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Sony Esprit APM-4 Speakers

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I know some of those Sony speakers with square drivers can fetch pretty strong money. I'm guessing those have some value. I'll be curious what others know about them.
 
CarnahanBB said:
I know some of those Sony speakers with square drivers can fetch pretty strong money. I'm guessing those have some value. I'll be curious what others know about them.
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Thanks - one of my concerns would be the foam surrounds. If original and I think they are, they are probably way over due for a refoam and that ain't my specialty. I have contacted the owner and am going to check them out.
 
Surround replacements could be a problem.
From The Vintage Knob: "The APM-77 drivers were reused in the later ESPRIT APM-4 and alas suffer the same illness as most of Sony's APMs : the bass foam surrounds rot away. And Sony didn't keep a stock of spares."
 
ronniemac said:
Surround replacements could be a problem.
From The Vintage Knob: "The APM-77 drivers were reused in the later ESPRIT APM-4 and alas suffer the same illness as most of Sony's APMs : the bass foam surrounds rot away. And Sony didn't keep a stock of spares."
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The Vintage Knob also indicates in their review that -

TVK should soon be able to offer replacement surrounds with impregnated cloth for the APM-4,
Question is - who is TVK? The Vintage Knob?
 
When I first got back into this hobby a few years back, I passed on some very large APM's at the local thrift because I thought the square drivers were gimmicky.:tears:
 
tonyk said:
When I first got back into this hobby a few years back, I passed on some very large APM's at the local thrift because I thought the square drivers were gimmicky.:tears:
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And, you were correct. They ARE gimmicky. Gimmicks can still be very expensive and sought after, but they are still a gimmick.
 
I've not seen these before but I think you will find that the upper end APM's are highly regarded. I have a pair of 33W's that I like. There is a seller on ebay that is producing and selling high quality surrounds so if the speakers are the same as the 77's you won't have a problem. Until recently the surrounds were unobtainium causing many people to pass on these excellent speakers.
 
Thought I would post an update on these particular speakers. Originally, the owner was asking $600 for the pair. i went to check them out and they sounded OK but nothing that blew me away to the point that although I was interested, I didn't want to offer the asking price due to the fact that the surrounds were one song away from falling apart.
Long story short I didn't buy them but a few days later a chap drove 13 hours each way to buy them for $600 EACH and showed the owner (after the transaction was solidified, I assume) that they were going for $6000 in Russia.
They could've been mine for $500 and I could've been well reimbursed for packing up 200 pounds of sound.
No sour grapes on my part but sometimes you just never know what people will actually pay for things.
 
ANY Esprit is worth buying/saving/selling.

The 'gimmick' works. There are no cavity resonances in the woofers.

I have a pair of Sony APM-55Ws, and they soundly (huhr, huhr) beat Klipsch, JBL, etc when I bought them new.

$6000 sounds high, but I would believe $2500 in a heartbeat.
 
I've seen several pairs of Sony APM speakers over the last ten years. I knew some were highly regarded but all the one I saw looked cheap. Some even had attached bases. I guess it's just certain models which are worth money.
 
Anything with Esprit attached to it, from Sony, should be worth a second look. There are Sony Esprit collectors for a reason. Its good stuff.
 
It was me who drove from Vermont to Nova Scotia to buy this pair of APM-4. I shipped them to Ukraine and now I am enjoying the neutral sound without coloration which I think is even more natural than the sound of Yamaha NS-1000 that I like too.
 
vladpl said:
It was me who drove from Vermont to Nova Scotia to buy this pair of APM-4. I shipped them to Ukraine and now I am enjoying the neutral sound without coloration which I think is even more natural than the sound of Yamaha NS-1000 that I like too.
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Congrats on your acquisition. I went to see them and decided to take a pass on them due to concerns about sourcing materials for the refoam that was necessary.
Since you were willing to make such an effort to acquire them, I'm glad that you have them and that you are enjoying them.
I have a pair of the Yamaha NS1000M's and that was taken into consideration when I decided to pass on the APM's.
All the best from Nova Scotia
 
Does anyone have the manual for the Sony APM-4 speakers, the crossover schematic, or the cabinet drawing? Thanks
 
@Zecan

This thread is 12yr's old doubt you'll be getting a reply. Hopefully you'll have more look in the other thread where you asked the same question
 
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