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Clean low powered amplifier recommendations [available to purchase new from online retailers that ship to Canada], please! :)

mike7877

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The purpose!
To find and then purchase a cost effective amplifier which compliments the speakers/room/listening position described (and partially measured) below.
The most important thing to consider in this discussion is that I live in Canada and recommendations need to be for things I'm able to purchase without extra work. Very likely, (infinitely close to 100% likely, in all likelihood...), I won't be going to a brick-and-mortar store to pick up the product (a sad state, and a topic for another thread). Obviously this leaves only online retailers - more specifically: Canadian retailers and American retailers that ship to Canada.

Right then. Moving along!!!:

First::
The speakers are on either side of a 34" ultrawide monitor with an 1800R curve. On my desk. The room is ~2.5x3.5m (8x12ft),
I chose the best listening position (I mean, why not?!) : the equilateral triangle. The centre of the drivers are about 6 inches away from the edge of the monitor

Now to the more interesting stuff :D

The speakers themselves... are amazing. You might not've heard of them before. They're "Realistic", model "Minimus 7" and they're good. Very good. What's good? In my opinion, these speakers. Every household should have at least one pair. Why? "Cause they're good, that's why!
They're small, black, metal and heavy. The enclosure is solid aluminum and thick. An entire 2mm at its thinnest, approaching 4mm at its thickest, which is the [rounded] corners. It doesn't flex (like all aluminum lol), and I once dropped one from 5 feet onto a thin carpet with no underpadding on cement (in a basement obviously), and there's no dent or even evidence of the event at all.

Driver specs:
Tweeter
25mm soft dome tweeter, possibly silk
25mm voice coil

Woofer
100mm paper cone mid-bass driver with soft dust cap
Cone without surround is 73mm in diameter
Cone with surround is 93mm
Voice coil is either 25mm or 32mm in diameter

The diameter of the cone without the surround is 73mm
The diameter of the cone with (+) the surround is 93mm
The effective cone diameter is 80mm

Crossover
There's one coil and one capacitor. The cap goes from the negative terminal to the positive side of the tweeter, so I think the tweeter has a natural ~6dB rolloff at the same frequency (reverse polarity for 12dB (effective) crossovers. The woofer must behave something similar but opposite the tweeter (because both drivers need to have the same slope at crossover).

Power Handling
Not much is listed for this aspect
40W maximum. We can assume RMS is half of that: 20W
The extremely cautious might go with 10WRMS
Because the situation is that the speakers are each about 1m away from my ears, power handling isn't really a concern. For me it's actually not a priority at all!
Even though:

Efficiency
I couldn't find anything on the overall efficiency of these gems, but I do have some speakers that are 91dB/W, some that are 85dB/W,
I'd estimate these to be in the 82-86dB/W range. I haven't had them set up in the same room which is why I'm not sure to within 1-2dB.

Sound
These speakers sound amazing and the width and depth of the soundstage they're able to generate is astounding. No doubt the 80mm midbass which I believe crosses to the 25mm tweeter which is no more than 120mm centre to centre spacing helps with driver integration and dispersion at the low crossover point [for the size of the midbass driver] of just 3kHz has a large role in this ability, and the woofer's ability to cover the full range of the human voice before it starts gently rolling off at 12dB per octave (-3dB at around 100Hz).

If you've never experienced listening to a speaker designed in the style of sealed cabinet, you really don't know just how much of a different animal it is to a similarly sized vented brethren...
I have some ATC SCM20 PSL Pro Mk IIs, and I believe their -6dB point is 55Hz. If you compared their bass to a similarly sized (10-20% larger volume than average bookshelf speaker) vented speaker with 5" woofer, what you'd hear wouldn't be comparable. The bass range of the sealed box would extend much lower, but through the entire range, the amount of bass is less. The bass there is more controlled as well. Like your eyes adjust to light in a theater, your ears adjust to bass in a room. When you have a perfectly smooth, perfectly sloped rolloff, your brain compensates - you get to hear detail down past -12dB. No missing notes through the range, no booming notes through the range - it's bliss. Sealed speakers should be all speakers, except where max or loud SPL in small size is a major consideration (usually low end). Anyway, these smaller speakers -6dB point is probably somewhere around 80Hz. Sometimes I put a shelf that lifts with a 12dB slope from where the Minimus 7s roll off starts, going down to where -12dB would be, then do a 12dB rolloff from there, which effectively extends the rolloff point of the speaker by an entire octave, and creates a -24dB/oct slope at the end of that octave. This limits maximum sound output by 12dB, but then, in an enclosure too small to hold a litre of milk, you've got a full range speaker that goes down to 45-50Hz completely flat. It does this loud enough to enjoy music, too. The woofers do have a decent xmax (max excursion without distortion, probably 7-8mm peak to peak), and their suspensions are quiet, too. Also, as the box is sealed, most of the almost nonexistent noise the suspension makes, is contained! With the bass properly equalized, these speakers are definitely something! Every house should have at least one pair...
No, two!!!

So the interface I have and use is an RME Babyface Pro (non-fs. They're basically the same, 1-2dB THD+n worse and that's about it).
Right now its headphone amp is amplifying the speakers directly. I don't have enough power available to do my 12dB bass shelf trick, or to really enjoy a song. But enough that speech can get as loud as someone talking loudly, and music at up to a bit louder than background level is possible if it's not bass heavy.


TL;DR (keeping in mind that I'm looking for utmost clarity at lower to medium listening levels with these speakers - - - 80mm woofers aren't able to move a lot of air, and I have a couple other systems much better suited for loudness):

I want to keep as much clarity that I enjoy running these speakers direct (frequency sweep remains clear up to 0.4V and the speakers are 8 ohms - imagine 85dB/w and a listening distance of 1 meter and that's how (surprisingly) loud I can listen next to completely distortion free. It's really close to bliss, especially the almost holographic 3D imaging that happens with good recordings.

I've seen that there are some really good measuring cheaper low powered amplifiers being offered in the past few years.
Which one should I get? (I don't want to spend more than $100 and won't spend more than $150)


Pictures of the speakers are below :)

Directly below, on the left is how they appear, on the right is exposure ++++ so you can see. Unfortunately the forum shrank down the ~2000x3000 pixels to 1/4 the size. The pictures were very high resolution too, compared to the image I made of them. For example, the third picture (closeup of the tweeter dome) was 3000 pixels tall!

1676770285216.png
 
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restorer-john

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OK, let's get this out of the way. I once ran a Tandy (Radio Shack to you) store for a number of years and it was around the time the Minimus 7s were still made in Japan, but transitioning to the Korean factory (the first move after Foster). As such, I amassed quite a few on runout, half of half price less staff discount etc. Some bought for a few dollars when they were 'discovered' in stocktakes hiding in others stores back rooms... Minimus 77s, then Pro X44s/Avs etc.

The Japanese 7s were slightly better than the Korean 7s, but, only the older 7s with the flat plate metal tweeter. Yours is the later plastic tweeter- suffix C, just as they pulled out of Japan. Exactly the same as the first batch out of Korea. Eventually they came out of the Malaysian plant.

Not that it makes a huge difference anyway. They are the biggest selling HiFi speaker of all time- nothing comes close and likely never will. We (Tandy in Australia) received the gold plated Minimus 7s (for display in head office) when they hit x million sales worldwide. Can't remember how many it was now.

But, they are really horrible. No way to sugar coat it. They were great at the time for parcel shelves in cars (with brackets of course- nobody wants to get hit in the head with a Min7!), great screwed under eaves for music while BBQing or for background music in shops. I sold literally thousands- more at half price when we'd order in 100s.

They need power to do anything, but you need to both boost the mid bass and agressively roll off the deep bass or you'll pole the voice coil. That's why RS/Tandy produced the bass enhancer subsonic filter unit especially for them, along with (eventually) a passive subwoofer. The mid range is hideous and there is a ton of distortion in the mid bass. They will take 40W all day and RS guaranteed that for 5 years. The only woofers I ever replaced were ones that had been dropped. The basket bends a little and the voicecoil rubs. Tweeters were amazingly reliable.

Only a month or so ago, I got out some silver ones (NOS in boxes) from my storeroom as I thought they'd be a fun listen in 2023 on my lab bench. No. They are just as I remember them, except with the benefit of 34 years of better bookshelf speakers- even worse than I remember them.

You may think I am totally full of chit, so here they are:

NOS Minimus 7s from my storeroom
IMG_1230.jpg


Japanese:
IMG_1231.jpg


Manufactured March 1988
IMG_1232.jpg


Do yourself a favour: Buy something, anything, better. They really have no redeeming sonic qualities even when modified within an inch of their lives.

And what am I doing with mine? Back in their packaging and back to the storeroom.
 
Last edited:

mhardy6647

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I totally agree, FWIW, with @restorer-john (and not that I have any credentials at all, much less any approaching his!).
I always found them to be quite bland, even at those 'where-is, as-is' sale prices. I thought that they sounded small, and that they sounded like they were working very hard.

The small ads and Visonik loudspeakers of the same era were, to my ears and taste, much better.

@mike7877 If you're curious about the lengths to which folks will go to improve them (and noting @restorer-john's comments!) here's an example thread from AK and the late "Zilch".
 

restorer-john

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(and not that I have any credentials at all, much less any approaching his!).

You have a ton of experience and a lifetime (i'm guessing) of collecting and playing with HiFi. Your credentials are solid! :)
 

JSmith

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I've seen that there are some really good measuring cheaper low powered amplifiers being offered in the past few years.
Which one should I get? (I don't want to spend more than $100 and won't spend more than $150)
If you're looking for an inexpensive amp that measures ok, this may fit the bill;

index.php

index.php


I agree though with the prior comments about the speakers. ;)


JSmith
 

NiagaraPete

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My father-in-law owned those and he thought they were great. When he passed I was honoured with the task to toss them out.

Do yourself a favour and start looking at some active monitors. Neumann, Genelec, Kali are good options.
 
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mike7877

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OK, let's get this out of the way. I once ran a Tandy (Radio Shack to you) store for a number of years and it was around the time the Minimus 7s were still made in Japan, but transitioning to the Korean factory (the first move after Foster). As such, I amassed quite a few on runout, half of half price less staff discount etc. Some bought for a few dollars when they were 'discovered' in stocktakes hiding in others stores back rooms... Minimus 77s, then Pro X44s/Avs etc.

The Japanese 7s were slightly better than the Korean 7s, but, only the older 7s with the flat plate metal tweeter. Yours is the later plastic tweeter- suffix C, just as they pulled out of Japan. Exactly the same as the first batch out of Korea. Eventually they came out of the Malaysian plant.

Not that it makes a huge difference anyway. They are the biggest selling HiFi speaker of all time- nothing comes close and likely never will. We (Tandy in Australia) received the gold plated Minimus 7s (for display in head office) when they hit x million sales worldwide. Can't remember how many it was now.

But, they are really horrible. No way to sugar coat it. They were great at the time for parcel shelves in cars (with brackets of course- nobody wants to get hit in the head with a Min7!), great screwed under eaves for music while BBQing or for background music in shops. I sold literally thousands- more at half price when we'd order in 100s.

They need power to do anything, but you need to both boost the mid bass and agressively roll off the deep bass or you'll pole the voice coil. That's why RS/Tandy produced the bass enhancer subsonic filter unit especially for them, along with (eventually) a passive subwoofer. The mid range is hideous and there is a ton of distortion in the mid bass. They will take 40W all day and RS guaranteed that for 5 years. The only woofers I ever replaced were ones that had been dropped. The basket bends a little and the voicecoil rubs. Tweeters were amazingly reliable.

Only a month or so ago, I got out some silver ones (NOS in boxes) from my storeroom as I thought they'd be a fun listen in 2023 on my lab bench. No. They are just as I remember them, except with the benefit of 34 years of better bookshelf speakers- even worse than I remember them.

You may think I am totally full of chit, so here they are:

NOS Minimus 7s from my storeroom

Japanese:

Manufactured March 1988

Do yourself a favour: Buy something, anything, better. They really have no redeeming sonic qualities even when modified within an inch of their lives.

And what am I doing with mine? Back in their packaging and back to the storeroom.

Well, like I said... I do have other speakers. Some ATC SCM20 Pro PSL Mk IIs I use for more critical listening (it sounds nothing like the older version reviewed here - there's a newer version of the driver and better enclosure). It has very low distortion, new crossover that's 18 instead of 12db/oct with air core inductors. Also uses ATC's flagship S-Spec tweeter they use in their range toppers, crossed over at a nice, low 2.1kHz with 3rd order Butterworth. It's exceptionally natural sounding and has good horizontal dispersion through the crossover range.

These speakers Minimus 7s are for quiet media consumption + occasional music at a PC

I guess I talked them up a bit much... Not every household should have a pair if sophisticated EQ is needed for full frequency range operation (and the severe limiting of volume that results)

The tweeters are good for soft domes not in specifically hi-fi designated speakers of the time. There may have been better versions, but these ones are the only ones I'm familiar with and they sound not bad... Historically I've used them with excellent sources and amplification, and honestly, when you use great sources to drive any speaker that's free of resonances and notable peaks and troughs in frequency response, the result is surprisingly good.

I think I've been biased from good DAC + amp combos driving the things.

Near-field and quiet with good source, they sound good.
So I want to keep the source good with quality cheap amplification for the workstation.

so... suggestions for $100-$150 CDN?

I've been thinking... yeah the midrange could be better, but it's pretty flat and distortion free. The only thing I can think of that's a problem is a bit of a trough maybe 2db spanning 600-1k. It seems to be a rule that troughs are much less imposing than peaks
 

Galliardist

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Beaten to it!
You can't win with these. With their extreme popularity, lots tried. One thing that doesn't help is that they varied a lot, and what helps with one hinders another.

If you do decide to keep them, throw away that idea of 40w max, get something in the 50-60w range and run with the volume low. For such a popular speaker, sensitivity isn't available to be found easily. I'd say your figure is an overestimate. I get that you're listening at low volume (which will hide the woofer breakup, at least) but you'll probably still need the reserve.

I know someone who got a bit of improvement by EQing down a couple of dB at around 3.5k and killing the low end with a steep cutoff, but that goes against what @restorer-john is saying. Oh, and that pair were quickly binned in favour of Bose desktop speakers (Companion 2 if I remember rightly). Need I say more...

Personally I'd up the budget to $200 or so and look for a pair of active speakers. There are some measured on this site. The bad ones will be an upgrade on what you have. Then again, you clearly like them, and this is your question.

The Aiyima mentioned above will do the job and give you a good basis to upgrade the speakers later should reality kick in and you hear the faults.
 
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mike7877

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If you're looking for an inexpensive amp that measures ok, this may fit the bill;

index.php

index.php


I agree though with the prior comments about the speakers. ;)


JSmith

SINAD needs to be higher - at least 10dB, preferably 15
 
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mike7877

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Beaten to it!
You can't win with these. With their extreme popularity, lots tried. One thing that doesn't help is that they varied a lot, and what helps with one hinders another.

If you do decide to keep them, throw away that idea of 40w max, get something in the 50-60w range and run with the volume low. For such a popular speaker, sensitivity isn't available to be found easily. I'd say your figure is an overestimate. I get that you're listening at low volume (which will hide the woofer breakup, at least) but you'll probably still need the reserve.

I know someone who got a bit of improvement by EQing down a couple of dB at around 3.5k and killing the low end with a steep cutoff, but that goes against what @restorer-john is saying. Oh, and that pair were quickly binned in favour of Bose desktop speakers (Companion 2 if I remember rightly). Need I say more...

Personally I'd up the budget to $200 or so and look for a pair of active speakers. There are some measured on this site. The bad ones will be an upgrade on what you have. Then again, you clearly like them, and this is your question.

The Aiyima mentioned above will do the job and give you a good basis to upgrade the speakers later should reality kick in and you hear the faults.

Most people used crap amplification and sources with them though - appropriate for $100 speakers. As I said, when you use good sources with speakers free of resonances and frequency response peaks (and good driver integration - forgot that one), results can be very good. A fact of life though, is that $1000-$4000 amplifiers don't typically go with $100 speakers. Lately engineers at some companies that make amplifiers have been paying attention to important metrics like THD+n and releasing some products for decent prices. It's just, whenever I look for one, it's not available in Canada or sold out and discontinued...

82-86dB is very inefficient... I really don't think that's an overestimate. I don't think I've seen a sensitivity rating below 84 given to anything before (the middle of the range I gave for these)
 

restorer-john

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I know someone who got a bit of improvement by EQing down a couple of dB at around 3.5k and killing the low end with a steep cutoff, but that goes against what @restorer-john is saying.

You a spot on, the bottom end has to be killed agressively, but give them a little kick of mid bass to make up for it. Then you can throw some power at them to open up the speaker. But it's just a fight you can't win as you say.

They are as cute as a button and I have a fondness for them as a tiny size speaker that punched above its weight. But then the Wharfedale Diamonds came along, the like Acoustic Energy, Energy the brand and a whole bunch of great little ported 4/5" two ways which are all better.

Tandy tried to port the speaker with the ProX44 AV but it was outclassed by then.
 

JSmith

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SINAD needs to be higher - at least 10dB, preferably 15
Unfortunately you won't find much better in that price bracket... next step is something like this, which is over double your max spend;


JSmith
 
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mike7877

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Beaten to it!
You can't win with these. With their extreme popularity, lots tried. One thing that doesn't help is that they varied a lot, and what helps with one hinders another.

If you do decide to keep them, throw away that idea of 40w max, get something in the 50-60w range and run with the volume low. For such a popular speaker, sensitivity isn't available to be found easily. I'd say your figure is an overestimate. I get that you're listening at low volume (which will hide the woofer breakup, at least) but you'll probably still need the reserve.

I know someone who got a bit of improvement by EQing down a couple of dB at around 3.5k and killing the low end with a steep cutoff, but that goes against what @restorer-john is saying. Oh, and that pair were quickly binned in favour of Bose desktop speakers (Companion 2 if I remember rightly). Need I say more...

Personally I'd up the budget to $200 or so and look for a pair of active speakers. There are some measured on this site. The bad ones will be an upgrade on what you have. Then again, you clearly like them, and this is your question.

The Aiyima mentioned above will do the job and give you a good basis to upgrade the speakers later should reality kick in and you hear the faults.

The strengths of these speakers (my iteration in their condition anyway) is their driver integration, dead cabinets, and sealed enclosure. At low to medium levels, distortion is extremely low, and with proper eq, flat response to as low as rock music goes with no port noise is possible.

With proper EQ and clean amplification, nothing for under $200 can touch them. I might not be able to convince you of that, but these speakers have none of the flaws typical of cheap speakers (resonance free, good driver integration, reasonably flat frequency response, low distortion in the treble leading to fatigue free listening).

If I were to seek other speakers, it'd be trial and error. More often than not, I'd end up with a speaker needing significant work, whether that be enclosure bracing or crossover components/design for good integration. It's just easier (and cheaper) to not look for new speakers because I know how these will sound with good source and EQ. Even though most people wouldn't be happy with the amplitude they're able to reach when the speakers are eq'd to negate the 12db/oct rolloff inherent to sealed enclosures, they're good for my use case.

Maybe distortion was an issue for some iterations, maybe a lot of the distortion was from the $100 amplifier and $50 CD or tape deck driving the things, maybe some people got versions not treated well, that had dry rot, or decay of some kind causing tweeters to not be centred properly causing distortion... idk.

looking for about - 100dB THD+n at rated power, and rated power being 10-20W RMS
 
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mike7877

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You a spot on, the bottom end has to be killed agressively, but give them a little kick of mid bass to make up for it. Then you can throw some power at them to open up the speaker. But it's just a fight you can't win as you say.

They are as cute as a button and I have a fondness for them as a tiny size speaker that punched above its weight. But then the Wharfedale Diamonds came along, the like Acoustic Energy, Energy the brand and a whole bunch of great little ported 4/5" two ways which are all better.

Tandy tried to port the speaker with the ProX44 AV but it was outclassed by then.

That's tuning for high volume, and I agree (except for the 3.5kHz reduction, maybe that was good for another iteration) . You can also tune for lower volume and bass extension, limiting things to a maximum of background music level, with jawdropping low end extension. Sure, average SPL will only be 65-70dB, but flat extension to 50Hz in the tiniest footprint? Amaaaazing!
You literally have to experience it to believe what's possible with these things, and unfortunately we're not all in a room where I can do that.
So I guess all I can do is say I'm looking for something available in Canada (whether that ships from a company in Canada, or ships to Canada from the US or somewhere else)

10-20W RMS

-100dB THD+n @ 10-20W preferred, nothing worse than -90 at 5W
 

restorer-john

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Most people used crap amplification and sources with them though - appropriate for $100 speakers.

With respect, that's untrue. Most of the 7s I sold were bought by people using top quality home amplification and the 7s were invariably used as extension or speakers B for another room, outside, the games room etc.

Some were sold for vans, holiday homes and cars, with an equal small number going in shops and restaurants- usually sold with the add-on swivel brackets.

All the Minimus 7Ws were sold to audiophiles in my shop as they wanted a small system for the office/den/reading room etc. The 7W were discontinued about 1988 as they were only made in Japan. We still have a NOS pair of those too. ;)

IMO, you need 50wpc bare minimum for the 7s.

I'm happy to do up a quick demo of thes silver 7s vs' several other small two ways and upload the audio if anyone wants to hear them? I could do it tonight.
 
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TonyJZX

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i love this thread

it has the hallmarks of someone who is unusually attached to a set of speakers that are known to be... mediocre at best...

i do get it... i have pieces that are literally older than my old lady... and when i hook them up i dont get much in the way of rose tinted glasses

maybe people like that sound? if you presented someone with a really decent piece of kit like that wharfedale 220s then they may not even like that 'neutral' sound

granted i heard realistic... and lets be realistic

he's a 4" driver done in an age of no computerised design and all you care about is durability

so you're going to get something with low sensitivty and what we would call "unsatisfactory sound"

sure if you hook it up to any china amp like the Aiyima A07 you may get ok sound in comparison to say a $100 set of edifiers but just anyhting another modern with that same A07 would be in another universe... because it is another universe.... you have jumped several generations.

Some things in the past are better left in the past.
 
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mike7877

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i love this thread

it has the hallmarks of someone who is unusually attached to a set of speakers that are known to be... mediocre at best...

i do get it... i have pieces that are literally older than my old lady... and when i hook them up i dont get much in the way of rose tinted glasses

maybe people like that sound? if you presented someone with a really decent piece of kit like that wharfedale 220s then they may not even like that 'neutral' sound

granted i heard realistic... and lets be realistic

he's a 4" driver done in an age of no computerised design and all you care about is durability

so you're going to get something with low sensitivty and what we would call "unsatisfactory sound"

sure if you hook it up to any china amp like the Aiyima A07 you may get ok sound in comparison to say a $100 set of edifiers but just anyhting another modern with that same A07 would be in another universe... because it is another universe.... you have jumped several generations.

Some things in the past are better left in the past.

The strengths they have lend to my use case (low volume, close range).

Strengths: dead enclosure, good driver integration, minimal EQ for flat frequency response, small driver size for good dispersion through crossover range, sealed enclosure allowing a simple inverted 12dB gain to offset the 12dB reduction in the bass experienced by ALL sealed enclosures.

edit: yes, I've heard realistic too, and this model is the only one I like...

edit2: speakers haven't changed a bunch in the last 30 years, especially non-exotic ones. Enclosures might have, but not sealed!

edit3: I'm not attached to them, they're available, and with good amplification and a bit of EQ, they'll give me sound of quality not possible by any speaker in a lively cabinet, with poorer driver integration, ported design. They take up less than 5x5" and will extend to 50Hz flat playing any music up to the volume level of normal speech.

small drivers and lower crossover points allow for excellent horizontal dispersion, which these have. And no phase issues. Literally these sound like one driver. Maybe other versions or examples in less ideal storage conditions had dried up caps which and skewed tweeter crossover frequencies causing bad experiences for others, idk. Many things are possible when things age

most things available for under a few hundred bucks, their enclosures aren't dead. I'd have to do a lot of work to deaden the enclosure of anything I'd buy, and then I might discover a resonance was somewhat making up for a trough in response (engineering has gotten so good that designers can do that now and my more pessimistic side thinks they do lmao
 
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restorer-john

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Here the bass enhancer effect scroll down a few posts:

 

JustJones

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Try thrift stores, Canuk audiomart perhaps? Not sure if Crutchfield ships free to Canada but they have some refurb russounds P75 under $150.
 

Galliardist

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SINAD needs to be higher - at least 10dB, preferably 15
It absolutely does not.

We'd like 85. This amp is very cheap and very close. If you want to spend more money you can get better, but you don't.

Most people used crap amplification and sources with them though - appropriate for $100 speakers. As I said, when you use good sources with speakers free of resonances and frequency response peaks (and good driver integration - forgot that one), results can be very good. A fact of life though, is that $1000-$4000 amplifiers don't typically go with $100 speakers. Lately engineers at some companies that make amplifiers have been paying attention to important metrics like THD+n and releasing some products for decent prices. It's just, whenever I look for one, it's not available in Canada or sold out and discontinued...

82-86dB is very inefficient... I really don't think that's an overestimate. I don't think I've seen a sensitivity rating below 84 given to anything before (the middle of the range I gave for these)
You probably need to read this article - it gives a more positive impression than we're giving you here (but deals mainly with a different version of the speaker), and a good idea of the faults involved. It comes from a reliable source.

The measurements for other models at the bottom of the page shows you what yours are doing. They switched to cheaper drivers and the results are slightly worse, as you might expect.

And no matter what amp you use, it won't stop the driver mismatch or cone breakup from happening. Listening at low volume may help though. Tney may not be so bad subjectively as you are using them, as you say.
 
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