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In auditioning Prince's slamming New Power Soul (New Power Generation) and KRS-One's production of Sly & Robbie's hip-hop reggae meltdown, Silent Assassin (Island 91277-2), the eyes sure had it—they liked to pop right out of several listeners' heads. Yunowuttahmean? And where a certain degree of lower-bass weight helps flesh out the acoustic cues in an orchestral recording, it's at the critical juncture of the upper bass and lower midrange (ca 100-250Hz) that a loudspeaker displays its dancing mettle.

I found it…

Description: Three-way, reflex-loaded, floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" Sonatex soft-dome tweeter with double-magnet configuration and pure silver voice-coil, 5" magnesium-cone midrange with copper phase plug in sealed low-resonance subenclosure, 8" side-firing aluminum-cone woofer with four-layer voice-coil. Frequency response: 28Hz-20kHz, ±2dB. Sensitivity: 88dB/W/m. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms, minimum 6 ohms. Crossover frequencies: 125Hz, 2kHz. Crossover slopes: second-generation Infinite Slope with optimized transfer functions.
Dimensions: 38?" H…

Digital source: Sony SCD-777ES SACD player, Musical Fidelity A3 CD player.
Preamplifiers: Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista, Blue Circle Galatea.
Power amplifier: Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 300.
Integrated amplifier: Simaudio I-5.
Cables: Interconnect: JPS Labs Superconductor 2, Synergistic Research Designer's Reference (with Active Shielding and Master Control Center), Alpha Sterling, Alpha Kaleidoscope Phase II. Speaker: JPS Labs, Alpha (with Active Shielding), Monster Cable Sigma Retro Gold. AC: JPS Labs Power AC Outlet Centers, Aluminata,…

The smartly finished Joseph Audio RM33si Signature appears to need a surprisingly large amount of power to play loud. Using DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated B&K 4006 microphone, I estimated the RM33si's B-weighted sensitivity at just 80dB(B)/2.83V/m. This is both significantly below average, and 8dB below the specified figure. Unless Chip clipping his Musical Fidelity amplifier on the Telarc cannons had damaged something, I have no explanation for the discrepancy, other than to note that the thermometer topped 100 degrees F the day I measured the…

The RM33si's lateral dispersion plot (fig.4) implies a wide, even radiation pattern, with only a slight flare at the bottom of the tweeter's passband that might brighten the perceived balance in a lively room. Against that must be placed the 1" tweeter's…

When Chip Stern reviewed the floorstanding, $7499/pair RM33si loudspeaker from Joseph Audio in October 2001 (pp.181-187), he was about as enthusiastic as it is possible to get: "Jeff Joseph and Richard Modaferri have achieved something special with the RM33si—a design that might in time prove to be a standard by which other speakers are compared." Yet when I performed my usual set of measurements, I was bothered by finding the Joseph's voltage sensitivity much lower than the 88dB/2.83V/m specified. I was also concerned by a…

Fig.5 Joseph RM33si, sample 2, complex sum of nearfield midrange, woofer, and port responses (supplied…

Digital sources: Meridian 800 DVD-V/CD/CD-R player, Mark Levinson No.31.5 CD transport, Perpetual Technologies P-3A and Chord DAC64 D/A processors.
Preamplifier: Mark Levinson No.380S.
Power amplifiers: Mark Levinson No.33H monoblocks.
Cables: Interconnect: Madrigal HPC-1. Speaker: AudioQuest Gibraltar, Synergistic Research Designer's Reference2. Datalink: AudioQuest SVD-4 S/PDIF, Illuminations Orchid AES/EBU. AC: Synergistic Research Designer's Reference2 (Meridian 800), PS Audio Lab Cable (P300).
Accessories: PS Audio Power Plant P300 at…

Editor: We are pleased to see that John Atkinson's tests now agree with ours, showing the smooth transition between woofer and midrange. We're also happy that the sensitivity result hews closer to our 83dB specification. The small remainder might well be accounted for by differences in measurement technique, weighting, and calibration.

Seasoned audiophiles know that sensitivity doesn't tell the whole story when it comes to amplifier-loudspeaker matching. Even on smaller amplifiers, the RM33si actually sounds much louder and more dynamic than one might…

For audiophiles, love is a sometime thing. It's not that we're so damn flighty or impossible to please; it's just that familiarity breeds, if not contempt, then surely a tendency toward obsessive nitpicking and analysis. A blush of enthusiasm for the new is irresistible to most audiophiles, yet, as we expand our range of reference gear, the scales shift, and we find ourselves focusing more on a component's shortcomings. And since no one piece of gear does it all, this process of calculating relative…