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vintage versus modern speakers

Since I have had so many excellent insights and answers to my question, here is the second chapter of my "free" education: are great vintage speakers (Infiniti, JBL,Sansui, Sony, etc..) from the seventies better sounding than what is available now? the X factor in that equation is the cost, since my speaker budget is only 1500$ for two speakers.

Ladies and Gentlemen, your advice will be read and taken into consideration.
Thank you.
rockanroller
raymonda
855 posts
 
btw...there weren't any speakers in the 70's that cost $20,000. If I remember correctly I think 4,000 to 5,000 was about the highest price on a very few speakers. The uber high end didn't happen until much latter. That's not to say that there weren't some great sounding speakers.

If I were you I would grab a pair from the 90's. Maggie 3.3, BW 801 or Ariel 10T's and be done with it.
runnin
397 posts
 
Not sure why it matters to you, but by the end of the 80's I remember seeing some at over $50,000. Grabbing 20 year old speakers from the 90's might be fine for a while, but will they soon develop foam rot? When will the caps in the crossover start to go? I'd suggest something a decade newer, after computer design became more common.
raymonda
855 posts
 
It doesn't matter to me at all. The OP stated that buying 20,000 speakers from the 70's should be a good value. The problem is that there were none.

Replacing foam and caps are difficult....if that is what needs to be done after a while. Speakers from the 90's should be fine.
mesch
3,523 posts
 
Yea, I believe that by the 90’s the foam surrounds were abandoned for better materiel, at least in most speakers.
skoczylas's avatar
skoczylas
240 posts
 
If you prefer sweet sounds to highly detailed I think my vintage tannoy hpds are hard to beat. For detail and resolution newer designs are the way to go imo. I don't think it's correct to dismiss all vintage designs or build quality - many were excellent and some remain great as they age.
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