Glad I decided to give them a chance - Criterion DS-1 speakers

[Krosya]

As I said more than once - I dont need any new speakers. I am pretty happy with the ones I have ( and I have too many as it is). But sometimes I just cant stop myself if I see something unusual and interesting for sale.
And this is what happened this time as well. I saw these Criterion DS-1 small bookshelf speakers. They looked well made, reminded me of ADS small speakers. seemed to be in good condition and price was reasonable.
There seems to be very little information on these online, but I did manage to find some.


As you can see - rather nice looking speakers. But what came as a bigger surprise - they are fully working and sound terrific! They are very efficient, yet I dont know specifically. Of course low end is not that great, but for the size - cant complain. Mids and highs are VERY good - very clear with great separation. I still cant believe how good they sound.
I guess, you just never know what will surprise you.
Looking at the add from 1978 - they were not all that inexpensive.
Overall - another rare and very good sounding speakers are added to my collection!

 

[peteCWA]

The DS-1's pretty much came out at the tail end of Lafayette's life cycle. Less then two years later bankruptcy filings were already in the works. Can't remember who in Japan made these. But, no service parts, replacement speakers, etc. were ever received from the manufacturer. During that 78/79 time frame, if a customer brought in a defective DS-1, we just replaced it with a new one from stock. Defective ones went to the dumpster.

 

[Yodathedog]

Be very careful with those woofer clips. I own 2 pairs of the DS-1s from my days at Lafayette, and almost all of them have broken. Decent replacements are not available.