Allison Speakers - Modern Kentucky Company

There are a pr. of Allison Acoustic four speakers on Ebay. No idea how they sound.

A better choice would be the 'RA Labs' speakers that were marketed direct, but long gone. They were Allison designed and I believe sourced out of Italy. Great sound, great values. They come up often on the 'gon' and ebay. I use a pair of the center channel units plus a passive RA sub that I drive from a separate amp. I think I paid about $200 for everything when they were liquidating. Best value I made in a long time.

the re-issued ones, threes and fours all sound great. even at their higher list prices, they competed with products well beyond in price. I've owned the original threes, fours,fives, sixes, sevens, and eights. I now own the re-issue threes. i'm relatively sure the inventory on the re-issues is gone. i've tried to reach kentucky to no avail to find a pair of fours. roy allison is one of the great audio men of all time. his AR creations still sound great as well.

Buying for price, not sound, is a risky process.
I've always fallen in love first THEN, tried for pricing.
Its always amazing to me that someone in a hobby that is generally thought of as borne out of passion, that the 'dollar' would come first, before that passion.

My advice FWIW (probably nothing) is that you look for something that 'floats your boat'first, THEN try for pricing.

JMHO.
Larry

Thanks everyone for your responses!

Tom: I just purchased a reconditioned set of Allison Fours, but I appreciate the heads up. I hope those go to a good home.

Jaybo: I'm still mourning the loss the of reborn Allison speakers myself, but they're definitely dead as a dodo. What a bummer. However, sounds like you were one of the lucky ones to get a new pair of speakers. Unfortunately, I wasn't in the market and didn't have that sort of money when these were released, but maybe one day I'll snag some used/new Allisons. It is nice to know they've still got that nice classic Allison sound.

Buconero: I'm ashamed to say that, until this thread, I was completely unaware of RA Labs and RDL Acoustics being related to Roy Allison. Now that you mention it I feel silly, but I just never put them together and never gave them a thought. I will definitely give them a look.

Larry: I understand your POV, but I think that perhaps you don't realize that your position isn't very far off from mine of many others. Take myself: I really like the classic Allison designs. So now that I've found a designer that I like (I also like Maggies and, once upon a time, Vandersteens... long story) I can either audition the speakers or buy them to see what I like. The problem is that most of the Allison speakers are old, so auditioning is not really possible. That leaves finding gems I can afford on the cheap to see how (in this case) Allison's different speakers sound.

You see, from my POV, I -am- choosing sound first, because I am choosing a designer with whom I am familiar and I like, and working to find his products for a price that I am comfortable. That way if it doesn't work out I can resell it (usually without much of any loss; just shipping generally).

But I understand your POV as well, given that each design, as well as each design element--not to mention the other components--each affect the sound.

-Aaron

Aaron,
Great clarification. I didn't realize that you actually loved their 'house sound', to me the critical element in making any loudspeaker choice. OF COURSE, if you love the sound, go for it.

Good luck.

Larry

I purchased a pair of Allison CD9s today from a friend who bought a pair of Maggie 1.7s. He was the only owner of these for the past 18 years. They are in excellent condition, except the grill on one is torn a little. They sound super. The low end is terrific and the sound stage is tall and wide. The separation is very good. I plan to spend some time with these but may be willing to list them here on the Gon in the future. Also, I may post a more detailed review of them, if I find the time.

I love the Allison Speakers. They sound fantastic! I own two pairs of CD7s. Worked for Roy Allison in Natick, MA. in the mid 80's. He was a great man.