What vintage speaker might you use today

Salectric,

I agree with you about extreme vintage systems.  I heard a monster set up in a huge dedicated room that sounded magnificent.  It was based around a Western Electric 555 midrange driver and a 15A horn and twin 18" woofers (looked tiny in this system).  Nothing cheap here, the system was originally triamped using three pairs of Audio Note Gaku-On amps ($250,000 per pair list price), but, when it turned out that the tweeter sounded as good with a "cheap" Kageki, one of the pairs of Gaku-On was relegated to the role of back up amp.  This type of large horn system is pretty unmatchable for the ability to deliver proper scale, sense of ease and natural flow and excellent dynamics at low volume level.

My much more modest horn-based system is no slouch either, provided I don't play it super loud (I never do that anyway).  It is built around the Western Electric 713b compression driver, twin 12" woofers in an Onken bass reflex cabinet and a not that great Fostex bullet tweeter.  Not "extreme" by some standards, but not bad either.  

There are a few vintage speaker components that I would take over anything made these days, except, perhaps, for some really good Japanese replicas of the same drivers.  I heard a fantastic, and reasonably compact, system built around the Jensen M-10 field-coil driver; I haven't heard too many systems sound better.  It is unfortunate that some of these drivers, in good shape, go for around $20,000 per driver (and you may need to buy several to come up with a matched pair).

On the not-too-crazy front, a 302 b compression driver, some RCA compression drivers, BTH compression drivers can be used to make systems that, for some people's taste, will sound better than almost any conventional system out there.  Vintage can be both "extreme" in terms of performance, and budget-friendly.

Excellent comments by Larry, as always.  It's worth noting that many of the Western Electric and Jensen drivers he refers to were introduced in the 1930s!

Regards,
-- Al

Great thread - a couple comments from members stand out to me. Have me intrigued...

Almarg

I’ll say therefore that the only speakers from prior to ca. 1980 that come to mind as some that I might want to use would be the Quad ESL-57 (of course)

@Almarg - as an EE why would you consider this speaker ?

I mean check it out

http://www.quadesl.com/graphics/quadGraphics/quad_impedance_graph.jpg

Just curious ..

Douglas_Schroeder

None. I’ve owned and heard so many vintage speakers that I would not seek one to build an extreme system.

Vintage gear is good for nostalgia trips and the audiophile on a lower budget (in fact, very good for them), but not great for building superior audio systems.

@Douglas_Schroeder

When someone jumps into a community pool and makes big splashes; it smacks of an agenda and or a big mistake - like oh oh , wrong pool ! Why is no one wearing a bathing suit here !

So - I am interested to know the 2 best vintage system that you have personally set up; the room dimensions, how they were driven, and the source that was used with them.

Cheers  

Ct0517, I would consider the Quad ESL-57 because of the legendary reputation it has achieved and maintained over the years, particularly with respect to its mid-range transparency. I am familiar with its impedance curve that you linked to. The wide variation from high impedances at low frequencies to low impedances at high frequencies, which is characteristic of many electrostatics, will of course result in its sonics being amplifier-dependent to a greater degree than would otherwise be the case. But as might be expected given that its design pre-dates the introduction of solid state amps, it is considered to be a tube friendly speaker, and tubes are my preference when it comes to power amplification.

Perhaps surprisingly, though, in some cases solid state amplification can also produce good results with that speaker. For example the vintage Mark Levinson ML-2 from the 1970s, which is rated at only around 25 or 30 watts into 8 ohms but can double its maximum power capability into halved load impedances down to 1 ohm, has always been considered to be a synergistic match.

Best regards,
--Al

LarryI, your speaker is hardly modest.  I am sure it sounds very nice by any standard.  My own vintage speakers are further down the scale.  As you may recall, I use a 15" Jensen P15LL woofer in a sealed cabinet similar to the Western Electric 753 with an Altec 802 driver in a 32A horn.  While I am sure it would sound better with a 713 driver, the 802 still sounds good to my ears.