Would someone please listen to this speaker and review it. This is an entry into that niche created for high-end speakers that will fit into the built-in bookshelves of a fine home and provide decent bass and imaging from that compromised position. Most speakers sound VERY compromised mounted sideways in a bookshelf. There are few contenders that will work. Thiel has the SCS3 and MCSI which will image decently from this position due to concentric drivers. The SCS3 does really well but is compromised in overall loudness and impact due to single 6.5" drivers. The MCS1 is great but large and expensive. This little jobber should have the impact of the MCS1 at the price and dimensions of the SCS3. Also, the infinite crossover compensates for the lack of concentric array. Both very clever designs. The Joseph is also ported in front for shelf mounting.
As a side note, to illustrate the large market for this setup, Definitive Technology (not quite in the same league sonically, but a good overall product) has just come out with a powered sub bookshelf moniter which has low bass and can supposedly be positioned up to 1" from the cabinet behind it. Wanna hear that too!!!

To sum up: Jeff Joseph makes a great high-end product that deserves review

Sounds like an RM22si but without the top end sparkle, which is probably a bonus for a center speaker.

Probably too expensive considering you can get a pair of RM7si's for less and have an extra speaker for the rear. I probably wouldn't get these for surround speakers for the same reason.

I upgraded my 22's to 25's (very nice upgrade, but I'm not so sure I wouldn't have been better off with an REL Strata and the 22's... dunno) and needed a center speaker to build a home theater setup. Luckily I found a seller on Audiogon, so I got this at what I consider a good price. I think $1300 is too much considering the fact that you can get a pair of RM7si's for not too much more.

Apart from having a slightly less sparkly top end, this is a really good match for either the 22's or 25's, and is definitely a superb center speaker. No chestiness, no muffled speech, plenty of bass to integrate well with the main speakers, etc. Really holds it's own against my 25's, even with very dynamic material.

I've never ran it close to overloading, although I do have it crossed over at like 120 or 80Hz. Like the 25, it can play wonderfully up to a certain level, but it does too good a job trying to reproduce the low bass when asked and sometimes runs into its stops; a not-very-nice experience when you hear that "pop!".

If you have a good sub (ACI, HSU, REL, etc.), which I don't, this speaker along with a pair of 22's up front and 7si's in the rear would make an absolutely killer home theater/audio/5-channel setup.

Related equipment:
Sony DVP-S7000 DVD Player
Lexicon MC-1 HT Preamp
Plinius SA-100 (main amp)
Harmon Kardon AVR80 (run just for the tuner and rear channels)
Joseph Audio RM25si main speakers
Various cabling (among the many things I need to upgrade)

Similar Products Used:

Infinity center speaker

Bass extension, wide dispersion, smooth and transparent

Ultimate loudness

This is Jeff Joseph's re-thinking of the original Cinergy center channel. It improves on the already outstanding for a horizontally configured mid-tweeter-mid design by adding a 2nd Infinite Slope crossover rolling out one of the woofers at 120 Hz, while the other goes up to 2kHz crossover to the tweeter. So it is a 2.5 way speaker. The high-pass slope is now a little shallower, allowing a smoother transition and less stored energy. I did a lot of measurements with an Audio Toolbox Plus and can confrim that the off-axis dispersion is the best I have seen in a M-T-M design.

The sound is characteristic JA - smooth, very transparent, great dispersion, and very non critical of placement. The bass extension is great, well into the 30's, although it sounded more dynamic at high levels rolled off at 50 Hz via my processor. It will play amazing loud for a small speaker; that is the magic of 120dB/octave crossovers!

I had an Aerial CC3B on hand, and thought the Cinergy more open in the mids, comparable in the treble, and deeper in the bass. The Aerial had a tight low end with excellent definition.

I own Waveform Mach 17's, and have been searching for a CC with comparable pink noise response indicative of wide and smooth dispersion in vertical and horizontal planes. The Cinergy was a near-ideal match, bettered only by the $3000 Von Schweikert LCR-50 I also had borrowed! That says a lot.

The box is impeccably finished and very solid.

Similar Products Used:

Von Schweikert LCR-35, Aerial CC3B