Pioneer HPM-100 Owners thread

[Rob.]

Hey gang! Lets see some pics of your HPM100 speakers !
Here's a few pics of mine which are the 200 watters and all original.

FLICKR GALLERY

:thmbsp:

 

[Zonker92]

Wow! Minty!

 

[89grand]

I've never had the desire to own a pair, but those are in really nice condition.

 

[Rob.]

I've never had the desire to own a pair, but those are in really nice condition.

You should ! They sound spectacular ! :tears::tears:

 

[89grand]

You should ! They sound spectacular ! :tears::tears:

Well, from what I understand, they're very similar to the JBL-L100, and I have little desire for those either (and I like many JBL's), but that's not the point of your thread.

Still, those look great.:thmbsp:

 

[Rob.]

Well, from what I understand, they're very similar to the JBL-L100, and I have little desire for those either (and I like many JBL's), but that's not the point of your thread.

Still, those look great.:thmbsp:

IMO, they are probably better than the L100 ! Deeper bass - (they play down to 30hz) and can handle more power as well.
Sound quality wise, very similar. Same designer made both.

 

[89grand]

Did you restore them, or buy them already that clean?

 

[ymarko]

HPM-100 are great speakers; to me they are one of the best.
These particular speakers are in mint condition and deserve huge premium if sold.

 

[Rob.]

Did you restore them, or buy them already that clean?

Bought them like that. :yes:

 

[89grand]

Bought them like that. :yes:

Nice!

So that's an Alpine car headunit as your avatar? I've had a few in my day. I liked them. My last one was a Pioneer Premier 880-PRS, that was a great unit.

 

[Copa1934]

Yours are gorgeous, mine look like crap, but I'll post images tomorrow anyway. Mine are all recapped and pots cleaned. I have one tweeter to replace due to there being a hole in the cone. After that I'll be refinishing the cabinets. I'm still working out placement but they haven't been disappointing yet.

 

[rBuckner]

Verrrry nice. Mine are too buried to dig out for pix but they ain't THAT nice.

 

[Rob.]

Nice!

So that's an Alpine car headunit as your avatar? I've had a few in my day. I liked them. My last one was a Pioneer Premier 880-PRS, that was a great unit.

Yup Alpine 7909 headunit. best ever sounding car deck. Check out ebay to see what these sell for ! I have a youtube video up on mine before I sold it.


Anyways, just found some interesdting info on the HPM100's. :scratch2:

Pioneer's HPM-100 and 60's(also later production 40's) surrounds are NOT paper, they are CLOTH, accordion doped. As for the Cone material, the cone itself is actually wood pulp (in a sense, paper), that is then layered with carbon fiber pulp. The term "HPM" originally meant High Power Monitor when the line was first introduced, later changed to High Polymer Molecular. The later HPM's #'s 500-700-900-1100, were in fact a Polymer Graphite, which was very fragile and pretty much like glass. Graphite was adapted for use in cone material because it was cheaper and the theil/small parameters of graphite was far superior to paper. The only downside to graphite was it's fragility. Graphite could actually handle more power than it's paper sibling, but for fear of overwhelming warranty claims, Pioneer deliberately underrated their power handling rating. Also, when graphite distorted it could not be picked up by human hearing as easily as paper cones. So it's distortion was in a sense, more pleasant and tolerable.

 

[89grand]

Yup Alpine 7909 headunit. best ever sounding car deck. Check out ebay to see what these sell for ! I have a youtube video up on mine before I sold it.

I think the legend, Richard Clark used one in his Grand National. I had the privilege of hearing that car in Tempe, AZ way back in 1989, or maybe 90 at the ISACA finals. Best sounding car I've ever heard, and better than many home systems.

 

[zebra03]

Those are beauties for sure .

 

[vintage 5.0]

Great looking speakers for sure. I had a pair a few years back. They were great rock speakers. In my opinion not close to some of the JBL. I have a pair of JBL 4311 that handle the rock and sound much better. I sold mine to go to ADS L810s and never looked back. They are great however to crank up the AC DC or Black Sabbath if that is what you want to do.

 

[Rob.]

Great looking speakers for sure. I had a pair a few years back. They were great rock speakers. In my opinion not close to some of the JBL. I have a pair of JBL 4311 that handle the rock and sound much better. I sold mine to go to ADS L810s and never looked back. They are great however to crank up the AC DC or Black Sabbath if that is what you want to do.

Both the JBL's and the ADS L810's may sound more 'musical'.. but they defenitely lack low end bass...
I needed the best of both worlds..
Btw, I listened to a set of 4310 last week and they were clean sounding, but not worth the extra money IMO.

 

[Arkay]

The 100s in the pics above are among the cleanest and newest-looking ones I've seen, since they were in the shops new! Mine were scruffy restoration "projects" by comparison. (No, more accurately, they were scruffy restoration "projects", period! )

These speakers are a bit controversial, but for owners who love them, they're great. When they look that nice, they're even better. If you've got 'em ENJOY 'EM! :thmbsp:

 

[ahk26]

HPM 100's are great speakers! I have two pair.

 

[vintage 5.0]

When I had my HPMs I had some Pioneer receivers and I might say they worked quite well together. I have since gone to the dark side of Sansui. But that debate is on other threads.