my sad collection of "New England" loudspeakers

[Nat]

Can't remember if this has been addressed in the early pages of this long thread, but the Bozak in Newington (and Taftville) was a successor to the original Bozak company which was in Norwalk. There was another successor, New England Audio Resource, up in Maine. NEAR bought the tooling and made speakers using the original Bozak drivers (with some improvements) in different configurations. The company in Newington bought the name, and made speakers somewhat in the spirit of the original Bozaks, but with Focal, SEAS, and Vifa drivers, in multiples.
NEAR was bought by Bogen, and then disappeared, and the new Bozak folded after a fire in their factory.
Both made very fine speakers, well worth seeking out.

 

[highwaychile]

A mere upstart here:

ADS L-520
Acoustic Research AR28s
Advent 3002
Genesis 1

 

[gtv2000]

My turn

5 pair Orig Large Advent (4 walnut, one utility)
KLH 20
ADS L520
Smaller Advent
Baby Advent
Advent Heritage
Advent Prodigy Tower
Cambridge Ensemble 2

Gotta find me some AR's

 

[GD70]

Mine are listed in my signature. Not in the list are "The Advent Loud Speaker", found on the curb a couple weeks ago. They need a refoam so haven't listened to them. Currently restoring the cabs on a set of KLH Twenty Threes.

Love the East Coast sound.

Cheers to you all! Some impressive collections!

Glenn

 

[RandyFloyd76]

Not much here. I am actually a west coast speaker guy.....

OLA - Walnut Bullnose
Advent /3
EPI 100v
EPI TE100
Boston Acoustic A60
Boston Acoustic HD5

 

[Okie-J]

1 pair of Tangent RS4.

 

[alteclipsch]

I do love the east coast sound since my 1st set of KLH model six. I stupidly sold them in an unnecessary fit of family need, but the die was cast. I now have 2 pairs of model thirty twos, and fives, elevens, twentys. Also AR 4X and a single AR2. Waiting to see if I can add ADS L520s this week. Why, I don't know....

 

[TubeHiFiNut]

Not too many New England Sound speakers:

AR-1 (original with 755 driver)

Snell Type A

Ohm Walsh 2

Large Advent (walnut/original)

 

[johnda]

I have one surprising AR addition to my New England group. The diminutive AR 215PS. A small (only about 10 inches high) speaker with a 5.25 woofer and 1" tweeter, front ported. It is excellent for fitting into tight places and has a real nice smooth NE character. It is playing right now from my credenza in the living room ( Celtic Woman on Pandora).

 

[ryanward84]

Mini Advents
AR TSW 110
Boston A 100
Epicure M100

 

[MJB1959]

aDs - 400
a/d/s/ - L 400
ADS - L 620
a/d/s/ - M 12
ADS - L 880
ADS - L 980

Pretty much satisfied with them all, and that ADS sound.

 

[jamie123]

they seem to be a bit rare over here in the UK but i love my KLH 23'S .

 

[Gnesen]

NE loudspeaker shootout

A sick boy at home from school means that I get to play today. So I decided to A/B my sad collection of "New England" loudspeakers, something I've surprisingly never done. The contestants:

1) KLH 17s -- my first New England speaker, re-capped and re-sealed two years ago

2) "New" Large Advents -- re-foamed and re-capped about a month ago

3) EPI 100Vs -- re-foamed by previous owner, not sure if they've been re-capped (picked these up from a widow last week)

4) Realistic Nova-8Bs -- I did the Videolady crossover modification to these a few months ago. Of course, these are only an honorary New England speaker. They sure look to be a copy of KLH 5's, and Radio Shack had it's start in New England, so I threw them into the mix.

The setup:

Source: Macbook --> MUSE DAC --> refurbished Marantz 2230B* and NAD 3020* (with flat equalization) --> speakers

*SPL was measured with a phone app at the listening position and kept constant between speaker pairs.

Songs: Take Five (Dave Brubeck), Clay & Ottie (Blue Highway), Down the Road Boys (The Wailin' Jennys)

Speaker position: I listened to each speaker pair for all three songs listed above in two positions (with both amps) -- straight on with the speakers close to the outer edges of the closet doors in the photo below (pulled out about 12" from the wall), and closer to the corners with a toe-in. I realize corner placement is generally discouraged, but from some reason I don't notice any ill-effects in my listening space.

THE OUTCOME: these are all fine speakers well-deserving of their respective overall reputations. However, the Nova-8Bs (with VL mod) was the winner, with the NLA's being a close second. The 8B's had the best low-end, most coherent mids, and generated the best imaging. I love my KLH 17's, but was surprised how recessed the mids seemed relative to the 8B's and NLA's. The EPI 100V's were very good, but also seemed to have a gap in the mids. As always, your experience and opinion may vary.

The winners, Nova-8B's, in their current position:

 

[Drumolator]

Boston Acoustics CS26
Boston Acoustics A40
Polk Rti4


Would the Pioneer SP-BS22LR speakers count? They have that warm sound. Peace and goodwill.

 

[Boto]

I realized looking at this that almost everything I have is a New England speaker!

1: EPI A240: main system. Covered the speakers in cherry veneer. New Human tweeters, re-coned woofers.

2: Genesis II: Garage speakers

3: Genesis I: In process of a refurb

4: Boston Acoustics T-1000: Original owner. Needs foam and caps.

5: KLH 24: Recapped and doped.

6: EPI 100V: Rehabbed and given to my brother-in -law.

 

[superdog]

I love the east coast sound as much as the west.I got rid of three pair of Advents though.I am down to a set of Bozak 302a-AR4X and a set of 80S Teledyne AR94.Unless I come across some AR3 variations I don't think I need anymore.

 

[Bostown]

1 pair of Tangent RS4.

Uhhh shouldn't those be mentioned in the " British hifi" area? . Tangent Acoustics is only known by a handful folks here, and even fewer than a handful own a set. great speakers, using Kef , and/or audax drivers.


ll just mention the lesser known models ( which i may have done earlier in this thread)

RDL Acoustics S-1 ( Roy Allison)
RDL Acoustics Fs-1 (Roy Allison)
CSW Ambiance ( Henry Kloss)
Burhoe Acoustics -white ( Winslow Burhoe)
Ensemble by Henry Kloss
EPI M50

 

[Gang-Twanger]

Technically, the W90 along with it's brethren is actually an east coast/New England model. The W*0 series was designed for the US market and apparently offered a bit more kick to the bass than the Wharfedale models designed for the British/European market, though I have yet to confirm this with my own ears. The W*0 series, which originally-consisted of ported designs, was influenced by the east coast sound to such a degree that, by the late '60's, it eventually became centered around SEALED enclosures and fried egg-style dome tweeters. Sort of an "old-school"/new-old-school" thing, I guess.

"I'm a little bit country...."

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[Drugolf]

So I am peering into this thread for the first time as I listen to my just restored AR3's for the first time. Probably the first time music has come out of them in 20 years or so. An emotional moment. :yes:

I fell in love my the small Boston A40's back in the mid 80's while in school. I suppose I did not know it at the time but I was hooked on the East Coast sound then. I wandered away from 2 channel music as life got busy and AV systems had higher priority. Flash forward to last year when I rediscovered this wonderful hobby and the quality of vintage 2 channel music presentation. The moment I got really excited is when I picked up a pair of AR2ax's. They were wonderful, even hooked up to my good old Pioneer SX1000Ta receiver. Now I have collected the following:

AR3
AR2ax
AR4ax
AR18s
Allison Ones
KLH Model 5
KLH Model 32
Polk Monitor 10

I am fortunate to have found most of these here in Boise. There is a pair of AR 3a's I have first dibs on here that I am probably nor going to spring for and I hope I don't regret it.

I also happen to have Janis Subwoofer. I believe it is also from that region and for subwoofer also exhibits that same traits.

Believe it or not I have yet to caome across a set of A40's here for whatever reason. If I had they would be added to the collection.

Great thread and I am glad it was revised here recently.

 

[gbroot]

Acoustic Suspension designs I own or have owned are:
KLH 22's
KLH 6's (2 pair)
KLH 23's (2 pair)
KLH 5's
Infinity Qe's
Norman Lab Model 11's
A40's
Optimus 1's
Sansui AS200's

Still have: Norman Labs which are about the same sound signature as the KLH 23's but with Phillips tweets. Infinity Qe's. Very smooth smaller room near field listening with added clarity from its emit tweeter. KLH Model 5's. When matched with my Onkyo A-10 the 5's take it to the next level!