About RtR
American audio engineering since 1966.
The original RtR, 1966 to 1990
RtR was founded in 1966 by NASA physicists Bob Rehorst and Ron Toews with cabinet maker John Randle. Through the late 1960s and 1970s, RtR built electrostatic tweeters, dome tweeters, woofers, and solid walnut cabinets for the brands that defined the high-end audio era, including Arnie Nudell's Infinity, ESS, Roger Sound Labs, and Synergistics.
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In the mid 1970s, RtR began selling under its own name. The lineup included the $3,600 DR-1 tower with the only hemispherical electrostatic midrange and tweeter ever produced, the DAC-1 passive subwoofer with flat response from 15Hz to 200Hz, and the Magnum-25, a 25-inch separate woofer with a 6-inch voice coil and 12Hz free-air resonance. By the late 1970s, annual sales reached $10 million and RtR was among the top ten American speaker manufacturers. The brand stopped production in 1990 as the market shifted to Japanese rack systems.
The relaunch, 1999
BIC America acquired the RtR brand in 1999 and brought it back with one mandate: high quality at high value. Engineering remains the priority. The RtR EV-15 floor tower was engineered by Audio Hall of Fame legend Roy Allison.
RtR Elite today
The RtR Elite Series carries forward the same approach: serious engineering at honest prices, paired with patent-pending cabinet designs built for the way people watch and listen today. Where the original RtR towers were shaped for the console TVs of the 1970s, the Elite Series is shaped for on-stand and on-wall flat panels, with cabinets that fit the room instead of fighting it.
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See the current line on the RtR Elite products page.