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What are your favorite full range speakers with vintage solid state power???

Onebean

Onebean

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
Like a lot of us, I have a little collection of vintage integrated amps and receivers. I seem to gravitate to pieces around 75 watts, and pieces around 25 watts, so this is a 2 lane question. What are your favorite full range speakers with vintage power around 75 watts, and what is your favorite full range speaker with vintage power around 25 watts?

I use the term full range loosely, and my definition would be any speaker that can reproduce music at a reasonable level, with enough bass that a sub-woofer is not essential. This could certainly include stand mounted speakers. DIY and kits are included too.

There are no price constraints on recommendations. So if you are running a pair of $10,000 speakers on vintage solid state power, and it's your favorite, I'd love to hear about it.

Please only recommend speakers you've listened too on vintage SS. If you want to include some extra details, like room size, a specific genre of music that they excel at, amp brand / model, or something else that makes this speaker a favorite, the more details the better.

Please note if your recommendation is for 25 watt, 75 watt, or both. Hopefully this will be a fun and educational thread.
 
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I'll start this off with a favorite of mine, the Paradigm Titan on 75 watts of Yamaha CA-810 power. I have version 3's, and they are 2 pairs stacked in my basement work shop. They sound fantastic, and could easily work in a living room or Den. Mine are completely stock.
 
I am new to the game and can only speak in the 20-35watt range. Marantz 2220b and a university sound pro 120a

Speakers that I have enjoyed and surprised me
Dynaco A10- small speaker that sounds nice for a small room

And the speaker that stopped me in my tracks because Least expensive speaker I have bought Marantz imperial 6g

I am cheap so nothing here expensive
 
I've run my KLH Model 6s on a 10 watt Superscope R1220 and right now they are hooked up to a 120 watt Sansui 9090. They sound good on both.
 
Polk Monitor 7 are a nice speaker at any power level. They are full range but not a physically large speaker. I have a pair of refurbished AR2ax that are great with 50wpc power. They are similar to the AR3 which would also require the 50wpc or better power.
 
We are currently living in a temporary situation, with a very limited listening space. I have never had to do so before, but have been doing a lot of nearfield listening, at much lower volume than usual. My Pioneer HPM 100s, powered by a Luxman R-117 receiver (yeah, I know, it`s not a low-power unit) sound remarkably good, seated at about 5 feet away. I credit the Luxman for much of that....
 
Soundcraftsmen ma5002 amp
Soundcraftsmen sp4002 pre amp
Soundcraftsmen t 6001 tuner.
Wilson Audio Watt puppy 5.1 speakers
Jbl l65 Jubals.
 
no favorites, but i like AR and the 58s fly waaaay under the radar so can be had on the cheap, i like this lol.

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It also doesn't hurt that they look right at home with my vintage Kenwood in the living rm. Paid $275 for these a little over 2yrs ago to replace one of my sets of Heresys for the sole purpose of moving the subwoofers out of the main room.

And these would definitely be in the 75watt or higher arena. I'm currently driving them with a 100watt Belles amp, but as these are 4ohm there's more like 185watts available.
 
Tandberg TR2075 MkII receiver and Linn Majik 140 speakers.
Behringer DEQ2496 in one of the tape loops to get a Toslink
input from digital sources (and to tame some room resonances).
Room size 5,5 x 3,8 meters with speakers on short side on each
side of a large screen TV. Bass response can be tuned by distance
to wall and/or plugging rear port.

Speakers are 4 Ohm and the amplifier will easily provide up to 100 W.
Tandbergs specifications are always on the safe side, 75 W nominally.
They get along perfectly but that is no surprise, many of the scots
still have traces of norwegian DNA.
 
Technics SB 7000 speakers with Technics SE9600 amplifier. Great synergy here with this combo.
Digital sources sparkle!!
 
Marantz 2230 with Advent 1's. Almost like they were made for each other. Other receivers/speaker combo's in other rooms of the house, but I listen to these the most.
 
Boston Acoustics A-60 (series 1)

Sound fantastic with both of these receivers:

Pioneer SX-950 (85 wpc at 8 ohms)
Marantz 2230 (30 wpc at 8 ohms)

Crisp but not harsh, and excellent octave-to-octave balance.
 
I currently have only one receiver and it’s a 125 watt Sansui 9090DB. Combined with Boston Acoustics A200s that I have owned since 1983, I couldn’t be happier. The BAs were collecting dust in my mom’s garage for the last 15 years but have been resurrected with a good cleaning and a refoaming of the woofers. They are every bit as good as I remembered them to be. My listening space is a rather large basement room, but it’s oddly shaped making speaker placement a challenge. I also have a pair of JBL L36s hooked to the system, and I am experimenting with placement so the jury is still out.

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AR-3a paired with various older amps/receivers- Onkyo M-504, Carver HR 772,
Yamaha RX-V795a, or JVC RX-884. My fave was the Onkyo until one channel
blew. "I swear I wasn't driving it that fast, officer..."
 
Currently have some Optimus 5's being powered by a little Sansui AU-3900 (22 watts per). Not sure how power was figured back then but these Optimus 5's sound way better with the Sansui than with my modern 100 watt per channel Yamaha AV receiver. Not even close. The Optimus 5's and the Nova 8's are the same speakers and well regarded around AK. Sealed design and probably around 87db efficiency. 10 o'clock on the Sansui is plenty loud.
 
At the moment I am running JBL Studio 590s with a Marantz 2235 and they work together quite well. Of course it won't 'go loud' like the JBLs could but I don't expect it either. Sounds very good in it's comfort range. Bad at estimating dimensions but it's a smallish to medium sized living room which is dedicated to media. I recently from a few years ago downsized my quarters and the Altec 19s, subs, and big amplification had to go... no more concert level Stevie Ray Vaughan Tin Pan Alley events but it's still very pleasant and satisfying. If I had my choice and a comparable sounding 70-100 watt integrated amp fell into my lap it would replace the 2235 for the headroom provided, not to play louder... the 2235 was $24 a number of years ago, went through it and it works well with the JBLs.
 
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