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Rectilinear 5


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Welcome to the new Rectilinear forum. I'm going to upload some Rectilinear 5 scans in this topic.

Mark

Rectilinear 5 was designed by Dick Shahanian. I first met him at the IHF trade show at the NYC Statler Hilton shortly after this speaker was introduced around 1976 or 1977. It turned out we had several mutual friends and other acquaintenances in common. Rectilinear 5 was a 3 way 12" bookshelf speaker. Dick was proud of the tweeter which I think he got from Phillips or Audax. I think he said he crossed it over at 11 or 12 Khz. The stand tilts the speaker back 4 degrees. He said this would improve the "time alignment" of the drivers. Time alignment also known as phase coherence was the fad du jour of that era when speakers like DCM Time Windows appeared. I was not impressed by this speaker. At the show he was driving it with a Dynaco 400 watt amplifier and it was distorting noticably. Shahanian later opened his own company Shahanian electronics which sold a line of speakers.

Rectilinear III was a different story. That speaker predates the 5 and was considered one of the top performers of its day, the late 1960s to early 1970s. It was originally a highboy cabinet but a lowboy cabinet version became available later which the manufacturer said sounded identical. It was a 3 way 12" sealed system but it had three tweeters and not directly adjacent to each other. One of the Magazines (I think it was Stereo Review) said it sounded a dead ringer for the Quad ESL 63 but with better bass. Popular Electronics listed it as the preferred speaker system in an article called "The sound system I wish I owned." The AR amplifier was also in that system as was Empire 999VE phonograph cartridge. I had heard it when it first came out and I was very impressed by it, a very clean clear neutral sound to my ears. Rectilinear also manufactured some smaller more economical 2 way systems. I think sometime in the late 70s or early 80s they went out of business.

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Rectilinear 5 was designed by Dick Shahanian. I first met him at the IHF trade show at the NYC Statler Hilton shortly after this speaker was introduced around 1976 or 1977. It turned out we had several mutual friends and other acquaintenances in common. Rectilinear 5 was a 3 way 12" bookshelf speaker. Dick was proud of the tweeter which I think he got from Phillips or Audax. I think he said he crossed it over at 11 or 12 Khz. The stand tilts the speaker back 4 degrees. He said this would improve the "time alignment" of the drivers. Time alignment also known as phase coherence was the fad du jour of that era when speakers like DCM Time Windows appeared. I was not impressed by this speaker. At the show he was driving it with a Dynaco 400 watt amplifier and it was distorting noticably. Shahanian later opened his own company Shahanian electronics which sold a line of speakers.

Rectilinear III was a different story. That speaker predates the 5 and was considered one of the top performers of its day, the late 1960s to early 1970s. It was originally a highboy cabinet but a lowboy cabinet version became available later which the manufacturer said sounded identical. It was a 3 way 12" sealed system but it had three tweeters and not directly adjacent to each other. One of the Magazines (I think it was Stereo Review) said it sounded a dead ringer for the Quad ESL 63 but with better bass. Popular Electronics listed it as the preferred speaker system in an article called "The sound system I wish I owned." The AR amplifier was also in that system as was Empire 999VE phonograph cartridge. I had heard it when it first came out and I was very impressed by it, a very clean clear neutral sound to my ears. Rectilinear also manufactured some smaller more economical 2 way systems. I think sometime in the late 70s or early 80s they went out of business.

Does anyone happen to have the Rectilinear III documentation? I had a 5 way back when and happened to keep the documentation I scanned above. What other models did they have?

Mark

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Does anyone happen to have the Rectilinear III documentation? I had a 5 way back when and happened to keep the documentation I scanned above. What other models did they have?

Mark

I don't have any documentation for Rectilinear IIIs, but I do have a few ads from Stereo Review that I could probably scan. I believe they are for the original III, the Low Boy, and the XIa, billed as the "world's fastest bookshelf speaker."

The other models that I'm aware of, besides the Low and High Boy III, are the Mini III, the X, the XI, and XIa. I believe all are from the time frame 1968-1973. It was after this that they came out with the 5 and 7, and others. I currently have both High and LowBoys, the Mini IIIs, and the XI. If you want the ad scans, let me know the resolution.

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I don't have any documentation for Rectilinear IIIs, but I do have a few ads from Stereo Review that I could probably scan. I believe they are for the original III, the Low Boy, and the XIa, billed as the "world's fastest bookshelf speaker."

The other models that I'm aware of, besides the Low and High Boy III, are the Mini III, the X, the XI, and XIa. I believe all are from the time frame 1968-1973. It was after this that they came out with the 5 and 7, and others. I currently have both High and LowBoys, the Mini IIIs, and the XI. If you want the ad scans, let me know the resolution.

Great! 300 dpi should work fine. You can email the scans to me at webmaster@classicspeakerpages.net.

Mark

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