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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
 
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.
runnin
397 posts
 
The $20,000 number might have come from me as I don't see it in the OP posts at all. As for foam surrounds, Paradigm still used them in their Performance line well into the 90's. I'm not sure when Boston Acoustics moved away from them, but their whole A series used them.
ait
480 posts
 
There's no reason older speakers can't evolve and be updated with new technologies to make them even better. I'll put my 80's Infinity speakers with new diaphragms from Apogee and a new crossover (from me) up against any of the new speakers you care to throw at them. Anyone from the NJ area who is curious can drop me a PM and stop by for a listen to see for themselves.
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