HH Scott 299C Speaker Recommendations

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Zoot45, Sep 18, 2017.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    While I have the LSiM707's and Zu Omen Definition's (switchable) as the front mains. Currently I have been Listening to the Zu's a lot lately. They have a certain live, dynamic sound that I like.

    Neither of which, can stand up to the Altec Lansing A7's, which I have powered by an all tube analog chain.

    Here is a photo that was posted in the Hurricane Irma thread, last week.

    [​IMG]

    Here is one of those bad boys in the background. The other one is out of frame against the north wall (where the picture hangs), to the right.

    The A7 in the photo is on the west wall. The west wall is interesting because is runs on an angle. Out of frame on the left, the wall is 6' deeper in the other corner. This allows the HT/Stereo to be set back in that corner. The Zu, and the right front 707 is just out of the frame, to the left of the open door.

    The rear HT/Stereo speakers are Klipsch WF-35 towers, which are against the east wall, which is the front of the motel.

    But the best sound is when I run all three stereo pairs of speakers, at the same time.
     
  2. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    To better answer your question, I am re-posting a photo of the front of the motel, that was also posted in the hurricane Irma thread.

    [​IMG]

    The former lobby of the motel is no more. The space has been changed to my office / living room / listening room. It is the area directly under the sun deck. The room is about the size of a two car garage, plus a little extra space. The south wall, on the left, juts out 3' for the first 6'. the west wall, at the rear of the office runs on an angle so the room is 6' deeper along the west wall. This gives the main room about 450 sq. ft.

    This room is FILLED with audio gear! There are two smalish rooms that are below the two motel rooms, on the 2nd story above the office.

    They were originally intended for use as the manager's quarters. They now serve as storage rooms for the motel supplies and audio equipment.

    In the second room, front, right. There are four more A7 cabinets, that are on casters, in the front corner of this room. On top of those cabinets, are currently, stacked three pairs of tower speakers. Polk Monitor 70' Series II, Boston Acoustic M-350's and Polk RTi-A9's. This pile of speakers goes all the way to the ceiling. There are other speakers and amps in these rooms also.

    I have one of the guest rooms and have gear stored in there.

    And, yes, space is definitely an issue. One major thing that takes up a huge amount of space is, that I keep all of the boxes for the equipment.
     
    Davey likes this.
  3. russk

    russk Forum Resident

    Location:
    Syracuse NY
    Nice. Those A7 sure are beautiful. Glad to see you did alright through Irma. Moving those bad boys out would've been a daunting task.
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  4. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    I have three pair of them!
     
  5. action pact

    action pact Music Omnivore

    That place must have had a tiki motif back in the day!!!!
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  6. Ken Clark

    Ken Clark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago Suburbs
    I listened to the Heresy and Cornwall speakers side by side and absolutely no comparison. You mentioned you want a big sound and the Heresy's just didn't do that IMO. Initially I had the Cornwalls in a small room but since they could go against the wall and in corners they still worked.
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  7. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    The motel opened in 1957. It is my understanding that it did have a small outside Chekee bar at one time.

    At that time, a small motel could get a liquor license for COP. Back then, the license even allowed you to sell package.

    As I understand, they even served food, but that's about all that I know.

    Years back, it was painted robin's egg blue. Not too different than the blue bar at the top of this page. That color really doesn't work that well today.

    We are fortunate to have the world's foremost Polynesian restaurant close by. They opened between Christmas and New Year, back in 1956 and have been open ever since, same family ownership.

    They have THE BEST Tiki Bar imaginable. Half price drinks and appetizers during happy hour. People come to Fort Lauderdale from around the world to visit the Mai-Kai.

    Check it out MaiKai.com
     
    timind, Ntotrar and action pact like this.
  8. Helom

    Helom Forum member

    Location:
    U.S.
    The Heresys have excellent bass down to the 50 Hz region, but they have a rather steep roll off. This is ample for most types of music IME. Depending on room placement they can reach a bit lower,

    They're hard to beat for low level listening. I can't speak for earlier Heresy models, but the IIIs remain balanced at very low volumes where other speakers completely lose their bass and dynamics.

    A larger speaker like the Cornwall will of course, create a bigger sound, no surprise there. The question is whether that's worth having a monolith in each corner and sacrificing some of the bass speed of the smaller woofers.
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  9. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    And so geared for the needs of solid state modern gear. That HH Scott 299C deserves quality speakers suited to it. It was made to drive Cornwalls, and used ones can be had in his budget.
     
    Ntotrar likes this.
  10. action pact

    action pact Music Omnivore

    Love it!!
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  11. Zoot45

    Zoot45 Well-Known Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Wow those Cornwalls are large. I wouldn't be able to place these in the corner of the room based on the way the room is set up. Would that be an issue? Also, I have a pair of Yamaha NS-690 III sitting in my garage that someone gave me. I would have to refoam the woofers and replace one of the tweeters. Are these worth the effort to fix or should I still be looking at something like the Klipsch?
     
  12. Ken Clark

    Ken Clark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago Suburbs
    Cornwalls can go in the corners but don't have to. Once moved from my small room they were against the back wall about 3 or 4 feet from each corner. They also do not have to be placed against the back wall either.
     
  13. Zoot45

    Zoot45 Well-Known Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Thanks for the info. I will have to look out for the Cornwalls. Any other recommendations? Any feedback on the Yamahas?
     
  14. Synthfreek

    Synthfreek I’m a ray of sunshine & bastion of positivity

    As Ken said...Corwalls=CORNers or WALLs, hence the name. They don't need to go in corners and along the wall.
     
    Ken Clark likes this.
  15. Balthazar

    Balthazar Forum Resident

    Never heard them. How much would it cost to fix them? If it's reasonable, you may as well do it. You might like them, and it'll make it easier to sell them if you don't.
     
  16. sturgus

    sturgus Forum Resident

    Location:
    St. Louis Mo
    Zoot, don't know about the Yamaha's but I have a buddy who has this brand of speaker and I was very impressed with the sound. They are very open with a real natural sound slightly warm. They have quite a few models that will work with your Scott. This one looks to be in your price range. May be worth looking into.
    Super 3 High Output Monitor
     
  17. ti-triodes

    ti-triodes Senior Member

    Location:
    Paz Chin-in

    Couldn't agree more. I have a 299c and used to have Polk speakers. There's no way a 299 could drive them properly.
     
  18. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital

    Polk seems to think they would have no problem driving them, indicating 20 watts is all that is required. I will absolutely concede you would not want to turn them up to earth shattering levels, as the Scott could do damage to the tweeter, but short of that, any normal listening level would be just fine, no problem, and they are such a good deal, and great full range presentation can be had with these speakers. Sure hope he tries them out, he won't be sorry. One other thing he mentioned, he has no room for Klipsch speakers, and the footprint of the Polk is much smaller. :righton:
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  19. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    Yamaha needs more power, and needs SS amplifiers to sound best. If you don't have room for Cornwalls, look at Heresies. Nothing wrong with them placed right and they're efficient and easy to drive. Efficient and full range, won't be small. The Polks are nice, but they need more power, and sound better with a solid state amplifier.
     
  20. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    I am in total agreement with you!

    While my audio passion, lies with horn speakers and tube amplification, I certainly do not shun SS amps and modern tower speakers.

    The vintage Wharfedale speakers that I had mentioned earlier in the thread, I doubt have the efficiency of the RTi series, due to their conventional vintage design, which include paper cone tweeters.

    When I first received my first pair of vintage Wharfedale speakers, they were the W70's, the middle model.

    I ran then with a vintage Scott 222C, which uses the small power tubes, in the EL84 family, putting out about 20-22 WPC.

    These could play seriously loud!

    Now, since I do own and have experience with both modern and vintage speakers (and amplifiers), that can play seriously loud. I feel that I am qualified, from actual experience, to comment both on loudness and sound clarity/quality.

    When I listen to a new amplifier or a newly acquired speaker, I try different types of music and sounds, to understand the characteristics of that piece of equipment.

    What came as a real surprise to me, with the Scott and the Wharfedale's, was the range of music that sounds good through them. While I expected that they would perform well for Jazz and vocals, they were suited for much more than that.

    The big surprise, was when I switched to new age "beats" music on Pandora One. Here is nothing from the "good old days", this was modern synth music, that was, by design, to be played loud, along with serious deep bass. While the seriously deep bass, was beyond what the W70's could handle and was relegated to the sub, the amount of bass and the volume level that they could be played at, was indeed impressive, while driven by a small 20-22 watt tube amplifier.

    And... I never even thought to turn the amp up all the way. My listening room is about 450 sq. ft., so it does take an ample amount of power to energize the room with sound. With this combo, there was no problem doing so.

    I remember that day vividly, because I watch a young child, I happened to have her here with me that day. Her mother came over for a while and I cranked the music up, like a disco and they were both dancing to the music and were having a ball.

    My Fisher 500-C is about 30-WPC, the same as the OP's, and it will power any speaker 87-dB or above, easily to room filing volumes.

    My rear tower speakers are 50-WPC, which only represents a 2-dB gain over the 30-watt threshold, we are speaking about. Yet they can crank. They need to be able to crank up the sound, in order to compete with the large front speakers.

    Having myself been informed of the Polk sale by litejazz53, I considered replacing the rear Klipsch WF-35's with a pair of the RTiA7's, for the fantastic price of $600/pr. for these truly beautiful and excellent speakers. I was on the Klipsch web site last night. The only reason that I decided not to make the purchase, was that they are a little bit too deep for the credenza's that both of the rear speakers sit on.

    The reason that I was considering a rear speaker switch out was to have something with greater driver area than the WF-35's, which have three 5 1/4" drivers. While these speakers did retail for $1,500/pr., I bought them on close-out for $600/pr., and they are real wood, like the A7's and are the at the same sale pricing as the RTiA7's. IMO, these would have otherwise, been the perfect replacements that I had already been considered.

    One thing that I always considered a little bit misleading about the power handling capacity of the RTiA9's, which are rated from 50-500 watts, which I consider B.S. First off, they can easily be driven to really loud levels with 30-watts. Secondly, there is no way that you are going to play program music through these at 500-watts, nope.

    When I had these speakers as my front mains, they were driven by an Emotiva XPA-2 (first generation), which is conservatively rated at 250-watts into an 8-ohm load. Seriously, I never came close to driving them at this volume level. You could not be in the room with them, running at 250-watts.

    Another point. I came across a post of a Polk blog, where this guy kept blowing out his tweeters. After some research, Polk discovered that he was placing them on his back porch and would turn them up loud enough, so he could listen to his music, while he was using his chain saw to cut firewood. Polk went on to explain that they were intended for indoor stereo use.

    I really doubt, that he was even close to 200-watts, let alone 500-watts. Few home amplifiers produce this kind of power and those that do, like the large Mac's, which cost many thousands of dollars. There are low cost Crown Class-D amps, that will do this for under a grand.

    Understand I am not against Cornwalls or other large horn loaded speakers, like the ones that I own, but that does not represent the type of speaker, that is right for everyone as a matter of practicality. Maybe down the road a bit, when the OP is feeling the urge to get into modding the Cornwalls.

    Since the OP already has his Scott 299C amplifier, what he is desiring now are speakers, which will pair well with the amplifier that he has.

    The RTiA7's will do this. And, instead of paying $1,000/pr., he would be getting brand new speakers, with real cherry wood cabinets, large driver surface area (2x 7" sub-woofers + 1x 6 1/2" midrange driver and silk dome tweeter [not harsh], for $600/pr.

    Try and meet or beat these for $300/each, new, with a 5-year warranty (to the original purchaser).

    Can you drive these Polk's louder with a larger amplifier, yes definitely, but that is going to hold true with most any speaker in this efficiency range. I can drive my Altec A7's to a nice room filling volume with my Decware 3.9-watt, single ended pentode amplifier. But that is because their efficiency is above 100-dB.

    Just my thoughts...

    S&G
     
    timind likes this.
  21. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital

    That post was so well written, you should receive an award. If the gentleman does not let your post soak in, nothing will do the trick, just great information you have offered in this post. I certainly hope he reads it and takes advantage of the sale, those speakers are not only beautiful to look at, they are brand new and will transform the music he listens to. Thanks so much for your comments.
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  22. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Your quite welcome. If I have some bit of knowledge and/or experience on a subject, I like to convey my thoughts on the subject, and describe the context as it applies in my situation.

    I tend to think that expressing one's P.O.V., should present subjective or objective reasons. I feel that offering an explanation, as best that I am able, could help the reader, better understand not only my comments, but why.

    I think that it serves to benefit those, who would prefer a larger "window" as it relates to the subject at hand.

    The more information, the better to evaluate and decide whether it would work well in that individual's system, as synergy is EVERYTHING.

    And you can't get that by reading a book.

    Since it's inception, FHF's have been a significant asset in the audio world. Contained within, there is a wealth of information. Good first hand information through many shared personal audio experiences. I know, that is what brought me here and that is way I have remained.

    Forum members were kind and helpful to me when I arrived, just trying to repay.
     
    Litejazz53 likes this.
  23. sberger

    sberger Dream Baby Dream

    KLH Model Five or Six.
     
    Jcashfan likes this.
  24. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital

    What do you see as the advantage in purchasing these very old speakers, if his goal is to achieve a more robust clean sound?
    Would the advantage be to maintain the vintage mix of components, as there would certainly be no sonic advantages I could see, it would seem his high frequencies would be completely dead and flat, what say you?
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  25. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    Have you ever listened to a pair of KLH Sixes? If you did, chances are you'd like them. A good speaker is a good speaker, no matter the vintage. The KLH Six is good enough to be in any of my 3 systems. My ear is demanding, it is trained.
     
    Jcashfan, Helom and sberger like this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine