I am happy with sound out of Altec A7 and Lansche 4.1. Thus no immediate plan to add another speaker now. I plan to save enough money to get genuine Western horn system in the future. I heard GIP replica in Korea. It did not sound bad, but somehow not my cup of tea and not a good value either.
Agreed, and let’s also add the skinny cabinets that are the fashion today. The wider baffle in many older speakers is a factor in “vintage” sound. Today’s narrow cabinets do not give enough support in the lower midrange and so they often sound lean and cool.
Thomas, With all of the drivers I heard in both original and GIP reproductions, like the M18 woofer, 555 compression driver and 597 tweeter, I thought the GIP versions were at least as good as originals. But, given the high cost, and probably much lower collector value of GIP reproductions, I can see why they are not as good value. Also, some drivers that I really like are not available as reproductions, such as the 713a, 713c and in particular 713b (my favorite compression driver). Also, the extremely rare permanent magnet 555 is a particularly nice driver that is not available as a reproduction. I sort of like the idea of supporting new production, even if they are copies, so that the art of making these drivers does not die out. Salectric, I suspect that you have a good point. I too find most narrow baffle speakers to deliver a thin sound with poor support in the lower midrange. I don't know if that is always the case, or that this is the cause, but, I agree that it is common to most modern speakers. At the recent Capital Audiofest, I did hear a narrow baffle speaker that sort of defied this description--the Fyne F1 (coaxial 10" driver); I liked this speaker, but, it too could have used more upper bass/lower midrange weight.
@Larry I Another speaker at this year’s CAF that didn’t fit the mold of the typical modern sound was the QLN Prestige 5. It has a narrow width baffle with two small woofers yet it had a surprisingly full-bodied dynamic lower midrange as well as deep, dynamic bass. Of course, the associated equipment, cables and setup were probably factors as well. As far as the GIP replicas, I agree with your comments completely. I can think of two other advantages of the GIP replicas. First, unlike WE there is no problem with unit-to-unit matching. Second, you can actually buy them! No need to wait a year or more to find one for sale. I have been very impressed with the sound of each speaker I have heard using GIP drivers. I haven’t heard an A/B comparison with WE originals as I suspect you have. The closest I came to that was when I compared 555-style drivers on 32A horns. Pierse switched between GIP 555W, YL 5500G and a Fox field coil. They all sounded very good but the GIP was the fastest, the most detailed, and the most transparent. I ended up going with the YL because I liked its warmth and dynamics in the lower midrange, and it didn’t give up much to the GIP in terms of speed and detail. I also wasn’t excited about the extra complexity with a field coil power supply. Of course, I would also be very happy with a matched pair of 713b drivers. Let me know when you want to part with yours!
I really like the big YL drivers too, particularly because the sound is good without having to deal with a field coil power supply. As much as I like the YL drivers, I am even more impressed with how consistent good are their horns, while also being reasonably compact and nice looking. While the throats can be long (to allow for a pretty low crossover point), the rest of the horns are not that big, so one can make a room-friendly system out of them. I liked the QLN system in the Command Performance room too. The other room that I liked very much was the Cube Audio room which had their 10" full range driver coupled to a pair of self-powered woofers in a separate cabinet below the main drivers. The room was huge, yet the system filled the room with a warm, lush and harmonically complete sound.
Larry I agree with your point that vintage give bette value since they do not lose value or gain value sometimes. I will wait until I save enough money. In the meantime, I may add full range for Silbatone 300b after it get repaired. I expect to get Cayin 300b push pull on 15th. Let us see how it sounds with Altec A7.
I have not heard the Silbatone 300b amp, and its been a long time since I've heard a Cayin amp. I would bet that the Silbatone will be a good amp--the founders of that company are big collectors of Western Electric gear. You have way more toys than I do, and I am sure you will have plenty of fun with all of these components such that there should be no rush to get that vintage Western Electric system.
Silbatone 300b SET give very transparent and sharp details since it use silver foiled transformer and exotic parts. So far I got the impression that 300b SET may not have enough power to play Altec A7 (97db/w) loud in my high ceiling listening room. If Line Magnetic LM3 (105 db/w) can be driven by 300b SET, I may go for it after my Silbatone 300b SET get repaired Feb next year. LM3 cost less than 20K$ including shipping which I can afford.
When most people think os SET or other low-powered amps, the 300b is the first tube that comes to mind. But, when you do pursue the vintage Western Electric system, I think you should at least explore the WE 124 amp. That is one of my favorite amp, particularly with 350b tubes, but even with 6L6 tubes, this is a very special amp. It is possible to find original amps in perfect working order because of the crazy-good build quality of their gear, but rebuilds are also great. There are other vintage 6L6 amps worth looking into from companies like Northern Electric and RCA. I own an amp that is very similar to the 124, but one that is not as well known, namely, the 133. The 133 runs the 349 tube instead of the 350b, and while it uses the same output transformer as the 124, it also employs an input transformer while the 124 does not. I like this amp even more than the 124, but, it puts out less power; my particular build is rated at 5.5 watts per channel. This amp runs a semi-vintage speaker that has twin 12” woofers, a Fostex tweeter like the one you have, and a Western Electric 713b compression midrange and Western Electric 12025 sectoral horn.
I listened to Altec A800 with vintage Altec vacuum amp which worked well together. But I have no intention to add more amplifier . Both Line Magnetic 508 and Rogue Cronus Magnum fitted with Telefuken ECC83 and Mullard ECC 82 seem to work well with Altec A7.
I have a pair of ADS 980's from the early 8o's. I haven't heard anything that sounds better under 5k.
My original 70s JBL Century 100s ( early in-line versions) are physically scarred from many moves and the brown foam covers have long since turned to dust, but they still sound great to my ears. It was very cool to see Steve Hoffman's tweet about using the pro version of these speakers to master a high end version of "Hotel California," since the same models were used for mixdown. I think the same drivers were used in the pro version, but with a different alignment.
ADS bookself speaker (I do not remember model no.) that I got on 1978 is my first serious speaker. With Garrard turntable, Fisher integrated(SS), the speaker gave very musical sound. I had used it for four years in Korea. But I had to sell it, since I landed on Berkeley in 1982.
Then perhaps you need to listen to a pair of ADS 1230's, 1530's, 1590's or better yet the 2030's from the same time period. Heck I won't even mention the refined ADS M30's from a later period.
I believe it. I had Altec Lansing Model 15 loudspeakers I should never have sold, especially the low price I sold at.
Altec is much better speaker than most people think. I got it at 750 USD. But since then, I had spent lot more money on accessories and 300b push pull amp which will arrive next Monday.
I am still waiting for delivery of Cayin push pull 300b amp. But it seems that Rogue Cronus Magnum II fitted with Telefuken ECC83 and Amperex ECC82 work well with Altec A7. https://youtu.be/Dome8z7hgxQ It sounds good with both classical and pop music. This is without equaliztion using Accuphase DG28.
This singer Na Hoona is called Korean Elvis Presley. He is still doing live concert at age of 74. Rogue Cronus Magnum II fitted with Telefuken ECC83 and Amperex ECC82 work also well with Altec A7 on Korean Pop song. Audiophiles including me tend to pay too much attention to details, soundstage and etc. But if you can enjoy music through it, everything is fine.
Pair of Vintage Speakers 3' x 2' x 16". Each with - 1 JBL Model LE175 (DLH) 8 Ohm horn/Driver 1 JBL Model D130 8 Ohm 15" woofer 1 ElectoVoice Midrange Driver 1823M/1824M Original cabinets. Built in the 60’s by Speaker City in Vancouver Another interesting vitage speaker came up for sale at 2500 CDN across the Canada border within driving distance from my home. I will not collect all the vintage speakers in North America. But I am curios how it will sound at my listening room.
I received Cayin 300b pp amp about 10 days ago. It sounds warm but coarse without tube rolling. Since then, I had changed 6sn7 to Raytheon 6f8g, 12au7 to GE 12bh7a, 12x7 to Telefuken ECC 83 and stock 300b to Psavne Acme 300b. Now it sounds warm , relaxed and musical.
Another relaxing sound using Cayin 300b PP. Altec A7 sounds detailed and exciting with nice dynamic contrast driven by Line Magnetic 508
Do I see tweeters atop your A7's? If so, and if added into speaker system, then you had to rebuild the crossover to take those right? Did you do the crossover or someone else? If you did it does the third speaker invert the signal somewhere in the process? Had you not added a tweeter, would you have needed/wanted to change the crossover anyway (like Hiraga type). Did you deaden the horn exterior in anyway? Any modifications (sorry if you already talked about it and I forgot)? I bought a pair of A7's from a guy in Germany (held up by Covid, 5 of 8 delivery drivers ill and now Omni!) with the following: two 825B cabinets, two 416-8A Alnico low frequency drivers, two N501-8A crossovers (that he replaced banana plug cable receptacles for 5-way), two 511B high frequency horns and two 800 series high frequency ferrite magnet drivers with orange diffusers. In addition, he pulled out the fibre glass wadding and put in egg crate acoustic foam. I am planing to drive these with my Ayon Spitfire 30 Watt/channel SET integrated amplifier. I am looking for rhythm and pace, speed and classic live sound, but also no sibilance/harshness and nice tone. I am old so my high frequency hearing is lost (no tweeters necessary I think), so will it do what I hope it will or will I need to tweek it further. Thanks
Curious why would rule out tubes with Sonus Faber? My Olympica 3’s sound incredible and are driven by audio research tubed amp and pre!
Cost. I find it to be consistently true that speakers sound their best when you drive them at or close to their maximum power handling. And conversely, driving them closer to the minimum is preventing a speaker from doing most of what they are capable of. I’m all for tubes but getting 200 watts per side from tubes is impractical at best. Getting 100 per side is still very hot, very expensive and at best “sufficient” power. Don’t get me wrong, I’d take a pair with mc275 mono blocks all day long and never think of a reason to complain but for the most part when talking tube power it’s less than 50wpc. dividing low power to a 3 or 4 way design isn’t enough to get drivers moving like they should in a tall and narrow cabinet. for me anyway. For people peaking at 70db and doing most of their listening in the 60’s is enough and I’m fine with that myself but if I’m buying high performance speakers I want to be able to open them up, move some air in the room and create some breathtaking imaging. I think that’s what you give up if you don’t give them enough power. I don’t want to live at 110 db but I want to be able to get there and stay clean with speakers that cost $20,000 or more. Like buying a Ferrari, I may not do it but I’d like it to be able to get up to 180mph without any trouble.
