Under rated speakers

Klipsch RB-25's. high spl, front firing port w provision for screw in eyelet, allow mounting on ceiling/wall. I use biwire provision, and tube amp. Tight, fast bass, solid build. When set up this way, a very impressive little speaker in size/price range. They sold a ton of these, so a bargin on the used market.
 
Ditto on Speakerlab !!

I would like to lend support to the Speakerlab .1 and 11 satellites and the original twin 10 inch passive subwoofer. I have had the .1s since 1978, the PSW since about 1980, and the 11s since about 1982. I recently re-capped the crossovers in the 11s and the PSW (thanks to the help from AK) and damped all of the drivers. I have really enjoyed them.

'Prolly the best kit speakers to come out of any shop, back in the day :)
 
new cerwin vega stuff sounds just as good as the old stuff i find. some say jbl isent that good anymore but they are still great!
 
Avid Avid fan

My Avid 103s are nothing short of magnificent. I don't hear much about them here lately except from me.
 
Design Acoustics PS 10. They don't take up a whole lot of space yet have three drivers (incl. a 10" woofer) They're reasonably efficient (92db) and yet can handle quite a bit of power. You have to be a bit careful with placement due to the downward-firing woofer to get the bass to sound right, but they are beautifully clean sounding speakers and they image like mad. I got mine for $5 and will be replacing the beat-up vinyl with some nice figured birch or maple veneer one of these days soon. DA made some other really nice speakers as well, or so I've been told. Haven't heard any of the other models, however.
 
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I would give another thumbs up to the Ohm E2, a great sounding little speaker......I was pretty disappointed with the overall sound of my KLH model 33's....I was going to throw them on CL when I got this urge to give them one last chance and hooked them up to my Sherwood tube amp, and they came alive......and very impressively so. I am very impressed with my ROR model G's, and I also give a big thumbs up to my Cerwin Vega AT8's, very impressive sound for a small speaker. I love my Burhoe light blues, and that goes for all my EPI/Epicure speakers as well......
 
Sansui's 1970 AS series (acoustic suspension) speakers: AS-100, AS-200, AS-300 speakers. Way off the radar screen!

I have the AS-100s: really excellent sounding speakers. Good base and excellent sensitive treble. Outstanding really, I love em. and they love power. The louder you play em the better they sound.

AS-200s: never heard them but folks say they sound nice but not as good as 300s. A little weak on base for what they are. But everyone says they sound really nice never-the-less.

AS-300s: never heard them but I know that they have the sound I want. Only problem, they 'never come up for sale, ever', as in never. Wonder why?
 
Probably been said before, but everything ever made by RSL. Sounded great, great price, beat JBL in both quality and price, and still sound great today. Pity they didn't survive the early 90's.
 
Realistic Nova 7B. Sounds really great with my Pioneer SX 980. Would like to get a hold of the Nova 8 series someday.
 
Technics SB-T100

I like these old SB-T100's. For only a 5 1/4 woofer and a soft doom tweet they do a good job. They really have some nice bass and clear highs, a little shy on the mids but not bad enough to through them out. Designed for Front HT use, but do a nice job with music...

I just grabbed a pair for $50 on Craigslist, all I can say is wow. For such a tiny driver in a modest enclosure, they sound really nice and full. Bass is great, hi-res material sounds amazing. They seem power hungry, but I have powerful amps so no problem. I'm very impressed for very cheap!
 
It would be nice to hear from some Europeans about sleeper speakers. The vast majority of these suggestions are American and some Japanese speakers. This is all good, but not many American brands sold outside USA, so they do not turn up in local garage sales in many places around the world.

Does anyone suggest any B&O sleepers? Jamo? Legend (Australian made)? Tannoy? Blue Note? Niam?

Many American shoppers look at B&O in the used market and think "style over substance," so the speakers tend to be sleepers in the U.S. market. I still own the Beovox S-60s that were my main speakers for many years, and they still sound very good to me. The Beovox S-45 and S-75 were also very fine speakers.

EPI has made some pretty nice sounding speakers.

I agree completely. The EPI 100 is too well known to be a sleeper, but some other models including the M180 can still be picked up inexpensively in the used market. I bought a pair of M180s a few years back for $10 at a garage sale. I re-foamed all four woofers and the speakers sound great.
 
As already mentioned RTR made great stuff back in the day.

BIC Venturi Formula 2's were a very cool speaker.
A definite Under-the-radar speaker.
They, and the other Formula BIC's used RtR drivers
...BIC bought RtR back in the 70's

A good friend of mine has an old beat up pair of Fisher speakers
Real junky looking.
Vinyl cabs, look like crap, etc
...but the darn things had CTS drivers in them and sounded absolutely delightful.
Very clean and clear!
I would definitely call them a GREAT under rated speaker for sure.
But I have absolutely no recollection of the model #

What I might do, is to copy his speaker.
CTS drivers are fairly easy to find
 
I think some of Henry Kloss Cambridge Soundworks speakers get overlooked. I picked up a small pair of his Ambience speakers at GW and I was really impressed. I also agree about the ESS Performance Series. I have the Model 8 and they sound great.
 
SONY SS-CS3
Great balance with a good subwoofer.

The glowing reviews say a lot. They're still underrated.
 
My Advent 1s the smaller advent speaker. Surprisingly good for the money. Not quite the range in the highs but midrange and bass is pretty decent for 20 dollars. Of course I spent another 100 getting the refoam and crossover recapped. Most people can't believe it's a 42 year old speaker. image.jpeg
 
I have a set of Fisher ST-460's that sound pretty dang good (after re-foaming and re-capping).[/QUOTE

Indeed!
I have the same ones and after going through them completely they sound great!Tremendous tight Bass mids(2 per Cab) to die for and good highs great imaging and sound stage to boot:)
 
These are under-rated because they're so obscure: Royal 6, house brand
for hifi stores from the 70s, I think. 12", acoustic suspension, wood veneer,
30-20khz, and they really sound great. $10 thrift store scores, cat scratch
fever grilles...
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