Description
Bang Olufsen RL 60.2 Speakers Red Line 3-way Bass Reflex Resin Original straps. Excellent grille cloth condition, no snags or tears Stands available separately Manufactured: 1988 - 1992 Designer: David Lewis Colours: Grey, White The idea behind Beovox Red Line speakers was one of flexibility. A Red Line speaker was so flexible that it could be placed anywhere. On the ceiling, the wall, or on the floor. You could hang them semi-permanently on the wall, and if you had a party you could place them on the floor and thereby add extra emphasis to the bass. The different ways of placing them accentuated different frequencies. You could also tilt them if you chose to hang them on the wall. This allowed you to adjust the sound image and direct the sound right at your listening position. However, Red Line was more than merely flexible. It was an impressive bass reflex speaker with a revolutionary new cabinet that curved round the sound thereby eliminating irritating resonance because there were no parallel surfaces. Music that never stands still Red Line loudspeakers followed your music tastes right up the wall if you wanted! All models except the RL35 could be hung on the wall or be suspended from the ceiling; and, if your dancing feet wanted to make the most of the bass notes, then Red Line could be positioned on the floor, supported by the built-in floor stand. By using Red Line speakers, you werent plagued by cables that wrapped themselves around your feet like spaghetti either; Red Lines flexible spiral cables provided the decorative and practical answer. The shell was cast in a hard synthetic material and the shape that was devised for the range was characterised by the fact that it allowed for practically no resonance whatsoever. The replacement for Beovox RL 60 and a rather different one despite appearing very similar. The auxiliary bass radiator was gone and the 16cm woofers of the RL 60 were replaced by two 13cm units, mounted side by side on one of the outer panels, one of which acted as the midrange unit. There was a ducted port 6cm in diameter, the port being plastic and running across the width of the narrower dimension of the speaker. There was a 2.5cm tweeter which was mounted on one side of the central panel with the cross over being positioned on the other. When placed on the floor stands in the normal position with the longest side being vertical, this lead to the interesting configuration of the bass units being at the top, the tweeter in the middle and the bass reflex port at the bottom. The cabinet, in common with the rest of the Red Line range was of cast resin with heavy ribbing in the novel angled rear. The ribs in the long axis were filled with sound deadening material similar to that used in the car industry. The front of the cabinet was covered by cloth which was glued to the front panel and moulded over lettering on the front panel. A metal prop was built into the rear of the speaker and much was made of the flexibility with which these endowed the Red Line range. There were also separate floor stands and wall brackets and even ceiling brackets available. Connections were either by a 2 pin DIN plug, located at one corner, or by spring terminals in the recess for the stand. Later in the life of this model, the choice of having the rear cabinet finished in white as well as grey was offered. In the case of the white version, the famous “red line” became silver, though the name remained the same. The cloth grille remained available in grey only however. Looking totally different from their own and other manufacturers’ loudspeakers, the slightly ‘concave’ design allowed for greater flexibility of any other speakers in the range up to that time. In a cross between ‘normal’ speakers and ‘panel’ speakers, the RL range was produced in a variety of sizes and able to accommodate different power handling. For the RL45 this was 45 watts RMS and for the slightly larger RL60, a total of 60 watts RMS could be handled. An auxiliary bass radiator (ABR) or ‘drone cone’, was included to give the speakers that extra ‘punch’, especially at higher listening levels. Looking directly at the speaker the viewer would see a proud ‘Bang & Olufsen’ stip embossed vertically on its upper front. Manufactured from resin injection moulding the speakers’ cabinets were mid-grey in appearance with similarly-shaded grey cloth fronts, wrapped around with thin translucent strips of plastic. What determined their ‘RL’ or ‘Redline’ labelling however, was the thin red line painted right around the speakers’ casing. They looked very stylish and suggested modern electronics within. However, their technology was relatively orthodox. It was just their appearance which made them stand out and gave them flexibility unlike any other speakers in that they could be mounted on a wall, hung from a ceiling, or stood on the floor using their own specially-designed black metal floor stands. It was just the smallest in the range - the RL35 - which could not be affixed to a ceiling. The ceiling bracket was bought as an additional extra although the range all came fitted with an individual metal ‘prop’ to help support them at an angle on the floor which is where, so Bang & Olufsen said, that they performed their best. In practise this theory actually worked, although it was dependant on the type of floor on which they were placed as far as extra bass being brought about! The bass-reflex design allowed the produced sound to ‘curve’ around their non-parallel interiors thus, as the theory went, “eliminating irritating resonance”. It’s safe to say that these modern-looking speakers were immensely popular over the years and remained on the company’s product list for several years, undergoing just subtle changes further down the line. A little better equipped than the RL45, the Beovox RL60.2 was slightly deeper than its smaller partner. Looks-wise it had strong similarities although on its corner a DIN socket had been added to the original spring connector, thus allowing the user two methods of connection. Compared to the single woofer of the RL45, this larger speaker was fitted with two 130mm units to enhance the bass yet more although it still retained the single 25mm tweeter that the RL45 possessed. And like its compatriots the speaker was fitted with an Bass Reflex port to allow a fuller bass sound. Beovox RL 60.2 Passive Loudspeakers Product Specifications Type: 6513 (1988 - May 1992) Dimensions W x H x D: 54 x 40 x 18cm Weight 8.3 kg Long-term max. input power 75 W Maximum noise power 45 W Speaker impedance 8 ohms Frequency range 42 - 20,000 Hz Power at 96 dB SPL 2 watts Sensitivity 1 W 93 dB Distortion < 0.5 % Cabinet principle: Bass Reflex Woofer: 2 x 13cm Tweeter: 2.5cm Crossover frequency 350 Hz Net volume 19 litre Connections: spring terminals DIN socket
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