Men’s den vintage speakers wanted

Moved one year ago, this is always time to change things.

After being really happy with the living room (Tannoy, Chartwell or Harbeth LS 3/5a for Jazz) I am starting to think about new men’s den speakers.

Well, I chose them already (Tannoy Little Red Monitors for a really good price, although too big and heavy) and then this [censored, censored oh my God] guy stole them from me in FleaBay (he pressed the buy it now button, grr). Now I am disillusioned, frustrated and on the other side happy, as they were too big (we had that). But what now? Patience is not my middle name ...

It’s not that I don’t have speakers for the den, as usual there are LS 3/5a. Boring. Need something for a change once in a while (my wife silently suffers, haha). The room is well damped and sounds great. But it’s only 9 sqm ... floor standing I cannot place, they will stand on the super solid and heavy furniture.

They shall be from so 1958 to 1975, max. 1000 USD. They shall be able to rock ... decently. They shall be good enough to motivate me to move my butt away from the living room system at times. I will have to import them most likely. They shall be keepers. I have many amps from 1.5 to 160 Watts per channel, that’s not an issue. It would be nice if they run well with 2x12 vintage tube watts.

Possible choices (what I think):
IMF Super Compact Monitor
Crysler Living Audio CE5a II or III (the higher up ones have 12inch bass speakers, again so big)
Oval EMI in the nicest enclosure I can find (do they rock?)
Celestion Ditton 33 (there is even a local pair)
KEF 303.3
MBL 321 (not so old), not cheap
Old Goodmans (not cheap, but sometimes hidden in Dynatron boxes)
Klein &Hummel Telewatt TL3 (German, hyper rare Pro Monitors, no spare parts)
DIY with 8inch Siemens Klangfilm Chassis in Mini Onken or Horn Enclosures

What do you guys think? All wrong? Other proposals? Never got warm with AR, Epos, Dynaudios ...

Thank you!

 

Depends whether you like the classic west coast sound (JBL Century), the east coast sound (Acoustic Research AR-3a), the BBC sound (Spendor BC1), Horns (Klipschorn) or a Dipole panel (Quad ESL, Stax F81 or Apogee Scintilla). All of those speakers are worth a serious listen if you can find pairs in good condition.

 

If you rate impact over pinpoint imaging, try out the smallest Electro-voice corner cabinet speaker, the Baronet. Corner speakers improve wife acceptance factor, because they're out of the way, although you can use them out in the room, too. You can try them out with other 8" drivers, too, extended full range ones like the like WE755A There are other alnico speakers that are much cheaper that work nearly as well. No need for a crossover or horn tweeter that way. The imaging improves.



There are blonde cabinet Baronets, too.

 

I actually would die for Quad ESL 57, but it’s impossible - too much dampness and electrostatics in the tropical air, they don’t last long here. Same with all electrostatic speakers. It is very sad!

 

That’s interesting, thank you. I will read about them. Imaging I have enough with the LS 3/5a

 

The KEF 303.3 are from the 1980s. Perhaps you can find a pair of 104/2 locally. They are what I run in my bedroom system. They are a much bigger floor standing speaker than the stand mount 303.3, but they still have a relatively small foot print due to their unique design. They are more efficient than the 303.3, will have a lot more bass, will play louder and are much more common (having been in production much longer and selling in much larger quantity). They came in a variety of real wood finishes (combined with the small footprint makes them rank higher than average on the WAF scale). Look for any early non-biwire pair with rubber surrounds on the midbass drivers, replace the foam donuts and the ferrofluid in the tweeters and they will sound great and be ready for another 20 years of enjoyment.

 

Maybe some Wharfedale w90’s or w70’s would do the trick? I own 2 pairs of Quad 57’s and one pair of 63’s, and although not electrostatic the Wharfedales scratch my midrange itch in my secondary system with a 12wpc Pilot SA232. Seems like you dig British stuff as I do, and the Wharfedale have that “Britishness” in spades. I’d look for a pair of W90’s from the early 60’s with alnico drivers if possible. They won’t do big Sabbath rock if that’s your thing, but will make the Stones, Kinks and Beatles shine, as they get 60’s-70’s guitar tones just right. Shouldn’t be over $500 for a clean pair either. Only downside really is that they are HEAVY - the walls of the cabinets are sand filled and very inert, back breakers for sure.

 

Bose 901 series 1 or 2 and a Deercreek EQ? Hang them from the ceiling on chains if you really want retro and squeeze a pool table in there. (I've never tried 901s or anything else of this idea but I always thought it would be fun)

 

Sorry, I missed that part. So...

 

Sorry, the thread ends early
Found something that didn’t let me sleep
Got up again and pressed “buy now”, then slept well

EMI Abbey Road Studio Monitors, like new
Surrounds like new, Cones near new looking
Tweeters look like new
Completely redone enclosure, very beautiful
Crossover recapped with black Jantzen Crosscaps and a new coil
330 USD plus cutthroat price insured shipping

Once a lifetime chance