Wray & Ting
Member
I have two pairs of vintage 15" floor speakers I picked up on the cheap, but each with issues - a pair of 1976 HH Scott Pro 100 (non-original woofers (!), no grilles) and more recently a pair of 1984 Realistic Mach Two (very nice shape but needed refoam of woofers and mids). I hooked them both up to my Optonica SM-3636, Scotts (A) sitting on top of Machs (B), to decide which I preferred (and which to keep). Having set out to do that simple task, I've now raised more questions than I've answered.
(A) The Scotts: I'm relatively new to home audio, but these have a profound soundscape to me. Listening to music from acoustic jazz to thrash metal via rock, these speakers really seem to separate instruments spatially in a very pleasing manner. The strong point in terms of frequency reproduction seems to be mids and highs; very clear and detailed to my ears. However, the bass is rather flaccid. My EQ settings for best listening on my amp are something like bass +4 to +6 and treble -2 (-10 to +10 scale). Increasing the bass like this helps, but it doesn't sound so natural. I blame the replacement woofers.
(B) The Machs: Initially I picked these up thinking the woofers might go in the Scotts, since the woofers in the Scotts (Radio Shack 40-1035 with Qts = 0.81) are poorly suited to a sealed cabinet. Now that the refoaming is complete, I've given these a listen. The strong point here is the bass, particularly after listening to my Scotts, but the mid and treble feel lacking. I'd almost describe the overall sound as muffled. The soundscape is not nearly so broad, with many instruments tending to sound more centrally located. My EQ settings are nearly the reverse, with a 0 on bass, and a +4/+6 on treble to get the most pleasing sound. As before, tweaking the EQ helps, but sounds kind of crude.
A+B: This is what really surprised me. With a flat EQ (or maybe +2/+2), listening through all the speakers together easily sounds better than either pair on its own. It's almost as if the weak points of each pair are covered by the strengths of the other. The Machs contribute a nice thump down low, and the Scotts provide their nice imaging, clarity, mids, and highs.
Overall I prefer the Scotts even with their mediocre woofers. I feel like I can compensate for the weak bass better than I can the lacking higher range in the Machs, and the soundscape is more immersive to top it off. So instead of asking which pair to keep, I'm looking for different insight:
1) Do people often prefer the sound of A+B arrangements in one listening environment over A or B alone? If so, is it because two pairs of speakers can complement each other, or something simpler like our brains like the sound coming from more speakers as opposed to fewer?
2) Is there any merit to swapping woofers? The purist in me (and probably a potential buyer) doesn't like the idea of breaking up the original drivers in the Mach Twos, but if the Scotts could sound like an 8 instead of a 7, might it be worth demoting the Machs from a 6 to a 5 and selling them? Maybe they wouldn't sound worse with the Scotts' replacement woofers than the Mach originals, but it seems more likely than not. I will probably try this at some point from sheer curiosity.
3) Something else? Mod the Mach Twos, seeing as they have legions of fans and there are many mods documented on AK? Keep both sets since I prefer the sound of both to either alone?
Thanks!
(A) The Scotts: I'm relatively new to home audio, but these have a profound soundscape to me. Listening to music from acoustic jazz to thrash metal via rock, these speakers really seem to separate instruments spatially in a very pleasing manner. The strong point in terms of frequency reproduction seems to be mids and highs; very clear and detailed to my ears. However, the bass is rather flaccid. My EQ settings for best listening on my amp are something like bass +4 to +6 and treble -2 (-10 to +10 scale). Increasing the bass like this helps, but it doesn't sound so natural. I blame the replacement woofers.
(B) The Machs: Initially I picked these up thinking the woofers might go in the Scotts, since the woofers in the Scotts (Radio Shack 40-1035 with Qts = 0.81) are poorly suited to a sealed cabinet. Now that the refoaming is complete, I've given these a listen. The strong point here is the bass, particularly after listening to my Scotts, but the mid and treble feel lacking. I'd almost describe the overall sound as muffled. The soundscape is not nearly so broad, with many instruments tending to sound more centrally located. My EQ settings are nearly the reverse, with a 0 on bass, and a +4/+6 on treble to get the most pleasing sound. As before, tweaking the EQ helps, but sounds kind of crude.
A+B: This is what really surprised me. With a flat EQ (or maybe +2/+2), listening through all the speakers together easily sounds better than either pair on its own. It's almost as if the weak points of each pair are covered by the strengths of the other. The Machs contribute a nice thump down low, and the Scotts provide their nice imaging, clarity, mids, and highs.
Overall I prefer the Scotts even with their mediocre woofers. I feel like I can compensate for the weak bass better than I can the lacking higher range in the Machs, and the soundscape is more immersive to top it off. So instead of asking which pair to keep, I'm looking for different insight:
1) Do people often prefer the sound of A+B arrangements in one listening environment over A or B alone? If so, is it because two pairs of speakers can complement each other, or something simpler like our brains like the sound coming from more speakers as opposed to fewer?
2) Is there any merit to swapping woofers? The purist in me (and probably a potential buyer) doesn't like the idea of breaking up the original drivers in the Mach Twos, but if the Scotts could sound like an 8 instead of a 7, might it be worth demoting the Machs from a 6 to a 5 and selling them? Maybe they wouldn't sound worse with the Scotts' replacement woofers than the Mach originals, but it seems more likely than not. I will probably try this at some point from sheer curiosity.
3) Something else? Mod the Mach Twos, seeing as they have legions of fans and there are many mods documented on AK? Keep both sets since I prefer the sound of both to either alone?
Thanks!
