RSL CG3, CG23, Speedwoofer 10S 5.1 Speaker System Review

In 2015, I had an epiphany reviewing RSL’s CG4, CG24 and Speedwoofer 10 loudspeaker system. Until that time, I had never auditioned RSL speakers, much less heard of the company. Let’s just say that once I was done experiencing the incredible CG4 system, the name RSL became unforgettable. I can only say that never before (or since) have I experienced such clean, crisp, and dynamic sound from a home theater system of this size.

Reviewing the CG4 system was like taking a nostalgic look back at audio history too.  Back in the 1970s, Rogersound Labs founder, Howard Rodgers, started building speakers in the back of his audio store the way he thought they should be built with high quality parts and construction. Howard got his break when a Warner Bros. producer listened to his speakers and the rest, as they say, is history. There’s more to the story from my original review on the RSL CG4s.

Little did I know that a year later it was going to be déjà vu all over again. A few months ago, Howard’s son, Joe Rodgers, asked if I’d be interested in reviewing their new, lower cost CG3-speaker line. My answer? An enthusiastic “yes!”

Relatively speaking, RSL’s CG4 5.1 system price isn’t ridiculous. In fact, in the world of high-end audio, it’s a superb value. At $2,075, there are far more expensive 5.1 systems out there. But shelling out $2,000 for a speaker system is still a daunting financial task for many of us. That’s where RSL’s new CG3 speaker line comes in.

If you get to know Howard and Joe Rodgers, you’ll quickly realize why they created the CG3-line. While many companies would be tempted to go up the price ladder, RSL did the opposite. As Joe told me,

“Most families today are dual income. People work harder and harder to provide for their families, let alone enjoy the rewards of their labor. These are the people we want to address. People who want real sound but have families to support or are still getting established in life.”

For $50, you an add an optional wireless adapter Speedwoofer 10S has an optional, wireless adapter

But the CG3 line isn’t just about price. It’s about performance too. The aim of CG3 line is to bring the best aspects of the CG4 in a less expensive package—about 50% less to be precise. In fact, you can get started with an RSL CG3 stereo configuration for as little as $699 and a 5.1 system for as little as $999. This puts a full RSL setup complete with the superb Speedwoofer 10S for the same price-point as those plastic HTIB systems in big box stores.  Impressive.  Most impressive.

As Joe told me,

“This is a line of speakers that offers unbelievable, high-end sound but at a price that accommodates people such as veteran audiophiles on a tight budget, audio newcomers who know they want more than an HTIB—even people just starting their careers. The CG3 line has something for everyone, and allows people to step into the world of high-end audio, and still have the funds left over for a receiver, TV, etc…”

Potentially great sound at a great price? It was time to get the review in motion.

Arrival and Unboxing

Whenever RSL gear arrives, I feel like something’s missing. “This can’t be it!” I keep thinking to myself.  “This whole system is just two boxes?” Sure enough, the entire system was two boxes. One box was dedicated to RSL’s Speedwoofer 10S.The other box… well, it had everything else.

Though my review setup was slated to be a traditional 5.1, consisting of four smaller CG3s and a single CG23 for the center channel, I always seem to have a bit of a surprise when my RSL gear gets delivered. The father-son tandem of Howard and Joe Rodgers sent me an additional CG23 so that I could also play with a CG23 setup as a stereo 2.1 pair.

Never tell an audiophile he can have more speakers to play with. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity.

The CG3 is a two-way design with a 1-inch silk dome tweeter and 4-inch Kevlar® cone with a crossover frequency at 2500Hz and a second order crossover slope at 12db/octave. The CG3 is rated to play down to 100Hz.

The CG23 is an MTM (midrange-tweeter-midrange) design. The CG23 adds an additional 4-inch Kevlar cone and can be oriented vertically (as a main speaker) or horizontally (as a center channel). The crossover slope and frequency is identical to the CG3. The CG23 will play down a bit deeper to 85Hz ± 3db.  As you can tell, these monitors are specifically designed to be used with the companion Speedwoofer 10S. If you are planning on setting up a pure two-channel system, my suggestion would be to go with the CG23 if you can afford it because you can have a lower crossover to the subwoofer and get a bit wider soundstage (I’ll get into more about that further down).

The RSL CG3 and CG23 have a fingerprint-resistant finish. I tested it and it works as advertised.

Unboxing the CG3s and CG23s was eerily similar to the CG4 and CG24. Just picking them up out of the box they felt solid and dense—a big nod to their build quality.  They felt more like solid blocks of wood than hollowed-out cabinets.

If they’re so similar, you might ask, then what’s different? Well, as far as I could tell, there are really only a handful of notable physical and component differences between the CG3 and CG4 line.  A difference doesn’t necessarily imply one is better than another. The CG3 is slightly smaller than its CG4 counterpart. The footprint of the CG23 and CG24, however, is identical. The CG3s have a silk dome tweeter with neodymium magnet; Kevlar woofer with stamped basket; air-core coil; a new fingerprint-resistant gloss finish that’s hand-painted; and traditional grilles with pegs.  The CG4s, on the other hand, have a silk dome tweeter with a ferrite magnet (though it's debatable if the ferrite is step up from neodymium in this instance); polypropylene woofer with cast aluminum basket; a hand-painted high-gloss finish (but it doesn’t resist fingerprints); and magnetic grilles. RSL also told me that the CG4/CG24 have more robust air-core coils, which use heavier gauge wire.

RSL's Compression Guide technology is patented.

A standard speaker is pictured left and RSL's compression port, which divides the speaker's cabinet into areas of lower and higher pressure is pictured right.

The core technology at the heart of the CG3s and all RSL speakers is their patented Compression Guide. This is visibly seen as a slim, rectangular port on face of the speaker.  The CG3 has a single port and CG23 has dual ports.  There is no rear port. Joe told me that front mounting the port always a priority so customers could wall mount the speakers and have greater placement flexibility in general.

In case you’re not familiar with RSL’s Compression Guide technology, Howard previously described that his patented Compression Guide design,

“works by essentially dividing the cabinet up into areas of lower and higher pressure (compression). As the sound wave travels though these different pressure zones, the effect of resonance is reduced.  This reduction results in tighter bass and eliminates the ‘boxiness’ that even high-end box speakers tend to suffer from. We also feel that eliminating the ‘boxiness' increases midrange clarity.”  

In some ways, it sounds similar to Atlantic Technology’s H-PAS, where you have internal dividing partitions that compress and accelerate the woofer’s backwave which then exit out a front-mounted rectangular vent. While Atlantic Technology announced H-PAS around 2009, RSL’s Compression Guide was patented decades earlier in the 1980s.

The RSL CG23 is an MTM speaker that you can use vertically or horizontally.

It features two Compression Guides, one at the top and the other bottom of the speaker if it is oriented vertically.

Over the years, we always run into many manufacturers claims. Some, quite frankly, just don’t hold any weight and it’s just marketing jargon.  Both Gene DellaSala, Audioholics’ President, and I were initially skeptical of Howard’s claims. However, after we both sampled the speakers and the sonic results, we were left quite impressed.

Other notable physical characteristics of the CG3 line include the ability flush mount them to the wall with threaded inserts or a keyhole mount; high quality (though short) binding posts; and a metal grille with traditional pegs. The CG3s are small enough that you could even use them as desktop monitors.

Speedwoofer 10S

The included Speedwoofer 10S is aesthetically similar to its larger sibling, the Speedwoofer 10 Ultimate subwoofer. It too features the distinctive Compression Guide along its lower front baffle. However, the 10S lacks the outboard volume and crossover control and has a physically smaller footprint. Those features are now moved to the 10S’ rear. For $50 you can add a wireless option to the Speedwoofer 10S to make placement anywhere in your room possible.  I did not test the wireless option but have no doubts that it works as advertised.

RSL's Speedwoofer 10S is an incredibly impressive performer and stands at the heart of the CG3 home theater system.

Here at Audioholics we previously conducted an in-depth review of the Speedwoofer 10S and found it to be a superb performer, naming it our Budget Subwoofer pick in our 2016 Product of the Year list. I won’t rehash the specifics. You can read the full Speedwoofer 10S review for additional details.

RSL Speedwoofer 10S Review

Having now lived with the 10S, I can back up our review’s conclusions in spades. Let me emphasize that the heart of any multichannel audio system is its sub. It's the anchor and foundation. If the bass is sloppy you won’t enjoy movies and you’ll be robbed of the emotional response clean bass can deliver to the program material.

The Speedwoofer 10S is available separately for $399 shipped! It’s one of the most ridiculous subwoofer values on the planet. While it doesn’t reach down into the deepest regions of the netherworld, I found that it captured much of the essence and emotion of the original Speedwoofer that I reviewed last year.

RSL CG3 Loudspeaker System: Setup and Listening Tests

I set up the RSL system in my Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and Auro-3D basement home theater with speaker placement identical to where I placed the SVS Ultra line of speakers. That means the front speakers came approximately 4.5 feet into the room. They had plenty of room to breathe.  I set the Speedwoofer 10S directly next to the SVS PB13-Ultra. No, I wasn’t going to move that monster!

I first set up the CG23s and Speedwoofer 10S as a pure 2.1 stereo configuration and mounted them on RSL’s now discontinued high-quality, real wood speaker stands and then moved one of the CG23s to center channel duty and set up the remaining CG3s for all the other channels in the 5.1 setup. Therefore please note my observations below for music pertain to the CG23s.

The binding posts on both the CG3 and CG23 are solid and high quality but they are a bit short.

If you have long banana tips for your speaker wire, they will stick out just a hair.

Since I had both the Anthem’s outstanding AVM 60 (our 2016 pre-pro of the year) and Monoprice Monolith 7-channel amplifier review units still on hand and in my setup, I used them for the associated equipment. I calibrated the system with Anthem’s top-notch ARC-2 room correction. Denon's venerable X7200WA Atmos/DTS:X AVR that usually does home theater duty in that setup took a back seat this time around.

I do want to make a specific note here: RSL’s manual explicitly states that you should cross the speakers over at either 90 or 100Hz which makes sense given the limited bass output of these small speakers. ARC actually set the crossover point at 110Hz. I’ve been through too many calibrations with ARC over the years to question its measured results under 5000Hz. If I was using another AVR or room correction system technology, then I would have absolutely followed the corresponding settings mentioned in the user manual. 

Editorial Note about Sub/Sat Xover Point by Gene DellaSala:

In actuality, if you're running dual 10S subs, you can get away with setting the crossover point a bit higher (120-150Hz) if you place the subs in close proximity to the left/right speakers toward the front wall in a stereo configuration. This will increase your systems dynamic range in the upper bass range and provide a more seamless blend between the satellite speakers and subs.

With all that out of the way, it was time to enjoy the music.

Judge me by my size do you?

With every review I conduct, I listen for an extended period of time in two-channel first to see how the system responds to music. I've said it time and again: if a system can nail two-channel, then it can tackle a full-on home theater setup with ease.  Always judge a system by its music performance first.

Needless, to say, the CG23 just blew me away. If you’ve never heard RSL speakers before, then take note. They have superlative dynamics and convey the sheer emotion and energy of live music.  It’s just so hard to put into words if you haven’t experienced these speakers in person. What differentiates an RSL speaker from the rest of the pack is the way it breathes life into whatever you throw at it.

I played both the CG3 and CG23 speakers in stereo as a 2.1 setup. I preferred the larger CG23.

Isn’t that what speaker’s are supposed to do: convey the emotion behind the music and not simply reproduce it in a boring, analytical way?

Sarah McLachlan’s Afterglow Live album and “Sweet Surrender” in particular encapsulated my experience best. Percussion, instruments, and Sarah’s vocals burst out and the sheer musical energy filled my listening space. Like a siren, the RSL system beckoned me to crank up the volume. Louder and louder I went without even a hint of strain or distortion until I averaged 94 db on my SPL meter. The system and speakers? Wow, they weren’t breaking a sweat.  Oh how good a system sounds when it can play clean and loud.

CEA 2010 2-meter measurements of the Speedwoofer 10S conducted by Brent Butterworth.

The 10S exceeds our Medium Bassaholic room size rating.

It was time to jam to some classic U2 and “Mysterious Ways” was up next. The Edge’s guitar strokes shot out in dynamic flashes. The tambourine on U2’s God Part II was pin-point perfect and solidly placed in space and time. The opening guitar of Amy MacDonald’s “Run” from This is the Life had a tight, realistic snap to it.  Timbre was warm and involving and imaging was strong with a deep and wide soundstage.

Slow it down and RSL system will sound warm and inviting.  The CG23s anchored by the Speedwoofer rendered U2’s “Song for Someone” in an intimate, yet powerful way.  Bono’s vocals rang out clearly.  Andrea Boccelli’s “Besame  Mucho” from Amore was simply beautiful and intoxicating. The CG23s and Speedwoofer 10S transported me to an intimate cafe in a small Italian town.

Detail of the RSL CG3 tweeter.  The CG3 has the tweeter mounted below the woofer.

You think you can’t get big sound out of these RSL’s? Well, I had my wife sit down and asked her, “Tell me which speakers are playing, the big ones or the small ones?” “Hmm, the big ones,” she responded.  Chalk another one up for RSL. There’s nothing small about the sound they produce when used in conjunction with the 10S subwoofer. You can put these speakers next to four foot speakers and people won’t be able to tell which ones are playing.

What about the bass? Oh boy.  Auditioning this relatively budget-priced subwoofer first-hand is amazing.  This sub is $399. Let me repeat, $399 (shipped).  The Speedwoofer is a ridiculous value. This guy has no right to perform as well as it does. RSL’s Speedwoofer 10S will disabuse you of any previous notions you have about budget subs or how large a space a 10-inch sub can pressurize.   And best of all, it does so without gimmickry. 

The Kick drum on U2’s “Every Breaking Wave” dug deep and with chest-thumping impact.  Dido’s “See You when you’re 40” from Dido Live had a good punch to it.  When the deep synthesizer notes on that song kicked in, I thought to myself, “Are you kidding me?”  This is a 10-inch woofer and it’s filling my home theater space with ease. Moreover it dug deep.  I had strong output down to the high 20s but don’t look for this sub to give you substantive SPL output at 20Hz.

The Speedwoofer 10S laid down the bass on Robert Plant’s and Allison Krauss’ “Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us” beautifully. The Speedwoofer 10S commanded the addictive bass lines on REM’s Texarkana from “Out of Time.” There was just consistently good bass control throughout.  I played these tracks both with and without ARC engaged and naturally the primary difference being a tightening and refinement of the bass with ARC engaged. 

The RSL system loved channeling the energy of live albums. If you don’t have a capable system, you’ll completely miss the uncannily deep bass lines on Sarah McLachlan’s “Perfect Girl” from Afterglow Live.  Cheryl Crow’s “There Got the Neighborhood” rocked. Imaging was simply superb and the soundstage was more relaxed compared to other recordings with a deep and wide presentation.

The RSL CG3 speaker grille is an acoustically transparent mesh with plastic pegs.

The CG4 series, by contrast, has metal magnetic grilles.

Ok, have you gotten my hint by now? Let me be more explicit; While listening to the RSL’s I just wanted to play song after song and track after track.  This is one musical system. I found myself physically nodding and tapping to the beat of so many songs.

Though I did almost all my two-channel listening with the CG23, you may be wondering about the main difference between the larger CG23 and the smaller CG3. I set up and played both in two-channel stereo (sans sub) in HiFi store style with the two pairs next to each other and level matched. Aside from the obvious difference in frequency response, the major difference I noted is that the CG23 throws a much larger and wider soundstage than the CG3.  Oh, and it's noticeable.  You might get away using only a pair of CG23 for stereo, but I would not be happy with just a pair of CG3s without a sub accompanying them. If I had to chose only a single pair for two channel, then my preference would be the CG23 over the CG3.

5.1 Surround Sound

At this point, I swapped out the CG23s for the CG3s and fired up the RSL’s in their 5.1 configuration. Switching gears to home theater performance, I had to fire up my consummate demo disc, Tron Legacy and it didn’t disappoint.  I love the energy when Sam Flynn enters the grid in Chapter 4. When the recognizer thunders in to pick up Sam there is a superb sense of space all around.  Surround imaging was seamless but I found that pointing the surrounds at the listening position was just too crisp. My setup is large and far better suited for a 7.1 as opposed to a 5.1 system so I needed to play with the placement of the surrounds.

I settled on having the surround speakers firing across the room behind my listening position.  Doing so rendered a much more natural and enveloping and immersive soundstage.  Whether it was the Recognizers, computerized voices in “The Games,” the roar of the crowd, or bombastic score from Daft Punk, I was sitting in the seamless world of the grid.  The fireworks and pulsating musical score before the light cycle battle shook the room with deep, clean bass. But the bass mix in Castor’s (Zeus’s) club astounded.  The bass didn’t just hit my chest, it penetrated it.

While I sensed deep bass, I didn’t sense the full SPL onslaught in the deepest bass notes that I’ve experienced with much larger subs (like the SVS PB13-ultra) in this room. Size does matter in this case.

Next, it was time to spin up the Star Trek reboot. There are some great test scenes throughout the movie.  The opening scene where the Romulan ship enters through the spacial anomaly and attacks the federation ship captained by Kirk’s father played by Chris Hemsworth is rife with complex sounds and chaos. The RSL setup kept its composure without losing its punch.

The bar scene where cadet Uhura played by Zoe Saldana enters goes from a muted, behind the glass sound to a full-on club experience when she opens the door. The RSL’s did a great job reproducing the dynamic energy at that precise moment in the scene.

In the latter part of chapter 5, all the Federation star ships burst into warp to head to Vulcan. As they jump to warp, you’ll have a forceful “thwap” right in your chest as each ship makes the jump. Here, the RSL setup did an admirable job but failed to reproduce the incredible SPL sensation I’ve heard from this scene when dialed in with dual JL Fathom F113 subwoofers.

Now, you’re investing in a surround system because you want you experience the envelopment of sound around you, right? Well, after the Enterprise drops out of warp in orbit around Vulcan, debris from the destroyed Federation ships strikes the Enterprise. The scraped off metal panels flew off in a timbrally seamless soundstage to my left and right. It was awesome.

So after all that, you’re probably wondering what’s the sonic difference between the more expensive CG4 system and new CG3 system. Alas, I can’t relate the intimate differences between the systems reliably because of the year lapse and the fact that my electronics and amplification were different between both reviews. However, if I were hard-pressed to relay general impressions, then I’d have to say that I felt as though the CG4 setup was all-around more refined in the microdynamics and had much greater impact and definition in the bottom end. Are you getting 80% of the performance of the CG4 in the CG3 system? Absolutely! Do you get better all around performance if you upgrade to the CG4? Yes, you do.  Your values and your wallet will need to be the ultimate decision maker.  Thankfully, RSL offers a free 30-day in-home trial and no risk money-back guarantee with free shipping both ways.  Either way, the one thing I can guarantee is that RSL doesn’t get many returns once people experience their gear first-hand.

RSL CG3 Loudspeaker System: Conclusion

RSL's CG3, CG23, and Subwoofer 10S 5.1 home theater system.

Lightning has struck twice and in this case it’s a darn good thing. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the RSL  CG3 system and feel it is worthy of high praise.

Every single speaker—especially the Speedwoofer 10S—is an all-star performer in this price-point. The dynamics, musicality, and raw performance are a superior value. It’s at home with both music and movies and the compact size and optional wireless sub option makes it a perfect solution to the audiophile and cinemaphile who wants great performance and big sound in a small footprint.

With RSL’s a la carte model, you can go for a two-channel, 5.1/7.1 system, or grow into a full-blown Atmos and DTS:X configuration. RSL’s CG3 system will go toe-to-toe and might just outperform any compact home theater system out there at the $1,000 price-point…and some price points beyond. To get significantly better performance you need to spend significantly more money to get bigger bang for the buck. With a no-risk in home trial and free shipping both ways chalk RSL’s CG3 home theater system into the category of audio no-brainers.  Highly recommended.

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
Build Quality
Appearance
Treble Extension
Treble Smoothness
Midrange Accuracy
Bass Extension
Bass Accuracy
Imaging
Soundstage
Dynamic Range
Fit and Finish
Performance
Value