RTR 280DR Vintage Tower Speakers VERY RARE 4 10" Woofers 10 Drivers Total NICE

Description

The first rule about round badge RTR speakers is you don't talk about round badge RTR speakers.  The second rule about... where was Tyler Durden when the popularity of RTR speakers exploded about 8 years ago?  It came as a real surprise to collectors such as myself who had been in on the ground floor of what seemed like a small, tight lipped cult of RTR fanatics.  The history of RTR speakers is a cautionary tale regarding the dog eat dog atmosphere of American business, particularly back in the days of hostile takeovers and bum rushed mergers and acquisitions.  RTR was a small California company started in the late 1960's by two men whose combined initials are RTR.  They began making electrostatic panels and top quality drivers for other speaker manufacturers and they made excellent products.  Eventually they began manufacturing their own line of high quality speakers and inked some deals with national electronic chains to market and sell their product line.  The Great Stereo Wars of the 1970's was at a fever pitch when RTR began to be pressured by the mid level manufacturers to not enter an already overcrowded market place.  Many companies stopped outsourcing drivers from RTR and the national chains were pressured to not offer RTR speakers as a part of their product line or risk losing contracts with established global corporations.  RTR was starved out of the marketplace and eventually ceased operations.  The RTR trademark was assumed by Bic Venturi and quality slid down hill at a slow, steady rate.  The RTR 280 DR is the top of the line speaker produced by RTR.  Having personally owned at least 25 models of RTR speakers, these are the hardest to find and best of them all.  I believe years of production were from 1973-1976.  One of the most well rounded speakers available, they do a lot of things very well.  The 280DR mate with a wide variety of head units and accommodate any genre of music. There are 10 drivers in each speaker, all with Alnico magnets.  These are not "Kabuki" speakers with no rhyme or reason.  RTR designed these speakers through a formula they named Total Dispersion.  Total Dispersion eliminated distortion by incorporating four custom designed 10" woofers with vented dust caps, 2" voice coils, and butyl rubber surrounds that never need rebuilt mounted on the front baffle, both side panels, and one down firing woofer mounted at the bottom in a planar slot loaded sub-enclosure driven through a reverse phase bridge network.  Five high frequency 2.5" mid range tweeters are strategically located along with one front mounted Piezo Super Horn tweeter to produce an incredibly uniform polar energy response.  There are two high and midrange attenuators mounted on the rear input plate as well as thermal fuse protection circuitry and a reset breaker to prevent blown drivers.
These speakers have been restored with the butyl rubber surrounds treated with a polymer silicone solution,  and all drivers have been sealed with new gaskets or damping material.   All the drivers are original and they are in nice cosmetic condition with minimal scratches and blemishes.  The original tri-fold grills and grill cloth is in great condition.  One round RTR badge is missing.  They are an 8 OHM speaker with a 15-150W RMS power rating.  The dimensions are 39" H X 16.5" W X 16.5" D and weigh 90 LBS. each.  I highly recommend personal delivery or local pickup to avoid potential shipping damages.
Vintage audio equipment is sold as is with no warranties or returns.  Any issues or problems with any equipment will be clearly described in the listing.  Study the photos to evaluate the cosmetic condition of equipment.  Contact me with any issues regarding performance, shipping damage, etc. before a case is opened through ebay.  All packages will be insured and packed for safe delivery.  Local pick up is encouraged and personal delivery or meeting in a mutually arranged location is possible when schedule permits.