drivers. Richard does all the woodwork and listening, having spent a career in mechanical engineering, and working in fitting and fabrication workshops. Now his time is spent making speakers and working in engineering workshops. With his inquisitive technical mind, he had been buying, reconditioning and re-selling petrol lawnmowers from the age of 14 (whereas I was selling frogs to my school to use in biology lessons!) Indeed, all his life he has been obsessed with cars and engines; always curious and fascinated by how things work and the materials they are made from. His proudest achievements are his RMB Loudspeakers, and he tells me the best is yet to come. Creating his loudspeakers obviously takes a lot of research and practical testing.
BUILD QUALITY AND CONSTRUCTION OF RMB 18/3 LOUDSPEAKERS
As a young adult, Richard realised that there was no conventional-sized or shaped loudspeaker at any budget that would do what he wanted them to do; hence, his speakers are certainly very unique in design and shape. All RMB speakers deploy angled baffles where the drivers are situated, looking vastly different to the conventional square-box strategy. Indeed, Richard doesn’t like sharp edges on anything, so children and cats can have no fear. 18mm birch plywood is clearly visible at all edges of the cabinet, which shows off the rigidity of the glued multi-layered wooden “plies”, creating a cabinet with very low vibration.
Inside, there is much internal bracing; these cabinets feel and sound very solid; these are not BBC thin-wall braced enclosures, though they certainly are very lightweight and need a flat floor as they sit on the “chair legs”.
Whilst the supplied speaker was in “whisky” colour, it is also available in natural, black stain, red, or blue “tints”. Each speaker is a bespoke model made to your own specific order.
This 2-way loudspeaker design is fairly efficient at 89db/W/m and has two in-phase natural fibre 145mm mid/bass drivers from SEAS and a soft-dome 28mm Morel tweeter, whereas the smaller 12/3 uses 120mm mid/bass drivers. Detachable grilles can be provided if required. That’s the good thing about selling directly to customers. The “chair-leg” stands are essential, as the well-braced (with internal felt-lining) cabinets have a downward-firing port. This allows the recommended near-to-wall suggestion of placement. The silver-soldered DNM solid core wiring has connections to 6dB/octave (1st-order) crossover circuitry. Richard prides himself on the building of his speakers, being fastidious on quality, over other manufacturers who might “over-hype and under-deliver”, as he put it to me. Richard is the company. He does all the work, and having heard great reports from HiFi shows, I wanted to give his cottage-industry, cottage-furniture-styled speakers a good listen, using my valve mono-blocks.
SOUND QUALITY
Initial listening was with old favourites of mine; I know how they should sound on £40k+ speakers, so let’s see what the £3k 18/3 could do. Peter Gabriel’s ‘i/o’ double-album can really show off a system’s power and delicacy in equal measures, and whilst the 18/3 gave an excellent soundstage, I did find the bass-end a little less controlled and detailed compared with those more expensive speakers once the music got “heavy”. That bass-end is impressive, but I did find it was slightly overpowering at times. Richard wants you to place the speaker “flat against a rear wall”, but I’m not so sure. Comparing certain tracks with my stock Arc/Torus speaker setup showed that the bass sometimes hid the detail higher up. That said, mids and highs sometimes gave me more information than I had been previously aware of, such as the “bell” in “Panopticom” and his not-so-perfect double-tracking in “Olive Tree”. But the very top-frequency detail wasn’t quite as precise as my critical ears wanted to hear (too many years as a BBC Studio Manager and using my Arcs) due to the 30-degree angle upwards of the drivers.
I’d better sit up properly, then.
French band Air’s “Run” was again fun but very refined. The sound from these beautifully built boxes was not woodchip, rather more Chippendale. That beautiful 10cc “I’m Not in Love” vocal-synth harmony sounds so classy and full-bodied in the RMB, with great soundstage depth. Richard wants you to hear music, not HiFi, and I must admit I was quickly getting very addicted to these speakers, especially with vocal and classical music. These are very dynamic speakers with good efficiency, speed and presence. The sound could at times be more football boots than ballet shoes, but they are not careless or tiring. I did notice things that I hadn’t heard before; maybe this was because the 18/3 allowed me to relax into the music and take in more. “Private Investigations” (Dire Straits) might push the bass heart-beat thuds near the end a bit too much, but Mark Knopfler’s earlier double-tracking vocals were similarly easily able to be torn apart.
The double-bass line in Patricia Barber’s ‘Live in France’ album was really as passionate as her own vocals, with these efficient speakers really bringing out the best. The cymbals also gave a very tight and life-like performance, bringing the music alive and into my listening room, especially with the positioning – both left-to-right and front-to-back. I could hear why visitors to HiFi shows would enjoy listening to RMB speakers. I much prefer soft dome tweeters to aluminium, gold or diamond: I could explain the waveforms and sweet-spot, or their ability at suppressing resonances and having less fatigue, but luckily manufacturers and audiophiles can make their own choices, and sometimes the speakers need a bit of a kick up their proverbial HF. The RMB just did it right, even with the less-steep 6dB crossover. With soft domes, there is often a wider dispersion, which is necessary here, I feel, due to the angled drivers. The track “Crash” certainly doesn’t sound like an accident; all the positioning, decays, and frequencies just work so well. However, at times, that extreme bass does sound like this motor has lost its brake fluid and doesn’t quite come to a halt as quickly as I would like it to.
Stevie Ray Vaughan’s version of the famous Hendrix “Voodoo Chile” in his brilliantly recorded and mastered double album ‘Couldn’t Stand the Weather’ shows off his great guitar playing and vocals. However, again, that deep bass guitar was just a little bit too vague and prominent for me. I was certainly ‘live’ at the concert, but it felt like the floor and ceiling were made of glass, reflecting sounds around me. The mids and highs were very succinct; the cymbals are tight, and the vocals are very real. This was music, not a HiFi system, and I enjoyed the performance. The real fame of this amazing Dallas-born blues-rock performer only lasted 7 years, and his life lasted just 36, killed far too young in a helicopter crash in Wisconsin.
Turning to the classical French composer Roussel’s 1931 ‘Bacchus and Ariadne’ Suite No.2 op 43 is a great musical canvas to listen to that, whilst not particularly energetic, shows much influence from fellow comrades Ravel and Debussy. He, like Rimsky-Korsakov, started adult life as a naval officer, and he didn’t turn to composing until later. His music reminds me of black-and-white movie soundtracks on Gaumont or Pathé. Even Mickey Mouse seems to make an appearance running about with the high-pitched flute and piccolo scales, or even trumpet and string melodies, reminding me of Carry-On films. This work has everything, and whilst I wanted the 18/3 to sound 16/9, it was more 4/3 (if you “get” the format reference); This Supraphon record sounds dated in its conservative soundstage, but those high piccolo and triangle bursts really do come to life from the RMB. ‘Bacchus and Ariadne’ really is a tone-picture with dances, grief, anguish and passion, all of which the 18/3 managed to convey really well. Having those speakers angled also gave a fuller sound in my room, plus they showed off more of the music rather than the engineering. The RMB made it all sound very easy, well, perhaps a little too easy in this and other music I played. These speakers are very warm and inviting, and very organic.
QUIBBLES
Other than the bass sometimes running away, these unusual-looking speakers were a delight to have in my room, but some might not be keen on the looks. I would prefer more sturdy feet, though.
CONCLUSION
These are not your average speakers in terms of looks, sound or even price. They are refined in all respects; they give a very musical performance for a very good price, but apart from the lowest bass sometimes being slightly too wayward, are probably ideal for those who simply want to sit down with a glass of wine, close their eyes and just take in the spirit of the music.
AT A GLANCE
Build Quality:
Very well hand-made woodwork, with rigid birch plywood, and unique build DNA
Sound Quality:
Extended bass end with a full-bodied musical performance
Value For Money:
At £3240 there is a lot of performance and unique looks for the price.
We Loved:
Musical warmth and pure joy in listening to all genres
Almost 360-degree soundstage from angled drivers
Great attention to detail and quality at all angles in the design
We Didn’t Love So Much:
Sometimes the bass end could be a little too vague
Some might be put off by the shape and unsure about the feet
Price:
£3240/pair
Janine Elliot
Elevator Pitch Review: Think of traditional square box speakers, and then think RMB. Richard Best does not do square boxes. This 2-way design, for a start, has angled drivers to create a bigger soundstage, and the front would look great as a drinks cabinet. But every part of this speaker’s DNA is there for a reason; to simply give music life. Plug them into your amplifier over 15W, and you will just want to sit, put your feet up and enjoy your favourite tracks, and perhaps with an aperitif from your real drink’s cabinet. Watch out, though, as these speakers might surprise you with their dynamic temperament, especially in the bass.
SUPPLIED SPECIFICATON
- Minimum suggested amplifier rating 15 w.p.c.
- Positioning: Effectively flat against a rear wall
- Mean efficiency: 89db/1 watt/1 metre
- Height 1,050mm, Width 330mm, Depth 230mm, Weight 13.7 Kg
- Connection panel: single pair of terminals to accept 4mm plugs, U – spades or bare wire
- Enclosure type – Bass reflex. Dual downward firing ports. 18mm birch plywood construction with multiple internal stiffening braces.
- Drive units: twin 145mm mid–bass units with natural fibre cones 28mm fabric dome tweeter with extremely powerful magnet system (modified in house).
