Best Vintage Speaker Kickoff!

Own B&W's 602 S2, 600 S3, LCR6, 605 S2-love em all but blew plate amp in one of my 605's by accidentally bumping into turntable as needle dropped and set up a feedback loop--sometimes I'm such a klutz. B& w parts can be hard to find and expensive.
 
I'll only post speakers I'm experienced with that I thought were extremely good. First, my Phase Linear Andromeda III's. Amazing sound for the tech of the time, so much so that I've held on to them for 40 years. Second, AR9 speakers. Third, Carver Amazings. All great vintage speakers. - dan

Edit: forgot the Thiel 1.3 set from the late 70's. Great speakers as well.
 
Love the ADS L810s. All of this is subjective, of course, but one thing I always point out when mentioning the ADS' is that when you go out and research folks' opinions on these you will find very, very little negative commentary. Particularly for the money, seem to be some of the most well regarded vintage speakers out there. My experience is that they deserve all the kudos.
 
danb44 said:
I'll only post speakers I'm experienced with that I thought were extremely good. First, my Phase Linear Andromeda III's. Amazing sound for the tech of the time, so much so that I've held on to them for 40 years. Second, AR9 speakers. Third, Carver Amazings. All great vintage speakers. - dan

Edit: forgot the Thiel 1.3 set from the late 70's. Great speakers as well.
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I also own some Phase Linear Andromeda's, and yes they are outstanding speakers.
 
One of the best I can recall is the VMPS Super Tower II

1183707-vmps-supertower-ii-ar.jpg
 
Royd Merlin goes on my list. Crazy sound for such a small speaker. Feel lucky to have found a pair.
 
mmann68 said:
Love the ADS L810s. All of this is subjective, of course, but one thing I always point out when mentioning the ADS' is that when you go out and research folks' opinions on these you will find very, very little negative commentary. Particularly for the money, seem to be some of the most well regarded vintage speakers out there. My experience is that they deserve all the kudos.
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The Braun L810s are quite nice, too... ;-)
 
lokerola said:
That's insane.
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Yeah....they had a serious "OMG Factor" (capable of going down to an honest 17 Hz), when listening to recordings such as the first Emerson, Lake, and Palmer album. During the "Clotho" segment of "The Three Fates", Emerson was playing the Royal Festival Hall Organ, and the SPLs that could be achieved were mind-boggling.
 
In all the years this thread has been going on (and on) I'm surprised there weren't more mentions of the Carver Amazing Loudspeakers. I have the Silver Editions (3-12" woofers, 45" ribbon, oak board) and absolutely love what they can do. I've done A/B comparisons against:
- Pioneer HPM-1500
- Sansui SPL-700 (arguably the best speakers Sansui produced)
- JBL 4410
- Marantz Imperial 7
- ADS L780/2

All the above speakers have moved on to their next owners with the exception of the ADS' - those are my front channel on the home theater. The Carvers remain, and will remain, my go-to speakers for any type of music.
 
Sansui77 said:
Vintage Speakers.......... anything from England :beatnik:

KEF,
IMF,
Spendor,
BW,
Celestion,
Rogers,
Tannoy
The list goes on.............. & on..............& on
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Your list is really nice but I must add Harbeth and Quad! I've yet to hear Harbeth, just reputation. I owned Quad 57's for a year. Will own another pair some day, almost certainly.

Had plenty of KEF's, 103.2, 107, and LS50.

All of these I listed I would consider very good to great, but the Quad 57's and KEF 107's have been the favorites so far, of any speakers I've yet owned (and near the top of the list for any I have heard, period).

Adding another British...ummm, speaker? Or "tweak?" Or driver? To my 107's. Townshend Audio Maximum super tweeters. Hoping it takes the 107's to yet another level!

http://www.townshendaudio.com/supertweeters/
 
hellhound94 said:
Tom Brennan, I remember absolutely lusting over a pair of Altec Model 19s back in the day...never did get them...never could quite squeeze out enough cash. Now I could probably afford a set but I really don't have the right place to put them in my house. If you own a set, you surely want to give them room to do their thing.

Anyhow, for space reasons, and for nostalgic reasons, and for reliability reasons, and for who knows what other reasons, I took the plunge some time ago with JBLs. I've loaded up my house with 4311s, 4312s, and L100s. I've purchased a whole slew of spare drivers, grills, grill frames, crossovers, mounting hardware etc. etc. so that I'm pretty much going to be in the JBL world for the rest of my days.

One of the other reasons I like the JBLs so much is that they seem to mate well with my collection of Marantz receivers.

I also have a set of Klipsch Chorus that I bought new and can't quite part with, although I've come close. Also have a bunch of Hafler and Yamaha hardware that I hope to sell soon.

In the end, I'll settle for the Marantz/JBL combination...but I gotta admit, I still lust after those Altecs. Do you still have them? If so, how do they sound when they're fed a diet of hard rock?
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audioguy said:
This is for who thinks what vintage speaker is best for sound from their experience. Smooth mids and highs with solid bass. Mainly would be for rock music. I know tubes and ss affects speakers individually. I am mainly looking at klipsch or ADS l810 right now. I know a lot about klipsch like chorus and fortes, so i am mainly looking about more info on ADS, like woofer longevity. I know klipsch the drivers you don't have to worry about. How is this for ADS and other brands. Also some ohm walsh 2's i see local. I don't know if they are good for rock or not though. I would like to see some comparisons here, and what do you recommend.
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New here, not an audiophile, but love the topic.

I picked up these Klipsch on ebay for 250, drove up to Denver to avoid shipping costs, and their so far my favorites.

Would like to learn more about the vintage speakers I currently possess and the ones I have yet to obtain. No I'll go back to enjoying the rest of this 12 yo thread.
 

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