Speakers for Jazz

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by 2xUeL, Sep 13, 2018.

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

    Mitsuman Diamond Tone Junkie

    Location:
    Missouri
    Oh ok, thanks I'll let him know. :rolleyes:
     
  2. Mitsuman

    Mitsuman Diamond Tone Junkie

    Location:
    Missouri
    There are many. Beware of people on internet forums that speak only in superlatives. ;)
     
  3. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    There are vintage speakers which are excellent for Jazz and Hip Hop.

    They are vintage Wharfedale's and the ones that I am speaking of were manufactured in America, back in the 1960's. As a matter fact the manufacturing plant was in New York, so there is a heavy concentration of them in your area.

    I have many pairs of vintage speakers.

    Some I have in the main room right now are vintage Wharfedale W70's (I also have a pair of W60's or W90's).

    This is them, holding up the coffee service.

    [​IMG]

    A closer look, bought these for $222 for the pair, for local pick up. They are the middle models, the W70's.

    [​IMG]

    These are W60's, on top and W90's on the bottom. There is a replacement 12" Woofer sitting on top of one of the W60's cabinet's.

    [​IMG]

    I would look at vintage Wharfedale's from the 1960's. They are speakers which are off the radar. Which makes them prime targets for inexpensive acquisition.

    While everyone thinks of Wharfedale speakers as coming from an England, that is only partly true. They has a US manufacturing facility in Westbury N.Y.

    In England, people had smaller houses and their tastes in speakers were primarily the BBC type monitors that were around at the time.

    In the USA, the homes were larger and the American market wanted big bass. They produced different speakers in the plant but more notably W60's, W70' and W90's. I have acquired all three models.

    You can find these speakers on eBay on a regular basis. They are of old school construction, so they are heavy for their size. They are almost always sold "For Local Pick-Up" only due to their size and weight. It usually cost to ship the larger ones, the W70's and the larger W90's than they are being sold for.

    On top of this, not like a pair of late model tower speakers, where you just put them back into the original boxes and drop them off at UPS, original boxes fro these are practically non-existent. No seller wants to assume the liability for shipping these heavy furniture grade cabinets in makeshift shipping boxes, which would be a recipe for disaster.

    These are excellent sounding speakers.

    Holding up the coffee service are a locally obtained pair that I I found advertised on eBay at from an estate sale, I think the I purchased them for about $112-ea. (this is not a typo)! When you first get speakers which have been sitting unused for years, they are going to sound like absolute crap and will take days to break them back in properly. If you audition a pair that sounds like crap, do not let it disturb you!

    One of the things that add to make the shipping more expensive are the weight issues, further enhanced by having sand filled backs to dampen cabinet resonances. In the photo below, you can view a pair of late 1960's W70's in natural walnut cabinets (they are the ones holding up the coffee service).

    If there were ever speaker's for Jazz (and Hip Hop), these would be the one's.
     
    sami, Tim 2, Dan Steele and 2 others like this.
  4. slcaudiophile

    slcaudiophile Forum Resident

    Location:
    Salt Lake City

    this is the coolest thing i’ve seen in about 3 weeks. really great pic.
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  5. Doug Walton

    Doug Walton Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    IMO, it’s as much or more about the upstream gear than the speakers when it comes to genre-specific listening goals.
     
  6. Synthfreek

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

    What do they sound like to you? I guess my setup is garbage. Every person who has ever heard my system seemed impressed and changed their stance if they came under under the impresssion that all Klipsch speakers are bright and piercing. And Cornwalls do sound pretty great with jazz IMO.
     
    mr clean likes this.
  7. Reamonnt

    Reamonnt Mr.T

    Location:
    Ireland
    I listen to jazz everyday using JBL LSR 305 active monitors on my desk output through an odac. Sounds great and cost me 204 Euros for the monitors (Thomann) and about 140 Euro for ODAC also of course a pc which you probably already have or a laptop.
     
  8. BrentB

    BrentB Urban Angler

    Location:
    Midwestern US
    Yes there are many exceptions. Technics made the nice SB-4500 10" 2-ways. Pioneer also made some Quartet 70 speakers, a nice big 12" 3-way. I have read, but can't confirm that they were used in Japan at coffee houses for none other that Jazz!
     
  9. 2xUeL

    2xUeL Forum Philosopher Thread Starter

    Location:
    Albany, NY
    Those all look like interesting options, however eBay and craigslist searches just now turned up virtually nothing.
     
  10. Jimi Floyd

    Jimi Floyd Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pisa, Italy
    Used Klipsch Cornwall. Any time I visit a buddy of mine who owns an old pair and he plays jazz, I feel urged to buy me a pair. The bass and drum kit fill the room, piano and sax stand out like real.
     
    Ntotrar and rischa like this.
  11. Mike from NYC

    Mike from NYC Senior Member

    Location:
    Surprise, AZ
    Live in an apartment?
    Q - Do you live in an apartment or house?

    Do you like music to sound mellow and rounded, or punchy and detailed?

    Asking someone else to recommend speakers is and will always be a horrible idea. Speakers, more than any other component, have their own sound and ONLY YOU know what you like and what you imagine music should sound like.

    My only advice is to go listen to speakers and make the decision for YOURSELF.
     
    seed_drill likes this.
  12. csgreene

    csgreene Forum Resident

    Location:
    Idaho, USA
    Look into NHT speakers before you decide on anything, OP.

    I believe NHT still offers in home auditions with free or very low cost returns. Main - NHT

    I'm a jazz guy (and I use NHT SuperOne speakers for their well rounded performance. I don't like low frequency so no subs in my system but if you need more low end, they can help you there too.
     
  13. Tim Lookingbill

    Tim Lookingbill Alfalfa Male

    Location:
    New Braunfels, TX
    Just passing on an observation on how I came up with a way to determine sound quality of a set of 1984 vintage Norman Lab Model 82 two way speakers (1in. Mylar dome tweeter/10in. woofer NON-PORTED) I bought for about $100 at a pawn shop. I first heard these at a Sound Warehouse record store back in the early '90's strapped high above close to the ceiling on load baring poles just cranking out the most detailed and realistic sounding music I've ever heard in a speaker setup. They were driven by a Yamaha amp.

    When I got my pair home I got the same sound driven just with an old Radio Shack 50watt stereo amp. Julie London's voice on a Best Of compilation sounded like she was in the room. I wanted to build a second pair by buying two Pioneer 10 in. woofers and similar Mylar dome tweeters from Radio Shack which ended up sounding really murky and lacking detail.

    I did an experiment on the Norman Labs and covered the tweeters with my hand and listened to the 10in. foam surround woofer and found the problem with my murky sounding custom build. The Norman woofers were playing exactly what was coming out of the tweeters in clarity and definition. It's just that it was a bit quieter and not as crispy. The Norman Labs have a 3000Hz crossover network but I didn't hear that much of a difference disconnecting and reconnecting it.

    You could conduct the same simple experiment by covering the tweeter and checking woofer clarity but I don't know if it would work on speakers with front ports or even back ports.
     
  14. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Here are a pair of W60's right up the street from me. They are perfect for Jazz in a normal sized room, similar to what the real British speakers might be(definitely not for Hip Hop). They are not for cranking loud like the W70's would do or giving the deep base like the W90's would do.

    Wharfedale Achromatic W60E Speakers (One Pair) One Owner Appx. 24"x 15"x 12" These are listed for $99 or Make Offer.

    [​IMG]

    To my way of thinking, these are about the best deal in vintage speakers like these in America today.

    [​IMG]

    There are always vintage Wharfedale speakers for sale in the NE area and as specially in NY. Remember, if your objective is to save money and end up with a quality speaker, you are going to need to save this eBay search for Wharfedale W60 W70 W90's and keep an eye out for the best deals in your area, just like I do myself and others who are looking to source other harder to find vintage gear. Remember these speakers are around a half century old, or more. But they do not have things like foam surrounds and things that will be likely to give you major issues.

    There are plenty of these to be had that are in excellent condition. W70's typically go for $250- $350 range. Some you will find with better finishes (they were available with a natural wood veneer and also in fine furniture finishes).

    The W90's will typically be in the $400-$700 range, depending on finish and condition. Most of these are in the fine furniture finish, like mine and my cabinets are in perfect condition. I believe that I paid around $650, but the seller delivered them to me from up in northern Florida about 250-300 miles round trip total.

    Seek and ye shall find...
     
    Tim 2 and Helom like this.
  15. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Here is a quote from another thread, that was just posted moments ago.

    The thread is:

    How did you discover quality audio gear for the first time?

     
    Tim 2 likes this.
  16. Carter DeVries

    Carter DeVries Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    I’ve seen some suggestions for vintage, huge Wharfedales, but based on your space I’d echo the one earlier suggestion that you look at the small Denton 80th anniversary set. $500 and if you order from Music Direct you have 60 days. I believe, to break them in and try them out.

    I listen to many types of music but 50’s and 60’s jazz is my main thing. I’ve been really impressed with these bookshelf sized Whatfedales. I think they are exceptional for jazz. They do take some serious play time to break-in, but once loosened up they are pretty killer. Check them out.
     
    frightwigwam likes this.
  17. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    To quote the OP.

    Many bookshelf speakers are fine for some Jazz, but few reach down and really dig out that deep rich bass.

    But I have yet to listen to a pair of bookshelf speakers that would do Hip Hop, justice.

    To the OP, "big woofer's" are just that, "woofer's", they are intended for bass, not sub bass.
     
    Tim 2 likes this.
  18. SquishySounds

    SquishySounds Yo mama so fat Thanos had to snap twice.

    Location:
    New York
    $1000? YouTube has lots of videos on how to build your own speakers starting at $30. That’s speakers and about five years of a Tidal Hi-Fi subscription with the change.
     
  19. Helom

    Helom Forum member

    Location:
    U.S.
  20. 2xUeL

    2xUeL Forum Philosopher Thread Starter

    Location:
    Albany, NY
    My Technics were probably $200 new in 1998 and they're spec'd down to 33 Hz.

    EDIT: Also, isn't there countless standalone subwoofers on the market for less than a grand?
     
    Last edited: Sep 15, 2018
  21. 2xUeL

    2xUeL Forum Philosopher Thread Starter

    Location:
    Albany, NY
    Folks, the amount $1,000 was completely random just to emphasize that I am on a very limited budget. If you feel that doesn't warrant specific recommendations, no problem; I'm fine with just talking specs.
     
  22. 2xUeL

    2xUeL Forum Philosopher Thread Starter

    Location:
    Albany, NY
    OK sure, every use of "woofer" so far on my behalf has been shorthand for "subwoofer".
     
  23. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Understood.
     
    Tim 2 likes this.
  24. timind

    timind phorum rezident

  25. Helom

    Helom Forum member

    Location:
    U.S.
    Wasn't referring to subwoofers. And there are many speakers alleged to reach 33Hz that don't in any real audible sense, or they'll pump out bass at that level but with doo-doo quality and definition.
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine