Although I may get flamed here, I've been very happy with Lowther for the last 15 years. Was running Ohm speakers & epos speakers in the 80's & 90's and also liked them. The Lowthers are fitted in fidelio cabinets & powered with an SE 6550 amp. I just upgraded to the DX3 model (from the PM2C) about a week ago. The mid-range and 3D imaging/sound-stage are absolutely beautiful. These speakers come to life with vinyl. With good recordings the realism is spooky good. True magic.
What vintage speaker might you use today
Like to find out what "vintage speakers" members would/might use in their current audio set-up
Do you think what made them special was the synergy between them and the amp used, or just the fact they were well designed and performed way above their price tag.??
Do you think what made them special was the synergy between them and the amp used, or just the fact they were well designed and performed way above their price tag.??
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I'm too lazy to read this entire thread, but has anybody mentioned Bozak? Late 60's "people with actual money" had these things here and there and my hippy brain seemed to like them. A note about Altec A7s…there was something "woody" about these things that was, to me anyway, very appealing. We replaced the Altec 15s with JBL bass guitar speakers (as opposed to JBL PA speakers) that could handle kick drum miking with aplomb. |
I bought AR9s & Quad ESL63s new in the eighties, and KEF R107/2s a decade later. All three are still competitive with all but the finest (read most expensive) speakers I've heard to date, and I'm still using all three. Interestingly enough, the Quads are the only ones that haven't required ANY service in all these years! I don't think there are too many new speakers that really improve on the very best of what was available going back 40yrs or more. Sure, they may be bested in one area, or another - heck that was true even when they were new, but even today, it's hard to do much better over all. The biggest change in speakers in the last several decades has been in the lower price range. There are certainly far more good to very good speakers now than there used to be. It used to be a pleasant surprise when you could find a good speaker, now I think it's pretty hard to find a bad one. |
Thank you for your response. I somewhat agree with your last paragraph because like yourself have heard a number of very good bookshelf and monitor speakers on today's market that are under $400. A few members who responded to this thread have indicated they have Dynaco A-25's and still claim they sound good. They probably bought them in the early 90's when you could still find a relatively clean pair for under $150 or less. Check out e-bay today and you will find at least six A-25's supposedly in mint condition in the range from $299.00; $399.00 and one at $449.00. The issue is:... have they been gutted and newer drivers replaced the originals .Because I am in my late 60's, my gem speakers of audio's golden years are Rectilinear, KLH, AR, ( never a big fan even then) Dynaco, Infinity and a few others. Interestingly., I have updated my nostalgic search which is mainly fascination not a hobby, for some of JBL's early 1980's and 1990's classic speakers: Century L-100; the Jubal L-65, the Studio 4311; and I think L-930, (unsure of the number) a killer large box speaker, not a floorstander. My only objections to the above models, they all had calibrated woofer and tweeter control, often on the front baffle. I was too much of a purist then, and even now to accept any shaping of the original signal. Fortunately, we don't see many brands today with tone controls. Vandersteen does and to my great surprise, these control do make a difference in the sound. BTW, the vintage JBL's I listed are not cheap, even those with scratched cabs, and one or two replacement drivers. |
[...] http://oswaldsmillaudio.com/blog/too-true-to-be-good/ |
- 144 posts total