What's the best dirt bag speaker you have heard?

I bought some AR-14's about 25 years ago for $200/pair. Still have them. They sound very good. Very decent base and nice midrange. I did have to have them reconed once. In today's dollars, I guess they might not be dirt-bags at a new price -- but there must be a ton of really nice used, older speakers out there like the AR's. Good question Steve.

While not exactly "dirt bag" type of products, i've found some great deals in various places for next to nothing.

One day at the local flea market netted me a pair of Genesis Physics speakers for $40. They were in excellent shape. The guy selling them to me said that they almost sound as good as Bose : )

On another occasion, an older gentleman that lives locally was complaining to me about his vacuum cleaner breaking and not having the money to buy a new one. I stopped by later that day with my old vacuum that i hadn't used in over a year. While i had intended on just handing it to him and saying "hope this helps, have a nice day", he insisted that i take something in trade. He said "i know that you're into electronics, so take these old speakers. I don't use them anymore, so you can put them to better use than i can". While i was curious as to what kind of Emerson, Electrovox or Sound Design type K-Mart speakers he'd come out of the back room with, i was amazed to see him carrying what looked like a pretty stout little speaker. As it turns out, he was giving me a pair of original Klipsch Heresy's that were in pretty darn good shape !!! Needless to say, it pays to be courteous and help your neighbors : )

My brother made some small "mini-towers" out of Pyramid car stereo drivers. The 5 1/4" mid-woofer was mounted near the top of a very slender ( about 6" wide ) baffle that was about 18" - 20" tall. The tweeter was mounted on top ala B&W and set slightly back to try to compensate for time alignment. The box was filled with fiberglass to simulate a larger box, absorb internal standing waves and damp cabinet resonance. He also used cloth on the top of the cabinet to damp / absorb reflections from the tweeter. He used a very simple crossover and angled the cabinet backwards to compensate for floor mounting. For less than $50 total, the "scrap box speakers" sounded quite good and imaged like crazy due to the small baffle area and free-standing tweeter.

He has since gone on to build a 14 driver / 12 box* speaker array that is quad-amped. Now do you see how much trouble and and expense DIY speaker building can get you into ??? : ) Sean
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* all the drivers are in their own damped & sealed cylinders except for the 4 subwoofer drivers. Each cylinder houses two drivers that are running in push-pull to reduce distortion.

How about a pair of Sound Dynamics RTS 3's? paid 179.00 for the pair and have been listening to them all day on my second system. There is no way these things should sound as good as they do.

I love this topic! I too have a weakness for something so economical that it cannot work, and then being pleasantly surprised.

In my case, it's my computer system. Labtec on sale at Fry's for $39.95 for sub and two satellites (open box).

I laughed out loud when I stuck a CD in my PC's drawer and cranked it up. I know it's miles from high end, but the price was less than Pizza for the family.

Sort of brings a smile to your face :^).