Anyone else using "vintage" speakers .... (1 Viewer)

[Greg Kolinski]

for their front l/r channels?I recently picked up a MINT pair of JBL L150A towers.I traded a set of Mordaunt-Short
MS 908's for them.I am really having a blast with them.Had been recently refoamed,and cabinets are darn near perfect.Using a Rotel RSX1055 reciever with a 130w Rotel amp for them.They are a real fun old speaker.


Greg

 

[todbnla]

FWIW-Some of the older speakers sound better than some today! That is not to say that todays technology is not great because of course it is...
I too have an older pair that I have had re-foamed, they too sound great, though they are dated, they sound wonderful, some would just go buy new speakers cause they look kewler. But-If its not broke...
I cant buy new stuff all the time because I have a few teenagers that eat my money up like water!

 

[DonnyD]

JBL L100 here. Cabinets and drivers in mint original condition. Refoamed the grills several years back. After 26 years, still very dynamic sound and has not been pushed out of their "main" location by anything else.....

 

[Don Peskin]

How old do they have to be to be considered vintage?
I'm still using Snell type e2 speakers I bought in 1988 as my mains and love their sound as much now as when I first got them. Do they count?

 

[Mark:F]

ADS L520s for fronts, bought in 1980s....very rich and full...I think I like them because they produce kind of an analog sound that smooths out some of the more shrill digital stuff.

 

[Jack Keck]

I used a pair of Polk Monitor 7s from 1979 until a litle over a year ago.

You might want to check out www.audiokarma.org



that forum seems to specialize in all kinds of vintage equipment. Its members are very insightful about such equipment.

 

[Andy Goldstein]

i'm using vintage speakers for L/C/R. sorta. i have taken my "new large advents", bought new in 1977 or so, combined them with parts from ebay, and built 3 sets of doubles in custom cabinets for the living room home theater. amazing sound! and using 3 pairs of RS Minimus-7s for side and rear surrounds.

shows how little audible progress there has been in the last 25 years. lots of high-tech goodies, lots of flashy stuff. i would still put my doubles against most any sub-kilobuck speaker. especially when you consider i have about 100 bux into each one!

ag.

 

[todbnla]

Since someone mentioned RS spakers, I will come out of the closet too :b My L/R mains are R/S Mach 1's, I love them too. Vintage Rocks, IMHO.

I even saved the specs for the R/S website:
Mach One Liquid Cooled Speaker System
(400-4029) Specifications Faxback Doc. # 38130

Frequency Response.......................................... .25~20,000 Hz
Power Handling Capacity............................160 watts peak program
Impedance......................................... .................8 ohms
System Resonance......................................... ...........65 Hz
Crossover Points......................................1.2 kHz and 4.5 kHz
Speaker Complement:..............15" (38 cm) Acoustic suspension, 34.8 oz
............(986 g) magnet woofer with brass voice coil
...........1 extended range high compliance ferrofluid-
...........cooled horn tweeter
..........Multicellular ferrofluid-cooled horn midrange
..........speaker
Enclosure........................Oiled walnut veneer sealed for extended
........................bass response
........................Removable grille
Controls:......................................... Midrange level control
..........................................Tweeter level control
Dimensions:.................................28-5/8" H x 17-3/8"W x 12" D
(72.7cm H x 44cm W x 30 cm D)
Weight............................................ ................65 lbs

 

[Dave HW]

I have a pair of Original Large Advents in my HT. Combining old and new I have a Panasonic XR50 digital receiver. Just to completely confuse the issue, I have a Norh Marble 4 for the center and another pair of Norhs for the surrounds.

In my living room stereo setup I have a pair of Original Small Advents. Between the 2 sets of Advents, I spent $225, refoamed. Definitely one of hte best values to be had.

Dave

 

[JimmyK]

I'm still using a pair of ADS L1290's that I purchased new in 1986. IMO, they still sound better than most "modern" speakers I've heard.

JimmyK

 

[NickSo]

In the HT my dad uses a pair of late-80's JBL 4425 Studio Monitors for 2ch audio paired to a Luxman seperates combo also from the late 80's.

In my room i have a pair of Realistic (RS) Minimus 7's as well ($6 at a garage sale!), paired with a Kenwood KA-7100 vintage integrated amp.

 

[Robert Cowan]

my main speakers are magnepan tympani 1D's. built in 1982. just 2 years younger than myself. one of the best sounding speakers ive heard, and i work in the business... these things are freakishly awesome. nothing built like them anymore.

 

[Mike Gov]

I have a pair of Boston Acoustics HD7 bookshelf's that I purchased in 1988. I am currently using them as L/R mains and have been for a few years. Although I love the sound of them, they are going to be replaced this week by a pair of JBL E30's. I wanted my L/R main and center to be timbre matched, and I could not find a center that would have matched my 1988 Boston's. But, I plan on keeping them to passed down to my son or daughter.

 

[Thomas Willard]

Let me add my $.02 worth in that I used a pair of AR-4x's in the downstairs theater and a pair of AR-3's in the upstairs theater that date back to 1967. Only work necessary was to clean the frequency control pots that set the high frequency response. As the level controls become corroded from the moisture inside the cabinet, the reistance to the tweeters goes up and effectively eliminates them from the crossover circuit.

Both sets of speakers use butyl rubber surrounds so the woofers are like new.

 

[ColinM]

Altec Seville L/R, no center. I used them for a bit in HT but they were displaced by Infinity Alpha's in the end (Mostly due to lack of center fill, movies never sounded quite right.) They excel in 2.0, however, driven with the 5-watt T-amp from Target.