To me anyways they would be. I suppose they would sound better then a pair of Panasonic Thrusters but certainly not audiophile quality to most people. Age is really not all that important there were some very nice speakers made 40-50 years or longer ago it is more they were sold as budget model speakers then with low cost parts and age has not made them better.
I suppose it would depend on your experience with other speakers but these retailed for 200.00 the parts could not be more then 50.00 total hard to not be mediocre sounding with such a budget IMHO all'though the vast majority of B&W speakers will sound good I own a pair that is on the low end of mediocre sounding to my ears. We all hear differently and what I may consider mediocre you may feel is great or awful listening enjoyment is very subjective.
Well you can flip them for $160 or so on ebay.
I misread the thread title. Damn.
I read they retailed for $800. Where did you get that figure?
As I stated earlier to markshan it would depend on your previous listening experiences with other speakers and your tastes in sound, listening preferences are very subjective. IMHO they are going to sound mediocre, to you they may sound wonderful. I have many decent but mediocre sounding speakers now so for me I would not be interested at any price. It all depends on what your current speakers are these may be a vast improvement. They are vinyl wrapped 2 way speakers that play from 48hz + or- 3hz so no deep bass the tweeter is ok but once again nothing impressive just mediocre in my opinion. Here is a pair of mediocre sounding JBL's the L200T3 they were expensive when sold I believe around 2k per pair well built cabinets veneer is so so. I used to buy every low powered vintage int amp I could find if the price was right and have listened to most all of them by the major brands some sounded better then others but none were outstanding in any way after a while I quit buying them convinced that if I wanted really good sound I was going to have to move further up the food chain.
It was stated in the ad which would not surprise me too awful much they look very cheaply built and these have some cosmetic damage too.
That is part of it another part is the big difference in sound from different high quality speakers. Those that want Klipsch sound might not like Dahlquist sound and other such examples. So for someone stating a speaker is mediocre, it needs to be accepted in context...both with respect to what speakers they like and how high up that megabuck ladder they are.I am sure there are audiophiles out there with mega buck systems who think that every thing I have ever owned or listened to is mediocre sounding
