Vintage speakers can be extremely good. Especially ones that look crap but are built from great components. Don't believe all the marketing hype! A lot of the latest and greatest is not an improvement but cheap stuff in a shiny box that only looks great.
My vintage JBLs vs new B&W, PMC etc.
My system: Bryston BP-26 pre-amp, McIntosh MCD500 cdp, Conrad Johnson MV-60SE with JBL 4312s or Bryston 4B-SST2 with JBL L150As. Audioquest Coral interconnects and nothing special speaker cable.
The dilema: I keep thinking the next set up will involve a $peaker up grade. I go to the dealer and listen to high end demos and then return home only to find I still find my JBLs just as good. To be fair, both pairs of my JBLs are in near pristine condition. I compared my 150As to PMC PB1s and while I really liked the PMCs, I eventually sold them because I could not discern any real improvement over my 30yr old 150As. I also sold my Kimber 8TCs with the PMCs for the same reason. My listening room is about 30 wide by 20 deep.
I recognize that you can't just walk out and buy 30+ year old speakers in mint condition, I was very lucky to find these, but I find it interesting that I can't seem to find speakers which are significantly better sounding for less than the price of a new car. Is it just me or is there something I'm missing.
The dilema: I keep thinking the next set up will involve a $peaker up grade. I go to the dealer and listen to high end demos and then return home only to find I still find my JBLs just as good. To be fair, both pairs of my JBLs are in near pristine condition. I compared my 150As to PMC PB1s and while I really liked the PMCs, I eventually sold them because I could not discern any real improvement over my 30yr old 150As. I also sold my Kimber 8TCs with the PMCs for the same reason. My listening room is about 30 wide by 20 deep.
I recognize that you can't just walk out and buy 30+ year old speakers in mint condition, I was very lucky to find these, but I find it interesting that I can't seem to find speakers which are significantly better sounding for less than the price of a new car. Is it just me or is there something I'm missing.