Great soundstage, beautiful musicality, transparency

Resale value?

Hopefully, this will help those looking for speakers in the $3K range. I listened to the 805's (alone and with a REL Strata III sub), the 804's, and the Joseph Audio rm25si's and 22si's. First, the winner is: the 25si, which I got on the 'net for $2100, 7 mos. old.

805's: What can be said bad about these fine speakers? They are excellent, nice soundstage, great transparency, very detailed. With my equipment (B&K AVR 202, Sony 7700 and REL Strata III), these speakers were absolutely terrific for $1800. If that was my budget -- hands down couldn't do better, with the REL added. Great bass, great high end, perfect with the right electronics. Great resale value and can be sold at a high price immediately. B&W stands are pricey but I like them.

804's: These beat the 805's w/o a sub hands down. Even better soudstage, clarity, crisp highs. Not forgiving of bad source material or electronics. These show flaws in old recordings, which are the bulk of my collection (old jazz, 60's and 70's rock). A beautiful sounding speaker that has immediate resale value, huge demand.

PSB Gold i: Almost half the price of the RM25si's (over the internet, not list), I thought these were very pleasant speakers to listen to. Nice soundstage and imaging, pleasant rolled off high's, but the bass on these was sloppy and ill-defined, especially for their huge size. Bottom line: Not even close to the same league as either the 804's, 805's with the REL or the RM25si, but at $1,799 or so, its certainly the least expensive of all of them.

RM25si: I LOVED these speakers. Extremely defined, great, tight bass, much better than the 804's bass response. Wonderfully detailed and crisp highs, with excellent placement of instruments in the soundstage. A real 3-D sound! A very slight roll-off (and I mean SLIGHT) in the mid's and highs makes even dubious source material sound at least listenable (like old Grateful Dead boots, and the like) while truly shining on well-recorded music (unlike the B&W's, which, when fed bad source material, sound rough). Even clinical CD's sound wonderfully engaging. Coupled with my REL subwoofer, just astounding! These are a must listen-to! Incidentally, I thought that the RM22si (the next model down) sounded so poor by comparison that I would never consider them compared to the 805's, period. Rolled off highs, zero low end -- a very disappointing speaker considering how terrific the 25si's are. 805's are far superior in all aspects to the 22's, IMHO.

Value: My only complaint about these speakers is their seemingly limited resale value, perhaps because they are not as well known as the B&W's. I got mine slightly used for $2,100 -- a terrific deal for a $3,500 speaker, but made me wonder about buying them new at full retail. I don't think that the seller even got any other offers for them! There is such high demand for used B&W 804's and 805's, that they are sold at almost new prices within days.

Summary: B&W 804's are wonderful speakers. Very analytical. But to my ears, the RM25si's just do everything better, while still remaining accurate without coloring the music.

Similar Products Used:

B&W 804, 805's, PSB Gold i

Great soundstage, excellent dynamics and good tight bass

None for me

I have over the period of about 12 months completely overhauled my system. My current system consists of

Bryston 7B ST Monoblocks
Bryston BP-25 Pre-amp
Sony SCD-777ES SACD Player
Joseph Audio RM25si Signature speakers
Pure Silver Sound interconnects
Kimber 8TC speaker cable

These speakers are a perfect match for my Bryston Mono’s. Sometimes they seem to want all 500 watts. So far they have never sounded constrained or congested no matter how dynamic the music is. I listen to a lot of classical music with a wide range in dynamics. The Josephs handle it all very well. They image like champs, especially with the mono amps. The bass is clean and tight plus it goes low enough for the music I listen to (not much Organ bass in collection, Double bass is about it). I think these are real bargain considering the price of other speakers out there that I liked (ProAc 3.8’s). Even if I in the lottery I will keep these ( I may by some Joseph Pearls though).

Similar Products Used:

PSB 600, old JBLs

great bass, good balance, smooth highs, construction quality

none that i am aware of

this review pertains to the recently improved mark 11 version.
I find these speakers to be very musical with all types of music-jazz,rock,latin,and especially classical music.
C.D recordings such as the mahlar 8th with Solti conducting the Chicago sym,saint saen's organ sym with Munch conducting the Chicago sym on RCA, Dave Brubeck's We are all together again for the first time on atlantic records-all sound superb on these speakers.
My system consists of the following:
a. audible illutions 11 preamp
b. mcCormack DNA 1 amp-still a wonderful amp
c. Linn Sondeck with Grado platinum
d. sony dvp 9000 DVD-excellent
e.Parasound ultra C.D
f. analysis plus oval 9 cables with silver bullets and homegrown audio connectors.

Similar Products Used:

bose 901,vandersteen 2ci,definitive technology bp2002,dalquist dq10,etc

Just came back from spending a couple hours with this speaker. For all intents and purposes this is the big brother to the highly acclaimed RM22si, and that's just what it sounds like(see my review of the 22si for more detail).
Specifically, the 25si maintains the outstanding musicality and transparancy of its little brother, and adds the next degree of low octave punch and detail. I thought I may have heard a slight increase, and I do mean slight, in smoothness to the midrange, but that may have been more the fact that there is just more bass there to fill things out.

Like the 22s, the 25 just disappears and leaves a totally involving 3-dimensional panorama of music all around them. I have not yet auditioned any other speaker(and I have heard B&W, Hales, ProAc, Linn, Sonus Faber, Martin Logan, NHT, Thiel, and many others) that can do what these speakers do, and I would strongly encourage listening to Jeff Joseph's products. You forget you're listening to speakers at all as the musical presentation is so real, and after all, isn't this the ultimate goal of any audio equipment? It was a relief to see that adding the second woofer to the 25 didn't wreck the balance that I found so special in the 22s(as did Chip Stern in the Oct. 98 issue of Stereophile; the 22s are Class B Full Range Recommended by the way, for those who care about such things; the 25s haven't been reviewed yet -- C'mon Stereophile, we're thinkin' at least borderline Class A here.).

Well, bottom line: Go listen to these speakers(although they sound good almost anywhere, if possible it's best if they're at least 4-6 ft. from the back wall and 2-4 ft. from the side 5-6 ft. apart and toed in slightly, as this allows the speakers and sound to really breath, which I find true of most(but not all) speakers). If your budget and space allow, go for the 25s. If not, the 22s will get you most of the way there with the exception of the lowest of the lows and save you $1,000. There are also perfectly matched center channel and bookshelf versions, for those looking to do the home theater thing.

Joseph Audio is still a relatively small company with limited distribution, but I'm sure this will change as word continues to spread about the unbelievable abilities of these speakers. And since Jeff Joseph is always touted as one of the truly "good guys" in this business, you can feel especially good about supporting the special products from this special company.(By the way, I have absolutely no affiliation with Joseph Audio as a company -- I just hold their products in the highest regard and would like to help introduce others to how fantastic the home audio experience can be.)

FYI, the associated equipment during my listening was(not sure of most of the model numbers, sorry):
CD: C.E.C, NAD Silver Series
Amp: Electrocompaniet, McCormack DNA 1
Preamp: Electrocompaniet, NAD Silver Series
Interconnect/Spkr cable: Nordost

I recently purchased a pair of Joseph Audio RM25Si Signatures after a lengthly process of research and listening to almost a dozen different loudspeakers in the $2000-4000 range, including the Hales Revelation 3, Vandersteen 3A Signature, Epos ES22, Magnepan 1.6QR, and various other Josephs, Thiels, B&Ws, Linns, Tannoys, etc. Many of these are impressive speakers, but none of them combined the incredible detail, smoothness, and overall musicality that the Joseph 25s do. From the gorgeous highs and midrange to the tight bass, these are the best sounding loudspeakers I've heard in anything approaching this price range. I highly recommend these speakers. They sound great on everything from small jazz groups to classical to rock.
Associated equipment:

Electrocompaniet power amp
Mod Squard Deluxe Line Drive passive preamp
California Audio Labs CL-20 DVD/CD player
MIT 330 interconnects
Audioquest speaker cable

Musicality; transparency; tight, focused bass; etc. etc.

They are not as good as live music.

This is a follow-up to my initial review. Having lived with the Joseph 25s for about five months now (and I listen to them almost every evening, sometimes for several hours), I am still delighted with them. I listen primarily to jazz, rock and folk music, along with some classical, and-especially with small groups-the Josephs often just disappear. It's as close as I've come (within my budget-I have about $10,000 in my system) to actually having performers in the room with me (although, admittedly, it's still a long ways from live).

The 25s are extremely musical and transparent, with a wonderfully deep sound stage; tight, focused bass response (on one recording of Ray Brown that I have, I almost believe he is in the room with me); lovely midrange; and a very natural high end. They are very easy to listen to for extended periods of time. They never wear on me. Some speakers sound very impressive for short periods of time, but become harsh with extended listening-that has never happened with the Joseph 25s.

As I mentioned in my review, I listened to a large number of speakers before choosing the Joseph Audio 25s. For the price, I didn't find anything close to the magic they provide. There are lots of good speakers out there (and even more bad ones) but these are speakers I can live with for a long time.

Similar Products Used:

Hales Revelation 3, Epos ES12

dynamic detail, sonic realism and even on poorly remastered music they do not sound harsh.

Limited dealer availability. Long drive to my otherwise great dealer

A reader e-mailed to ask for an update of my earlier favorable review. My enthusiasm has only increased. I still look forward to powering up my system every morning.

Like most high end enthusiasts, I love music. Though the 25s sound far better with great recordings (Sting's, Brand New Day is a fantastic recording and the remaster of Miles', Kind of Blue sounds like it was just recorded), they also sound great with less well recorded or poorly remastered CDs (eg Miles, Smokin, Monk's Riverside classics, the 60s Blue Note catalogue.) Some other very good speakers such as B&W can sound pretty dreadful with poor recordings to my ears.

Josephs also have the kick to bring the rock experience into my living room (Led Zeppelin, Stones,Talking Heads, Pearl Jam, Santana) I did not feel the power of the music during my sessions with the audio physic Virgo which I otherwise admired.

After hundreds of hours of listening, I cannot imagine a better reproduction of singers from Aretha Whitney and Luther, to Kathleen Battle(saprano) to Fiona Apple. The voice is in the room. No less so with the voice of instruments.

Similar Products Used:

audio physic virgo B&W 804s

Outstanding vocals, strong, punchy bass with good extension, highs that don't fatigue

none for music, need a sub for HT, but hey, what doesn't. As others have noted, not as bright at the high end as some other speakers.

After 10 years with my old speakers, I spent the last 9 months listening to many many, many speakers, and also researching what stereophile had to say. Probably 70% of my listening is music, 30% home theater, so I was looking that could do double duty. I listened to a lot of really expensive speakers, and if I had all the money in the world I might have bought them. But I was shooting for speakers that were audiophile in sound, but not outrageous in cost. So the expensive ones helped calibrate what I was looking for in terms of sound.

An ad for the Joseph Audio speakers caught my attention in a magazine, and so I did research here on this site, and also looked at the last couple years of Stereophile's recommended products listings. http://home1.pacific.net.sg/~axiom13/reccom99.htm#10
JA's products clearly seemed the price performers in the b category. No dealers anywhere near me so I took a chance and bought them direct from Jeff over the phone.

I am very glad I did.

I use the speakers as follows
Joseph Audio RM25's in the front
Joseph Audio RM 22's in the rear
Joseph Audio Cynergy in the center

Recently added a Velodyne HGS 15 - thought i would use it for HT only, but I guess I am a bass head and now I like it for most everything.

Marantz SR-18
run of the mill monster speaker cable
sony 560 dvd with coaxial monster interconnect.

Sound
wonderful. buy this setup, buy the eagles dts 5.1 hell freezes over dvd, and you will be amazed at what you hear on the last couple tracks. As I also own the 22's and have used them in a separate system a substantial part of the time, I can say unequivocally that the 25s are better with low frequency material, not so much in extension, but in output.
The Marantz seems to be a pretty good match for the speakers and the right compromise for my listening habits and budget, but I have not heard them with other electronics. that said, I do someday want to buy a set of VTL monoblocks and get tubes driving the main speakers as most of the winning systems at the shows have had.

What comes next?
better source - sacd player
better cables
biwiring
VTL amps

Similar Products Used:

listened to many different speakers encompassing most of the B&W line (silver sigs were awesome), Areal acoustics, Vienna Acoustics Mozart, Hayden, Mahler, Sonus Faber, Avalon Eidolon, Martin Logan's of various sorts, others

This speaker has a dynamic range that was unique

None

These speakers have a special quality. I loved the B&W 803s and the Audio Physic Virgos. I had an offer on the 803s for the same price as the 25si. It is hard to pass up a good deal. I choose the more dynamic transparent sound of the Josephs. I was also tempted by the Joseph 22si which is very good, and a bargon, but the 25si are both smoother and punchier.

All great speakers do the job differently. I spent several hours. The dealer, Audio Den in Van Nuys (funky but knowledgable) changed around the equipment so I could hear them to the best advantage and to my taste. (Why not, the audio critics always find the right combination.)

Before I buy, I listen to music at rock venue sound levels. These speakers have no trouble with Pearl Jam that shakes the room. They are often praised for their treatment of acoustic music. I agree. But what won me over was listening to the combination of electic and acoustic instruments on albums such as Sting's hits package. My wife loves the human voice and sings in a cathedral choir. She love the soprano voice. I was pleased to overhear her telling her brother about these "unbelievable" speakers.

My speakers will be in next week. I will report back after a couple of months breakin and system shakedown.

Similar Products Used:

B&W N803,804, Audio Physic Virgo