Recommendations for Vintage Speakers

@helomech: Bob Carver liked the TW's! I will trust his opinion any day over Guttenberg's - who worked at that snooty audio store in NYC (Sound By Singer).

What is meant by 'vintage'? Are Snell Bs old enough to be vintage? IMO they were the best speaker Snell made. They go down to 22Hz and are easily driven with 60 watts, although I found 200 watts to be a bit better :)

One a budget the older KLH speakers are very nice if you get one of the bigger models.


But one problem you will run into with vintage speakers from the 50s,60s,70s and 80s is breakups, which contribute to harshness. The KLH speakers I mentioned have a problem with this in their tweeters- you push them, they get harsh. But if you're unconcerned with keeping them original, there are newer tweeters like ribbons that have far better performance. Of course you may be spending more to fix that problem than you spent for the speakers themselves...

BTW the kind of music you like has nothing to do with whether the speaker will be appropriate or not. The requirements a speaker needs to be good at rock are exactly the same as what it needs to be good at classical or folk.

The Bozak LS-400 and CS-501A are true floor standers that sound very good with all types of music, even though Rudy Bozak was a classical fan.  Tannoy is another excellent vintage speaker to search for.  Actually their present day Prestige series of speakers have a vintage look, so you could have a new speaker having the proper appearance for your system.  It's not a floor stander, but the AR-LST is also an excellent vintage speaker, however they are not found used very often.  Have fun in your search!

If you keep an eye on the outlet store link on ohmspeakers.com vintage OHM models refurbed with new components regularly come up for sake there for about the same as original cost. Or if you contact OHM there may be others available not posted. Or if you pick up a vintage pair of OHMs elsewhere on the cheap, they provide upgrades and service still for most every model ever made.