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Thoughts on speakers for vintage receivers and/or amps

Hawkcigar

Hawkcigar

New Member
Do modern speakers sound ok with vintage amps and receivers or is it better to try and stick with vintage speakers. In my case I have a Pioneer SA8500 II and currently using Boston Acoustics A70 speakers. These speakers sound better with this amp than anything else in the past. I've always enjoyed Klipsch speakers and would like to eventually get a pair. Question is...is it better to think vintage or can more modern versions work as well?

My music tastes are kind of all over the place so would want something that can handle different genres. I like classic rock (Van Morrison, Supertramp, Beatles), Jazz (Bill Evans, Chet Baker, Dave Brubek) Classic Country (Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, etc) Just depends on the mood of the day!
 
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Hawkcigar said:
Do modern speakers sound ok with vintage amps and receivers or is it better to try and stick with vintage speakers. In my case I have a Pioneer SA8500 II and currently using Boston Acoustics A70 speakers. These speakers sound better with this amp than anything else in the past. I've always enjoyed Klipsch speakers and would like to eventually get a pair. Question is...is it better to think vintage or can more modern versions work as well?

My music tastes are kind of all over the place so would want something that can handle different genres. I like classic rock (Van Morrison, Supertramp, Beatles), Jazz (Bill Evans, Chet Baker, Dave Brubek) Classic Country (Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, etc) Just depends on the mood of the day!
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Find the speakers you like first, then get an amplifier that works well with them, modern or vintage makes no difference.
 
Hawkcigar said:
Do modern speakers sound ok with vintage amps and receivers or is it better to try and stick with vintage speakers.
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A speaker is a speaker. Modern speakers sound the way they do with new or vintage gear. Select speakers based on how they sound to you. Their age is pretty much irrelevant.

FWIW: I use a pair of speakers (Acoustats) from the 80's or a pair of Magneplanars from 2 years ago.
 
There is everything from diamonds to turds in both modern and vintage speakers. I personally had a pair of RF-7's and gave them up for Quartets. Very happy with the move. Sometimes I think you can get more bang for your buck with vintage stuff. But old/used can be a real crapshoot too.
 
Hawkcigar said:
Do modern speakers sound ok with vintage amps and receivers or is it better to try and stick with vintage speakers. In my case I have a Pioneer SA8500 II and currently using Boston Acoustics A70 speakers. These speakers sound better with this amp than anything else in the past. I've always enjoyed Klipsch speakers and would like to eventually get a pair. Question is...is it better to think vintage or can more modern versions work as well?

My music tastes are kind of all over the place so would want something that can handle different genres. I like classic rock (Van Morrison, Supertramp, Beatles), Jazz (Bill Evans, Chet Baker, Dave Brubek) Classic Country (Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, etc) Just depends on the mood of the day!
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They can all sound good, vintage need maintenance, sourrounds, caps, etc. Nice Modern speakers usually cost a bunch. I rebuilt some vintage stuff and was impressed....heard some new stuff that was good, I find with new....your going to pay for quality. If you just want to plug in and play and money is no object....look into new.
 
Since we all hear and listen differently, only you can decide.

There are many great speakers both old and new and all will usually work with just about any source old or new provided there is no significant impedance mismatch. For example, some older Infinitiy's are a difficult load for any amp.

Only you can decide for sure based on what fits your budget, listening space, WAF and listening preferences.

It's almost always better to have an amplifier that can deliver as much or more power than your speakers are rated for to minimize the potential of damaging clipping.
 
There are no “speakers for vintage receivers and/or amps” or “speakers for not vintage receivers and/or amps”.

There are speakers with their objective technical quality parameters and power amps (no matter separate power amps or power blocs of integrateds) with their objective technical quality parameters (for speakers they are nominal output power and working impedance) that must mutually fit.

Waste quality speakers will sound like waste with BEST receivers and/or amps.
Excellent quality receivers and/or amps will deliver sound like waste through waste quality speakers.

And vice versa.
 
There are a lot of excellent, rebuilt vintage speakers available, and there are a lot of excellent new speakers. I love my Kef R107's,
but there are many new materials and manufacturing methods available now, so I think that a good pair of new speakers today, may cost a lot less than they would have 40 years ago, in 1970's dollars.
$3000 can get you a pretty nice set of speakers, and maybe only $2000 if they're on sale or demos.
Regarding newer speakers for instance, I also have a pair of floor-standing Polk's that sound very good when driven with good equipment; and they were only $1200 usd when new. They needed to be re-packed with proper foam to take the slight hollowness out of the mid-range and firm up the bass a little, but for the total cost, they sound excellent.
But anyway, like the others said ... buy what sounds good to you, at the high end of your budget; and then find a good amp that brings out the best in them.
Enjoy the search.

Dave
 
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Artie said:
It's about quality. Boston A-70's were great speakers. Still are as long as the surrounds are intact.
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Surrounds were replaced a few years ago and they really do sound great. I bought them new and can't ever see getting rid of them.
 
My experience is with good speakers from 1950 to 1975. They generally don't make a lot of mistakes and some don't make any. But it's what they don't do that's the problem. They ALL leave something out somewhere along the response scale. They either roll off on top or bottom or both. Or have poor crossover design.
Sweet midrange comes easy for them, unless the crossovers are flawed.
My favorites are single driver, but compromise the extreme ends.
 
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