Vintage versus New

@mofojo the various materials available today especially.

I am holding onto my collection of vintage Altec and JBL speakers. Their value will increase over time! Present day new speakers hold no attraction for me! I also have Infinity 2000A's, KLH Nines, Janszen ESL tweeters and two pairs of Quad 57's.

@jasonbourne52 many of these manufacturers no longer make high end speakers so yes, there value should increase. Besides the 57's which ones do you prefer?

Altec A5 would be a good place to start. EV Aristocrats are fine-sounding depending greatly on the drivers used. For the $ they go for not a bad option today. They would sound best with tubes they require a corner and the image height is low. You can put something under to move the soundstage up a bit. Or make a stand. Still if wanting a vintage loudspeaker that's not embarrassed by anything modern and you do not want to shell out Western Electric $ an Altec a5 is a good choice. I use a few loudspeakers that feature front horn loading of the bass 15" and multicell. Mine are larger, a bit better than a5 but are similar in the basic design     http://www.audioheritage.org/html/profiles/lmco/shearer.htm 

My beloved speakers are new custom Rosewood enclosures with all electro-voice drivers, crossovers, and L-Pads. Pulled from my uncle’s 1958 Fisher President II

http://www.fisherconsoles.com/President%20II.html

It was on 8" high bronze open base, woofers firing downwards.

It’s not just nostalgia, it’s the sound! It would cost me a fortune to equal them in a new speaker today.

You need to be handy if your going to mess with Vintage anything IMO. You can pay someone else I suppose, but .....

Speakers: Woofers: There’s no point unless you are going for real bass, and that more than likely will require re-cone (most often the coil is ok). Vintage: cloth surrounds, not foam. The cloth and/or paper cone dries out, cracks ...check first, see what’s available, sometimes a full cone and coil pre-assembled can be found.

I have a full set of spare drivers, a spare woofer cone/coil kit, intend to keep em going for my son someday.

15" woofers, Model 15W (klipschorn used 15WK), monster magnet: weigh 37lbs each. Re-coned twice since I got them in 1973. Pro once, then me.

If I didn’t have a spare I would buy this one:

The horn tweeters T350 and Horn Midrange are original, untouched. Impregnated Linen. Surprises me every day. Restorers say "indestructible, leave em alone!!!"

Most in that era came with Level Controls, L-Pads, not pots. I just replaced mine for the 2nd time last year (16 ohms).

My recent re-acquisition/restoration of a pair of AR-2ax for my office had level controls also, I had forgotten that. Had to replace the tweeters, capacitors, level controls, look and sound awesome. I suppose I could have bought some fully restored ones, but I had fun. 250, ship 250, parts 250 +$750. What 3 way wood veneer can you buy new for $750?

You adjust the level controls in you space, by ear, darn good; or finally, I bought a sound pressure meter, tripod mount, listening position, CD with specific tones, takes a while. Confirmed those 4 horns are still doing it right! I still can’t believe it.

You can see the speakers, including one photo of them facing the floor, back off, see the parts. The crossovers are in a tar filled metal can, still doing it. Someone else would have built new crossovers long ago I suppose. They sound awesome to me and everybody who hears them, the output measures well, "if it ain’t broke don’t fix it". When I was young that seemed just stupid.

AR-2ax rehab