Nightwisher's Systems In "Luxman's Room" And Beyond: Some New And Lots of Vintage

Nice find man! Thanks for sharing! Are they ported or sealed enclosures?
They're rear dual-ported. They have two ports near the bottom just above the binding posts (if you look closely at the third picture you can just barely see them), which most likely accounts for a lot of how tight the bass is with these.

The more I listen to them, the more I like them. I hooked them up to my Kenwood KR-5030 and JVC CD player today and they sound even better now. It's becoming more and more likely these will be my main speakers.

I just measured them and they're actually dual 7" woofers. That makes the low bass they produce even more impressive. My VR40s don't go that low.

I'm getting them cleaned up as well - it looked like a cat marked it's territory on each one. Took quite a bit of Palmolive to get it out. Now I've got to take a lint roller to the grills.

I've got my woofer beside me listening to them. He seems much more content with these than the Klipsch behind them. Me too.
 
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So I was browsing a local thrift store that benefits Concerned Citizens For Animals today and saw a large pair of tower speakers that took up a good portion of their small shop space. Price was $150, so I inspected them carfully - biampable, dual 8" drivers, metal tweeter (turned out to be titanium), heavy-duty construction, and a crazy driver configuration that featured a rear - facing tweeter and midrange. I step into the back room and Google the model and find they sold for ~$1000 a pair - sold. Picking them up to take them to the car, I knew I made a good decision because they weighed about 60-65 pounds apiece. The grills alone - reinforced with wood - weigh a couple pounds apiece. Everything about them just screamed quality.

The speakers are a near mint pair of Eosone RSF-600s. The details on these are vague but it seems they were made by engineers of Polk, Infinity, and Genesis exclusively for Best Buy in the mid to late 90s. Audiophile budget speakers like Boston Acoustics is how they were marketed. They were bought out by Polk (or were a subsidiary all along - not clear) in the late 90s mainly due to lawsuit issues (they look an awful lot like Definitive Techs...) and lack of sales. The rear-facing drivers create a Radiant Sound Field (RSF), which is supposed to reduce reflections and create a wider soundfield. These were their second-best in the line-up but some prefer these over the RSF-1000s because those have built-in 10" subs that get mixed reviews.

Sound-wise they sound amazing. Everything is so clear. They may even replace my Boston Acoustics VR40s - they sound that good. The dual 8 inch woofers sound nice and tight down to about 35 Hz. The only issues were that they were a tad unclean - the store owners have cats so there were hairs all over the grills and a lot of dust.

It's amazing how deals like that can just show up.

I hooked them up to one of my dad's systems downstairs because I didn't want to carry those monsters upstairs in case they didn't work. Also the larger room gives me more room to work and is a better match for speakers that large.

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Very nice! Careful or your dad might want to keep them.
 
What speakers does your pop have tucked away in the corners there?

And btw is your handle after a metal band? (I googled)
The speakers are Klipsch F3s from their Synergy series. These were the earlier version of the F30s. They have 2 8" woofers and a large Klipschorn. They sound good, but personally I'm not a fan of the Klipschorn. Of course, the placement in the room isn't great for this pair (we have another pair in another room that's placed better), but options are rather limited with my mom's design preferences and the other stuff in the room. I have a thread called "Nightwisher's Dad's Systems" if you want to check out the rest of his stuff.

Yes, you are correct. Nightwish is my favorite band. Check them out if you get the chance, it's really awesome stuff in my opinion. :rockon:
 
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OK now I know no studying is getting done - every page on AK I open, yep Nightwisher has been here, your on other blogging sites, 1000 posts in 5 months and your relentless hunt for gear is impressive - to fit study into all this you either don't sleep or live on a diet of pure sugar - I am impressed :bowdown:

I am enjoying your journey.

Rob :)
 
OK now I know no studying is getting done - every page on AK I open, yep Nightwisher has been here, your on other blogging sites, 1000 posts in 5 months and your relentless hunt for gear is impressive - to fit study into all this you either don't sleep or live on a diet of pure sugar - I am impressed :bowdown:

I am enjoying your journey.

Rob :)
Thank you!

Well, right now I'm off for the summer so I don't have any studying to do until August - which leaves plenty of time to hunt for gear, hang around AK, and just simply enjoy what I have.

The lease for my new apartment starts in July, so I'll be getting setup in that space very soon. :D
 
Thank you!

Well, right now I'm off for the summer so I don't have any studying to do until August - which leaves plenty of time to hunt for gear, hang around AK, and just simply enjoy what I have.

The lease for my new apartment starts in July, so I'll be getting setup in that space very soon. :D
Dude if you've got the time, spend some time getting sharp with a solder iron!!

It's guys with that kind of personality that end up doing wild KT120 power amp builds
 
Got some new projects today: A Kenwood stereo component cabinet (Goodwill) for ~$5 and a pair of Realistic Optimus-400s (Habitat For Humanity) for $40. The speakers appear to be either JVC or Pioneer clones as they have a vertical "leaf" tweeter (sounded pretty good in my demo). And they've got 12" woofers too. :jump:

An older guy was sitting in a chair by the cabinet as I was pulling it out and told me a bit condescendingly, "You're not old enough to know what that is." I turned, smiled, and promptly told him, "It's a stereo cabinet." He didn't question me after that.

As I was getting the speakers, another older man examined them in the cart and tells me, "Those are nice speakers. Especially for, what, $20 apiece. Can't beat that!" I agree enthusiastically as he walks over to his wife in front of me in line at the checkout. That price was good, but it wasn't Goodwill pricing...

When I brought the speakers home and told my mom she tells me, "How many speakers do you need? I mean, be realistic..." I tell her I'll probably sell them and laugh to myself. How fitting!

I think these speakers are going to go to my brother once they're restored (need foam for mids and woofers), so that he can have a kick-ass quad surround setup with those and the Pioneers. I've got my old Onkyos to sell to cover some of these costs (luckily). The cabinet I think will stay with me, maybe as a place to store some vinyl. Coincidentally, I was actively looking for a Kenwood or Pioneer-branded cabinet because I've wanted one for a while and I passed on a Sanyo one when I bought the Eosones. The cabinet was labeled as a TV stand. :rflmao:

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Wow, what a price. 40$ price tag is really impressive. In my country, a pair of Realistic Optimus-400s might cost from 5 to 10 times higher.
 
I mentioned in the "Latest Audio Purchases" thread a month ago that I bought a pair of Pioneer CS-G201WAIIs from Goodwill for $12. They were in excellent shape besides the rotted foam on the woofers - even the cabinets were near mint with just one place where the corner was nicked. Got the replacement foam installed today (we were on vacation and had other chores to do) with my dad. For speakers where the total investment was $37, they sure do sound nice. Bass is nice and strong. The only thing that bugs me is that there was barely any padding on the insides, which makes the bass a little boomy; very different from my dad's HPM 100s or 900s. Rocking out to the Heavy Metal Soundtrack right now. The bass on "I Must Be Dreamin'" came through nice and deep. :rockon: (Pardon the large TV; that's my new apartment TV out for testing.)

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Also, while we were out today, we stopped at the Goodwill Clearance center (where you buy by the pound). Found an original Peaches Records & Tapes record crate and paid ~$2.50 for it. Almost missed it because it was filled with books. For those that don't know, Peaches was a national chain record store from 1976-1985 and sold these at their store. You can still order the crates from Peaches online...at a price of $62.99. I needed something else to keep my records in anyway (you can see I'm running out of space on the shelf to the right), so this is just too sweet. The only issue with it is the logos - it's missing the one on the back side and the one in the front is wrinkled (which barely shows up in the picture) and needed to be glued back down. A small issue for that price (I ordered replacement labels for the other side for $10 - the one on the front is the original so it's staying). The records in there are the ones I haven't digitized yet (plus 4 laser discs I also bought today). :deal:

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Kabuki speakers!!. My first set of 'real' speakers were some JVCs that looked a lot like those Pioneers. Got them at Tart's which was a stereo/video/appliance store here in the Carolinas in the 80's. I dont recall Eosone but just from the looks of them, they look to be well made. My sister had a Peaches Crate!! If you like Klipsch, there was the KG series in the late 80s early 90s that are real sleepers and can be had for reasonable prices. I had one of the models that had the passive radiator- I think it was the 3.2. Fantastic rock speaker. Living arrangements forced me to downsize so I gave them to my brother and bought the Boston HD8s. He still has them. I recently picked up some '75 Heresys from Craigs List for $100. The lady said she got them as part of her divorce settlement but had never hooked them up. They sound good but I prefer the sound of the KGs.
 
Wow, what a price. 40$ price tag is really impressive. In my country, a pair of Realistic Optimus-400s might cost from 5 to 10 times higher.
Wow that's really high. $40 was definitely a good price, but to me it was a little spendy since if they showed up at Goodwill across town they would have been closer to $12 for the pair (like my Pioneers). However, since the retail on them was $400/pair back in the 80s, I still made out nicely.
 
Kabuki speakers!!. My first set of 'real' speakers were some JVCs that looked a lot like those Pioneers. Got them at Tart's which was a stereo/video/appliance store here in the Carolinas in the 80's. I dont recall Eosone but just from the looks of them, they look to be well made. My sister had a Peaches Crate!! If you like Klipsch, there was the KG series in the late 80s early 90s that are real sleepers and can be had for reasonable prices. I had one of the models that had the passive radiator- I think it was the 3.2. Fantastic rock speaker. Living arrangements forced me to downsize so I gave them to my brother and bought the Boston HD8s. He still has them. I recently picked up some '75 Heresys from Craigs List for $100. The lady said she got them as part of her divorce settlement but had never hooked them up. They sound good but I prefer the sound of the KGs.
I'm not a big fan of Klipsch, but my dad loves them. All his are from the newer Synergy series, so I've always wanted to try a pair of KGs, Heresys, or Fortes to see if I like them. If a pair shows up for a reasonable price, I'll definitely see if I can try them. (Right now I'm kind of maxed out on speakers, so they'd have to be really reasonable.)

I haven't listened to the HD series, T series, or the original A series, but from what I've read, the CRs have that same sound and I love those. I'm sure the HD8s can really rock with those 8" woofers. :rockon:
 
Wow that's really high. $40 was definitely a good price, but to me it was a little spendy since if they showed up at Goodwill across town they would have been closer to $12 for the pair (like my Pioneers). However, since the retail on them was $400/pair back in the 80s, I still made out nicely.
The price, sadly, it depends. To own a pair of speakers; a turntable or a vinyl LP, ... anything related to vintage audio; I have to pay several things more:
- Import tax: to enter my country, this type of products tax is 25% of the price
- Shipping cost: well you know, more than 13 thousands kilometers
- Last but not least, I have to bought US Dollars too haha
 
The price, sadly, it depends. To own a pair of speakers; a turntable or a vinyl LP, ... anything related to vintage audio; I have to pay several things more:
- Import tax: to enter my country, this type of products tax is 25% of the price
- Shipping cost: well you know, more than 13 thousands kilometers
- Last but not least, I have to bought US Dollars too haha
Yeah, I can definitely see where that would drive up costs. And I bet there's not a great market for local stuff either.
 
(Right now I'm kind of maxed out on speakers, so they'd have to be really reasonable.)

"Maxed out" :jump: Says the man who's pics tell the story if one more pair of speakers get squished into that room he'll have to hang em from the ceiling :rflmao:

Ummmm, will the new apartment resemble the old bedroom - I wonder :biggrin:

Rob :)
 
So I was thinking the past few days that since my Yamaha I had in my dorm room will no longer accept the remote input - the IR receiver is totally shot it seems and I really don't want to mess with repairing that - that I needed a new surround receiver. Well, the Concerned Citizens For Animals thrift store I bought my Eosone speakers from had an old JVC surround receiver for $25 when I was in there. I passed on it because I was thinking I have enough receivers that I probably wouldn't be able to find a use for it and I thought it probably was just ok.

Today, I went up there to take a look at it after studying the JVC model numbers. I figured if it was a 500 series or above that I would buy it.

Turns out that this was a RX-1001V. I made up my mind instantly to buy it. The lady working the register was very excited to see it sold and said they didn't really know what it was. She said I looked like I knew what to do with it and I told her I certainly did. Looked it up when I got home and it was their top model in 1989! This thing probably cost somewhere around $2k new. :jump:

Everything seems to work thus far except for the right part of the display that shows the input. The remote even works and is backlit! Everything looks nice besides some dust and some minor chips out of the wood.

As far as sound, I haven't listened to it enough beyond testing to evaluate it yet but it certainly didn't sound bad. Right now I'm still trying to get over how many features are packed into this thing and how awesome the remote is. Also there's the fact that this was THE top model for that year.

Since this model is so functional, I think I can survive without my Yamaha's modern DSP - at least enough to play games on my computer. Besides, I have my newer one for true surround duties. Unless the older Yammy starts working again, that'll be on the way out. Besides, I need to make sure all my speakers have something good behind them (@Brindabella ) ;).

I've always wanted to try CompuLink Synchro, so I'll see if I can get that going with my CD player.

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I got another one of my speaker projects done. One of the terminal cups on my BA VR20s I had in my dorm room cracked when I was moving them, so I got replacements from Parts Express. I got the nickel ones to save a few bucks, but of course the gold ones are on sale now for the same price. No big deal. Went smoothly besides the Boston connectors, which needed a bit of adjustment to fit the connectors on the new cups.

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