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Speakers that are imperfect, but you love them anyway...

Chad Michael

Chad Michael

Dissonant Rhino
1) JBL L19's
2) Klipsch KG-4

The L19 makes fantastic low end, the mids and highs are a bit pinched, still dig what they are and what they do. The KG-4, give wonderful passive radiator bass, and give you everything, they just shout a bit

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Yup, I loved every speaker I've owned, or I wouldn't have bought them. Kept them till I didn't love 'em anymore. That's because none were perfect, and I doubt if any ever will be.
 
jayvis said:
That's because none were perfect, and I doubt if any ever will be.
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Wish you could hear my Celestion DL-8 series II, they do nothing wrong.... I'm sure there is better, but the cost would be tenfold

But that is another subject altogether....
 
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Chad Michael said:
Wish you could hear my Celestion DL-8 series II, they do nothing wrong.... I'm sure there is better, but the cost would be tenfold

But that is another subject altogether....
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I have to admit that it's probably me and my ears that are more imperfect than the speakers that I've had. A lot of years have changed my tastes in sound.
 
Chad Michael said:
1) JBL L19's
2) Klipsch KG-4

The L19 makes fantastic low end, the mids and highs are a bit pinched, still dig what they are and what they do. The KG-4, give wonderful passive radiator bass, and give you everything, they just shout a bit

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Holy crap. I haven't been on this site in months and the first thing I see is this post. I'm listening to my JBL L19's right now and they are the best. They do just what I want. Good punchy bottom and crisp highs that make 80's hits sound amazing.
 
I bought a pair a BIC America DV62si bookshelf speakers a long time ago on Amazon for just over 100 bucks. I still have them.

Yes, they are cheap and probably not perfect. But for the money, you really do get one heck of a great-sounding speaker. You have to play them for hours and hours and hours before they are broken in properly. Complaints arise about how bright they are, but that brightness and harshness fades away quite a bit after they are broken in.

If you are on a mission to build the cheapest budget HiFi system that'll still sound amazing then I don't think you could do any better for speakers than the DV62si.
 
My Klipsch were shouty before a recap along with mid-horn damping. Now they sound great!

Used to have some super cool looking Infinity tower speakers from the 1990's that were super bright, hard to place, lacked bass. But I loved them!
 
drp1003 said:
I bought a pair a BIC America DV62si bookshelf speakers a long time ago on Amazon for just over 100 bucks. I still have them.

Yes, they are cheap and probably not perfect. But for the money, you really do get one heck of a great-sounding speaker. You have to play them for hours and hours and hours before they are broken in properly. Complaints arise about how bright they are, but that brightness and harshness fades away quite a bit after they are broken in.

If you are on a mission to build the cheapest budget HiFi system that'll still sound amazing then I don't think you could do any better for speakers than the DV62si.
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Funny - I did just that. My three front speakers are PSB's but the 4 ceiling and 4 surround speakers are all BIC. Sounds fantastic, much better than any theater I have been to.
 
That applies to all speakers as they all fall short.

Anyone got $375,000 for a pair of Magico M7. They are supposed to be pretty good. Of course then you need another $50,000 or so for amps. Gets ridiculous after awhile!

Though the dealer in San Antonio has sold a pair of 7's and just recently a pair of 9's at twice the price and weight. I guess money grows on trees or from a whole in the ground in Texas.
 
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Chad Michael said:
Wish you could hear my Celestion DL-8 series II, they do nothing wrong.... I'm sure there is better, but the cost would be tenfold

But that is another subject altogether....
Click to expand...
My Cerwin Vega model 26 , love the full warm sound and buttery bass even at low levels but not the most detailed ! Super efficient hooked them up just for fun on a sta64 16 wpc and they sounded good ! Normally run them on one of my sta2080 80 wpc they run sound great ! Other sta2080 hooked up to my Mach 2s and klh 8s I listen to that system when the wife’s not home lol
 
ernieb1536 said:
My Cerwin Vega model 26 , love the full warm sound and buttery bass even at low levels but not the most detailed ! Super efficient hooked them up just for fun on a sta64 16 wpc and they sounded good ! Normally run them on one of my sta2080 80 wpc they run sound great ! Other sta2080 hooked up to my Mach 2s and klh 8s I listen to that system when the wife’s not home lol
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I’ve yet to try them with my Mac1900 , I did run them for a while with my sta2290 sounded good but not as much synergy as with the sta2080 ! The sta2290 did sound really good with the Mach 2s !
 
My KLH 5's fell in my lap basically. Intention was to flip them after a thorough audition.
But gosh darn do they sound great. At the time I was updating an Eico ST-70 so I thought let's try the two together. Some pretty amazing synergy with these two. Same thing with a Sansui Eight I have been updating.
Ordered and applied the surround dope from Vintage AR and this made them even better.
Have too many speakers and I need to keep these somehow.
Not the last word in accuracy, speed, bass but I do not care. They sound amazing to me. And I am not a big fan of paper tweeters but they got these right.
On the floor, on stands, love them.
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I guess my favorite "imperfect" speaker is the Marantz Imperial 6.
They just plain sound good, are happy with SS or tube, sound good at low volumes with decent bass, and never give me ear fatigue. I have better speakers, and have had better speakers come and go, but the 6's aren't going anywhere. Second to them would be the smaller Dayton BR1 kit speakers. 6" woofer, and a 1" silk dome tweeter. They sound very smooth.
I like them for the same reasons I like the Imperials, except the BR1's sound better in a smaller room unless you add a sub when used in a larger room.
 
Having become an audio purist, my addition would be any Polk SDA speaker. I owned a pair of SDA 1As for a number of years and loved them. The mids were problematic as most of that eras Polk's are. I modified the Xover and tried different tweeters. They were a 'fun' speaker to listen to but were not ideal for critical listening. They certainly wouldn't work well for my 2 channel system today.

Cool speakers but not perfect in my book.
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