Does anyone like vintage speakers?

When did your "golden age" of HiFi occur? I must have missed it.

Stuff, old or new, sounds good or not depending of how well it was designed and built in the first place and how well it interfaces with todays equipment. Speaker's have improved greatly since the late 70's - why would you want to hear old or new electronics using them?

What is, IMHO, interesting is that some of the old electronics when brought up to date parts wise can sound dammed good when coupled with quality modern speakers.

Fishboat, When/if you or Mechans define what is a vintage speaker, or when the golden age of audio occurred, I would be better able to comment.

When I think of vintage, I think of products from the 50's and 60's. Being a lot younger than I (if you are) you may think of 'vintage' as being from the 80's or 90's.


Regarding speakers and their design, before the advent of high power SS amps, most speakers were driven by low powered tube amps and had to be designed accordingly. No sealed boxes (an optimum design on paper) or low effiency ported multiple driver speakers existed. With the advent of the perfect sound forever, SS amps, came sealed boxes and large multidriver ported, vented, or having passive radiators, designs requiring mucho watts, current, or both. So the 70's were a transitional period for amp and speaker design. My golden age for speaker design really began in the late 70's and ended in the early 90's. Most improvements since then have been incremental IMHO.

For example I can't, offhand, think of any dynamic speaker from times earlier than the mid/late 70's that can compare with todays high resolution speakers IF your criterion in judging speakers is resolution, linearity, and maximizing of imaging (those are my issues). Depth of imaging, air etc were not things that were even discussed much until the early 80's.

If you have other priorities then you might well find some "vintage speakers" that will float your boat. You can go back to the Quads from the late 50's - a lot of folks still love them, for what they bring to the table. I'm sure as much can be said for a lot of older horn speakers as well, such as Klip's and Altec's, DIY speakers using various highly regarded drivers, etc. And, for folks who like dynamic speakers but aren't all bound up in imaging and resolution, speakers with a wide baffle can work quite well.

Now if you want to talk about vintage speakers in terms of the 80's and 90's compared to today's that is an intirely different issue and the changes are not all that clear, to me at least.

Of passing interest is the completion of the circle - the renewed interest in horn's and small tube amps. 50's technology with upgraded parts.

Defining 'vintage' or 'golden age' is essential to this discussion. :-)

Fishboat, I think that the quality of the drivers (especially tweeters) used in speakers has improved quite a bit since the 70's and 80's. Properly implemented these drivers can provide resolution and transparency in dynamic speakers that was only available in panels and electrostats. And, if you wanted point source imaging, was only available in Quad 63's (which even by todays standards is a fine speaker). But, if a person is not too anal about this fine resolution issue there are many excellent speakers from the 80's and 90's that will serve you quite well. Actually, this pursuit of fine resolution can be a trap for the ambitious audiophile with limited means who is unaware that fine resolution will mean that they hear all of the warts in their electronics and sources, and it ain't all pretty! Hope your Snell's work out for you. :-)