Every Vintage Speaker Ranked by SOUND

Comments · 81

• VI

  @vintagewatts · 3 weeks ago · pinned

  📖 Get The Vintage Hi-Fi Buyer eBook. An 80-page field manual: <a href="https://vintagewatts.com/">https://vintagewatts.com</a><br><br>Tell me where I got it wrong. Is the Yamaha too low, or was I too generous the first time around?

  2

• HA

  @Happy-Trails-To-You · 23 hours ago

  I bult my own sealed cabinet speakers from heavy particle board and a Radio shack 15 inch paper subwoofer, paper midrange (maybe 5 inches) and a horn tweeter, and a capacitor for high frequency crossover to keep the highs out of the tweeter. &nbsp;I don&apos;t think I put a coil in but don&apos;t remember. &nbsp;It was 1970 and I had no money. &nbsp;Built them in my apartment in college. &nbsp;They sounded great to me, but they weighed about 90 pounds each. &nbsp;My friends liked them so I built two more pairs. &nbsp;It was fun. &nbsp;Radio Shack was like heaven back in those days.

• MA

  @malectric · 3 weeks ago (edited)

  Something I found with a pair of bass reflex cabs built to the measured dimensions of some Tannoys I once heard and really liked - For years they never sounded good with the speakers I put in them so in recent times I dug out every pair of speakers I had stashed - 4 &nbsp;pairs in all - and tried each pair in turn. It was when I tried the 4th and last pair that the boxes came alive and ironically the speakers which suited them were the cheapest ones I had.<br>Just want to add that this is a very interesting breakdown of popular commercial speakers. Seems to me given the subjective nature of what one hears it is a mix and match situation which has to include everything including the frequency response of the listener&apos;s ears and the room characteristics.

  1

• MI

  @michaelsavuto2453 · 8 days ago

  In the middle 70&apos;s I owned Tympani iB&apos;s and loved them...until I heard the full range ESL Acoustat X driven with their ServoCharge Direct Drive Amplifiers. In 1978 I sold my Tympani&apos;s to a good friend and bought the Acoustats. I used to go &nbsp;over to my friends house to listen to the Tympani&apos;s and always enjoyed them. When I got home and played the Acoustats I understood why I had sold them. &nbsp;The Quad 57 have the most seductive midrange of any speaker. Had Lincoln Walsh lived longer, Having briefly listened to a working pair of the Ohm F&apos; I think the Model A and Model F would have become de facto references. The LS3/5a was an amazing speaker and people still chase those with more dollars than they sold for new. Even after having been an owner of a high end stereo store in the interim, I still own and listen to the Acoustats, it is hard to beat a full range ESL in sound.

• UN

  @UncompressedWAVmusic · 10 days ago

  I bought my JBL Pro 4311B 3 way speakers new in Montreal in 1979 for $900. We partied together with loud incredible rock and roll sound with friends and family with hundreds of incredible parties over 42 years. Sold them in origin perfect condition in 2021 for $1,200. They were still awesome and bought by a guy with 5 sets of audiophile speakers already however he always wanted the JBL Pro 4311B Control Monitor. The same identical JBL Pro 4311B speaker that the Eagles&apos; &nbsp;engineer used to produce 33 Gold records for the Eagles. The sound was loud with 5 watts and it could take 1,000 watt peaks with minimal distortion. The 12 inch bass driver had a 5 lb Alnico magnet. When hearing the music up loud. It sounded like you were listening live. Everything sounded great on it at any volume. It never needed re-conning as it had zero polypropylene where woofer cones disintegrated. I sold it in original perfect condition after 42 years of partying with it. I miss it&apos;s great sound.

  1

• DE

  @deaddocreallydeaddoc5244 · 3 days ago (edited)

  I worked at ESS from 1973 to 1974. The AMT 1 and !Bs looked cool, but they needed a better wooffer and a midrange driver. You should have reviewed the AMT3, the Rock Monitor, was the fix. Two better 12&quot; woofers and a good six inch driver, topped by th Heil AMT. It was great. They were big and heavy, ,but that kinda made them awesome. They were attractive pieces of furniture, too. In 1973, I picked up two ESS Satillites. They sit on top of two JBL L-100 Monitors. I&apos;ve had this arrangement for the past 30 years.

• BD

  @BDCB_SHE_KNOWS · 11 days ago

  Sonics 337A and 447A were AMAZING and deserve mention. &nbsp;The whole line was great, but the flagships are beasts. I have four pairs of 337&apos;s and a pair that is still in the boxes. I also have two pairs of 447&apos;s and 3 pairs that have never been unboxed that I inherited from my grandfather and acquirede over the years. I am too young to have been able to buy new ones by almost 20 years, but my granbdfather was a junkie and passed the trait onto me.

• NA

  @naturalverities · 7 days ago

  Vintage La Scalas are a wonderful platform for significant improvements. &nbsp;Better horn lenses and compression drivers, cabinet damping, DSP active multiamping, and a capable sub turn them into superstars.

• BI

  @BilboBaggins909 · 4 days ago

  I&apos;ve had the Technics SB-7000. It was a very nice speaker that I sold way too quickly. I actually tried buying it back, but the guy who had it had already moved on. I also had the ESS AMT 1 and the 1A Monitor, and I still have an ESS AMT 4. I really liked the AMT 1, and although I liked the 1A Monitor, I couldn&apos;t listen to it for long before listening fatigue. Never had a La Scala, but I&apos;ve had Heresey and Cornwalls. The Cornwalls are one of the most impressive speakers I&apos;ve had. Right up there with my Kef 107s and my Sony SS-G7s. The Kefs are the ones that stayed.

• GR

  @gregorskiff · 3 weeks ago (edited)

  I rebuilt a pair of Altec model 19&apos;s about 20 years ago, dividing networks got a re-cap and new resistors bypassing the L pads as i prefer using an Equalizer.<br>The most effective way to dampen the horn ringing is to cut through the web welds seen at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICvTz0qWCIs&amp;t=740">12:20</a> using a thin abrasive cutting wheel then use black RTV to fill the gaps. <br>Pulling the horns and removing the drivers is easy but it is more labor than using clay, dynamat could help also.<br>I drive them with Carver monoblock amps.<br><br>The Altec Stonehenge III speakers would be a good addition to this list, i believe a few custom sets came out under the Iconic label using GPA 604&apos;s and custom crossovers.<br><br>I miss my Altec 604-8 G&apos;s in home built cabinets loosely based on the 620, the tangerine phase plug gets bad press but i liked them a whole lot anyway.<br>Great Plains Audio 604-8H III are the best 604&apos;s ever made.....but after many years in the same old Altec factory, GPA along with all the old Altec tooling is sadly gone now.

  1

• BR

  @bradleyerwin2900 · 3 weeks ago (edited)

  I had the ESS AMT 1Cs and I loved them. They played loud and powerfully. But, I realized the 12&quot; woofers and 12&quot; passive radiators were not a perfect match in efficiency or crossover point. I saved the AMT drivers for a future DIY system and recently completed a D&apos;Appolito (or MTM) bookshelf speaker system to use the efficiency and speed of the dual 7&quot; mid woofers with the AMT in the middle radiating equally to the front and back with the acoustic center that results, for a more balanced sound. It plays loud and it plays clear and open. It is also bi amp capable for more control of the drivers with an electronic crossover. I have always loved that AMT sound. But, I have to admit that a Polk Audio RTi6 bookshelf speaker setup on speaker stands with a Polk Audio 10&quot; subwoofer in a vaulted ceiling living room with two stuffed sofas and a couple of carpets has that &quot;you are there&quot; sound too. The room and the speakers make the biggest differences in sound quality! Choose the speakers that have the sound you like and that play at the levels you enjoy, and fix the room acoustics, and you are there... The amplifier, if adequate, the DACs, the CD player (if functioning properly) are not significant, even if you believe they are (Objective, scientific testing says so) . So, if you are smart, you won&apos;t go down those expensive rabbit holes.

• LU

  @luisfebus9824 · 13 days ago

  I still say the receiver or amplier brand name make all the difference great speakers or good ones help out the best sound😊

  1