Does anyone like vintage speakers?

I have a nice pair of Rectilinear III speakers from 1970.
They have a nice, natural sound, go plenty low without boom and are non fatiguing in the upper registers and this is when driven with late model Parasound products. I have a pair of JBL D35s from the early '60s that are DYNAMIC, but I guess I'm not a horn guy because they can get harsh, even when driven by my MC240.

I have a Jensen G610 that sounds great driven by a Harmon Kardon 15 watt mono amp.

I think there are plenty of decent vintage speakers around depending on what the individual likes to hear.

I believe that some vintage amp designs are 'classic', like the McIntosh Unity Coupled circuit. The latest incarnation of the MC275 shows what can be done with "old" topology combined with up to date components. Of course, some vintage products were junk....just like some are junk today!!

While I wouldn't call my 1994 Klipsch Epic CF3's vintage, they provide something my magnepans and audio physic tempos and most other speakers that I have had and heard can't touch, impact at all volumes. They play beautifully at low volumes with full and detailed bass and play like a concert monitor when cranked up. 100dB at 1 watt. Clear, uncompressed, undistorted and effortless slam. They are a lot of fun and I only paid $700 for the pair.
Another cool aspect of the older Klipsch speakers is that there value actually goes up over time. Not to many speakers do that.

HI,

I have a pair of Klipsch Cornwalls from 1979. I wouldn't trade them for anything. They are dynamic, musical, and present a wide soundstage with good imaging. The 15" woofer has a visceral impact a lot of modern stuff with 6, 7 or 8 inch woofers can't match.

Larry

Newbee,
I don't want to hijack Mechan's thread, but I guess I've wondered the same thing as he has though never actually formed the question in my head. For me, vintage would be from about the mid 70's up to, maybe the mid 90's. A 20-25 year old speaker is old enough to have some age issues (foam surrounds..., components of questionable quality or getting weak) and yet 'young' enough to have benefited from some very good designers that were around back then.

I do have an active interest here as I just picked up a puuurfect pair of Snell Model A's (foams were updated) for a good price...a steal compared to the prices of some speakers today. Everything I've read says the A's can be a real delight & I just wanted to find out what that meant. I haven't got them powered right yet, but I'm looking for the right pre & amp combo.

If the 70's to 90's 'vintage' speakers have some component/design warts...what would the warts be? Are there cures for the warts or has recent designs sort of made them obsolete in some respects?
thanks

Larry, I had those same Cornwalls back in '87...I could knock the pictures off the walls playing the 1812 Overture with my 40W Yamaha integrated! I wish I had the proper amplification with them at the time however..

My Dad has a pair of the JansZen 130 E-stats/KLH Model 1 bass driver hybrid speakers from the late 50's. They still sound very good to this day. They were a design that were definately ahead of their time!