Vintage Speakers Worth Owning Today?

[bigx5murf]

Heritage gets all the love. But as a result Klipsch KG series gets overlooked, and often sell for really little. They are very nice as well, and severely under valued across the board. I prefer the passive radiator models over the ported models.

 

[b1daly]

I've owned the ADS L710 as well, I agree it's very nice all around. I hated the dinky binding posts though, and the thick rear baffle and thin binding posts made it more difficult than it needed to be to install modern large binding posts. Also, the single electrolytic cap on the crossover depending on the revision is either 90uf or 100uf. The 90uf is difficult and expensive to find. These are also difficult up refoam, feels like voice coil gap is much smaller than most. Still these were really nice if you placed them right, and there's the last issue, they need to be near a wall, floor, and slightly tilted to get the best bass response. The original stands are designed to do just that. But they're extremely rare, and often cost as much as the speakers. I still miss my pair sometimes.

The L710 v2 actually has banana plug connectors.

I also have a pair of L810s (V1.5) that I restored which I've been somewhat disappointed in. It surprised me as they are pretty similar to the 810 (they have the same tweeter, mid, and crossover, just smaller woofers).

But after looking into it, I realized that the V2 of both the 710 and 810 have upgraded woofers, and I'm wondering if this explains some of it. My L810 really needs EQ, and then it can sound good, but always feels a little "strained." So my next ADS project (I'm addicted, hah hah) is to obtain some L810 v2. The woofers have larger voice coils.

As far as I know, Richard So has the only supply of parts to restore the drivers, I've never seen the proper surrounds (butyl rubber, not foam) available anywhere else. Richard will rebuild the spider, voice coil, and reuse/replace the cone or surround as needed. The results are excellent, the bass is very tightened up. Without this, the older drivers sound kind of "flabby" and weak. I'm not sure if this is universal with all old woofers.

 

[Sal1950]

IF ONLY
If only I had a home with a large family room, pool table in the middle, nice bar along a side wall.
If only I had the funds I'd fulfill a early childhood fantasy to own the JBL Paragon stereo speaker system
I'd put a 100" LCD flatscreen right above it and add some surround speakers + Atmos overheads
All it would take is the cash, but I ain't got none.

 

[mhardy6647]

There are... a few... pairs of vintage loudspeakers of various kinds here.

This is the pair I usually listen to, although at this point they're kind of a pastiche. My kind of pastiche, though.

DSC_9984 (3) by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

The treble horns in the Duplexes are currently disconnected, supplanted by the EMILAR EH-500-2 horns on top of the cabinets (and currently loaded with JBL 2441 compression drivers).

 

[Sal1950]

BTW, Yo @restorer-john, when would be a good time for me to fly down to ya'll and hang for a couple weeks?
I'd love to come by and play with all those vintage audio toys you got..
I'll make it worth your while

 

[restorer-john]

BTW, Yo @restorer-john, when would be a good time for me to fly down to ya'll and hang for a couple weeks?

When we build the extension to our house. It's too small at the moment for guests. Only three bedrooms and the boys have one each and my HiFi has taken over the rest...

This year we are going to build underneath and create a dedicated area for me and my stuff. Yay.

 

[Wombat]

When we build the extension to our house. It's too small at the moment for guests. Only three bedrooms and the boys have one each and my HiFi has taken over the rest...

This year we are going to build underneath and create a dedicated area for me and my stuff. Yay.

Don't you have a 'warehouse'?

 

[restorer-john]

Don't you have a 'warehouse'?

Two offsite storage sheds (large). I want to get all the stuff out of there and over here. It's very expensive either way- building or paying for storage.

 

[Sal1950]

When we build the extension to our house. It's too small at the moment for guests. Only three bedrooms and the boys have one each and my HiFi has taken over the rest...

This year we are going to build underneath and create a dedicated area for me and my stuff. Yay.

Awe thanks! Now if I could ever save enough mad money for a trip to Australia I'll take you up on that.

 

[Doodski]

JBL 250Ti - Go loud, have thump to die for and the mid to top end is sooperb. I never owned them but I daily got to listen to them at work for years. I missed them when we finally sold off the demo model.

 

[jsrtheta]

They have an extra mid and tweeter radiating upwards, so use reflections from back wall and ceiling. Imaging is far from precise, but they give a lovely sense of space. As I wrote, a Marmite thing, you love or hate it. Wouldn't use them as studio monitors, but that is what I have the Genelecs for.

I know where I come down on Marmite.

 

[Dj7675]

JBL 250Ti - Go loud, have thump to die for and the mid to top end is sooperb. I never owned them but I daily got to listen to them at work for years. I missed them when we finally sold off the demo model.

I was going to post this model too which I own and use as my main music speakers.I really enjoy them a great deal.

 

[Wombat]

I know where I come down on Marmite.

Real men eat Vegemite.

Enjoyed from childhood:

 

[Sal1950]

I was going to post this model too which I own and use as my main music speakers.I really enjoy them a great deal.

Another country music fan.
Tip my hat to ya'll

 

[bigx5murf]

The L710 v2 actually has banana plug connectors.

I also have a pair of L810s (V1.5) that I restored which I've been somewhat disappointed in. It surprised me as they are pretty similar to the 810 (they have the same tweeter, mid, and crossover, just smaller woofers).

But after looking into it, I realized that the V2 of both the 710 and 810 have upgraded woofers, and I'm wondering if this explains some of it. My L810 really needs EQ, and then it can sound good, but always feels a little "strained." So my next ADS project (I'm addicted, hah hah) is to obtain some L810 v2. The woofers have larger voice coils.

As far as I know, Richard So has the only supply of parts to restore the drivers, I've never seen the proper surrounds (butyl rubber, not foam) available anywhere else. Richard will rebuild the spider, voice coil, and reuse/replace the cone or surround as needed. The results are excellent, the bass is very tightened up. Without this, the older drivers sound kind of "flabby" and weak. I'm not sure if this is universal with all old woofers.

My L710 had foam surrounds, and cloth grills, so they're likely very early version. I never felt the bass on them was loose, on the contrary, I felt it had very tight bass. Just extremely placement dependent bass. Get placement wrong a foot in any direction and bass response nearly disappears. My other beef with them was imaging was much better raising the domes up to ear height. But even placing near a wall the bass response suffers a lot. Bring them down near the floor, great bass response, but imaging suffers.

 

[TimF]

I make no speaker recommendations. However: a few weeks ago I bought a used pair of speakers: Montan Quadral Mk II (Germany). I think they were late 1980's or early 1990's. I am assessing whether I prefer them to my ProAc Response 3 speakers. The Montan has similar speaker cabinet volume to the ProAc speakers. The ProAc's are lovely but are bass light. Montan has sufficient bass but I'm not sure as yet how focused the bass is. I have yet to determine the best placement of the Montan's. For small to medium ensemble classical music the ProAc's are perfect. There is a recording by Cat Power I use to compare speakers--among a host of other recordings. It is the song Troubled Waters on Cat Power's album The Covers Record. Her voice can go grainy on some speakers. The song is from the early 1930.s I most commonly use Reference Recording as source material for assessments as well as the Miles Davis album Someday My Prince Will Come which is well recorded, and selections from the sound track for the Hong Kong movie In the Mood for Love.

 

[oldsysop]

JBL 250Ti - Go loud, have thump to die for and the mid to top end is sooperb. I never owned them but I daily got to listen to them at work for years. I missed them when we finally sold off the demo model.

These types of speakers are what I want Amir to measure.
Not those toy speakers with built-in amplifier.

 

[restorer-john]

I was going to post this model too which I own and use as my main music speakers.I really enjoy them a great deal.

What a lovely system! Beautiful TT. Is that the JVC or a Denon? Looks like a JVC Quartz Lock DD to me with stock arm but hard to tell from your pic.

 

[tomtoo]

IF ONLY
If only I had a home with a large family room, pool table in the middle, nice bar along a side wall.
If only I had the funds I'd fulfill a early childhood fantasy to own the JBL Paragon stereo speaker system
I'd put a 100" LCD flatscreen right above it and add some surround speakers + Atmos overheads
All it would take is the cash, but I ain't got none.

Yeap
, a vintage soundbar. ; )

 

[Sal1950]

My other beef with them was imaging was much better raising the domes up to ear height. But even placing near a wall the bass response suffers a lot. Bring them down near the floor, great bass response, but imaging suffers.

Keep them on the floor but tilt them back so domes fire to ear level. ?