Speakers to hang on to for LIFE

I just had the fortune to purchase a 1975 bronze pair of totally original Quad ESLs, from the son of a man who had hung on to them for life. He was going through some lean times and hated to sell them. I paid what he asked, and told him "Hats off to your father."

They are not even dusty. The grills are perfect, and are beautiful, with fascinatingly varied colors and textures in different lighting.

They charge up astonishingly quickly. My '81 black pair takes days to have good treble, and will be overhauled. (Kinda like motorcycles - gotta have a spare for when one is in the shop ;)

His father's (brother?) had bought three pair new in England and given him one pair. He only played classical music, at moderate volume. After I got them home, I found them set for 240 volts, perhaps running all that time - 38 years - at half charge. Talk about babied !!

They will pass on to a new owner when I pass on myself, hopefully after many, many happy hours of listening...

The pair I wish I'd never sold was a pair I'd built myself. It was a Klipschorn-copy design. A co-worker in Seattle had built the woofer section from plans, pretty solidly. I U-Haul'ed them back to Tucson at the end of the summer of '77, and got Electro-Voice tweeters and mid-range drivers for the wide, fiberglass "squawkers" as Paul Klipsch would call them, made a crossover (6/12), winding the huge coils myself. After tripping the protection circuit on my friend's 60 watt Kenmore, the gal from downstairs came to check on us because "It sounded like the stove fell over!" I even got them to look presentable in a rustic way, with thick, bold-grained, dark-stained paneling, and white burlap grill clothes for the top and sides.

A couple years later my friend bought them from me, and got two GAS Grandson amps (80 watts @ 4 Ohms), and I made passive cross-overs for bi-amping them, retaining the speaker crossovers too. The windows at his house sort of served as audible VU meters, buzzing along with the VU meters on the amps! In the living room it was downright adrenaline producing, crazy, thumping, loudest-rock-concert-you'd-ever-been-to loud, maybe 120 dB? And crystal clear, too (well, aside from the windows... ;)

As I said, crazy, but also impossible to get with, say, Quads.

Now that I am settled down, I wish I still had them. My friend still has the amps, but lent the speakers to another for safekeeping, but lost track of him over time...

There are a bunch of vintage bicycle fans who call themselves the Retro Grouches of North America. I side with Stereophile contributor Art Dudley, whom I will cautiously label a kindred soul in the world of stereo fans.

He maintains there are many aspects of performance reproduction that you may prioritize according to your own tastes, and that very different approaches and results can be equally valid, and satisfying in different ways, with different recordings, genres, rooms.

Including some decidedly old techniques and equipment, which in my opinion put the challenge to the assertion that there is one true sound, and that the best of the newer speakers will necessarily allow one to get closer to it.

I find Art's tastes to be eclectic, with many remarkably similar to my own. He just got some old Altec Valencias to contrast with his Quads, and maintains that each represent equally valid and effective, but vastly different, approaches to musical enjoyment.

Elders can be keepers. Hooray Art!

PIONEER/TAD S3-EX AND MARTIN LOGANS

I'm with Simao, above. I don't know that my Reference 3A De Capo i/A's (which I recently upgraded with the new, Beryllium tweeter) are my forever speakers but they're awfully good and I'm happier with them than with any of the many other speakers I've owned. A classic design, and with good reason!