Best vintage speakers...... Apparently

https://thevinylfactory.com/features/best-vintage-speakers-turntable-set-up/amp/

I remember my uncle having those missions but I don't remember them bring particularly brilliant. Think I was only around 11 or 12 though.

 

my cousin had some old jensens.
16" woofer, 2 miss tweeter and a super tweeter, lasted him 30 years before he sold them they were amazing !! almost bought, but the cost to repair, was to much.

 

It's the Heybrook HB1s you need to keep an eye on. Better speakers than their price tag suggests. They go very well with pricier electronics too according to Hi Fi World.

Peter Comeau designed, and you'll find him at IAG these days.

 

Thought they were horrible, I like the phrase "The result leans towards a clean yet warming sound output." The key word is lean.

 

Good selection..Although i doubt many of them would sound as good as they did new.Plus the fact that speaker technology and sound quality has improved a fair bit over the last 30 years..IF the rubber surrounds are the right material not to perish and you change the crossovers to new versions then some of these may still be worth a punt.

 

Materials science progresses all the time and speaker designers benefit. Of all the links in the system chain, the speaker should consistently improve over time.

 

For the money Wharfedale W70s is a great deal for the performance. Midrange is seriously good. Bass is just strong enough and treble is good. $200-300 per pair in good condition.

 

Not sure if they are the best but when I was in college in the early 70's the most popular decent performing affordable speakers were Dynaco A25 or 35's, Advent's, EPI 100's or if you had some extra $$$ JBL's.

Still have my Dynaco A35's and love the warm mellow sound of them.

 

It's not a bad list, and certain speakers like the big Tannoy are a no brainer. But as with any list there are speakers that some would think should be on there that are not. And some that are that some folks would want removed. There have been a lot of capable speakers built over the years, so there are going to be some that are occluded. Just off the top of my head speakers like

Celestion SL600
Magnepans
Apogees
Altec 604 or 19
JBL 43XX series
Proac Tabelett or others

Cheers
Mister Pig

 

Some of the active Meridian models have excellent dynamics and will embarrass many modern speakers.

 

Wharfedale W60's, W70's (shown below) and W90's.



The W60's are a smaller version of these in a similar size cabinet to something like an A/R, But also a three way system.

The W90's are wider than the W70's and have two drivers of each kind of woofer, midrange and tweeter.

All three of these models can definitely embarrass many modern day speakers.

These are the W90's with the grills removed. You'll notice that they have a paper cone tweeter (the ones on the far outside).



Here is a top view to give you a better idea about the thickness of the cabinets.



All of these had some design differences over the various years and small changes to their driver's.

While we think of a British made speaker when we mention vintage Wharfedale's but these were made in a plant that was set up in New York.

I acquired the W70's for $222, for the pair. They are so old, that they are off most people's radar. The W60's cost me around the same and their cabinets are in perfect condition also.

The W90's cost me $600 for the pair, delivered. But they are in fine furniture cabinets that are in perfect condition.

W70's are a future project to bring in a completely vintage system online, that would later be used with the W90's.

 

W90 are rare and worth $600 IMO.

 

Hell YES!

You don't see speakers in ultra fine furniture grade cabinets these days, like you did back in the day.

Here I have furniture grade cabinets that are in absolutely mint condition.

The W90 are everything that you could ever want to build a sterling vintage system around. They have deep bass that most home speaker cabinets did not have available to them. And, if you look at the size of them, they are in perfect proportions for use in a home. not huge tall towers, not deep boxes like La Scala's and with their real hard wood veneer's can pass the WAF test better than most speakers. The W-60's are in a nice furniture grade finish too.

The 70's have a bare rubbed walnut finish, with no varnish of any kind, just the natural barre wood.

Also, the wood veneer's were way thicker, back in the day, so that made refinishing possible.

These are well built cabinets and then you add the weight of the large heavy 12" woofer's, and these are heavy cabinets for their size, compared to a similar cabinet that might be manufactured today.

If any of these speakers, particularly the W90's were made today, they would be rather expensive speakers.

When you take their age into consideration, the original shipping cartons were long since gone, most right after they were first set up. Nobody back then saved cartons that their furniture came in.

Also, they have hollow plywood backs which were sand filled to reduce cabinet resonances, making them still heavier.

The W60's are not that large or overly heavy and could be reasonably shipped. As you move up into the W70's, the majority are for local pick-up only, effectively reducing that market area and lowering the prices.

When you get into the W90's, all of them that I have seen are for local pick up only. Most eBay seller's realize this and won't even bother to give shipping quotes, because the shipping costs are more than the value of the speakers.

I got lucky with all three as they were all in Florida.

 

I'm quite happy with my Vintage 60s KLH Model 6 & 80s Yamaha NS500M. Just checked flee bay when I was thinking of picking up another pair of 500M & they seem to be in the $600 to $700 range currently.

 

Anything by ADS or Cizek. Or Allison Acoustics.

 

I'm running a pair of vintage (1984 ish) Mission 737R's in my vintage system. I picked them up for $150 and they had had original stands attached and had been recapped and refoamed by an authorized Mission dealer. The older gent I bought them from also had the floor spikes, floor pads, and original owners manual for them.

IMHO, they do have a very nice sound them and they are VERY bright. I don't usually use tone controls (flat with no loudness contour) but when listening to my CD player or my DAC through them I sometimes have to dial back the treble. They do have an overall very nice sound for the $150 I paid for them but YMMV

 

Good list but far from all inclusive. The Quads do belong at the top of the heap.

 

Acoustic Research AR3-as.

Warm, fuzzy, gooey, rich, whatever words you want to use. They're definitely outclassed by modern speakers, but at their roughly $4k price point in modern money, I'm actually having trouble thinking of a modern speaker that has lower and more powerful bass than those.

 

I find that that Paul Rigby guy 90% of the time does not have a clue about what he's talking about and favors British made stuff just because of it being British, like most other British Hi-Fi "journalists".

 

BBC LS3/5A
I want some

 

Very,very good speakers. Spares available too.

 

I've read his stuff in HiFi World for about 11 years now and find him balanced in most of his pieces. I'd also disagree with the backing British by dint of it being British. Not in my experience again.

 

Anyone remember B.I.C. speakers? My old man had a pair that he bought new in the 70's and eventually replaced them with Klipsch (I'm thinking Forte) in the 80's.

 

In what ways would you say they are outclassed by modern speakers?

 

You know you are getting old when:

people list speakers as vintage that you used and/or remembered as current products when you were active in the hi-fi scene.

There's all kinds of stuff out there, some of it unobtanium--
Western Electric, Siemens/Klangfilm, RCA;
Bozak Concert Grand, Klipschorn;
JBL;
Janzen, KLH 9, Quad (original '57)

In ye olde days, people bought drivers for installation into cabinetry.
Field coil speakers.
Dukane Ionovac
The magazines from the '50s and early '60s are wonderful.


Jeffery Jackson's hifi heroin is fun to check--hadn't visited there in a while.