Great buy even at list price,detail and soundstage is amoung the best I have heard ever.

None

Big Dynaudio fan and Always will be, but this is by far one of the best sounding speakers I have heard in a long time. Very detailed huge soundstage and it matches up very good with my NAD Silver Series Intergrated Amp and CD Player. I have owned systems 10 times more expensive but the Combo of the NAD and Joesph Audio RM7si Signature speakers is the best sounding system "to my Ear" that I have heard in many years. A 5 Star preformer at a great price. Enjoy!!!!!!!

Similar Products Used:

Dynaudio 1.3MkII Dynaudio 1.8MkII

Details, pace, and very smooth mid range, very revealing.

None, just don't match this with lousy electronics

An excellent pair of monitors, great value (the signature model). I've matched this with Jeff Rowland's integrated amp and EAR's V20 tube integrated with excellent results. The female voice sounds very smooth and silky, with absolutely no grain and grit. The piano sounds like a piano. I can go on and on, but try one for yourselves.

Similar Products Used:

various B&W monitors, Merlin

Even presentation, good detail, musical coherence.

None in my system.

Note: these are the non-signature RM7si speakers. Associated equipment: McIntosh C38 preamp and C122 amp, Rega Planet CD player and Planar3 turntable.

Right out of the box, these speakers were good, but not that special. Nice clear treble and mids, but not much bass. Like most speakers, though, there's a break in period that simply has to be gone through. In the case of the RM7si speakers, it was fairly short. After four days, the bass became more prominent and the treble became more easy to listen to; I would say the speakers "warmed up", but that implies that they're not very neutral, which they are.

These speakers present a great deal of detail, but not at the expense of the musical experience. To fall back on a cliche, it's almost as if I've gotten a new record (and CD) collection. One high point of my listening during the past two weeks has been picking out old, badly-recorded records; surprisingly, these records sound just fine through the RM7si's. There's a caveat that I see in a lot of audiophile reviews: "These are revealing components that will not treat bad recordings kindly". Well, these are revealing components, but they still allow me to listen to those old records with the same enjoyment I got from them originally. I don't have to skip over large parts of my collection anymore; I can listen to it all without gritting my teeth.

As for bass...the RM7si's are rated 45Hz-20Khz; my old speakers were rated 40Hz-20Khz. With the old speakers, though, I was getting plenty of bass, but I never really felt I was hearing the notes. With the Josephs, there's a little less bass, but I'm getting the actual pitch of most of the notes and not just a "feeling" that I'm hearing the bass.

The largest improvement over many of the speakers I've auditioned, though, has been the lack of shrill treble. For whatever reason (though I would tend to point to the silk/fabric tweeter), the treble is clear and not at all as annoying as with many "high-end" speakers I've listened to.

All in all, I'm really pleased with these, and they continue to grow on me. I'm still in the "hey, wonder how this tune will sound with these speakers" phase; but to fall back on another cliche, I find myself putting on one song, forgetting about the equipment, and listening to huge chunks of the CD or record that's playing.

Also, these things are physically beautiful; for many people, that may not make a difference. However, if you have to get approval from your significant other on your audio components, it can't hurt. The amount of craftsmaship that goes into putting these speakers together is not trivial. You'll just have to see a pair to see what I mean.

I have to end with a question, though: why aren't these speakers more well known? I'd recommend these speakers to anyone looking to put together a good system.

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm Studio 20s

This is a follow-up to a review I posted here a year ago, based on an in-store audition. Unwilling to pay full price for a pair of these ('cause I didn't have the money, not because they weren't worth it), I waited around until I found a guy in Chicago with a used pair he wanted to sell. I bought them -- last June.So, here are my thoughts after owning them. They are driven by a Krell KAV-300i and a Ultech UCD-100 cd player, with DH labs interconnects and bi-wired speaker cables. Bass is supplemented by a Mirage BPS-150 subwoofer, adjusted and calibrated using the Stereo Review/Chesky CD and a Radio Shack mic. The sub is driven off the preamp outputs of the Krell, so the Josephs are getting full-range power from the amp. The speakers are placed on top of heavy wooden cabinets at ear height, about 12" from the back wall 1/3 the way across the long wall of a rectangular room, about 24 x 15. They face directly forward. The room is not acoustically treated, but has plaster walls, 12' ceiling and wood floors, with rugs, some drapes, bookshelves and furniture. It's not a particularly live room.
The speakers work quite well in this arrangement. As revealed by the Chesky test CD and real music recordings, the speakers image very precisely laterally and front-to-back. Unlike other reviewers' experience here, they integrate perfectly with this sub, which is "fast" (uses 2 8" drivers). Bass drum on a jazz drum kit is rendered perfectly, with impact but no overhang (e.g. Joe Morello's drum solo on the DBQ's "Take 5"). The top end is quite present, but not aggressive or spitty. The ringing of different-sized cymbals on a jazz drum kit is clearly rendered. Vocal reproduction -- male or female -- is flawless. No mid-bass bloat in male vocals; clarity in female. Piano reproduction is exceptionally good, with the correct weight and impact that an acoustic piano delvers.
So, are they perfect or what?
Ultimately, no. They are still small monitor speakers. They will not reproduce a full symphony orchestra playing fortissimo at concert (100 dB+) levels. Things get a little congested if you try that. It may be that I could squeeze a little more volume out of them if I used the speaker-level inputs on the sub with the sub's built-in high pass filter rolling off the low bass to the Josephs. They will play jazz, chamber and rock to satisfyingly loud (95 dB+) levels; but a full symphony orchestra playing FFF is a little too much.
I don't think this is a fault. I would not have space in my room for a pair of good floorstanders of the same total cost as my Joseph + sub combination that would deliver greater volume with equal accuracy. Dunlavy SC-III's would be about the same price as the Josephs and the sub (new), but even then there would be a trade-off. The sub probably goes 1/2 octave lower in the bass than the Dunlavy SC-III's (in the room, the sub reads flat to 24 Hz @ 90 dB). If you're looking for a top-quality monitor at any price or if you're looking at any speaker for $2000, these should be on your short list.

I heard the signatures to be a little too glaring to live with.Really interesting upper mid though. I bet they'd image well under
the right conditions. I didnt here them at home. I expected something
a little more natural though, from the reviews I've read.

I had the pleasure of reviewing a pair of the Joseph Audio RM7si Signature loudspeaker system for another web site. I used both a Golden Tube SE-40 amplfier and a Adcom GFA-5800 amplifier - with and without a ACI Titan subwoofer (another fantastic product).
The overall sound was - well... what more can you ask for in a speaker? Silky treble that was "just right" and bass that was far better than expected my any means. Most off all - or should I say best of all was the midrange detail and lack or interaction between drivers. When I used the ACI Titan with 85Hz high-pass filters I only helped the 40w/ch tube amplfier - the Signatures dealt with the power of even the big Adcom well.

My pair was of a finish not sold in the US - but if one goes though any CES show photos you will see them... they were in a high gloss mahoghany (Jeff had a different name but the wood is similar) that was a sight to be seen. My only regrets of the Signatures was that I had to send them on their way.

Highly recommended!

The Rm7si sounds great, but for few hundred dollars more, the RM7si signature offers outstanding performance. The RM7si signature belongs to a much higher class, and the extra few hundred dollars is very very inexpensive compare to the performance increase.
It is hard to bellieve that such small speaker can output so much quality bass. These speakers image so well, and have very focused soundstage. They are very detailed and have very good definition. The voices sound real and are very captivating. The midrange is outstanding and the best quality of the these speakers.

If you are looking for monitor speakers, I strongly suggest you listen to Rm7si and Rm7si signatures.

Clean and accurate, capable of reproducing lots of fine detail.

Requires proper matching with electronics, especially the amplifier.

The RM7si signature is an excellent pair of monitor speakers. It is solidly built, and passes the knuckle test. With the right mix of source equipment, the speakers can play music very well, and draw you into the performance. The timbre is accurate; soundstage can be very wide and deep, with very good imaging. With good recordings, you can hear the hall ambiance. Most important of all, the mid-bass and treble are very smooth, and they do not cause any fatigue at all with extended listening. The catch is, you have to match it with the right set of equipment.

I spent about 6 months using a Bryston 3BST amp and Rega Planet CD to drive the Josephs. The sound was on the clinical and edgy side. The speakers were able to play loud, with quite a bit of bass impact (down to 50Hz only). The treble was clean and detail. The thing is, it felt like the amp was over-powering the speakers. I never felt relax and enjoyed the music. Yes the detail was there, so was the soundstage, the image… After a while, listening to music with high impact transients felt like my ears wanted to shut down.

I’m currently driving the speakers with an Audio Research VT100 II tube power amp, Herron Audio tube preamp, and a Meridean 508.24 CD player. The presentation has made a multi-fold improvement. I can listen to the music for hours, and I didn’t want to stop. I am able to immerse myself in the performance and enjoyed every minute of it. I notice Joseph Audio likes to pair their speakers with tube amps at the audio shows, with VTL amps in particular. There may be business reason behind this, but my gut feel is you’ll be better off with tubes. For solid state amps, look for amps that’s known for their warmth rather than clinical detail attributes. Amps like the Bryston can give you lots of detail and bass authority, but it’s too much detail for extended listening. On the other hand, using the proper tube amps like the Audio Research VT100 will give you transparent highs, no edginess, very smooth mids and trebles, without any of the bloated warmth characteristics tube amps are famous for.

By the way, bi-wiring is a must of these speakers. 4 stars because it’s not perfect. Conditional 5 stars with the proper electronics.

Similar Products Used:

B&W monitors