Vintage Speaker Choice

Large Advents! A true classic from Henry Kloss.

+1 Advents!

As a direct reply to your OP,
 - without knowing what you are driving them with, and
- without knowing your fave genre of music.....
.ADVENTS over the WHARFEDALES,

Without prejudice to the above; as an all- around performer in general, neither one would be my top choice in the  “vintage” speaker contenders and pretenders.  

Both are ancient history.

EBM, this potential purchase is solely to complete a vintage system that is more a visual than one I will be listening to consistently. That said I want the best sound possible from these oldsters so that's why I'm asking. AKG, Yamaha CA810 integrated, Yamaha TC 520 cassette deck, Yamaha CT 810 tuner and a Yamaha disc changer CD player. This would all be moot if I hadn't made one of the biggest audio related blunders of my life some years back. Too painful to mention right now...

I hope you enjoy its all about the music. They would be great for a second system.

Thanks, this "vintage museum system" as if taken to calling it is actually system #3. Been treating myself in retirement. I've got  new Wharfedale 225's in system #2. 

Are you open to other Vintage choices. I have had quite a few in the price you refer to and would be happy to suggest a few. 

Large Advents.  If you can swing it go for stacked Advents.  I had an original wood pair and added a pair of new large Advents a couple of years later.  Nice improvement. I replaced them years ago, but mine are still in boxes in my spare room.  If you get a pair check the woofer surrounds.

ESS AMT 1A

I had a pair of Infinity 1001A’s that I LOVED. It had a rear tweeter . Sounded great in a bedroom, listening to the old rock and roll of the 70’s. My wife had the Advents in her deli, they were good also

Many of the Vintage "L" line of JBL like  L19, L26, L40, L50 are all good. The Celestion Ditton 33, 44, even 66 are around at that price sometimes. Recapping these provides huge gains and is easy to do. IMF TLS 50's are very good too but should also recap. 

Obviously many more but there is a few in the price range :I am sure you would enjoy.

Not to derail the thread but  I can't resist a comment. I haven't heard a new $400 speaker that is close to these  "Ancient history" speakers. 

Dynaco A25 !!
Dahlquist DQ10's !!!

You are kidding, right?  Both are horrible speakers, but to each his or her own.  Get whichever one sounds "good" to you, I guess.

Want some decent vintage box speakers?

Try Fulton 80 or 100 for less money and actually some semblance of accuracy of reproduced sound.

Vintage decent speakers? ANY Magnepan that is still working.

I recently purchased a power strip by Maze on eBay for $100 including shipping. It looks very well made and works fine.  I've since read that the Furman power strips are excellent.  Did I make a mistake? Thanks.  Doug

I've always had a certain fondness for Large Advents - had a pair most of the way through college, and later added a second pair. Great sound with the infamous stacked setup, to be sure.

But much as I liked them, the Advents eventually made way for a pair of Infinity 2000A's. These had 12" woofers, about 6" midranges, and four rectangular RTR electrostatic tweeter panels mounted at varying angles in an area open to the front and rear... one of the earlier 'direct/reflecting' designs. The 12" woofer delivered very solid bass (no sub needed), but the electrostats were the 'secret sauce' for a very smooth upper range all the way to at least 20k. I still remember them fondly as one of my all-time favorite speakers. The 2000A was kind of a 'cult classic' - one of the true 'sleepers' of the era for the price. I bought mine very slightly used for about $250, and they literally blew away speakers selling for many times that amount.

Unfortunately, one of mine was stolen out of the moving van during a relocation, so today I have only one half of the pair (why would anyone steal just ONE speaker?) I'd love to grab another pair someday (there's a pair in very nice shape currently offered on eBay for $799), just to see if they still impress me as much as they did back in the early '70s.

After 30 years of speaker swapping, priced from $500 to $3000, I've been listening to a pair of Infinity RS1.5's for the last 2 years. Love 'em. I paid $264 for them. Hooked up to $6K in modern electronics.

Hi all and thanks for all the responses. I ended up buying The Advents. They are in wonderful shape both functionally and cosmetically. Sound great with my Yamaha CA 810. The seller actually had four and I ended up going for all of them when I read
about how stacking this speaker was so popular, So I have a new question. Most people seemed to physically stack them on top of one another but how about placing them side by side?  Which is better? I will test myself but have no stands at hand to get the best comparison. Thanks.   

I would say. Stack them and put the top one upside down on the bottom one. It keeps the tweeters together. 

The Dahlquist DQ 10’s were excellent speakers. TAS says it’s one of the 10 most influential speakers of all time. Worked in a Hifi shop in College.. Had all of the JBL 100’s I could stomach. Thought the ESS were interesting, but didn’t think I’d want to live with them. IMHO Maggie’s or DQ 10’s would be my choice.

I picked up my DQ10's last year for $375.  Amazing sounding....they really excel with Jazz and Classical.  One owner, mint condition and 100% original with the exception of being re-foamed.  

I am not sure if this will qualify, but I have in my second listening room in my house, the original Legacy "Classic".   I think the company was originally called Reel to Real before Bill Dudleston changed the name to Legacy Audio years later.  I ordered them from an ad in the last page of an audio magazine and I had them shipped to my first home in California for $1,600 in 1985.   I have replaced the leaf tweeters for ribbons since they blew out.  Kind of cool that a speaker can last that long and still sound great after all these years. 

I picked up a pair of John Bowers Active 1 back in the 1980's for $1100
200 watts for the drivers and 100 watts for tweeter per speaker.
As time went on I needed and found spare parts on the internet to keep them playing well.
Playing them with a Classe 5 Pre-amp and Cal Audio MK11 HDCD CD Player. Sounds terrific.

For that money, look for a pair of the late 70’s KEF Calinda or Cantata loudspeakers. As we used to say about the Large Advent, they have that "hole-in-the-middle". It wasn’t a great speaker when it was new and certainly hasn’t gotten better over time. It’s claim to fame was that with a very big power amp, you’d get a deep low end and the mid-range wasn’t offensive. Of course the mid-range lacked detail and clarity as well, hence the "hole-in-the-middle" comment.

One of the great features of these loudspeakers is that they are extremely revealing of the sonic qualities of your power amp.  Match one of them with a good tube power amp and you'll have true magic.

That vintage of KEF loudspeaker is right in the price range of what you’re looking to spend. Go to:

https://www.hifishark.com/model/kef-calinda

Have the JBL-112s for the “hard rock” and the Spica ST-60 for the classical side.  Nice mix!

The large Advents, particularly if you buy four (and you should get them @ $100 ea) stacked vertically, with the upper speaker upside down (a pseudo-Apolitto configuration) can outperform many $2000 a pair speakers.  Go for it!

I would go with Altec 604E's.  Much of the music from the 50's, 60's, and 70's were mixed using the 604.  Although not the most accurate speaker, still very listenable in the correct enclosure.

I did stack them as suggested with the top one upside down. I'm very satisfied for how old they  and my Yamaha Integrated Amp are. My vintage Yamaha table is sounding good too. I'm using thin and old Monster Cable with bare wire on both ends. Was wondering if some better cable with pins on the amp and spades on the speaker end would be worth doing? Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

I’m rocking some old carver amazings and enjoying them.  Same room has L80s for rock.      

I picked up a pair of Snell type E that were within the OP's price range. As good or better than any 30 year old speaker I have owned. I haven't even re capped them yet but these are definitely worth the effort. 

On my vintage but completely different system, the choice of speaker wires didn’t make a significant difference unless I run very long >15’ runs. Any decent 12awg stranded copper cable should work. Are you connecting them up in parallel?

For all but my main system I still use 14 gauge stranded wire, and have never heard a difference switching in much more expensive cables.

Zar - glad to hear about your stacked pair.  Should give you lots of pleasure .... image much better than single speakers alone, plus solid frequency response top-to-bottom.