Does anyone like vintage speakers?

Thanks, Rackon. When I bought the JBL Lancer S-99s I compared them with the ARs and thought the former were clearer and more open sounding. That was about the extent of my listening expertise back in c. 1972.

This weekend I'll be getting a pair of Tannoy Little Gold Monitors that utilize the 12" Monitor Gold Dual-Concentric drivers. These are early to mid '70s vintage. I'm having fun with this old stuff but think I will be keeping my Tyler Linbrook Monitors as my primaries.

That was about the extent of my expertise back then too.

Tannoy Golds - that sounds like fun!

I've got Alon Lil Rascals (Nola Minis) hooked upt to a Luxman receiver in the office, and when they go back into the HT set-up I may play with some vintage speakers.

Not contemplating replacing by big Alon Vs with vintage, of course.

Yes I sure do. Many cool interesting a good sounding designs if your in the know.

The vintage speakers from the so called Golden age (when they are of the brands known for top engineers)will go head to head with anything and everything in audio today. Altec, Western Electric, certain EV, certain JBL have the finest mids and highs ever reproduced. No voice or tenor sax is more accurate than from a hand tuned aluminum diaphragm Altec 288 on a tar filled 1005 or 805 horn. It is simply like having the artist standing in your room. An old AR, Advent, or Cornwall is not in this league by a wide margain. These lesser vintage offerings often taint the group as a whole.

I would respectfully disagree with you, Ampster. Vintage speakers were designed around the limitations of amplifiers of the period - when 10W was considered a powerful amplifier. Consequently, nearly every vintage speaker I have heard sounds coloured, has flabby bass, and limited in both frequency extremes.

Modern speaker designers have fewer such limitations - so they sound more neutral and more extended. I would submit that a modern Avantgarde or Tannoy sounds better than vintage Altec or JBL.