Help on older speakers (1 Viewer)

johannes · Nov 4, 2014

Hi there. I really hope someone can be of assistance as all my searches turned up useless. I have an opportunity to buy some second hand speakers at a good price. However, I can't find decent reviews on these speakers. It's an AR Status SC2 for the centre, AR-PS 2062 for the rears and magnat 122 422B's for fronts. How do these compare with current speakers on the same level (price, value,etc.) Is there any risk on buying speakers that haven't been used for 5 years? I currently have a Denon AVR-X1000 amp if this is of any help.

John Garcia · Nov 4, 2014

The risk with used speakers is you don't know how the previous owner treated them. If you can get to the drivers, you can see if the surrounds on the drivers are still present and ideally you want to listen to them to make sure it they don't make any odd sounds that might indicate a bad or dead driver. I can't find anything on the main speakers, so unless you've heard them, I'd be cautious on those. Speaker technology has definitley changed, but not so much that an older good speaker wouldn't still be worth owning as long as the price is appropriate.

schan1269 · Nov 4, 2014

AR was, still is, Highly regarded. As long as these are no newer than 2003, they are Jensen. AR even when owned by Teledyne(before these were made) were top end speakers. Only during the collapse of Jensen*...did AR fall off.Magnat is still around(was never big here...probably owned by a US serviceman that brought them back with them).Have you heard them in action?If they are fine...buy them.*AR was bought by TeledyneTeledyne sold it to Jensen.Jensen and Recoton mergedAudiovox(which is owned by the parent company of Directv...) went on a buying binge with Funai money.

johannes · Nov 4, 2014

Thanks for the quick reply! I got more answers in a few minutes than I did by searching on my own for two hours. Staying in South Africa, details are hard to come by locally. It won't be a problem borrowing the speakers first, so listening with my amateur ear is probably the best way... Is it possible to get a release date from the model numbers? I would like some idea how old these are. The German ones remain a mystery...

schan1269 · Nov 4, 2014

Magnat has an active website. You could send an email...they might reply.AR you are probably out of luck. AR, now, is a "brand name" used by AudioVox for various outdoor audio products. At one time AR had a fan site...haven't looked for it in ages. Did you research AR or Acoustic Research?And you might try adding in Recoton and/or Jensen.

Dave Moritz · Nov 16, 2014

I have to agree with John Garcia it is a roll of the dice if you buy them site unseen and you are better off buying used only after you have a chance to hear them and look them over.

That being said if you are looking into vintage speakers I would look at the JBL L100's! I would not hesitate to use 7 of these in a home theater where I played movies and multi channel sacd's and dvd audio discs!

http://www.audioheritage.org/html/profiles/jbl/l100.htm

http://www.jbl.com/images/media/L100_OM_EN.pdf

johannes · Nov 16, 2014

I appreciate the feedback Dave. Luckily the owner was kind enough to give the speakers to me to test before buying. He also had the sub serviced not too long ago. The sound is great and a big step up from my previous setup. I am not an expert in the field of home theatre systems, but it sound good to me (as long as I avoid listening to more expensive setups)...

Dave Moritz · Nov 17, 2014

but it sound good to me (as long as I avoid listening to more expensive setups)...

You may outgrow it and expect more anyway it is hard to say. But I agree once you have heard a really nice high dollar system your in trouble, rofl!
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