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CG25 Monitor / Center Channel

$425.00 + FREE SHIPPING

CG25 Monitor / Center Channel

Read Customer Reviews (19)

A speaker tuned with Compression Guide becomes transparent like a pane of glass. Sound channels through it unencumbered by the impurities of the speaker itself. The process liberates sound from the boundaries of the speaker, allowing it to spread freely into open space. A boundless sound atmosphere is unveiled, where instruments, vocalists, and sound effects decorate the room around you. Master craftsmanship and premium components provide crystal-clear resolution and brilliant dynamics. Compression Guide tuning brings it all to life. The Compression Guide 25 is the latest breakthrough in our award winning lineage of speakers. It is artistry you experience.

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Gloss finish discontinued. New finish coming soon.

Successfully Added To Cart

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CG25 Monitor / Center Channel

Read Customer Reviews (19)

A speaker tuned with Compression Guide becomes transparent like a pane of glass. Sound channels through it unencumbered by the impurities of the speaker itself. The process liberates sound from the boundaries of the speaker, allowing it to spread freely into open space. A boundless sound atmosphere is unveiled, where instruments, vocalists, and sound effects decorate the room around you. Master craftsmanship and premium components provide crystal-clear resolution and brilliant dynamics. Compression Guide tuning brings it all to life. The Compression Guide 25 is the latest breakthrough in our award winning lineage of speakers. It is artistry you experience.

Read More

Gloss finish discontinued. New finish coming soon.

CG25 MONITOR / CENTER CHANNEL

COMPRESSION GUIDE
TECHNOLOGY

THE ACE UP OUR SLEEVE

Compression Guide technology is the difference between RSL speakers and all other speakers. It’s the secret behind our award-winning sound. It’s why RSL speakers sound so clear and incredibly realistic.

STANDARD SPEAKERS & SUBWOOFERS

RSL SPEAKERS & SPEEDWOOFERS

CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS

BY THE MOST DISCERNING AUDIOPHILES

(19) TOTAL REVIEWS
RATING

Honestly after going crazy looking for a good center channel I was ready to give up and just eliminate a center channel all together but after seeing glowing reviews on forums I decided to try this out and I'm in love. It honestly should cost twice as much! Such neutral, clean sound that can dip down low for articulate non-muddy bass. Thinking about buying two more if I can catch a great sale. Paired with 2 klipsch rp600 m speakers with matching dolby atmos modules and a jamo s808 sub running off a marantz nr 1711 receiver.

stephan b

August 21st, 2023

RATING

These are my first ever audiophile level speakers. My setup is: 3x CG25, 2x CG5, Monolith 16 THX Ultra, Denon X3700h.

These speakers are truly a delight. They bring life to emotions from the screen or track directly to my ears. I am a very discerning customer, I only went for the best price to performance options, rsl being one of them.

These speakers have delighted my wife and I since I bought them a few months ago. They have tonality and range like a much bigger, more expensive speaker.

They bring tears to the eye with how well they reproduce sound. Volume level goes high enough to hurt the ears, but zero noticeable distortion at those levels.

I had a defective tweeter, and RSL replaced it at no cost to me. This shows RSL stands behind their product and I have faith any issue I encounter will be resolved by the company.

Thank you RSL for the wonderful speakers, thank you so much!

Tony

June 21st, 2022

RATING

I have been a music lover my entire life, played multiple instruments by the time I was in high school, and took a stab at being a professional musician and producer from my late teens through my mid twenties. Even though I abandoned the idea of making music my career, it has remained a huge part of my life. Combine this with the fact that I am blind, and it is readily apparent that not just loud, but quality sound is very important to me. When I listen to music it is with a critical ear. I want to hear detailed vocals, fret noise on acoustic guitars, even unintended harmonics from B3s and electric pianos. When detail is missing or muddled the music just sounds lifeless. I had RSL C34Es in my last house, and they sounded really really good. However, I couldn’t bring them with me so I hope the new owner is enjoying them.

When I moved into a new home recently I wanted to put together a seven channel home theater, and I talked to the guys at RSL about the room layout, the intended use(s) of the system, and logistics of real life factors such as having a sighted wife who wants things to look good, and kids who are prone to doing typical kid stuff. Joe said the CG25 was the absolute best speaker he had to offer. I knew already the wife would veto anything but in ceiling speakers for the surround channels, so 4x C34Es are handling that part of the system. I picked up three CG25s to handle the front left, right, and center. The gloss white finish passed the wife test for looking tasteful and modern. The metal grills passed the kid test for keeping out little fingers. The ports for the mid woofers being placed up front were a nice touch as well because it gives me the option of placing them closer to the wall. So far, so good . . . but how do they sound?

The Setup:

3x CG25s provide the front left, center, and front right for my 7.1 system. The center channel lays horizontally, and the left/right stand vertically and are angled in a bit towards the center of the listening position (aka the couch). The surround channels are RSL C34Es, and the bottom end is handled by the RSL Speedwoofer 10s.

The room is 21’ deep, 17’ wide, and has a ceiling height of just over 9’. Everything is coming from an Amazon Fire TV, routed through a Yamaha Aventage receiver, and powered by a modest 90 watt per channel amplifier. I noticed the speaker handles 150 watts, and was a bit worried my amp wouldn’t be powerful enough, but after talking it over with Joe (did I mention the top notch customer service of having real humans to answer questions?) I was assured the speakers would be powered more than sufficiently since they were being used only for 80Hz+, and the bottom end would be covered by my Speedwoofer 10s Sub. He was right. About -30 was a good listening level. -20 was very loud. -10 was more than my ears could handle. When the CG25s aren’t asked to push anything below 80Hz, 90 watts is more than enough power to fill a ~360 square foot room easily. Of course, if your room is significantly larger they can handle a lot more power.

The Test:

Live Music-

“leave the Door Openâ€, by Bruno Mars, Anderson Paak, and Silk Sonic I decided to kick off the sound test with a live performance of something new. However, based on the instrumentation, vocal style, and overall sound I think I may have landed in the 1970s. Is that Michael Macdonald on the keys, and Marvin Gaye delivering the high notes? No, but these younger guys are ridiculously talented. The CG25s reveal every bit of the performance. From the sizzle of the snare, to the pairing of scratchy voiced Anderson and smooth voiced Bruno , to the lush vocals of the backup singers, every sound is distinct, detailed, and in it’s proper place. The stage was as wide as my room, and every instrument and voice was clear and distinct.

Unique male vocal-

“Thinkin’ About Your Body†by Bobby McFerrin This musical genius created an entertaining multitimbral song with only himself, a microphone, and eight (8) words total. He sings the bass line, most of the vocals in his tenor register, and creates counterpoint melody with a sound that I can best describe as a human vocal and a muted trumpet blended by a vocoder. There is a portion in the middle of the song where he sings the trumpet sound and baseline in an amazing back and forth that spans several octaves. Everything came through the CG25s with perfect clarity, and detail. I could hear the natural chest resonance, the intricate vocal gymnastics to jump through octaves and tones, and could even feel the humor conveyed by the performer with his muted trumpet. The variety of sounds combined with the simplicity of the recording make this a great track to expose weak spots in a speaker. I didn’t find any.

Unique female vocal-

“The Weight†by Shannon Curfman

This song has been recorded by big names over the years, and was covered here on her debut album Loud Guitars, Big Suspicions. She is a talented guitarist and singer who was born for Southern Rock/Blues. Her voice has a natural grit she taps into when growling out a lyric, but can flip a switch to a stunningly velvet smooth alto. Her abilities are captured on point by the CG25s. The guitar sounds warm, and tube amplified. The vocals have great depth, dynamic range, and I could swear she has a distortion knob attached to her trachea that she can adjust at will. The Hammond Organ sound came through the mix with a very nice presence as well. After hearing the performance on these speakers I am still left in awe at the fact she was all of 13 years old at the time of this recording. *I have heard this song on many systems, many different speakers, and even live. I have never heard it sound better than it does on the CG25s.

Instrumental-

“Rhapsody in Blue†George Gershwin, with Leonard Bernstein conducting the Columbia Symphony Orchestra The iconic clarinet wailed it’s way up to the high note where it was joined by a few other sounds to introduce the chord structure. the buzz of the trombones was a nice contrast with the woodwinds and strings, and then suddenly the (Steinway maybe?) Grand Piano was in the center of my living room. Going back and forth from solo piano to full orchestra, and several combinations mixed in throughout the piece I didn’t hear too much or too little of anything. With this many instruments it can be difficult to cover the full range of timbres present. Most speakers can give you the range of 80Hz to 20khz, but not many can faithfully reproduce so many timbres simultaneously without leaving something to be desired. The CG25s brought out every timbre, every instrument, every sound, every shift in dynamic range, and put me in the front row of the venue as if I were the one tasked with holding the conductor’s baton.

Top 40-

“Save Your Tears Remix†The Weekend and Ariana Grande There is a lot going on in this throwback to the 1980s. The simplicity of the drum machine percussion, the squelch of analog synths, and the digital string sounds combine for a complex backdrop to contrast against the soaring soprano vocals of Ariana Grande. The CG25s cover it all effortlessly and accurately. When AG goes up for the top shelf notes they sound clear, breathy, and perfectly mixed with just enough reverb to portray distance without getting lost. The stereo imaging is the definition of precise. Every sound and background vocal has it’s own space, and the main vocals are so perfectly centered that you could easily assume the center channel speaker is playing.

Movie-

“Ray and the Last Dragon†on Disney+ in Dolby Atmos Wow! I came to appreciate these speakers at another level when listening to this movie. The system blended perfectly. This was expected since everything was built by the same manufacturer and designed to sound match. What I did not expect was to hear something new in the movie. All of the animals, crash impacts, magical happenings, and action sounded great, but what really amazed me was the precision of placement of the spoken words. I could tell who was standing where in a scene, and how far apart they were from each other. I also noticed that I did not need to hold the remote to turn the volume up for dialogue, and back down for action scenes. The dialogue came through with clarity. I didn’t even have to boost the center channel 1db like I always have in the past. While music is still my primary interest, it is a welcome bonus to find how much of an upgrade these speakers are for family movie night.

Conclusion:

The first thing I noticed about these speakers was that I couldn’t hear them. I don’t mean there was no sound, but rather the sound just seemed to become present in the room autonomously. I have purchased several types of speakers over the years. Some with ribbon tweeters, horn tweeters, ring radiators, etc., and they all had a distinct sound. Because I could hear the “sound†of the speaker nothing ever sounded truly natural, especially with acoustic music. The CG25s sound more natural than any speakers I have had in a home theater system. They even come close to rivaling some high end active studio monitors I had back in the day. I would describe them as the perfect balance between accurate and warm sound.

These are an absolute steal at full price, and sometimes even available for a few bucks less as B Stock. You could buy better speakers, but you would have to pay at least 3x the price to get something that may sound only a touch better. In fact, even at triple the price point you might not be able to discern between the two with your eyes closed. Plus, you wouldn’t have the excellent tech support RSL provides, or the warm fuzzy feeling of buying from a family owned company here in America that cares about the products that carry their name. You will not find a better Price:Performance ratio than the RSL CG25.

Bryan

Bryan

June 29th, 2021

RATING

After I did my research and read product reviews from Audiholics and others I decided to upgrade my front stage with all CG25s. My previous set up was CG23s (LCR) , CG3s for my surrounds and a Speedwoofer. Since we have an open floor design, family room, dinning and kitchen open floor, and living room on the right side of the family room open wall I thought the CG23/CG3 system was a little undersized for the space. The soundstage, dispension, imaging, and accuracy of the CG23/CG3s is superb. In addition to upgrading my front stage to the CG25's I also added a second Speedwoofer, and 4 CG23s as my Atmos high speakers, and I'm using two CG23s for my surrounds. I cannot say enough how happy I am with this upgrade. The CG25s soung beatiful. They sure fill my 14'x32' with clean, clear, accurate sound. The CG25s project a wide and precise soundstage. They have an even and wide dispersion, they have very good dynamic range, and have superb imaging abilities. The CG25s sound clean at any loud levels. The dialogue is clear and accurate on the CG25 center speaker. I think the CG25s fall in the warm sound category and I definetely like that. I can enjoy listening to these speakers all day long, at low or high volumes either listening to music or watching movies. It also helps I have my speaker set up hooked up with two Emotiva amps. My next upgrade will be replacing my CG23 surrounds with CG5s. I don't want to finish my review without mentioning the exeptional customer service RSL has. Thank you Joe for promtply answering all my questions and providing excellent tech support and expertise advise.

Martin Mares

May 23rd, 2021

RATING

I waited several months to review these speakers. Important fact: I have a Speedwoofer too and what it adds to the overall sound is... well-- I can't live without it and recommend it without reservation :)

The CG-25s are powered by a Marantz PM-7200 and there's a Mini DSP 2x4HD between the source (my pc) and the amp. Using the MiniDSP software frequencies below 51Hz are removed from the CG-25s and the Speedwoofer only plays frequencies up to 70 Hz.

Previous reviews that applaud the CG-25 sound signature echo my feelings. And same goes for Joe- he is awesome and each time I spoke with him I felt lucky to be able to get his expert advice- that's priceless.

Greg Rothschild

May 9th, 2021

RATING

Recently purchased a CG25 as a center channel for my dedicated theater room. Wow! Wish I had tried RSL speakers sooner! Aside from the sheer beauty of this speaker (I have the piano black), it's performance is incredible. Excellent out of the box, even better now that it's broken in. The clarity of the dialogue, the beauty of the music.

I started down the home theater road about 5 years ago in the main part of our home. Tried lots of speakers and subs before giving up on a great theater experience there - L-shaped open area, cathedral ceiling in one-third, all glass along the back wall (we're on a lake), just a terrible acoustic area and we didn't want to do treatments and put huge huge gear in there. So I ended up with a good system and started planning, then building a dedicated room in the basement, 12' x 18'. Tried a few more speakers down there and found that I liked the "Polk sound". - a (to me) neutral, warm effect where you don't go "Wow, listen to those speakers", but "wow, listen to that music/gunshot/voice!". I was using highly-rated towers and a center with aluminum dome tweeters and 4.5" woofers, and just kept noticing it sounded thin at times. So I bought a entry-level Polk center, the T30, with a soft tweeter and 6.5" woofers, and loved the way it sounded. So I replaced the towers with Polk S20's, their mid-range bookshelf speakers with soft dome 1" tweeters and a 6.5" woofer, and loved the sound. Replaced the rears with Polk S15's, then it was time for a center . For some reason, I came across a Audioholics review of the CG5 line, and they were very impressed, one of the best reviews I have read. When they mentioned the warm sound and I saw the silk dome tweeter, I realized these could provide the same tonal quality I loved, so I decided to give them a try via the CG25 center. I wish I had tried these sooner. The sound is so phenomenal, but I have trouble getting rid of some very good speakers I just bought. So, the Polks are on Craigslist, and if I can sell them without giving them away, I will replace them with the CG5's.

Phenomenal speakers!

cfk.bills

April 10th, 2021

RATING

About 3 weeks ago I got a CG25 to use as a center speaker to replace my Q Acoustics 3090ci.

The Q is a fine speaker...as are the 3030i's I have from them also. Have to give credit where credit is due.

As soon as I took the CG25 out of its box I thought, "Oh hell, I gotta have another one of these !"

This is a beautiful work of art as much as it is a fine loudspeaker....its big, its beefy, it reminds me of my classic white Saab 900 convertible for some reason. I'm not going into the sound quality as all the other reviews have said that better than I can. They sound incredible.

I used it as a center then for a few weeks, thinking the whole time, "Oh hell, I gotta have another one of these !" So I just ordered another ! This speaker is way too fine to be just a center channel (for me anyhow).

Now the pair of CG25's will be my mains and my matching CG5's will be my surrounds....I have dual white Speedwoofer 10's also. The Q Acoustics goes back to center duty ( the Q line is similar in timbre to RSL's)

Thanks to RSL once again for putting many smiles on an old audio-mans face....RSL is the real deal.

isolar801

April 3rd, 2021

RATING

Let me 1st start by saying I'm blown away from my RSL CG25 experience. I love music and going to live venues.

I can honestly say if you close your eyes while listening to your favorite artist that these CG25's will take you to the front row of your favorite artist preforming at a live venue.

Some of my notes that I was taking from my listening impressions of the CG25's.

These play big...!!!

They create an affective illusion of the scale of a much larger set of speakers but not at the cost of listening intimacy.

These speakers play to you not just for you.

They have a very expensive and nimble sound.

The body of the upright acoustical bass and double kick drum is conveyed very convincingly.

The speakers are tight and dynamic but very refined.

These speakers don’t sound boxy they just throw a beautiful wall of sound forward with crystal clear vocals.

Sound categorizing silkiness, effortless, textural bass, holographic image, canvas depth, Ultra black background, massive soundstage and imaging.

The ultra black background brings forth smoother and yet more detailed mids and highs with crystal clear vocals.

Onto movies...

On Screen movie presentation is clean and crystal clear voices with great dynamics.

Again the Ultra black background combined with the compression guide brings forth beautiful vocals. The dialog, soundstage, dynamics and clarity is just superb.

Joe and the team at RSL were absolutely so professional. They always took the time to answer all my questions via email or by the phone.

I will absolutely be a life long RSL customer for life.

Thank you so very much Roger and Joe and the team from RSL.

The RSL CG25's have absolutely blown my socks off.....!!!!

Eric H.

March 9th, 2021

RATING

One word...great! I’m using one as my center channel in a home theater setup. I’ve owned centers from Polk, Klipsch, Elac and AJ Pioneer....and this one stands above them all. Dialog clarity is superb...vocals have the appropriate tone and weight to them. On screen action is clean and clear with great dynamics. Like the CG5, the highs mids and lows are seamless and accurate. Great job RSL!

suprarz320

February 26th, 2021

RATING

I just got three of these to replace my aging (two year old) CG23s!! I have been wanting these babies ever since they were announced. There was noting wrong with the CG23s. I just wanted something with more range. I got these just a few days ago and I am blown away by the sound quality. My CG23s had to be used with my 10S sub for music listening, but these guys do not need the sub as they have plenty of low end to deliver smooth and full sound for music. We listen to jazz vocals a lot. Soundstage is great and vocals are so clean and clear. Listening to our favorite artists, it feels like you are sitting in front of the stage at a live venue! We use them for music and movies and they are fantastic for both. Thank you RSL. Thank you Howard and Joe for answering all my stupid questions. You guys rock.

Bob

February 23rd, 2021

RATING

I purchased one CG25 to audition as a center channel with my existing Boston Acoustic speakers which I have used the past 20 years. While the CG23’s would have been a better fit with my Micro 80’s setup, I wanted to make a significant improvement to my home theater setup since it will probably be another 20 years before I contemplate another upgrade. I had narrowed my choice to 4 well-respected companies, all having top notch customer service. I went with the CG25’s first because I remember the reputation Roger Sound Labs had when I was growing up and my interactions with Howard gave me great confidence in choosing this product. I can now say that I’m not going to audition the other three brands. A few days ago my wife even old me I wasn’t sending this one back.

I have been running it pretty much nonstop since the setup is a daily driver living room home theater. The receiver is a Yamaha TSR-7850 and the CG25 center is significantly larger than the rest of the 5.1 setup since they are satellite speakers. The lone CG25 immediately made it per essence known, yet I had no problems blending the sound field. I found the sound signature of the CG25 center to be very similar to my Boston’s, which is great because I have always enjoyed the Boston sound signature and every time I have tried different speakers I have always come back even if I felt the other speakers were better.

Even though I liked the RSL center from the start, its sound has really opened up the past few weeks. The bass is more prominent and I just get more overall impact from the center channel, which has dramatically improved the performance of my entire home theater, giving me a more immersive sound field despite only changing one speaker. I have even changed my 2-channel stereo listening to 7-channel to engage the center and have a lot more presence than the satellite LR could ever hope to have . I am definitely looking forward to adding a pair of CG5’s to complete the fronts, then eventually a full RSL system.

The only thing I would have liked to see on the CG25 is a small RSL logo magnet I could place on the front of my grill to satisfy my ego but I understand that a lot people don’t use the grill and I would not want to take anything away from the looks of these speakers which are much better than many speakers in their price range, proving you can have great looking speakers and great performance in this price range.

Paul McGowan once said that there Is a difference between speakers that go in a man cave and speakers you put in your living room. While these speakers would be excellent in a man cave, why would anyone put these in a dark room no one ever sees when you can easily blend them into almost any room and enjoy them as a daily driver.

Raul Garcia

August 22nd, 2020

RATING

I'm still enjoying the speakers very much.

I replaced my LCR ribbon tweeter bookshelf speakers with RSL CG25's for a number of reasons. I'd "blown" the ribbons by driving the speakers too hard and I wanted new speakers that were more aesthetically pleasing. Most importantly, I chose RSL due to the amazing technical advice and support that I received when installing Dolby Atmos speakers last year.

I'm very happy with them I would describe them as "airy" with a definite "punch" when compared to my previous set up. The CG25 as a center channel is excellent for dialogue and I've found myself re-watching several movies again and it's a whole new experience.

I would highly recommend RSL and the CG25's. Their genuine desire to ensure that the consumer is well informed and happy is priceless.

Paul L.

February 3rd, 2020

RATING

I've had this system about two months and it seems to get better everyday, The support at RSL is really great. I've been an audiophile for more than 60 years, have owned more than 50 loudspeaker systems and heard nearly every make and many models up to 130k a pair. I just donated my umpteenth floor standing model to one of several large local universities - worth more than 3k per pair. Yes, they were state of the art and sounded marvelous. But not as good as the CG25s.

I'm listening from one corner of a 14ft square. The room is 17x26 ft with one sidewall open to another open area. One CG25 is in a corner - the other nearest the open area. I have them facing inward enough to reduce reflection from sidewalls. These speakers have amazing horizontal dispersion so sidewall reflections audibly reduce definition.

Now, how do they sound. Clear, open - no metallic diaphragm character - the absence of which is a pleasant and noticeable surprise. Although all the treble is there -clear and open. Instrumental timbre and detail are better than anything I've ever heard - the detail of the old JBL and Altec systems without the horn sound. I can hear ambouchere on horns and wind instruments when full orchestra is playing. Bass is incredibly clear. The music is just "there". Most noticeable is the absence of "the box" in the start and decay of transients. These speakers are clear all the way down to inaudibility. At the lowest volume, everything is as clear and open as at listening volume. They sound like holographic or dipolar speakers without the rear wall reflection. In short, they have no character of their own. They don't sound like speakers. I've finally found speakers I can live with without compromise.

As for the subwoofer, I had a guest visit by the band director of a highly respected local university who couldn't believe the music he was hearing from his Copeland favorites. If you're thinking of new speakers, these do what RSL says they will - no hype. How refreshing that is...

S A Rosenkrantz

September 11th, 2019

RATING

All arrived in perfect condition. The CG 25 are out of this world. Thank you.

William

July 16th, 2019

RATING

I decided to give the new RSL CG5 series speakers a try after not being completely satisfied with my current setup. When I first chose my setup, I figured it was important to listen to as many speakers as possible to really understand how one set stacks up against another. So in the last year and a half I had visited all of my local high-end audio shops and listened to over 20 pairs of speakers in total. Once you get away from the Home Theatre-in-a-box offerings from big box stores and into proper speakers, there are a lot of good options. I tested bookshelf speakers from $500-$1500/pr CDN from companies like Paradigm, B&W, Totem, Monitor Audio, Revel, Focal, Sonus Faber, Martin Logan, RBH, Dynaudio, DALI, Elac, Bryston and more. All have great offerings and I really didn't hear a "bad" sounding speaker, just each with a different presentation of it's own. In the end I narrowed it down to my top 3 favorites and made arrangements with my dealers to take them all home (NOT easy) so I could compare and make a final choice. I chose ATC SCM7 V3's and matching center channel because they gave me a great level of detail/resolution, sounded natural and realistic, and had nice snap/attack/dynamics.

After almost a year of ownership, I still enjoyed the ATC's but was left feeling that sometimes there were still not quite right, and always seemed to still sound like a speaker doing it's own impression or "take" on whatever was played through it. I was completely confident that the ATC's were still the best choice out of everything I heard at my local shops, but still wanted a bit more. After nearly two dozen emails back and forth with owner Joe Rodgers, I had a package from them in my house in a week... and I'm in Canada!

With a good 50+ hours break-in, I have found they are very strong speakers and stand out above many other speakers in dynamics, openness, non-fatiguing treble, and free-from-the-cabinet, 3 dimensional sound. There is fine texture and detail in voices and instruments that many other speaker in the price range just basically gloss over. Each and every part of the music is given it's own space. Bass presence is very good and the speaker certainly sounds full, and a lot bigger that it looks. The sound presentation every review on here talks about is spot on. It must be due in large part to the Compression Guide getting rid of the cabinet's effect. I don't know how other companies have not stolen or tried their own take on this CG technology. The naturalness and realism are excellent, they don't draw too sharp or soft an image and the tweeter has no sibilance issues and is very un-fatiguing. Build quality is fantastic, and their customer service is just as impressive and simply the best, most helpful and respectful I have experienced from any retailer anywhere. If you live in the U.S. there is absolutely ZERO reason not to give these speakers a try. With free shipping both ways, and nicely discounted rates for international buyers, you don't have much to loose. I think the 30 day in home trial shows a lot of respect for the customer as well, and I wish it would be possible to get local shops to do this.

Anyways, I could go on but the rest is up to you to try for yourself. I think about the price I paid for the RSL's, and they very easily compete with and outperform speakers in this price range and a fair bit above it too!

Thomas

Alberta, Canada.

joe

June 8th, 2019

RATING

Now that i have the RSL CG25 for about two months, i HAVE to share my experience. I had several decent speakers with me over the past two years, my last set of speakers were qacoustics 3020 and 3010 as atmos, and later i bought a SVS Ultra center channel to substitute my q acoustics concept 20 center channel. Both centers were good, the main difference was that the SVS Ultra, have more and better bass and bigger soudstage. I kept the SVS for about 6 months. I found that in many movies ( in some parts) the detail of voices were lacking detail. Long story short, i gave a pair of KEF LS50 a chance. At the time i was perfectly happy, and i thought that the Ls50's were my last speakers. After i sold my SVS Ultra center, i "only" had to find THE center channel. After weeks of research ( and a very nice previous experience with the RSL speedwoofer 10) i decided to give the RSL G25 a chance, the other option? another LS50 as center channel. Last week i finally have the chance to compare the Kef Ls50 to the CG25. The first hour, i have to repeat many songs and scenes from movies, in part because before the tests, i was thinking that maybe the new RSL G25 were not in the same category than the legendary Kef Ls50's. Song after song, i found myself giving the edge to the CG25. After a few songs, i started to ask my wife her opinion about the sound, because maybe i was hallucinating. Every time we agreed that the CG25 sounded better. Some major differences between these speakers: The cg25, have noticeable bigger soundstage than the Ls50. The cg25, have better clarity and a beautiful and enjoyable neutral sound. One thing i personally dont like about speakers, is brightness/ harshness. To me, althought i still like very much the sound of the kef's, with certain music like heavy rock or poor recordings, the kefs, can get a touch harsh/ bright. I found that my wife and i, can listen more comfortably to music. The rsl's dont fatigue the ears. Other things i think important to share; the cg25 plays louder with same volume ( i dont know if its cause ohms or something) and have more impact with bass. Sigh... Having write all of this, the contest was so close, but ultimately i choose the RSL CG25. I recently upload pictures of my kef's because im selling them to buy a pair of cg25's to flank my rsl center.

Note: The cg25, have a metallic grill but its weird that no information about that on rsl website. Personally i found the grill usefull because i have cats. Ease of mind.

I test the speakers with my denon avr x6400h.

Thank you Joe, for the outstanding service you gave to me!

Enrique Rivadeneyra

May 12th, 2019

RATING

First, let me start by saying I love music. I would never call myself an audiophile as I appreciate tone. I don't analyze it. I like dynamic, powerful sound not the flat, clinical sound of most 'audiophile' speakers. I play guitar and I like a round, full sound. Think Fender clean. So, after listening to everything including the KEF R series, SVS Ultras, B&W 700 series and not hearing 'my' tone, I thought I would take a chance on RSL. These are the ones. They are so clear and open sounding. The sound bounces from the speakers and envelopes you. It's like RSL took the best from the KEFs, SVSs, and the B&Ws and put them into one beautiful, heavy cabinet. I am using an Onkyo RZ830 to push 5 CG25s, 4 C34Es, and an SVS SB-2000 sub. These speakers are a perfect match for this sub. Atmos is awesome for home theater, but for music... 'all channel stereo'. DAMN! It's like there aren't any speakers. The sound is coming from everywhere. Clean, clear, crisp, full, dynamic, detailed sound. You should always judge a speaker by how well it plays music. Any decent speakers with a decent sub can do home theater. These ARE music. You can hear the separation and fullness of each instrument. This makes your home theater even better as everything is so full and detailed. These are GREAT speakers. You owe it to yourself to try them.

venetian9602

March 20th, 2019

RATING

A pair of RSL CG25s arrived in a non-descript brown box with no markings or logos. Upon removing the white cloth wrapping, the gloss piano black finish looked beautiful, in fact, flawless. After dinner, I invited the wife for a first listen in the living room. I powered up the HK 3700, 85 wpc Stereo receiver, dropped Lady Gaga’s “The Fame†in my Denon CD player and pushed play to the opening track, Just Dance. The synth starts, the synth keyboard drops, then vocals and the beat … and I’m shaking my head No. Thirty seconds in I realize I’m shaking my head. No; no way. She asks, “What do you think?†I respond, “What do you think?†I can’t believe they sound this good. No way.

I saw the high praise from Audioholics.com and read RSL’s fascinating history. I knew little about RSL speakers and had never heard an RSL speaker ever. In fact, I was homing in on KEFs, Revels or B&Ws at a price point RSL fell into. But when I received a warm response from RSL to an email inquiry about the new CG25s, I did the unthinkable. I clicked Add to Cart without any audition and not a single review on the CG25 anywhere. I thought, worse comes to worse, I can return them, no big deal. Long before I came up to bed Saturday night from a 3 ½ hour listening session, I knew I was never letting them go. Worse still, they had destroyed the purpose I had for them. I thought surround or Atmos, but no, these aren’t balcony or background speakers, their sound is center stage under the bright lights.

To me, what RSL achieved with the CG25s is incomparable. You hear everything with wickedly clear sonic clarity, exciting dynamics, bass, and slam. From bass guitar, bass drum, cymbals or hi-hats, to guitar, sax or trumpet to lead, backing vocals and chorus, the delineation and natural timber evokes jaw-dropping wows. These are audiophile speakers. I now hear the backup vocals lost in lesser speakers. Best of all, they compete triumphantly with the big boys and knock it out of the park. Thanks RSL for taking my enjoyment of music to another level. Cheers!

Michael Lima

March 5th, 2019

RATING

I just installed a pair of CG25's and a Speedwoofer in my friend's neighborhood bar, The Celtic Cove in Flushing, NY (Queens). They're attached to their TouchTunes Jukebox and it sounds fantastic as I thought it would. Three years ago I purchased a CG24 5.1 with the original Speedwoofer, (CG24-LCR, and CG4 for SL and SR) for my home theater, which I love. The new CG25's are amazing and we're receiving a lot of compliments on the new sound system. After the break-in period the imaging and warmth of the drivers are coming to life. Thank you for a great product.

Kurt

February 9th, 2019

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RATING
Honestly after going crazy looking for a good center channel I was ready to give up and just eliminate a center channel all together but after seeing glowing reviews on forums I decided to try this out and I'm in love. It honestly should cost twice as much! Such neutral, clean sound that can dip down low for articulate non-muddy bass. Thinking about buying two more if I can catch a great sale. Paired with 2 klipsch rp600 m speakers with matching dolby atmos modules and a jamo s808 sub running off a marantz nr 1711 receiver.

stephan b

August 21st, 2023

RATING
These are my first ever audiophile level speakers. My setup is: 3x CG25, 2x CG5, Monolith 16 THX Ultra, Denon X3700h. These speakers are truly a delight. They bring life to emotions from the screen or track directly to my ears. I am a very discerning customer, I only went for the best price to performance options, rsl being one of them. These speakers have delighted my wife and I since I bought them a few months ago. They have tonality and range like a much bigger, more expensive speaker. They bring tears to the eye with how well they reproduce sound. Volume level goes high enough to hurt the ears, but zero noticeable distortion at those levels. I had a defective tweeter, and RSL replaced it at no cost to me. This shows RSL stands behind their product and I have faith any issue I encounter will be resolved by the company. Thank you RSL for the wonderful speakers, thank you so much!

Tony

June 21st, 2022

RATING
I have been a music lover my entire life, played multiple instruments by the time I was in high school, and took a stab at being a professional musician and producer from my late teens through my mid twenties. Even though I abandoned the idea of making music my career, it has remained a huge part of my life. Combine this with the fact that I am blind, and it is readily apparent that not just loud, but quality sound is very important to me. When I listen to music it is with a critical ear. I want to hear detailed vocals, fret noise on acoustic guitars, even unintended harmonics from B3s and electric pianos. When detail is missing or muddled the music just sounds lifeless. I had RSL C34Es in my last house, and they sounded really really good. However, I couldn’t bring them with me so I hope the new owner is enjoying them. When I moved into a new home recently I wanted to put together a seven channel home theater, and I talked to the guys at RSL about the room layout, the intended use(s) of the system, and logistics of real life factors such as having a sighted wife who wants things to look good, and kids who are prone to doing typical kid stuff. Joe said the CG25 was the absolute best speaker he had to offer. I knew already the wife would veto anything but in ceiling speakers for the surround channels, so 4x C34Es are handling that part of the system. I picked up three CG25s to handle the front left, right, and center. The gloss white finish passed the wife test for looking tasteful and modern. The metal grills passed the kid test for keeping out little fingers. The ports for the mid woofers being placed up front were a nice touch as well because it gives me the option of placing them closer to the wall. So far, so good . . . but how do they sound? The Setup: 3x CG25s provide the front left, center, and front right for my 7.1 system. The center channel lays horizontally, and the left/right stand vertically and are angled in a bit towards the center of the listening position (aka the couch). The surround channels are RSL C34Es, and the bottom end is handled by the RSL Speedwoofer 10s. The room is 21’ deep, 17’ wide, and has a ceiling height of just over 9’. Everything is coming from an Amazon Fire TV, routed through a Yamaha Aventage receiver, and powered by a modest 90 watt per channel amplifier. I noticed the speaker handles 150 watts, and was a bit worried my amp wouldn’t be powerful enough, but after talking it over with Joe (did I mention the top notch customer service of having real humans to answer questions?) I was assured the speakers would be powered more than sufficiently since they were being used only for 80Hz+, and the bottom end would be covered by my Speedwoofer 10s Sub. He was right. About -30 was a good listening level. -20 was very loud. -10 was more than my ears could handle. When the CG25s aren’t asked to push anything below 80Hz, 90 watts is more than enough power to fill a ~360 square foot room easily. Of course, if your room is significantly larger they can handle a lot more power. The Test: Live Music- “leave the Door Openâ€, by Bruno Mars, Anderson Paak, and Silk Sonic I decided to kick off the sound test with a live performance of something new. However, based on the instrumentation, vocal style, and overall sound I think I may have landed in the 1970s. Is that Michael Macdonald on the keys, and Marvin Gaye delivering the high notes? No, but these younger guys are ridiculously talented. The CG25s reveal every bit of the performance. From the sizzle of the snare, to the pairing of scratchy voiced Anderson and smooth voiced Bruno , to the lush vocals of the backup singers, every sound is distinct, detailed, and in it’s proper place. The stage was as wide as my room, and every instrument and voice was clear and distinct. Unique male vocal- “Thinkin’ About Your Body†by Bobby McFerrin This musical genius created an entertaining multitimbral song with only himself, a microphone, and eight (8) words total. He sings the bass line, most of the vocals in his tenor register, and creates counterpoint melody with a sound that I can best describe as a human vocal and a muted trumpet blended by a vocoder. There is a portion in the middle of the song where he sings the trumpet sound and baseline in an amazing back and forth that spans several octaves. Everything came through the CG25s with perfect clarity, and detail. I could hear the natural chest resonance, the intricate vocal gymnastics to jump through octaves and tones, and could even feel the humor conveyed by the performer with his muted trumpet. The variety of sounds combined with the simplicity of the recording make this a great track to expose weak spots in a speaker. I didn’t find any. Unique female vocal- “The Weight†by Shannon Curfman This song has been recorded by big names over the years, and was covered here on her debut album Loud Guitars, Big Suspicions. She is a talented guitarist and singer who was born for Southern Rock/Blues. Her voice has a natural grit she taps into when growling out a lyric, but can flip a switch to a stunningly velvet smooth alto. Her abilities are captured on point by the CG25s. The guitar sounds warm, and tube amplified. The vocals have great depth, dynamic range, and I could swear she has a distortion knob attached to her trachea that she can adjust at will. The Hammond Organ sound came through the mix with a very nice presence as well. After hearing the performance on these speakers I am still left in awe at the fact she was all of 13 years old at the time of this recording. *I have heard this song on many systems, many different speakers, and even live. I have never heard it sound better than it does on the CG25s. Instrumental- “Rhapsody in Blue†George Gershwin, with Leonard Bernstein conducting the Columbia Symphony Orchestra The iconic clarinet wailed it’s way up to the high note where it was joined by a few other sounds to introduce the chord structure. the buzz of the trombones was a nice contrast with the woodwinds and strings, and then suddenly the (Steinway maybe?) Grand Piano was in the center of my living room. Going back and forth from solo piano to full orchestra, and several combinations mixed in throughout the piece I didn’t hear too much or too little of anything. With this many instruments it can be difficult to cover the full range of timbres present. Most speakers can give you the range of 80Hz to 20khz, but not many can faithfully reproduce so many timbres simultaneously without leaving something to be desired. The CG25s brought out every timbre, every instrument, every sound, every shift in dynamic range, and put me in the front row of the venue as if I were the one tasked with holding the conductor’s baton. Top 40- “Save Your Tears Remix†The Weekend and Ariana Grande There is a lot going on in this throwback to the 1980s. The simplicity of the drum machine percussion, the squelch of analog synths, and the digital string sounds combine for a complex backdrop to contrast against the soaring soprano vocals of Ariana Grande. The CG25s cover it all effortlessly and accurately. When AG goes up for the top shelf notes they sound clear, breathy, and perfectly mixed with just enough reverb to portray distance without getting lost. The stereo imaging is the definition of precise. Every sound and background vocal has it’s own space, and the main vocals are so perfectly centered that you could easily assume the center channel speaker is playing. Movie- “Ray and the Last Dragon†on Disney+ in Dolby Atmos Wow! I came to appreciate these speakers at another level when listening to this movie. The system blended perfectly. This was expected since everything was built by the same manufacturer and designed to sound match. What I did not expect was to hear something new in the movie. All of the animals, crash impacts, magical happenings, and action sounded great, but what really amazed me was the precision of placement of the spoken words. I could tell who was standing where in a scene, and how far apart they were from each other. I also noticed that I did not need to hold the remote to turn the volume up for dialogue, and back down for action scenes. The dialogue came through with clarity. I didn’t even have to boost the center channel 1db like I always have in the past. While music is still my primary interest, it is a welcome bonus to find how much of an upgrade these speakers are for family movie night. Conclusion: The first thing I noticed about these speakers was that I couldn’t hear them. I don’t mean there was no sound, but rather the sound just seemed to become present in the room autonomously. I have purchased several types of speakers over the years. Some with ribbon tweeters, horn tweeters, ring radiators, etc., and they all had a distinct sound. Because I could hear the “sound†of the speaker nothing ever sounded truly natural, especially with acoustic music. The CG25s sound more natural than any speakers I have had in a home theater system. They even come close to rivaling some high end active studio monitors I had back in the day. I would describe them as the perfect balance between accurate and warm sound. These are an absolute steal at full price, and sometimes even available for a few bucks less as B Stock. You could buy better speakers, but you would have to pay at least 3x the price to get something that may sound only a touch better. In fact, even at triple the price point you might not be able to discern between the two with your eyes closed. Plus, you wouldn’t have the excellent tech support RSL provides, or the warm fuzzy feeling of buying from a family owned company here in America that cares about the products that carry their name. You will not find a better Price:Performance ratio than the RSL CG25. Bryan

Bryan

June 29th, 2021

RATING
After I did my research and read product reviews from Audiholics and others I decided to upgrade my front stage with all CG25s. My previous set up was CG23s (LCR) , CG3s for my surrounds and a Speedwoofer. Since we have an open floor design, family room, dinning and kitchen open floor, and living room on the right side of the family room open wall I thought the CG23/CG3 system was a little undersized for the space. The soundstage, dispension, imaging, and accuracy of the CG23/CG3s is superb. In addition to upgrading my front stage to the CG25's I also added a second Speedwoofer, and 4 CG23s as my Atmos high speakers, and I'm using two CG23s for my surrounds. I cannot say enough how happy I am with this upgrade. The CG25s soung beatiful. They sure fill my 14'x32' with clean, clear, accurate sound. The CG25s project a wide and precise soundstage. They have an even and wide dispersion, they have very good dynamic range, and have superb imaging abilities. The CG25s sound clean at any loud levels. The dialogue is clear and accurate on the CG25 center speaker. I think the CG25s fall in the warm sound category and I definetely like that. I can enjoy listening to these speakers all day long, at low or high volumes either listening to music or watching movies. It also helps I have my speaker set up hooked up with two Emotiva amps. My next upgrade will be replacing my CG23 surrounds with CG5s. I don't want to finish my review without mentioning the exeptional customer service RSL has. Thank you Joe for promtply answering all my questions and providing excellent tech support and expertise advise.

Martin Mares

May 23rd, 2021

RATING
I waited several months to review these speakers. Important fact: I have a Speedwoofer too and what it adds to the overall sound is... well-- I can't live without it and recommend it without reservation :) The CG-25s are powered by a Marantz PM-7200 and there's a Mini DSP 2x4HD between the source (my pc) and the amp. Using the MiniDSP software frequencies below 51Hz are removed from the CG-25s and the Speedwoofer only plays frequencies up to 70 Hz. Previous reviews that applaud the CG-25 sound signature echo my feelings. And same goes for Joe- he is awesome and each time I spoke with him I felt lucky to be able to get his expert advice- that's priceless.

Greg Rothschild

May 9th, 2021

RATING
Recently purchased a CG25 as a center channel for my dedicated theater room. Wow! Wish I had tried RSL speakers sooner! Aside from the sheer beauty of this speaker (I have the piano black), it's performance is incredible. Excellent out of the box, even better now that it's broken in. The clarity of the dialogue, the beauty of the music. I started down the home theater road about 5 years ago in the main part of our home. Tried lots of speakers and subs before giving up on a great theater experience there - L-shaped open area, cathedral ceiling in one-third, all glass along the back wall (we're on a lake), just a terrible acoustic area and we didn't want to do treatments and put huge huge gear in there. So I ended up with a good system and started planning, then building a dedicated room in the basement, 12' x 18'. Tried a few more speakers down there and found that I liked the "Polk sound". - a (to me) neutral, warm effect where you don't go "Wow, listen to those speakers", but "wow, listen to that music/gunshot/voice!". I was using highly-rated towers and a center with aluminum dome tweeters and 4.5" woofers, and just kept noticing it sounded thin at times. So I bought a entry-level Polk center, the T30, with a soft tweeter and 6.5" woofers, and loved the way it sounded. So I replaced the towers with Polk S20's, their mid-range bookshelf speakers with soft dome 1" tweeters and a 6.5" woofer, and loved the sound. Replaced the rears with Polk S15's, then it was time for a center . For some reason, I came across a Audioholics review of the CG5 line, and they were very impressed, one of the best reviews I have read. When they mentioned the warm sound and I saw the silk dome tweeter, I realized these could provide the same tonal quality I loved, so I decided to give them a try via the CG25 center. I wish I had tried these sooner. The sound is so phenomenal, but I have trouble getting rid of some very good speakers I just bought. So, the Polks are on Craigslist, and if I can sell them without giving them away, I will replace them with the CG5's. Phenomenal speakers!

cfk.bills

April 10th, 2021

RATING
About 3 weeks ago I got a CG25 to use as a center speaker to replace my Q Acoustics 3090ci. The Q is a fine speaker...as are the 3030i's I have from them also. Have to give credit where credit is due. As soon as I took the CG25 out of its box I thought, "Oh hell, I gotta have another one of these !" This is a beautiful work of art as much as it is a fine loudspeaker....its big, its beefy, it reminds me of my classic white Saab 900 convertible for some reason. I'm not going into the sound quality as all the other reviews have said that better than I can. They sound incredible. I used it as a center then for a few weeks, thinking the whole time, "Oh hell, I gotta have another one of these !" So I just ordered another ! This speaker is way too fine to be just a center channel (for me anyhow). Now the pair of CG25's will be my mains and my matching CG5's will be my surrounds....I have dual white Speedwoofer 10's also. The Q Acoustics goes back to center duty ( the Q line is similar in timbre to RSL's) Thanks to RSL once again for putting many smiles on an old audio-mans face....RSL is the real deal.

isolar801

April 3rd, 2021

RATING
Let me 1st start by saying I'm blown away from my RSL CG25 experience. I love music and going to live venues. I can honestly say if you close your eyes while listening to your favorite artist that these CG25's will take you to the front row of your favorite artist preforming at a live venue. Some of my notes that I was taking from my listening impressions of the CG25's. These play big...!!! They create an affective illusion of the scale of a much larger set of speakers but not at the cost of listening intimacy. These speakers play to you not just for you. They have a very expensive and nimble sound. The body of the upright acoustical bass and double kick drum is conveyed very convincingly. The speakers are tight and dynamic but very refined. These speakers don’t sound boxy they just throw a beautiful wall of sound forward with crystal clear vocals. Sound categorizing silkiness, effortless, textural bass, holographic image, canvas depth, Ultra black background, massive soundstage and imaging. The ultra black background brings forth smoother and yet more detailed mids and highs with crystal clear vocals. Onto movies... On Screen movie presentation is clean and crystal clear voices with great dynamics. Again the Ultra black background combined with the compression guide brings forth beautiful vocals. The dialog, soundstage, dynamics and clarity is just superb. Joe and the team at RSL were absolutely so professional. They always took the time to answer all my questions via email or by the phone. I will absolutely be a life long RSL customer for life. Thank you so very much Roger and Joe and the team from RSL. The RSL CG25's have absolutely blown my socks off.....!!!!

Eric H.

March 9th, 2021

RATING
One word...great! I’m using one as my center channel in a home theater setup. I’ve owned centers from Polk, Klipsch, Elac and AJ Pioneer....and this one stands above them all. Dialog clarity is superb...vocals have the appropriate tone and weight to them. On screen action is clean and clear with great dynamics. Like the CG5, the highs mids and lows are seamless and accurate. Great job RSL!

suprarz320

February 26th, 2021

RATING
I just got three of these to replace my aging (two year old) CG23s!! I have been wanting these babies ever since they were announced. There was noting wrong with the CG23s. I just wanted something with more range. I got these just a few days ago and I am blown away by the sound quality. My CG23s had to be used with my 10S sub for music listening, but these guys do not need the sub as they have plenty of low end to deliver smooth and full sound for music. We listen to jazz vocals a lot. Soundstage is great and vocals are so clean and clear. Listening to our favorite artists, it feels like you are sitting in front of the stage at a live venue! We use them for music and movies and they are fantastic for both. Thank you RSL. Thank you Howard and Joe for answering all my stupid questions. You guys rock.

Bob

February 23rd, 2021

RATING
I purchased one CG25 to audition as a center channel with my existing Boston Acoustic speakers which I have used the past 20 years. While the CG23’s would have been a better fit with my Micro 80’s setup, I wanted to make a significant improvement to my home theater setup since it will probably be another 20 years before I contemplate another upgrade. I had narrowed my choice to 4 well-respected companies, all having top notch customer service. I went with the CG25’s first because I remember the reputation Roger Sound Labs had when I was growing up and my interactions with Howard gave me great confidence in choosing this product. I can now say that I’m not going to audition the other three brands. A few days ago my wife even old me I wasn’t sending this one back. I have been running it pretty much nonstop since the setup is a daily driver living room home theater. The receiver is a Yamaha TSR-7850 and the CG25 center is significantly larger than the rest of the 5.1 setup since they are satellite speakers. The lone CG25 immediately made it per essence known, yet I had no problems blending the sound field. I found the sound signature of the CG25 center to be very similar to my Boston’s, which is great because I have always enjoyed the Boston sound signature and every time I have tried different speakers I have always come back even if I felt the other speakers were better. Even though I liked the RSL center from the start, its sound has really opened up the past few weeks. The bass is more prominent and I just get more overall impact from the center channel, which has dramatically improved the performance of my entire home theater, giving me a more immersive sound field despite only changing one speaker. I have even changed my 2-channel stereo listening to 7-channel to engage the center and have a lot more presence than the satellite LR could ever hope to have . I am definitely looking forward to adding a pair of CG5’s to complete the fronts, then eventually a full RSL system. The only thing I would have liked to see on the CG25 is a small RSL logo magnet I could place on the front of my grill to satisfy my ego but I understand that a lot people don’t use the grill and I would not want to take anything away from the looks of these speakers which are much better than many speakers in their price range, proving you can have great looking speakers and great performance in this price range. Paul McGowan once said that there Is a difference between speakers that go in a man cave and speakers you put in your living room. While these speakers would be excellent in a man cave, why would anyone put these in a dark room no one ever sees when you can easily blend them into almost any room and enjoy them as a daily driver.

Raul Garcia

August 22nd, 2020

RATING
I'm still enjoying the speakers very much. I replaced my LCR ribbon tweeter bookshelf speakers with RSL CG25's for a number of reasons. I'd "blown" the ribbons by driving the speakers too hard and I wanted new speakers that were more aesthetically pleasing. Most importantly, I chose RSL due to the amazing technical advice and support that I received when installing Dolby Atmos speakers last year. I'm very happy with them I would describe them as "airy" with a definite "punch" when compared to my previous set up. The CG25 as a center channel is excellent for dialogue and I've found myself re-watching several movies again and it's a whole new experience. I would highly recommend RSL and the CG25's. Their genuine desire to ensure that the consumer is well informed and happy is priceless.

Paul L.

February 3rd, 2020

RATING
I've had this system about two months and it seems to get better everyday, The support at RSL is really great. I've been an audiophile for more than 60 years, have owned more than 50 loudspeaker systems and heard nearly every make and many models up to 130k a pair. I just donated my umpteenth floor standing model to one of several large local universities - worth more than 3k per pair. Yes, they were state of the art and sounded marvelous. But not as good as the CG25s. I'm listening from one corner of a 14ft square. The room is 17x26 ft with one sidewall open to another open area. One CG25 is in a corner - the other nearest the open area. I have them facing inward enough to reduce reflection from sidewalls. These speakers have amazing horizontal dispersion so sidewall reflections audibly reduce definition. Now, how do they sound. Clear, open - no metallic diaphragm character - the absence of which is a pleasant and noticeable surprise. Although all the treble is there -clear and open. Instrumental timbre and detail are better than anything I've ever heard - the detail of the old JBL and Altec systems without the horn sound. I can hear ambouchere on horns and wind instruments when full orchestra is playing. Bass is incredibly clear. The music is just "there". Most noticeable is the absence of "the box" in the start and decay of transients. These speakers are clear all the way down to inaudibility. At the lowest volume, everything is as clear and open as at listening volume. They sound like holographic or dipolar speakers without the rear wall reflection. In short, they have no character of their own. They don't sound like speakers. I've finally found speakers I can live with without compromise. As for the subwoofer, I had a guest visit by the band director of a highly respected local university who couldn't believe the music he was hearing from his Copeland favorites. If you're thinking of new speakers, these do what RSL says they will - no hype. How refreshing that is...

S A Rosenkrantz

September 11th, 2019

RATING
All arrived in perfect condition. The CG 25 are out of this world. Thank you.

William

July 16th, 2019

RATING
I decided to give the new RSL CG5 series speakers a try after not being completely satisfied with my current setup. When I first chose my setup, I figured it was important to listen to as many speakers as possible to really understand how one set stacks up against another. So in the last year and a half I had visited all of my local high-end audio shops and listened to over 20 pairs of speakers in total. Once you get away from the Home Theatre-in-a-box offerings from big box stores and into proper speakers, there are a lot of good options. I tested bookshelf speakers from $500-$1500/pr CDN from companies like Paradigm, B&W, Totem, Monitor Audio, Revel, Focal, Sonus Faber, Martin Logan, RBH, Dynaudio, DALI, Elac, Bryston and more. All have great offerings and I really didn't hear a "bad" sounding speaker, just each with a different presentation of it's own. In the end I narrowed it down to my top 3 favorites and made arrangements with my dealers to take them all home (NOT easy) so I could compare and make a final choice. I chose ATC SCM7 V3's and matching center channel because they gave me a great level of detail/resolution, sounded natural and realistic, and had nice snap/attack/dynamics. After almost a year of ownership, I still enjoyed the ATC's but was left feeling that sometimes there were still not quite right, and always seemed to still sound like a speaker doing it's own impression or "take" on whatever was played through it. I was completely confident that the ATC's were still the best choice out of everything I heard at my local shops, but still wanted a bit more. After nearly two dozen emails back and forth with owner Joe Rodgers, I had a package from them in my house in a week... and I'm in Canada! With a good 50+ hours break-in, I have found they are very strong speakers and stand out above many other speakers in dynamics, openness, non-fatiguing treble, and free-from-the-cabinet, 3 dimensional sound. There is fine texture and detail in voices and instruments that many other speaker in the price range just basically gloss over. Each and every part of the music is given it's own space. Bass presence is very good and the speaker certainly sounds full, and a lot bigger that it looks. The sound presentation every review on here talks about is spot on. It must be due in large part to the Compression Guide getting rid of the cabinet's effect. I don't know how other companies have not stolen or tried their own take on this CG technology. The naturalness and realism are excellent, they don't draw too sharp or soft an image and the tweeter has no sibilance issues and is very un-fatiguing. Build quality is fantastic, and their customer service is just as impressive and simply the best, most helpful and respectful I have experienced from any retailer anywhere. If you live in the U.S. there is absolutely ZERO reason not to give these speakers a try. With free shipping both ways, and nicely discounted rates for international buyers, you don't have much to loose. I think the 30 day in home trial shows a lot of respect for the customer as well, and I wish it would be possible to get local shops to do this. Anyways, I could go on but the rest is up to you to try for yourself. I think about the price I paid for the RSL's, and they very easily compete with and outperform speakers in this price range and a fair bit above it too! Thomas Alberta, Canada.

joe

June 8th, 2019

RATING
Now that i have the RSL CG25 for about two months, i HAVE to share my experience. I had several decent speakers with me over the past two years, my last set of speakers were qacoustics 3020 and 3010 as atmos, and later i bought a SVS Ultra center channel to substitute my q acoustics concept 20 center channel. Both centers were good, the main difference was that the SVS Ultra, have more and better bass and bigger soudstage. I kept the SVS for about 6 months. I found that in many movies ( in some parts) the detail of voices were lacking detail. Long story short, i gave a pair of KEF LS50 a chance. At the time i was perfectly happy, and i thought that the Ls50's were my last speakers. After i sold my SVS Ultra center, i "only" had to find THE center channel. After weeks of research ( and a very nice previous experience with the RSL speedwoofer 10) i decided to give the RSL G25 a chance, the other option? another LS50 as center channel. Last week i finally have the chance to compare the Kef Ls50 to the CG25. The first hour, i have to repeat many songs and scenes from movies, in part because before the tests, i was thinking that maybe the new RSL G25 were not in the same category than the legendary Kef Ls50's. Song after song, i found myself giving the edge to the CG25. After a few songs, i started to ask my wife her opinion about the sound, because maybe i was hallucinating. Every time we agreed that the CG25 sounded better. Some major differences between these speakers: The cg25, have noticeable bigger soundstage than the Ls50. The cg25, have better clarity and a beautiful and enjoyable neutral sound. One thing i personally dont like about speakers, is brightness/ harshness. To me, althought i still like very much the sound of the kef's, with certain music like heavy rock or poor recordings, the kefs, can get a touch harsh/ bright. I found that my wife and i, can listen more comfortably to music. The rsl's dont fatigue the ears. Other things i think important to share; the cg25 plays louder with same volume ( i dont know if its cause ohms or something) and have more impact with bass. Sigh... Having write all of this, the contest was so close, but ultimately i choose the RSL CG25. I recently upload pictures of my kef's because im selling them to buy a pair of cg25's to flank my rsl center. Note: The cg25, have a metallic grill but its weird that no information about that on rsl website. Personally i found the grill usefull because i have cats. Ease of mind. I test the speakers with my denon avr x6400h. Thank you Joe, for the outstanding service you gave to me!

Enrique Rivadeneyra

May 12th, 2019

RATING
First, let me start by saying I love music. I would never call myself an audiophile as I appreciate tone. I don't analyze it. I like dynamic, powerful sound not the flat, clinical sound of most 'audiophile' speakers. I play guitar and I like a round, full sound. Think Fender clean. So, after listening to everything including the KEF R series, SVS Ultras, B&W 700 series and not hearing 'my' tone, I thought I would take a chance on RSL. These are the ones. They are so clear and open sounding. The sound bounces from the speakers and envelopes you. It's like RSL took the best from the KEFs, SVSs, and the B&Ws and put them into one beautiful, heavy cabinet. I am using an Onkyo RZ830 to push 5 CG25s, 4 C34Es, and an SVS SB-2000 sub. These speakers are a perfect match for this sub. Atmos is awesome for home theater, but for music... 'all channel stereo'. DAMN! It's like there aren't any speakers. The sound is coming from everywhere. Clean, clear, crisp, full, dynamic, detailed sound. You should always judge a speaker by how well it plays music. Any decent speakers with a decent sub can do home theater. These ARE music. You can hear the separation and fullness of each instrument. This makes your home theater even better as everything is so full and detailed. These are GREAT speakers. You owe it to yourself to try them.

venetian9602

March 20th, 2019

RATING
A pair of RSL CG25s arrived in a non-descript brown box with no markings or logos. Upon removing the white cloth wrapping, the gloss piano black finish looked beautiful, in fact, flawless. After dinner, I invited the wife for a first listen in the living room. I powered up the HK 3700, 85 wpc Stereo receiver, dropped Lady Gaga’s “The Fame†in my Denon CD player and pushed play to the opening track, Just Dance. The synth starts, the synth keyboard drops, then vocals and the beat … and I’m shaking my head No. Thirty seconds in I realize I’m shaking my head. No; no way. She asks, “What do you think?†I respond, “What do you think?†I can’t believe they sound this good. No way. I saw the high praise from Audioholics.com and read RSL’s fascinating history. I knew little about RSL speakers and had never heard an RSL speaker ever. In fact, I was homing in on KEFs, Revels or B&Ws at a price point RSL fell into. But when I received a warm response from RSL to an email inquiry about the new CG25s, I did the unthinkable. I clicked Add to Cart without any audition and not a single review on the CG25 anywhere. I thought, worse comes to worse, I can return them, no big deal. Long before I came up to bed Saturday night from a 3 ½ hour listening session, I knew I was never letting them go. Worse still, they had destroyed the purpose I had for them. I thought surround or Atmos, but no, these aren’t balcony or background speakers, their sound is center stage under the bright lights. To me, what RSL achieved with the CG25s is incomparable. You hear everything with wickedly clear sonic clarity, exciting dynamics, bass, and slam. From bass guitar, bass drum, cymbals or hi-hats, to guitar, sax or trumpet to lead, backing vocals and chorus, the delineation and natural timber evokes jaw-dropping wows. These are audiophile speakers. I now hear the backup vocals lost in lesser speakers. Best of all, they compete triumphantly with the big boys and knock it out of the park. Thanks RSL for taking my enjoyment of music to another level. Cheers!

Michael Lima

March 5th, 2019

RATING
I just installed a pair of CG25's and a Speedwoofer in my friend's neighborhood bar, The Celtic Cove in Flushing, NY (Queens). They're attached to their TouchTunes Jukebox and it sounds fantastic as I thought it would. Three years ago I purchased a CG24 5.1 with the original Speedwoofer, (CG24-LCR, and CG4 for SL and SR) for my home theater, which I love. The new CG25's are amazing and we're receiving a lot of compliments on the new sound system. After the break-in period the imaging and warmth of the drivers are coming to life. Thank you for a great product.

Kurt

February 9th, 2019

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SPECIFICATIONS

RSL CG25 Speaker
(1 included)

  • Woofers: 5.25†cast frame, aramid-fiber cone with Ferrite Magnet
  • Tweeter: 1†translucent silk dome, neodymium rare earth magnet
  • Frequency Response: 51-35,000 Hz ± 3dB
  • Speaker Impedance: 4 ohms
  • Recommended Impedance setting for amplifiers: 6 or 8 ohms (whichever is higher)
  • Sensitivity: 88 dB SPL @ 2.83 V, 1 meter distance
  • Recommended Power: 25-150 watts
  • Crossover Frequency: 2,500 Hz
  • Crossover Slope: 12 dB/octave
  • Crossover Parts: Air-core coil, polypropylene capacitors, gold-plated binding posts
  • Tuning Method: Compression Guideâ„¢
  • Weight: 23 lbs.
  • Dimensions: H: 19†W: 8 1/2†D: 9 3/4″ (without grille 9â€)

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