Personal speaker evolution

1979-81 - Poineer 3 ways - had a carbon/graphite woofer (I was in high school in Germany when I got the hifi bug. Worked for Kenwood in the military outlets as a sales rep part time.)

81-85: Infinity RS II, purchased in Germany for $571 pair. Sold for $1500 when I returned to DC to go to college. Too big for dorm, needed money.

86-89: Used dad's Pioneer CS-88A from early 70s.

90-03: Suffered with Infinity SM #@$%#. Was into career, wife, family, didn't listen to much music although still managed to amass a decent CD collection.

October 2003: Longing for that Infinity RSII sound that is imprinted in my memory, I stumbled on Dali Grands and will live happily ever after. They don't sound like those 2 emits, 3 mids and 2 woofs that I used to have but they exceed my requirements. Purchased on Audiogon.

1. EPI 100, new, around $100/pair

2. Klipsch La Scala, new, about $800.00 (in black, with grille; bought just one, intending to later get a pair of Klipschorns for a 3-speaker stereo array; this never happened, but I still use the single La Scala for casual listening, sports broadscasts, conference tapes, etc.)

3. Linn Index, new, don't remember the price (these were bought on the dealer's upgrade plan with intent to trade them in on Sara's)

4. Linn Sara, new $800.00/pair (great deal on a demo pair as the dealer needed to make room for the new Sara 9's; in a listening test vs. the La Scala, the little Sara proved to be more revealing of what the musicians were trying to communicate; they still satisfy)

Started with the large Advents through college, then switched to Kef 104 ab's for many years. Then (drastically) upgraded to Avalon Osiris, which I've had for 3 years. NNNot going anywhere soon.

David Shapiro

1985 - Pioneer Monitors. Awful but free.

1988 - Onkyo floorstanders. Yes, that Onkyo. Had 12" woofers which, at that time, seemed bitchin'.

1991 - Infinity monitors. Sealed, sounded great, looked classy. Too bad I sold them.

1999 - Klipsch RB-3 monitors. A classic "what was I thinking" situation as I half-heartedly got into home theater. They sounded bad from the start and never improved. At least they were cheap. My kids will hate me for passing them down when they're old enough ... the kids, not the speakers.

2003 - JMlab Cobalt 816S floorstanders. Finally stuck my toe into the deep end. Really like these speakers. See my system page for more details.

???? - Dynaudio floorstanders. Need spousal approval which is an indeterminate number of years away.

I started off with the biggest gaudiest loudest speakers I could find, the Cerwin Vega AT-15. At 18 years old, probably the perfect speakers for me. They were huge, about 40"x20"x20". 15" woofers, extremely efficient, and there seemed no limit to how loud they would play. They got me thrown out of TWO different apartments (well...that and some other things).
Then I went to the other end of the scale and bought the Carver al3's. Nice speakers....terrible choice. My lifestyle at the time and those tall, fragile speakers was a godawful match.
Sold them and went with a pair of PSB speakers combined with an M&K sub. Perfect set up for the time. Great for HT which I was into at the time, easy to place, out of the way, etc.
Then I replaced the PSB's with a pair of Boston VR-20's combined with the M&K. I still have these speakers. Very good HT speaker, a little harsh and thin for music, but for $400 not bad at all.
Now I have the Europas and really enjoy them. I've gone toward the monitor side of things, although I can see myself with a large floorstander in the future.