Printer Friendly Forum Posts - anyone ever heard of RwOliver Speakers?

Hey everyone has anyone ever heard of RwOliver Speakers LS3 a gentleman at work was asking me if i'd heard or them before and i've never heard of them but he said they were the best thing he's ever heard but i think it was quite a few years back ago he heard them but i'm just trying to see if anyone knows anything about them or where he could get them. Suppozedly he said they were made in Winnipeg Manitoba, Canada by a guy named Bob Oliver but i've searched high and low for anything closely related to it and i haven't come up with anything. So if anyone has any information on these speakers just email it to me. ThAnKs

I know the LS|3 series of loudspeakers very well. Do you have a pair for sale?? I will buy them.

I contracted as a consultant to R.W. Oliver Electronics in Winnipeg to assist them in developing a professional monitor loudspeaker. The LS Series professional monitor loudspeakers were manufactured by RWO from 1979 through the early 80's. The "brand" on the speakers was RWO|FOSTEX.

Your friend is right: they were the finest loudspeakers available. They were used by everyone from the JVC Cutting Center (audiophile recordings) to the Bee Gees, Barbra Streisand, to John Cougar Mellencamp, to the Captain & Tenille. They established a new professional monitor standard in the industry, displacing the then standard UREI monitor system.

The concept was a modular, "time-aligned" monitor system which would match the acoustic environment in which it was to be used. The HF section was exactly the same in each case: a 180-degree dispersion HF driver, a 140-degree dispersion mid-range driver coupled to a carved teak radial horn. The models all sounded exactly the same and differed only in the bass cabinet with increasing low-frequency response to match the room. (We felt there was little point in spending large amounts of money generating low frequencies which could not be sustained in a limited space.)

The LS|1 was never manufactured. (A later substitute became the Fostex G700 Near Field Monitors which had milled aluminum cases and were about the size of a pound of butter, but were only about 78dB efficient.)

The LS|2 was a three-way system with a 12-inch bass driver and was very popular in small control rooms and mobile recording trucks.

The LS|3 was also a three-way system but used a 15-inch bass driver and was the 'standard' unit used in most recording studio control rooms.

The LS|4 was a massive four-way system which used the same 12-inch driver from the LS|2 as a mid-bass unit; the bottom end was handled by dual 15-inch drivers. The LS|4 cabinet was about the size of a typical business desk - 60" wide, 30" high and 30" deep and weighed hundreds of pounds. This monitor was used only in the largest, world-class, control rooms.

All units were VERY efficient - about 104dB/w/m. All motors were Alnico magnet powered and used edge-wound high power voice coils on mica forms. All drivers were hand-made by Fostex! The monitors had a very wide dynamic range.

These speakers were NOT cheap. I think the LS|3 models were about US$3500 (1980 dollars); the LS|4 approached CD$10K!

I have photos, specs, brochures, etc. in files. If anyone has sufficient interest, I could dig up that stuff.

Michael.