Best speaker score under $100

I have found a few other vintage speakers with real wood veneer that some meat puppet painted......one on eBay put brown latex paint on a pair of Imp 6 and was bragging about the "finish". It almost brought tears to my eyes!

Did you get them and how do they sound??


Yes I got them and stacked them on my other pair. It's almost like being in the front row of a concert.
 
Realistic Minimus 1s $17
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Realistic Nova 6s that look like they just came out of the box.....not ONE scratch!

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Realistic Minimus 1s $17
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Realistic Nova 6s that look like they just came out of the box.....not ONE scratch!

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How do you like the minimus 1? Are yours USA or Japan made? I saw One in a thrift store recently, but it had replacement drivers in it so I passed.

That's one of my "bucket list" speakers for no good reason, I just think they are neat.
 
How do you like the minimus 1? Are yours USA or Japan made? I saw One in a thrift store recently, but it had replacement drivers in it so I passed.

That's one of my "bucket list" speakers for no good reason, I just think they are neat.

I actually really really like them. I have a set of Minimus 7Ws for my rear surround HT setup (driven by a Marantz 4002) and decided to try the 1s as the front mains. The Marantz is 80 wpc and the speakers rated at 25 watts max so I carefully fed the ones more and more volume (on two channel mode) up to the point where the speakers were outputting some serious volume with zero distortion. I then ran the amp through its auto room correction with them and fired up "Hacksaw Ridge" on Blue Ray and decided to really shake them down..........and the little 47 year old speakers just laughed at my efforts. Bombs, BARs, Garrands and navel guns at volumes that would really piss off my neighbors mean they now are the front mains. This set of Ones sound better than the 7s, hands down. I like the 7s a lot but they dont have as good as bass as the Ones. At the volumes I run my HT setup they are just perfect for me. As you can see in the picture they fit perfectly in my tv stand so for $17 I am happy. Before I had a nice little set of Sony SS B150s in there and all things being told, they probably sounded better, maybe, but I like how the walnut cabinets and cool sparkly grills look a lot better so they will stay.

The sticker on the back of my simply say "Japan" so I assume they were made there by Foster like most other RS speakers.

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I actually really really like them. I have a set of Minimus 7Ws for my rear surround HT setup (driven by a Marantz 4002) and decided to try the 1s as the front mains. The Marantz is 80 wpc and the speakers rated at 25 watts max so I carefully fed the ones more and more volume (on two channel mode) up to the point where the speakers were outputting some serious volume with zero distortion. I then ran the amp through its auto room correction with them and fired up "Hacksaw Ridge" on Blue Ray and decided to really shake them down..........and the little 47 year old speakers just laughed at my efforts. Bombs, BARs, Garrands and navel guns at volumes that would really piss off my neighbors mean they now are the front mains. This set of Ones sound better than the 7s, hands down. I like the 7s a lot but they dont have as good as bass as the Ones. At the volumes I run my HT setup they are just perfect for me. As you can see in the picture they fit perfectly in my tv stand so for $17 I am happy. Before I had a nice little set of Sony SS B150s in there and all things being told, they probably sounded better, maybe, but I like how the walnut cabinets and cool sparkly grills look a lot better so they will stay.

The sticker on the back of my simply say "Japan" so I assume they were made there by Foster like most other RS speakers.

20748056_1619000174786590_2066050634346328139_o.jpg

The minimus 1 was originally made in the USA, and advertised as such, then production was moved to Japan, presumably to save cost. Some say it was heavily inspired by the tiny speakers goodmans made in the late sixties. Have a look at them some time and see what I mean. I think at this stage they are fairly rare.
 
ST.VITAL!
Oh OK thanks.I do most of my garage salinger in Charleswood and St James on my bike.I think i might have to expand out a bit more.congrats on the speakers I would of bought them too.was there any other stereo gear there?
 
Oh OK thanks.I do most of my garage salinger in Charleswood and St James on my bike.I think i might have to expand out a bit more.congrats on the speakers I would of bought them too.was there any other stereo gear there?

No not really anything else of value there!
 
Bought a pair of B&W's off a buddy for 40 bucks. Still rocking great with a powered sub!
 

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The minimus 1 was originally made in the USA, and advertised as such, then production was moved to Japan, presumably to save cost. Some say it was heavily inspired by the tiny speakers goodmans made in the late sixties. Have a look at them some time and see what I mean. I think at this stage they are fairly rare.
Thanks for the info! I love finding rare and interesting things......especially at thrift stores.

Here is a shot without the grills. They are a tough set of speakers when I really cranked them I had to turn them down because I could not stand the volume, not because they were distorting. I am sure I pushed far more than their rated 25 watts through them. They are built like little tanks. I looked at the 67 catalog and indeed it claimed "Designed, Built and Lab tested in the USA". The years after that it does not say anything about where they are made. Mine are the 1966A model so I think they are from the early 70s.

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ADS L-710: $20
JBL L-100: $20
Technics SB-L200: $15
DCM TF600: $15

I almost forgot; Spica SC-50: $2

When I made this post I forgot about a $20 pair of B&W DM-14 (but no stands, so not really a score, eh?) I wish I had kept those.

Since this post I found a pair of JBL 4312a for $20. I think this is probably my new best speaker score. Definitely my best score this year.

...so far.
 
4 Kenwood KS700s for $15 on a pallet. 1 pair was absolutely mint, the other the cabinets needed refinished. Sounded great with my then Kenwood Model 11 receiver but sucked big time with a more modern Technics Class-A receiver. I sold the mint pair for more than $300 on ebay, the others I donated to my wifes employer (a group home for special needs adults) for use in their rec. room.

A pair of Radio Shack Optimus Pro 5 LX (Lineaum) speakers for $12 at the local GW as-is. The woofers were shot but Parts Express had a perfect replacement. Now the speakers sound AMAZING for such a small bookshelf unit.

$25 for a pair of nice Dynaco A25 speakers, circa 1969 (based on the SNs). The crossover needed repair as the tweeter caps had gone south. WIth a rebuilt crossover they are singing sweet, powered by a Denon receiver with 140 WPC. The LX5s are the rear channel speakers and I use a good Yamaha center speaker. Don't need a sub for the Dynacos have plenty bass.

6 weeks ago I paid $20 for a pair of absolutely mint Pinnacle A600 bookshelf speakers at the GW as-is. (Grabbed them before they had a chance to get damaged.) Sound-wise they blew the doors off the similar-sized JBLs I have been using for the past decade so the JBLs went to a church rummage sale and the Pinnacles into my AV system as front channel speakers, powered by a wonderful Yamaha AV-receiver. Truthfully the JBLs were totally satisfying but the Pinnacles are just more pleasing.
 
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I can't compete with some of these posts, but I did stumble onto a wretched pair of Wharfedale W60Es for $10 at a charity thrift store.
I did not recognize them as speakers as first glance, they were so filthy.

The clerk offered the possibility that I qualified for the "Senior Discount" of 30%.
Not really, so I told her my true age.

She insisted that I qualified in a way that did not feel complementary.
I surrendered and paid the $7.
I got over it quickly when I saw how beautifully they cleaned up.

Here they are after a quick vacuuming, before the thorough cleaning.
They probably need to be recapped, but this do sound good as is.
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