The best speaker you ever heard?

Two years ago I saw a pair of Soundlab A1's here at A'gon for a great price and bank wired the money. I hitched a ride with a friend going from Cincy to Ocala. I vacationed with my sister for 3 weeks in Jacksonville, rented a U-Haul truck to get the A1's home unblemished, and have been in bliss ever since. I hope the A1's will keep me happy for the rest of my days. Darn this addiction...I may have to consider some factory upgrades someday to satisfy my unceasing craving for perfection.

In 1977 I met Mark Levinson and he invited me up to his loft to listen to what appeared to be his reference system.

It was:
2 24 inch Hartley woofers "H"
2 pairs of stack Quads "Q"
2 Decca Ribbons on top of the Quads "D"

Big soundstage and sublime sounding.

I think he also had a pair of modified K-horns for comparison.

Yes Tbohner...a great speaker. Too bad no manufacturer ever decided to duplicate or continue this speaker. Not too expensive except for th Hartley woofers.

Professor Aubrey Castell, University of Michigan, mid 1970s. Fascinating guy.

The best speakers I ever heard are my custom 4-way horns :

Two 1954 Klipschorns with JBL 1504C's below 100 Hz ;

short, straight 1:1 compression ratio exponential-curve horns with 50's vintage JBL 130A's between 100 Hz and 500 Hz ;

round tractrix horns machined from laminated MDF blocks with 60's-vintage JBL 375's between 500 Hz and 10 kHz ;

and 077 ( or 2405 ) supertweeters ( 10 kHz+ ).

The filters are 3-way 4th-order active s.s.. except for the supertweeters', which are 1st order passive - just single Hovland caps.

The amps all use 2A3 triodes : custom ( UTC LS-58's on Webster Electric Hammond organ amps ) ppp x 4 on the Klipschorns ; Brook 12A's on the upper bass, and an A.E.S ( Cary ) SE1 on the mids + tweets.

You can see pics ( plus lots of vintage gear ) at my webpage Vintage Audio Trader's - http://homepage.mac.com/Ikecarumba

Kerry Brown
aka KerrB Vintage Audio Trader