HH Scott 299C Speaker Recommendations

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

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  1. Zoot45

    Zoot45 Well-Known Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Looking to possibly upgrade the speakers for my stereo. Currently using a clearaudio concept and a HH Scott 299C tube integrated amp. The amp is powered by a pair of 7591s and is 31 wpc. My current speakers are JBL LX-55s which I got from a friend. I am looking for a bigger more open sound without having to crank it too loud.
     
  2. Ken Clark

    Ken Clark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago Suburbs
    Vintage tube gear and vintage Klipsch always seem to be a great match. When I had a Fisher 400 it drove a pair of Klipsch Cornwalls with Bob Crites upgrades. You'll be able to play music really loud when you want but they also have a big sound in general, never sounding small or constrained.
     
  3. Zoot45

    Zoot45 Well-Known Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Looks like the Cornwalls are selling for $2200 a piece? A little too much for me. I am looking at $1,500 for a pair tops.
     
  4. Ken Clark

    Ken Clark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago Suburbs
    Mine were used, cabinets in great shape for $800. Replaced woofers and crossovers with Bob Crites upgrades and was at around $1,500 all done. The key is to find a pair close enough to home to pick them up as they would cost a small fortune to ship. I drove 2 hours each way for mine, a simple Saturday morning drive.
     
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  5. action pact

    action pact Music Omnivore

    With patience, you'll find a pair for well under a grand. They kinda need a large room though.
     
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  6. Zoot45

    Zoot45 Well-Known Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Nice. My room is 12 x 18. Not huge. With the couch and speakers rather close to the wall there is only about 8-10 feet between the speakers and myself. Was also looking at the Vandersteen 1Ci's. I hear them at a local shop and loved how open they sounded.
     
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  7. action pact

    action pact Music Omnivore

    My room is a little smaller, 8 x 12. With my Fisher X-100 (approx. 12-14wpc, EL84's), I am really happy with my Wharfedale Denton 80th Anniversary bookshelf speakers, and would expect that they would pair well with your Scott as well.

    I like the Dentons so much that I sold my LS50s (and pocketed some $$); they work extremely well with low power tube amps in a small room

    [​IMG]
     
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  8. Ken Clark

    Ken Clark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago Suburbs
    I would second the Dentons which I auditioned. They need tone controls or a loudness button at low volume (which the Scott has) but do sound really nice and are beautifully constructed. A new pair with nice stands is going to be only around $700.
     
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  9. misterclean

    misterclean Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cleveland, Ohio
    As a former, long-time owner of a 299A, and the current owner of a 299D (kit version), I would recommend either the Dentons or a clean pair of Dynaco A-25s, if you want to go all-out vintage.
     
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  10. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    I use Bozak 312s upgraded to 3-way with my H.H. Scott amp.

    [​IMG](These are not mine)
     
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  11. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital

    I believe you need to jump on the Polk Floorstanding RTi series speaker sale, while the getting is good at like 45% off of these brand NEW speakers, and why not get one that will totally and completely CUT THE MUSTARD, the beautiful cherry wood, floor standing model RTiA7 for $299.00 each, $600.00 for a pair of these speakers, and you will have a whopping $900.00 left to do something else with, so, what are you waiting for, 89 db sensitivity and rated for a 20 watt amp, pick up the phone! :pineapple:

    RTiA7
     
    Last edited: Sep 18, 2017
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  12. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    If you have a classic amplifier, get some period speakers to go with it.

    I have a vintage Fisher 500C receiver and a Scott 222C integrated amplifier (I have other tube amplifier's in addition).

    I find that tube amplifiers from any era benefit from efficient horn loaded speakers. But that is not a practical option for most people.

    I have a few pairs of large vintage commercial theater speakers that I only run off of tube amplification.

    A while back, another member introduced me to some nice legacy speakers from that era.

    They are Whaferdale speakers. They make three nice "W" series from the 60's.

    The W60, W70 and W90.

    Now wharferdale is an English company, but my understanding is that the "W" series was specifically built in America for the American market. A market that preferred more bass than the English speaker market.

    I believe their factory was in NJ.

    I have all three pairs of these speakers. And have gotten great local deals on them. As an example, I bought my W70's first from an eBay dealer who was liquidating an estate sale, for $222! That is $111/each!

    Back then, everyone was into furniture and Wharferdale made some nice furniture.

    Here is the deal, not many people out there today are familiar with vintage Wharfedale speakers.

    If I buy a modern pair of Klipsch tower speakers, I would save the original cartons. If I wanted to sell them, I would put them safely back in their cartons and ship them out.

    Nobody out there has any original shipping cartons for 50-year old speakers.

    On top of that, these things are heavy, solid cabinets. To reduce resonances, the manufacturer filled the back panel of the cabinets with sand, adding additional weight to the speakers.

    Most people selling these speakers offer them for local pick-up only, due to the difficulty to safely pack them for shipping and the shipping expenses, due to their size and weight, make shipping mostly prohibitive. In other words, they usually cost more to ship than the speaker is worth.

    Because of this, the speakers are mostly offered for local pick-up only.

    I encourage you to look through the eBay listings from the link that I will provide for you at the end of this post. It is the search results for a Wharfedale W90. This will yield only references to the legacy speaker models as opposed to the huge listings for their more modern (and built in China).

    This will yield you only the results for their vintage W90's and also the W70's and the W60's.

    Along with that, you will see replacement components, lots of them!

    Because these speakers are about a half century old, many cabinets are no longer in tip-top shape. Add in their weight for expensive shipping, people are finding it to their advantage to scrap the cabinets and part them out. Many, make more money that way. The good thing here is, usually vintage parts for speakers and such are somewhat more difficult to find, or more expensive. But, if you own a piece of vintage equipment and need at specific part, than maybe paying a little bit more on eBay, is not such a bad thing, concerning the fantastic deal that you received on an entire, original speaker.

    Even though these speakers are old, don't take that to mean that they are not in good condition. These speakers, like your's or mine, Scott amplifier's, were not inexpensive pieces of equipment at the time. Both the Scott's and the Wharfedale's were purchased by successful people. They were found in fine homes. They were purchased by audiophile's of yesteryear.

    These speakers never had foam surrounds that rot out. They don't take too much to drive them and they are fine quality speakers.

    Keep in mind, that many of these have been sitting around for a decade, sometimes many decades of non-use. When you first hook them up, they will not exactly be firing on all cylinder's. They will need a few days of "break-in", after that, they will start smoothing out. At this point, you will be able to determine if there is any driver damage or not.

    If you purchase them off of eBay, and pay by PayPal, you are covered by both PayPal and eBay's guarantee that the product that you have received has arrived in the exact same condition as the product description is advertising.

    There is a guy in Jacksonville, FL who is offering a pair of W70 speakers for $399, which might be a little on the high side, but, if they are in very good condition, as it appears that they might be, then they are worth it. You would have an opportunity to get these fine speakers for less than $200 each!

    I mention this listing, because the condition of the speakers, going by the photos is excellent, and he is one of the rare individuals who will pack and ship these speakers for $100/each.

    There are another pair offered in NH for local pick-up.

    Another pair is in Jacksonville Florida, and they will ship.

    Yet another option, would be to just keeping track on the eBay listings, with the population density in the area, where you live, you should see these speakers popping up here and there.

    How do they sound? After I had run the W70's for a few days, I decided it was time for an evaluation. I removed the Scott 222C from the A7's and ran a couple of pairs of wires to the W70's.

    I sometimes watch an young child, and her mother happened to stop by at the time, I decided to let these speakers rip. I will tell you, I was completely impressed! A superior match for the Scott! Vintage music, played through a vintage amplifier, sweet.

    But, I went a bit further...

    I started listening to music from the 60's, great!

    I went on to female vocalists, +++ also!

    THEN... I put on some streaming Beats Music, on from Pandora One. These things kicked some A**. They were loud, powerful, room filling, I was floored, I had no idea that speakers, from this era, could handle the extremes found in some types of modern music.

    The Scott 222C is rated about 20-22 WPC. It played quite loud and clear, without distortion. Plenty of bass, sweet midrange and detailed, but not at all harsh highs. The W70's have a paper cone type tweeter, that is not even close to being harsh.

    These speakers ARE the real deal! They are the perfect match for a vintage tube amplifier, AND If you just exercise a bit of patience, you will be able to acquire the "W" series speaker of your choice.

    BTW... I really was not planning on owning all three models, I had already decided that I wanted a pair of W90's. There were none locally at the time. I kept a watch on the W90 search, and the pair of W70's turned up locally. From the time that I viewed the listing, with a Buy-It-Now price and the time they were sitting in my listening area, was under 4-hours (I had made prior arrangements for my moving guy to show up.

    After that, I was fortunate to offered the position to acquire the W60's and the W9o's at some attractive some what local pricing, so I did.

    Anyway, that is my 2-cents for vintage speakers.

    Here is the eBay link that I promised you.

    Good Hunting!

    Here is a link to what is currently listed one eBay.

    S&G
     
  13. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital

    But you are doing your top tier listening on those nice Polk LSiM 707's :righton:
     
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  14. Zoot45

    Zoot45 Well-Known Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Wow that was detailed. Looks like a lot of people are recommending vintage speakers for the Scott. While I am not opposed to vintage any reason newer speakers wouldn't work well too? Not sure if I know enough about finding the right model of vintage speakers in good condition.
     
  15. Zoot45

    Zoot45 Well-Known Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Also I know a few people recommended the Cornwalls that have 15"s in them. Any idea how the klipsch Heresy's would be?
     
  16. Zoot,

    I looked at a pair of Heresys for $600 for my vintage McIntosh MA5100. It's a fairly common price. I found them to be sharp-sounding and lacking in bass.

    I ended up with a pair of Klipsch KG4's. They're also horn-loaded, but with smoother treble and richer bass. Those can be found for $200-400. That'd keep a grand in your pocket. And they sound fantastic with my vintage system.

    The Heresys—despite their critics—seem to have quite the following. The KG4's may seem less sexy and more unknown, but they're vastly superior to my ears—and certainly more bang for the buck.

    Happy hunting,

    Bill
     
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  17. Davey

    Davey NP: Portishead ~ Portishead (1997)

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    I'm always curious after reading one of these nice and detailed responses you crank out so often around here ... where do you keep all this hardware? It sounds like you have enough gear for a few different systems in each of a few different houses. Either that, or one humongous storeroom :)
     
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  18. TerryB

    TerryB Forum Resident

    Location:
    Calais, VT
    I play my 299(a) through Dynaco A-25s. Sounds great in my office.
     
  19. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital

    I hope the Thread Starter takes advantage of such a nice speaker from Polk at 45% off, $600.00 for a pair of these speakers is a real deal and they will work well with his vintage Scott piece and will improve his musical experience so much! He could also add not one but stereo powered subs (10" driver) for only an additional $200.00, for BOTH subs, great audio done on a tight budget!

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Sep 18, 2017
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  20. Chris C

    Chris C Music was my first love and it will be my last!

    Location:
    Ohio
    On my Scott 299b, I use Klipsch "Chorus 1's" with Bob Crites upgrades and I couldn't be happier! Chorus speakers usually sell for less than $1,000 and then add new Bob Crites crossovers and diaphrams, for around another $400 to $600 and prepare for tube audio nirvana!
     
  21. Scott in DC

    Scott in DC Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Check out the Forte and KG series speakers. The KG 3.5s are good and cheap! You can also do diaphragm upgrades from Bob Crites if desired. These would go well with your Scott 299c.

    Scott
     
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  22. russk

    russk Forum Resident

    Location:
    Syracuse NY
    I lived with a pair of Heresy for a few years and they actually replaced a pair of Vandersteen 1c when I replaced some B&K gear with a restored Fisher 500c. I found the Heresy to be a more involving speaker than the Vandersteen but eventually their tonal balance started to grate on me and they have this peculiar midrange hump. Instead of going back to Vandersteen I upgraded to a pair of 1985 Cornwall 1s. Much nicer, fuller sound. The only Klipsch speakers I'd really recommend at this point are Cornwalls, Fortes, Chorus, and the RF7. The Palladium stand mount is really nice to but very expensive.

    In the 1500 dollar range and with your room size I'd really go with a pair of Cornwall as they are meant to be set against the wall and in the corner. Mine are in a 13 x 16 ish room with an 8 foot ceiling and the Cornwalls are tucked up against the wall in the corners which really makes them sing. And since they aren't pulled out into the room, like most speakers need to be, they are fairly unobtrusive for their size. If you're willing to spend a month looking for a pair and willing to drive say 5 or so hours to pick them up you should be able to get a really nice pair for around a grand.

    Good luck.
     
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  23. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Strange, I don't recall getting an email lately from Polk Audio, with regard to this particular sale. Unless, it just hit the "In Box", I usually receive all of Polk's sales offers.

    I purchased my RTi-A9's a few years back during one of their 50% off sales. So, 1,500 a pair, and a bargain for the really great speakers they are at that price point, are 50% off, that's completely NUTS!

    So, I bought my pair of A9's for 750, for the pair, or $375/each. That is completely crazy for speakers of this quality. The 9's are really tall, so tall, that you can't lift the lid off of the top of the box, with an 8' ceiling. Not even by tilting the box a bit off center. I had to lie the speakers on the couch and rest the box on the arm rest and pull the top of the box off, that way.

    F.Y.I., I have a listening room that is rather on the larger side at 450 sq. ft., so I went ahead and sourced the A9's, but, if your listening room trends more toward the average, the A7's are a better choice. Sonically speaking, it would be a better match for your room.

    If you don't have the inclination to go the vintage speaker route, and there is nothing wrong with that, the Polk RTi series are great, next step speakers.

    They are excellent speakers!

    Go with the recommended 7's for a normal size room, it is a better choice.

    Got to Love Polk's!

    Really, the RTi series has rounded back cabinets, and their really deep, and the cabinets are layered to reduce resonance, and the curved rears reduce standing waves.
     
  24. Bolero

    Bolero Senior Member

    Location:
    North America
    +1 on Cornwall's, I have a pair with my Fisher 400 which is similar to your Scott
     
  25. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    You can go new or vintage, either way is good. The Polk RTi Series that @Litejazz53 has recommended are killer speakers! They are a hell of a deal at that 45% off sale. They are efficient, sound great, their multiple drivers really fill the room with sound. They can play loud and clear. Their finish is real cherry wood. All Polk speakers come with a 5-year warranty.

    There are a lot of choices if you decide to go vintage. Some great vintage speakers tend to get gobbled up by collectors and that drives up their prices.

    Just look over those on the eBay link that I posted for you. These work well with vintage tube amps, as they were designed to work with.

    And they are very inexpensive!

    As @russk indicated, the Cornwall is a much better sounding speaker than the Heresy. And there is a lot that you can do to further improve their sound.

    They fall into that category of efficient, horn loaded speakers that I was first mentioning. This is the type of speaker that I run with my tube amps.

    Wonderful combination!
     
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