Loudspeakers promiscuity and a list of my former passions

I’ll admit it, I’m a promiscuous lover of loudspeakers. Imelda Marcos & Jesse Jackson loved shoes. Together they owned 1000’s of them. I love pre-owned loudspeakers but have owned less than 60prs of them. I had been an approved member of the original Audiomart, a monthly 6” tabloid classified newsletter published by Walt Bender out of Virginia that ceased publication sometime before 2000. Many of you were probably members too. The pages were filled with current and vintage hifi equipment, some new-in-box and some hi-end dealer ads. Today’s online venues like Audiogon and US Audio Mart are largely inspired by that original tabloid form.

Each month members checked their mailboxes (like kids waiting for a letter from Santa) to be the 1st person to jump on all those treasures in the eight to ten pages of terse abbreviated product descriptions. The early bird did always get the worm. Audiogon and US Audio Mart keep my juices flowing and I’m grateful for their existence but I basically have all the hifi equipment I’ll ever need in my remaining years.

The list below represents every set of used loudspeakers that I’ve owned in the approximate order they were acquired. Some were of high quality. Others were somehow interesting enough to make me want to understand how they were designed. All were sold for largely what I paid and were mostly British, some from Canadian, and some from the US.

Below this list is an “origin story” of my evolving interest in speakers should you have any interest:

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Sony cassette radio (1969) with spectacular fidelity - my housemates wondered where I hid the amp & other spkrs

Superscope Boom Box with 10 watt external spkr output (1972)

EPI 100’s - US (1972)

ADS 400’s - US (1977)

ADS 800’s - US

Acoustic Research AR2AX’s - US (1979)

Rogers LS3/5As - BRITISH (1979)

Satterberg subs designed for LS3/5As- -US (1980)

Dahlquist sub - US

Focal Plaster 18” Eggs - FRENCH - Focal 7” 7N402 woofers, 1” Focal tweeters (1981)

Symdex Sigmas & Symdex subs w/ Dalesford 10" bextrenes - US (1982)

AUDIOSTATIC ES-240 electrostatics (made in 1978) - HOLLAND (1982)

Dynaco A25’s - US (1984)

Chartwell LS3/5A British (1984)

Spendor LS3/5A - BRITISH (1985)

Renaissance Acoustics - all models: Companion Nearfield Monitors, Companion I, II, III, Companion Bass Modules, Companion Reference monitors & subs, Renaissance Custom D’Appolito Towers - US (1985 -2000)

KEF 101 - BRITISH (1985)

Tangents 2 1/2 way towers - BRITISH

Warfdale Diamonds - BRITISH

Dick Sequerra Pyramid Met-7 - US

JPW JP-1s - BRITISH

Mission 70’s - BRITISH

Heybrook HB-2’s - BRITISH (1985)

Heybrook HB-1’s - BRITISH (1986)

Radio Shack Minimus 7’s - US which I highly modified

Radio Shack Minimus Lineum’s - US

Celestion SL6s - BRITISH

Linn Sara’s - BRITISH

Missions 770s - BRITISH

JR-149s & JR sub - BRITISH (1992)

Artisan Design Palintir’s - US (1995)

IMFs Compact Monitors - BRITISH (1995)

Vandersteen 1-C’s - US (1997)

Paradigm 7-SE’s - CANADA

Snell Type K’s - CANADA

Musical Fidelity Model 1 - BRITISH

Spendor SA 1 - BRITISH (1998)

Epos 11s - BRITISH

Signet SL-260’s - US (1999)

Signet SL-280’s - US

B&W 802 Series 80’s - BRITISH (2000)

Energy Connoisseur C-1’s - CANADA

Totem 1’s - CANADA

Harbeth HLP3’s - BRITISH (2002)

Meadowlark Swifts - US (2016)

SVS SB-12 Sub - US (2016)

KEF Classic Series C-80 towers (40 yrs old) - BRITISH (2018)

Harbeth Compact 7ES-3 - BRITISH (2018)

Magnaplanar LRS panel spkrs - US (2019)

PSB Alpha Silver’s - CANADA (2020) A gift to my daughter.. I paid $50.00 for a $1600 pr in cherry veneer in great condition FROM A WITLESS PAWN SHOP that didn’t know what they were selling. i repeatedly asked if the price label was correct then asked the manager who said yes, that they’ve got a chain of 600 stores and get prices from their corporate office. Go figure!!! They’ve since then done their homework.

CURRENTLY USING:

B&W 802 Series 80s (made in 1980, with sealed 8" woofers, 1” TEXTILE DOMES & 5” kevlar mids) - BRITISH - (textile domes sound very airy and smooth )

Monitor Audio Radial-180’s - BRITISH

KEF Classic Series C80 towers (1980) - BRITISH (2017)

Magneplanar LRS flat panel spkrs 48” high - US

Renaissance Acoustics Companion II’s - US

Audiostatic ES-240’s. (true electrostatics made in 1978) - HOLLAND - Sold in June, 2021 (I preferred them over all the other electrostatics on the market.)

My Speaker odyssey:

While working as a biologist at the University of Florida, I moonlighted as an aspiring part-time loudspeaker manufacturer inspired mostly by British products particularly BBC designs. I incorporated under the name Renaissance Acoustics Inc from 1985 to 2000. Each year Renaissance was listed in the October Audio Magazine Annual issue and in a few issues of the Orion BlueBook. The public saw me as a serious manufacturer when in fact I was more like Peter Sellers in “The Mouse That Roared”. I frequently got letters of inquiry from engineering graduates who wanted to work for me who I turned away with tactful excuses. I sold speakers locally to a small growing list of customers but also to a voice coach at the Dallas Opera and to an assistant recording engineer at Chesky Records in NYC.

Several dealers were interested in selling them, like Bill Gibson’s House of Stereo in Jacksonville, Florida. He knew my unimpressive reality but still liked what he heard and wanted to help. He asked for cabinets in piano gloss black whereas my cabinet supplier only finished them with wood veneers and hardwood radiused edges. Foolishly, I declined. My biology job at the University of FL kept me fulfilled, anchored and secure. By the end of 2000, Infinity Corp must have figured out that I was small and languishing and had already come out with their Renaissance product line while Morel had started their own Renaissance Co, and Bose later trademarked my model name Companion for their computer spkrs. Apparently the name Renaissance had created the illusion of a sophisticated, mature, company with refined products and deep enough pockets and market presence to keep the big players at bay at least it did for 15 years.

So in 2000 I dissolved the business without much regret. It was a fun ride and I got to enjoy a lot of music on a long list of wonderful loudspeakers and probably had more fun than Imelda and Jesse ever did. Speakers vs shoes… no contest.