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Best Speakers Made In The 70s

just sold my technics SB-E100 from the late 70s.

awesome speakers which deserve a mention, would love to hear the technics sb10000 from the same era
 
jamesm007 said:
Well I would vote for many. But truth be told the most expensive speakers I got a chance to put through it paces and had truly great sound was JBLs best sounding home speakers from 1977 through to ?? the L212s
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I may not be real smart but I can at least count. Appears to me the L212 with the sub makes that a four-way. Not that you're the only one in this thread that can't seem to understand the difference between the OP's "3-way" requirement and a Bose 901. :D
 
I must chime in and make you aware of Kenwood Model Sevens or the Line of Kenwoods spawned from the Seven, the LS-400 Series. LS-408A & B, LS-407A & B. Or what about Ed May's Post JBL stint at Marantz with his HD55-66-77-88, 550, 660, 770, 880, M10, M16, DS900, 920, 930, 940's? The Imperial line is also highly regarded. Some of thee best 3-way Speakers of the Seventies right there, man, Hands down!

BTW- I consider any speaker system that has seperate drivers for lows, mids & highs, to be 3-ways, no matter how many drivers there are for each level.
 
I haven't heard a lot of speakers so my experience is severely limited and it's subjective anyway, but of the speakers I have heard I would have to say LaScala's are at the top of the list. Those were running on a nice McTube amp so anything might sound pretty good with that set-up.

Of the 70's speakers I own and have personally spent hours listening to I would say JBL L100's are my favorites. I just got a pair of 4312's that I think best the L100's but I believe those are 80's speakers.
 
First post here!

In the 70's I was in collage. Every room in the boys dorm had a stereo and we always checking out each others equipment (hi fi gear that is). I had a pair of Genesis Physics II and a Sansui 881 that kicked butt. However the best system in my dorm was belonged to a rich kid with a pair of JBL L65 Joubel's. Dark Side Of The Moon through the JBL's was truly far out on his system.

Magnapan was also a great speaker of the time.
 
Metrobilly said:
First post here!

In the 70's I was in collage. Every room in the boys dorm had a stereo and we always checking out each others equipment (hi fi gear that is). I had a pair of Genesis Physics II and a Sansui 881 that kicked butt. However the best system in my dorm was belonged to a rich kid with a pair of JBL L65 Joubel's. Dark Side Of The Moon through the JBL's was truly far out on his system.

Magnapan was also a great speaker of the time.
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Welcome to AK!

Those old Sansui receivers are great - and they don't command crazy-high prices that Marantz and McIntosh units do.
 
Tom Brennan said:
Great speaker but a 4-way, no?

My favorite 3-way during the 70s was the Khorn. I also liked the Fried Model H a great deal, I'd probably like that better than a Khorn now given my current tastes.
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Klipsch, Klipsch and more Klipsch. Started with Heresy's, moved to Lascala's and currently own Forte's. Will one day get the Big Ones.
Have to put a plug in for the Utah's that were my 1st real speaker system 12" 3 ways.
 
Super quad system. Stacked Quad ESL's with the Decca ribbon tweeter and Hartley 24 inch woofers. Also Celestion 66, IMF TLs, KEF 104's, AR LST. Not 3 way, but Tannoy monitor golds.
 
You guys are cheating the Technics SB-7070 I thougt was a four way, and so were lots of others, so I will agree with a prior post, its a four way but built in the mid 70's and that is the Infinity Quantum Line Source. Seems as though a lot of middle of the road speakers, that would not hold a candle to the likes of the big QLS-1's, Maybe the Infinity RS 4.5's that came out right at the very last of the 70's. Probably the Beveridge's would be right up their as well. Sure their are good sounding Japanese speakers but I don't think they will rank as best either, probably won't make the top ten. I wouldn't be surprised if their are some really top of the line 1970's made speakers that some of us have not heard of but for the most part IMO many of the ones listed by others are far from the top of the list. But it is interesting to see just what other people think of as the best in regards to speakers, the best is a large range of speakers that I would have never expected to be considered as best.

I would like to get a pair of the AR9's, interested in hearing a pair of them.

QLS_1_7_1a.jpg
 
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If you are looking for affordable speakers from the 70's that were above average to very, very good I can recommend all 3 pairs of speakers that I own. None were considered TOTL at the time but I could be happy with any one pair the rest of my life. If I had to get rid of 2 pair I'd keep the Cornwalls because of the size, the 15" woofer and the potential to upgrade. The L112's are more of an 80's speaker even though they came out in 1979, I think. The L65's are classic JBL and define the sound of JBL in the 70's for me.
 
Pioneer HPM-200.

No need for a subwoofer. They will reproduce the 25Hz in the specs, The cylindrical tweeters are sonically invisible...

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hpm200.jpg
 
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There is NO doubt that the 1970's belonged to the JBL L-100. Think about this for a moment, the L-100 sold for $274.00 EACH in June 1973, the big Advent sold for $119 or $129 each and the JBL outsold it by a wide margin.

I saw numerous stores 'nail-down' L-100's (cabinet on floor, woofer down, presence/brilliance controls turned all the way down) to ruin the sound so they could sell a speaker that had more profit. Frazier store in Charlotte, NC comes to mind.

Advent had their stores attempt to sell the 'double Advent' as a better system than the L-100. As I've said before that's kind of like saying you can bolt 2 1973 Corvettes together and get a better car than a 365-GTB....not going to happen.

If you want the bad guy dead, you send in the Marine Sniper.
If you want the airfield taken, you call the Rangers.
In other words, use the pros.
If you want the best sound, you go with what the professional sound engineer uses and THAT my friend for the past 40 years is overwhelmingly the JBL.
 
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