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Marantz, Advent And KLH: Comparo Of The Recapped 10in Two Ways

Lavane said:
The drivers used in may of the Optimus and Nova lines were pretty decent.
It seems the area they cut costs with were with the crossover in some of them. I'm still surprised at how good.the little Optimus 2B's sound. Really good bass for such a small speaker. I have new caps inbound for the crossovers. The 1B's are on my short list.
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The older ones were Foster I believe. My Nova 6s, the Nova version of your Optimus 2Bs are the speakers that pushed my Small Advents out the door. At the time I A/Bd them and damned if the bass was just a whisker less and the highs were better with the Realistics. Add to the fact that the Novas have real veneer and the Advents were crappy vinyl meant the Advents only stayed a few weeks.

Last night when I hooked the Nova 6s to the STA 82, I put Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" and cranked it up for a bit and holy crap they thumped. It helped that they are in the corners of the room of course, but they took that bass line better at high volumes than the Advents or KLHs. I did notice that they dont quite sound as good at lower volumes than they do with higher wattage amps. Give them 50 or 60wpc+ and they really put out the bass.

How do your 2Bs do with your tube amps? And do you have a pic of them?
 
Bodyblue said:
The older ones were Foster I believe. My Nova 6s, the Nova version of your Optimus 2Bs are the speakers that pushed my Small Advents out the door. At the time I A/Bd them and damned if the bass was just a whisker less and the highs were better with the Realistics. Add to the fact that the Novas have real veneer and the Advents were crappy vinyl meant the Advents only stayed a few weeks.

Last night when I hooked the Nova 6s to the STA 82, I put Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" and cranked it up for a bit and holy crap they thumped. It helped that they are in the corners of the room of course, but they took that bass line better at high volumes than the Advents or KLHs. I did notice that they dont quite sound as good at lower volumes than they do with higher wattage amps. Give them 50 or 60wpc+ and they really put out the bass.

How do your 2Bs do with your tube amps? And do you have a pic of them?
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They do well with tubes. I have them on a bench in the garage waiting for new caps.
20200306_104439.jpg 20200306_104502.jpg 20200306_104452.jpg
 
Probably the same like the Optimus 5 and Nova 8. If the cap on the crossover is 6.8uf then that clinches it.
 
65wpc will rock your garage with those for sure! They look so nice. I like the plain grill better than the Nova lattice.
 
Ya, me too, but the plain grills are warped. I'm betting the lattice aren't.
They took almost all.of what the 220 had to give. They defenetly filled the garage with sound. The old caps had drifted pretty far. The top end sounds much clearer now.
 
I'm curious about these old speakers... do they have a kind of sound signature that's distinctly different than modern speakers? Is the bass as tight/fast as on modern speakers? I feel like the modern modern speakers that I've owned kind of have more snap than the older ones but that could have easily been because of the fact that parts needed to be replaced on those things. I have some old KLH ones that I keep thinking that I ought to try and restore a bit... then again, I don't really have another stereo to play them on anyway. I'm thinking that they might have a warmer, mellower kind of sound compared to newer stuff, but I can't say that I really know...
 
Aaron Hayman said:
I'm curious about these old speakers... do they have a kind of sound signature that's distinctly different than modern speakers? Is the bass as tight/fast as on modern speakers? I feel like the modern modern speakers that I've owned kind of have more snap than the older ones but that could have easily been because of the fact that parts needed to be replaced on those things. I have some old KLH ones that I keep thinking that I ought to try and restore a bit... then again, I don't really have another stereo to play them on anyway. I'm thinking that they might have a warmer, mellower kind of sound compared to newer stuff, but I can't say that I really know...
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It really depends on the speaker itself.
 
Lavane said:
Ya, me too, but the plain grills are warped. I'm betting the lattice aren't.
They took almost all.of what the 220 had to give. They defenetly filled the garage with sound. The old caps had drifted pretty far. The top end sounds much clearer now.
Click to expand...

The Realistic lattice is plastic so they dont warp, you are right.
 
Aaron Hayman said:
I'm curious about these old speakers... do they have a kind of sound signature that's distinctly different than modern speakers? Is the bass as tight/fast as on modern speakers? I feel like the modern modern speakers that I've owned kind of have more snap than the older ones but that could have easily been because of the fact that parts needed to be replaced on those things. I have some old KLH ones that I keep thinking that I ought to try and restore a bit... then again, I don't really have another stereo to play them on anyway. I'm thinking that they might have a warmer, mellower kind of sound compared to newer stuff, but I can't say that I really know...
Click to expand...

The older bigger speakers like what original KLH6s came with are indeed a bit slower for lack of a better word. My KLH6s have had the surrounds replaced with modern foam so they are more like a modern speaker. The OLAs have regular foam and are acoustic suspension so the bass is fast and deep and because they have a 10 in woofer and a big cabinet compared to modern small speakers their bass is something you can really feel.

Modern tweeters have come a long way and can be far more detailed than older tweeters.....but that means they can be overly bright sometimes.

The bottom line is that you need to hear speakers like mine that have been recapped and sound like they did when new to really form an opinion on vintage speakers.
 
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