Electrovoice Duchess IV in California

They are beautiful, and reasonable too.

Pig in a poke, if I ever saw one.  Even if you have heard a pair of these somewhere in the past, you can have no idea about the condition of the drivers.  Unless you have no fear of a total rebuild.  Not to mention the crossover network components which could be in bad shape.  I notice that the seller makes no claims about performance, only that everything inside is "original".  Always a bad sign.  But if a well functioning fully restored pair of these speakers is worth much much more money than the asking, then I guess you have nothing to lose.  This is coming from an idiot who is in love with Beveridge 2SW speakers with their direct-drive amplifiers that seem born to oscillate for reasons that even smarter people cannot fathom.

"They sound is amazing, fantastic imaging and the best midrage you will ever hear."That is a quote from the add. Since they are pick up only I'm sure an audition could be arraigned before purchasing.
lewm, why so down on vintage speakers? If taken care of many still perform excellently. Recapping crossovers is no big deal and unlike a lot of modern drivers with foam surrounds that rot away in 15 years, many of these vintage drivers use paper or treated cloth surrounds that are still in good shape.

So Elliott, you planning a road trip?
BillWojo

Bill,

lewm generally avoids potential problems, nothing wrong with that, but he writes as if anyone would be crazy to consider these.

You and I take more risks. To see and listen first, at that price, I don't even need them but I may move to Calif.

Did you see my other post, I exchanged one of the 15W woofers and removed the L-pads yesterday.

Building my new speaker cables today!

I found a pair of KLH speakers sitting on the curb not far from my house with a sign that said, FREE.  I snagged them and fired them up.   Yeah, they worked but they sounded as if the singers were in a deep well and just getting over a bad sinus congestion.  However, the cabinets were absolute top notch, no cheap MDF or inferior plywood here.   So, I found some subwoofers drivers that work in that cabinet volume and converted them into subwoofers.    

At $2500 for those ElectroVoice, I would be especially critical in my listening before I part with that much money.