Vintage Speakers are back in style

[BigVU's]

Now that I have my Hitachi HMA 7500 back from the shop and those big beautiful meters are bouncing, I want to continue my thrifting vintage build. Of course if I could, I would love to be hypnotized by a McIntosh or Accuphase. I will keep a lizard eye out for a deal but for now I'm moving on to speakers. BIG Momma's.

I am eyeballing some Altec Model 19's and some La Scala's. Yes they have dings and will need some clean up. But might be worth the nostalgic investment at roughly1500.

I humbly ask the forum which vintage Big Statement Speakers would you suggest? What grabs your attention?

Thanks!

 

[HeadDoc12]

Now that I have my Hitachi HMA 7500 back from the shop and those big beautiful meters are bouncing, I want to continue my thrifting vintage build. Of course if I could, I would love to be hypnotized by a McIntosh or Accuphase. I will keep a lizard eye out for a deal but for now I'm moving on to speakers. BIG Momma's.

I am eyeballing some Altec Model 19's and some La Scala's. Yes they have dings and will need some clean up. But might be worth the nostalgic investment at roughly1500.

I humbly ask the forum which vintage Big Statement Speakers would you suggest? What grabs your attention?

Thanks!

Do you mean actually old speakers, or new speakers built in the style of speakers from from the 1970s or earlier? For the latter, I would probably go for some of the JBL models, like the L100.

 

[Chrispy]

Do you mean actually old speakers, or new speakers built in the style of speakers from from the 1970s or earlier? For the latter, I would probably go for some of the JBL models.

yeah, my question is more....why?

 

[617]

I bet the big Dunlavys are excellent. The big acoustats too. I'd pass on Klipsch.

 

[jkasch]

I’d pay 1500 for a decent pair of Model 19’s

 

[Old_School_Brad]

A pair of Infinity Kappa 7? They have great sound and an look good.

 

[Chrispy]

A pair of Infinity Kappa 7? They have great sound and an look good.

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In that room? Or is this a photo op ?

 

[Old_School_Brad]

In that room? Or is this a photo op ?

Just random photos from the internet.

 

[Chrispy]

Just random photos from the internet.

LOL was thinking WTF?

 

[dlaloum]

Now that I have my Hitachi HMA 7500 back from the shop and those big beautiful meters are bouncing, I want to continue my thrifting vintage build. Of course if I could, I would love to be hypnotized by a McIntosh or Accuphase. I will keep a lizard eye out for a deal but for now I'm moving on to speakers. BIG Momma's.

I am eyeballing some Altec Model 19's and some La Scala's. Yes they have dings and will need some clean up. But might be worth the nostalgic investment at roughly1500.

I humbly ask the forum which vintage Big Statement Speakers would you suggest? What grabs your attention?

Thanks!

In the mid 1980's Boston Acoustics had their A400 flagship model....

Lovely speaker - sadly given their age... the woofers would almost certainly need refoaming, and the tweeters might need a ferrofluid top up.

Great sounding classic - also an unusual design as they are relatively thin but very wide, and they are a true Acoustic Suspension design.

At the time I had to choose between the Electrostatic path, or the A400's, and I went down the Quad ESL path... but I still have a soft spot for those A400's

 

[AnalogSteph]

If DIY is an option, this came up in another thread. I think that exact tweeter is sold out now though. If a 12" is too small, the 18" version of that driver has almost exactly the same sensitivity (but obviously lower fs) and the 15" is maybe a dB hotter. Resizing the box shouldn't be too hard with the TSPs, and the 18" should still cross over fine at ~400 Hz (even if one could go up to an octave lower). You could even go with a big ol' closed box.

 

[Mart68]

Now that I have my Hitachi HMA 7500 back from the shop and those big beautiful meters are bouncing, I want to continue my thrifting vintage build. Of course if I could, I would love to be hypnotized by a McIntosh or Accuphase. I will keep a lizard eye out for a deal but for now I'm moving on to speakers. BIG Momma's.

I am eyeballing some Altec Model 19's and some La Scala's. Yes they have dings and will need some clean up. But might be worth the nostalgic investment at roughly1500.

I humbly ask the forum which vintage Big Statement Speakers would you suggest? What grabs your attention?

Thanks!

KEF 105 or later variants.

 

[mhardy6647]

Altec Nineteens are, to my taste,  far superior to the LaScalas. If you, the OP, like the Klipsch sound, go for K-horns.

 

[jkasch]

A well-known member on another site was asked about positioning vintage LaScalas. His reply was, "Face down."

 

[BigVU's]

Do you mean actually old speakers, or new speakers built in the style of speakers from from the 1970s or earlier? For the latter, I would probably go for some of the JBL models, like the L100.

Vintage ones 60's to 80's. Big Honkers. I need to check those JBL L100's out.

 

[BigVU's]

I bet the big Dunlavys are excellent. The big acoustats too. I'd pass on Klipsch.

These things are monsters! Yeah! I know Utube vids are not memorex but they sound great in this one Dun Duns. I think my issue is the thrifty project wont fit them in the budget. But I will keep an eye out. Thanks for the lead.

 

[BigVU's]

In the mid 1980's Boston Acoustics had their A400 flagship model....

Lovely speaker - sadly given their age... the woofers would almost certainly need refoaming, and the tweeters might need a ferrofluid top up.

Great sounding classic - also an unusual design as they are relatively thin but very wide, and they are a true Acoustic Suspension design.

At the time I had to choose between the Electrostatic path, or the A400's, and I went down the Quad ESL path... but I still have a soft spot for those A400's

Thanks. Interesting speakers the A400's are. And Electro's are really cool looking just haven't heard them in person and so I am assuming the internet does them not justice in the low end.

 

[BigVU's]

If DIY is an option, this came up in another thread. I think that exact tweeter is sold out now though. If a 12" is too small, the 18" version of that driver has almost exactly the same sensitivity (but obviously lower fs) and the 15" is maybe a dB hotter. Resizing the box shouldn't be too hard with the TSPs, and the 18" should still cross over fine at ~400 Hz (even if one could go up to an octave lower). You could even go with a big ol' closed box.

If I was any good at cabinet making I would clone some stuff for sure.

 

[dlaloum]

Thanks. Interesting speakers the A400's are. And Electro's are really cool looking just haven't heard them in person and so I am assuming the internet does them not justice in the low end.

My recollection, was they had no lack of bass... and I clearly recall the visceral response of a kick drum in the chest on some tracks...

I have seen pairs advertised down at around US$300 a couple of times over the last few years.... allowing a budget for repairs, the end result would still be a very very cheap high end performing speaker!

 

[BigVU's]

KEF 105 or later variants.

Oh these are really cool man. Look a bit like the AMT's just not the ribbon tweets? And this vid is using a proton amp not far off from my hitachi? Nice. Kef 100's