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Vintage Radio Shack/Realistic Speakers?

Teradacto58 said:
Markus....Love the Karlson's!! What are you running in them??
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Altec 418's :D

they don't go far below 50 Hz, but they SLAM !

btw - I have a 'vintage realistic speaker' time capsule that I'll be sharing in this thread soon . . . gotta get some pictures :thmbsp:
 
Anyone know the model of the Realistic speaker that was made by KLH in about 1960 ? I recall they were like the KLH model Six which was a highly regarded loudspeaker. It was one of the few Radio Shack speakers made in the U.S.

Both RS and KLH were Boston based back then -

The good old days when great speakers were made here in the States !
 
clydeselsor said:
Speak for yourself!
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Realistic Optimus 1 speakers happily bought when I couldn't afford Advents. Sounded like KLH 17s... even High-Fidelity thought so... for 2/3rd the price.

Living in the sticks played a part, too (no shipping charges).
 
Yes that dirty S word Shipping! And it will only go up and up. I do the local Craigslist,yard sale and fleamarket thing just for that reason. I've found several sets of Minimus7s. But never any early upper end large RS speakers.
 
I picked up these Nova 10's at a thrift today along with a pair of stands. The veneer on the cabinets is a little dull but the drivers are in mint shape. I think they sound very good not a lot of bass but very clear sounding.
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Realistic Solo 3B Time Capsules - popping the cherry !! MMWAAAHAHA ! !!

OK . . . so a while back, a local guy who knows I'm into audio gave me pretty much all his old system(s) . . nothing crazy like Altec / Scott / etc. , but it was all Radio Shack Gear in nice shape. By far the COOLEST thing he gave me was 5 Solo 3B's, three of which were new in the box - never opened, never played :banana:

Sure, it's not like stumbliong across a pair of JBL C38's NIB, but pretty sweet none the less . . . check out the pictures :D

As for performance, I've been using their 'open box' brothers on one of my Magnavox tube amps, and they sound quite decent. They have everything I like in a vintage speaker: paper cone, vented dustcap, and real (walnut) veneer cabinets . . . Botrytis and Soundwesael suggested I use the minty cabinets for a DIY fullrange project, which I just might do . . . for now, I'm going to enjoy them 'as -is' :yes:

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Live_Wire said:
:drool:

That is just one unreal haul man! :thmbsp:
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put the word out in your neighborhood ! there are BOUND to be people with old audio stuff collecting dust that would rather give it to someone to enjoy, rather than kick it to the curb :D

most of my favorite pieces came to me this way :yes:
 
I have the Optimus 600 in storage. They are the little brothers of the Optimus 900 but with an 8" woofer. They came with a Realistic system my dad bought in 1985-86. I blew a woofer in the mid 90's and threw in a new random radio shack replacement. I will never get rid of them and have plans to fix them up. They sounded pretty decent.

page 23
http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalogs/1987_small/
 
jancumps said:
As if I don't have enough Realistic speakers: I recently purchased these optimus 12.

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They seem to be fairly unknown. No info on the web, no info on www.radioshackcatalogs.com.
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They might be in the same boat as my Mach 5000's. I haven't found any info on the web about them other than a couple classified ads. As far as I can tell, they were made in Canada, for Canadians. Yours might be the same idea.

They look pretty damn nice though, if I do say so :thmbsp:
 
I noticed on the '87 RS catalog that speakers were advertised as "Digital-Ready".....
What does this really mean w/regards to vintage amps & receivers? was it the absence of the typical wow-flutter associated w/TT the the Cd replaced...wait, my eyes are going cross-eyed-
 
I don't really know what they mean by Digital Ready. As far as I can tell, it might mean something with the sensitivity. How can it really mean anything anyway? I mean, it's a speaker. Maybe crossover design?
 
Live_Wire said:
I don't really know what they mean by Digital Ready. As far as I can tell, it might mean something with the sensitivity. How can it really mean anything anyway? I mean, it's a speaker. Maybe crossover design?
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naaaah . . . I think it was just creative marketing :D
 
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