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Paragon and Metregon

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spartanmanor said:
I keep waiting to come across one of these at an estate sale where they have no idea what it is.
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Well it's not a $30,000 Paragon, but I did pick up a pair of really cherry Ohm Walsh 4's at an estate sale last summer for 150 bucks. They knew it was something, just not exactly what. So it happens...but rarely.
 
There is a Metregon owner here in Tucson who got a cabinet without the drivers for $700.00, and it is in far better condition than the one in the Ebay auction. I've seen it first hand. Gorgeous! He's already acquired most of the needed drivers to fill it too!
 
Would I buy them for their looks? No. Would I buy them for their sound (at least based on what I've read about them)? No. But if I had a JBL museum, they'd be front and center. :D
 
Zonker92 said:
Would I buy them for their looks? No. Would I buy them for their sound (at least based on what I've read about them)? No. But if I had a JBL museum, they'd be front and center. :D
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That's interesting. I've only heard the Paragon once, many years ago at my boss' house. And I have no recollection if I was particularly impressed or not.

I will say this though, I owned a pair of L-100's for a long time, bought 'em when they first came on the retail market, and I probably wouldn't buy those for their sound either anymore.
 
Maybe it's not right for me to comment on the sound of things I've never heard. I will say, though, that they are fascinating, extremely grand cabinets and landmarks of loudspeaker history.
 
The uber-rare, low production JBL cabinet systems of the 50s and 60s are much like old Mercedes sports cars like the 300SL Gullwings, are for the folks who can:

1) Remember them when they were new and the buyer was young.

2) Want to own them because they were works of art - form over function

3) Can afford to purchase and maintain them today.

I suspect that most of them change hands privately through a network of collectors these days.

I've never had the chance, like Zonker, to actually hear a set although I've heard the same drivers in more conventional cabinets. Given that limited experience, I'd suggest they are more art than sonic glory.......

Don't get me wrong, though, I'd take 'em if someone offered them to me but I have no idea where I'd put either a Paragon or Metregon. In my house, it would have to stand on end! Maybe I'd need 2 then, n'est pas?

Cheers,

David
 
That Paragon is awesome looking. I wonder what the auction will end at.

Ditto to the comment about finding one in the corner at an estate sale, the ultimate console find.
 
Just a little update and then a question. Amazingly another Paragon came up on eBay a couple of days later. Both Paragons sold, and this generates my question.

How does one go for $30,000 and two days later the other for $10,000? They looked in similar condition to me.
 
it just depends on who is in the market when... Someone willing to buy a Paragon for 30K doesn't come around very often. It's a person who wants it for it self, price no object. When that person isn't around - it's a bunch folks that are willing to carry "inventory" for that time in the future when another 30K person shows up.
 
I just blows me away thinking of how those were marketed to get someone to take up a whole wall just for their speakers.... and no where other than on top of it to put your gear. We know a TT won't play nice there...

Love to have one too, but to take up that much space just for a speaker.
 
Some people have very large homes! And many wealthy people that music was their livelyhood in those days looking for TOTL would probably purchase them.
 
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