Vintage Speakers Worth Owning Today?

[oldsysop]

 

[restorer-john]

I heard that the tweeters are fragile and can be damaged if a lower power than needed amp is driven into amp clipping with them.

The Tweeters are fragile, but repairable Frank. And they expire due to the lead-in wire to the VC failing or vaporizing, generally not the VC being 'cooked'. We've got one spare NOS Be tweeter I ordered from Yamaha before they ran out of stock as one of my father's 1000M tweeters was dead. I repaired it for him over 20 years ago and it's still going strong. Even back then, the tweeter was AU$191 at cost...

 

[watchnerd]

Did you get them in the divorce too?

No, we broke up before.

And, being 22 at the time, her bra size also kept me around longer than it should have.

 

[Robin L]

a/d/s 400, mid-eighties, sealed, cuts off bass around 100hz, plays well with subwoofers, nice presentation of classical music. My main pair right now, mated to a small, powered Sonance sub. I'm in a small apartment right now, serves my needs well.

 

[KozmoNaut]

There do seem to be exceptions coming back to market, albeit not sealed:

Klipsch Cornwall IV:

Tannoy Legacy Arden:

Comment:

I've never heard nor seen either one of these in person.

The entire Klipsch heritage range is very tasty, but you certainly pay for it. I'd love a set of Cornwalls or Fortes or La Scalas or Heresies, but alas. Klipsch doesn't have much presence in Europe.

Tannoy doesn't move me, and again their prices are prohibitive.

So we've got Cerwin Vega, Klipsch and Tannoy producing old school big beefy speakers. JBL also get an honorable mention for the M2 and some of their PA speakers (like the SRX series), which are very similar in spirit to the big speakers of yesteryear.

 

[Martin]

My Von Schweikert VR-4 Gen III HSE are 15-20 years old. I love the way they sound. I bought them about 5 years ago for $2500 (they were originally $9000 speakers); that’s a great deal in my book. They easily do 20Hz in my room; the midrange and high end are beautiful, eminently listenable. They are my forever speakers. (Assuming I don’t fall into a pile of cash.)

Martin

 

[watchnerd]

I've never understand why those big horizontal JBLs have so many ports / holes....what's going on there?

 

[Blumlein 88]

I did remember a box speaker I thought very highly of from the past. A friend purchased it at an estate sale. I heard it and went ,"wow". As did he. They were Snell B speakers. If you run across some of those, give them consideration.

 

[watchnerd]

The entire Klipsch heritage range is very tasty, but you certainly pay for it.

If one believes in buying speakers by weight, they don't seem that bad....

 

[mikewxyz]

I still have my first speakers, Klipsch Heresy, bought in 1979. They are back ups to my Sonus Faber's but I'll hang on to them. In fact, I'm getting ready to build new enclosures for them since they look a little beat up.

 

[sergeauckland]

That looks amazing.

Was the crossover degraded and thus the reason to move to DSP, or was it just for fun?

Just for fun. Some 25+ years ago, I heard the 801s at Danish Radio's studios, and at Radio France and thought the 801s were the best sound I'd ever heard. However, I was also wedded to the concept of active 'speakers, so when I fancied a project, thought I'd look for some early sealed-box 801s, before they went to vented bass, and make them active. Very enjoyable project and have no desire to change them now.

S

 

[sergeauckland]

The B&W's looking great was thinking to buy a pair here in holland. Did you measur them using room correction?.

I used ARTA and REW to derive the pseudo-anechoic on axis response, then equalised it flat to +-1dB above 200Hz with a Behringer DEQ2496, and left the bass to take care of itself, as the in-room response was fine.

I don't apply any room equalisation as I prefer the room to be part of the sound as it is for normal everyday sounds.

S

 

[watchnerd]

Just for fun. Some 25+ years ago, I heard the 801s at Danish Radio's studios, and at Radio France and thought the 801s were the best sound I'd ever heard. However, I was also wedded to the concept of active 'speakers, so when I fancied a project, thought I'd look for some early sealed-box 801s, before they went to vented bass, and make them active. Very enjoyable project and have no desire to change them now.

S

Am I reading that right...there was a sealed-bass 801?

 

[Wombat]

I've never understand why those big horizontal JBLs have so many ports / holes....what's going on there?

The larger holes near the bottom of the baffle are the LF ports. The 'surplus' holes allow for mirror-matched pairs of cabs. The unused holes are blanked off. The 'slots' are actually Velcro strip.

With the extra holes only a single baffle is needed for inventory.

P.S. Multiple smaller ports frequently substitute for a larger one in design.

 

[watchnerd]

Sometimes I read about old, big speakers, especially horn designs, using Alnico magnets.

Some advocates seem to believe they're superior to anything being currently made (unless it also uses Alnico).

Is there any truth to that?

I thought neodymium was the top tier of magnets used in drivers these days....

 

[Wombat]

Sometimes I read about old, big speakers, especially horn designs, using Alnico magnets.

Some advocates seem to believe they're superior to anything being currently made (unless it also uses Alnico).

Is there any truth to that?

I thought neodymium was the top tier of magnets used in drivers these days....

IN brief: https://www.eminence.com/faqconc/wh...between-ceramic-alnico-and-neodymium-magnets/

One advantage of AlNiCo is that it can be easily cast into shape.

 

[watchnerd]

IN brief: https://www.eminence.com/faqconc/wh...between-ceramic-alnico-and-neodymium-magnets/

One advantage of AlNiCo is that it can be easily cast into shape.

"Alnico is commonly thought to produce the most “Vintage” tone and has a reputation for sounding compressed."

Huh....

I tend to think of "driver compression" (not compression drivers) as a bad thing, and representing either thermal overload or loss of linearity in the driver material.

I didn't think a different magnet type could do that?

 

[jhaider]

I second Yamaha NS1000s, especially when triamped with active crossovers!

I did that with my B&W 801f loudspeakers. Bought a pair of fairly scruffy ones, but they were complete, working, and with grilles and hoods. Took out the passive crossover and replaced it with a DSP crossover and equaliser. Once working properly, had the cabinets reveneered by a local furniture restorer. Definitely keepers, and at a total cost of around £2250 including the reveneering, less than I could buy anything comparable, even used.

View attachment 37454

Those are really nice looking!
I second NHT 3.3. I also have a soft spot for 1990s Tannoy DMT studio monitors. I was inspired by J Gordon Holt to set up a 5.1 (3 subs) system with them in law school. Ugly but sounded pretty good.

 

[sergeauckland]

Am I reading that right...there was a sealed-bass 801?

Yes, the first 801 Model 80 and the "Mk2" model called the 801f (f for Fibrecrete, which was a lightweight concrete the midrange head was made of) were sealed box bass. They then had the "Mk3" called 801M, which had the matrix construction bass unit which was vented. All subsequent versions of the 801 were vented.

S

 

[Wombat]

"Alnico is commonly thought to produce the most “Vintage” tone and has a reputation for sounding compressed."

Huh....

I tend to think of "driver compression" (not compression drivers) as a bad thing, and representing either thermal overload or loss of linearity in the driver material.

I didn't think a different magnet type could do that?

Sounding compressed is attributed to overdriven guitar(MI) speakers, not HiFi drivers, and valued so by many rock musos. It is claimed to complement the similar characteristic of tube guitar amps.