So many great posts! Really happy to see Acoustat X and Beveridge both mentioned. Electrostatics with direct-drive tube amps made a lasting impression, to the point I have trouble being satisfied with less. And ADS 2030s - I swear those things were bigger than the crates they came in ;-)
I'll add Acoustat Spectra 22s; really, any Acoustats. Such a bargain, flaws and all. I'd add photos, but I'd have to pull them from someone else's pages. I no longer own any.
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I'll tell you where I lived as a kid, the biggest brand in the Bay Area was Infinity and Klipsch. Martin Logan was for the rich and famous and B&W was around lets say. VMPS was very popular, almost cult like and JBL was everywhere. A lot of music makers used JBL in their homes and there were a LOT of music makers in the Bay Area.. Every rancher I knew had JBL, Mac or Marantz valve gear.. Regards |
A lot was going on down in the bay areas while we had our oddity speaker builders and companies designing and building different stuff up here in NorCal. All disappeared now. This thread is such a blast through the past, thanks for that oldhvymec. Thoroughly enjoyed remembering, finding, posting odd speaker pics! |
Speakers come and go. For most there is a reason they are no longer made. I do not long for any speakers in the past. There is only looking forward to improved performance. You have to know what you are listening for. Many are just shooting in the dark. I liked my father's B302 Bozaks. They were very efficient warm loudspeakers that worked great with low power tube electronics. They were better than anything I could afford at the time. I have no desire to resurrect the past. The present is so much better. |
One can learn from the past to observe, refine, redesign, restyle and optimize. Many cool designs you see today with speakers are spawned and resurrected from great ideas of the past with new materials and updated engineering to some degree. However, even for musical speakers, technology has not changed all that much. Other areas of audio electronics have progressed much more than speakers past 50 years, actually. This is definitely not a thread about digital zeros and ones. DSP Bluetooth speaker threads can be found elsewhere, LOL. 🤣
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AR 3A wonderful speakers.. I never had to work on many AR speakers because they seldom screwed up. I sure like. I seen a few on stands too, that was the ticket. I used QSO 808 with a ring mid driver. I'm actually listening to them right now. Very close in sound. Look at the bass drivers and the cabinets. I don't think these were a matched pair.. ???? |
I new a guy named Mugs he had a pair of these. They sounded better than the QLS1. Theses were powered by infinity amps and used an Infinity preamp too. No Idea who actually made them.. They were in one of the first large treated rooms, I had ever heard and the guy had 2 (TWO) VMPS passive subs. He worked at the largest record retailer in the Bay Area for 10 years.. 10,000 records at least.. You wanted to hear it, he had it.. :-) Mugs went to heaven. :-) Regards
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=1 x5owner1 on the Gallo 3 series. Could sound very good indeed, and at very reasonable price point, esp. by the standards of today's hobby.
I briefly had a pair of 3.5s or 3.6s, but could not get them to sing with the 30wpc amp I was running. I expect they wanted a bit of juice. Weird that the company persists, but discontinued the special speaker in their line (the Strada is good, but not in the same league)
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I’ve heard them with Pass equipment. I kept staring at them. I expected Dr. Who to pop up.. They sure disappeared in a room. Jean-Luc Ponty was on the menu. I remember that I brought it.. The guy had isobaric subs made from 1" thick clear plastic. Quit a sight and sound. The drivers had the biggest motors I had ever seen, they must have weigh 50 pounds each. I’ll see If I can fin a pic. Side Note: HAY Crazy SUBS pics are cool. I like all the DIY stuff. I’d give my eye teeth, If I had eye teeth for the ESS Transar ATD, that were all custom. MAN they look good, I know they sound good.. Regards |
Interesting. I heard a pair of those floorstander Gallo 3s in a smaller room powered by a 100w EL34 stereo tube amplifier with some decent iron transformers behind it. The sound of that middle "CDT3 (Cylindrical Diaphragm Transducer)" component in that MTM type design was pretty neat. Like a circular flat ribbon of sorts. Smooth sound, quite surprising. My friend missed out on buying a used pair and kinda regrets it. A unique looking and sounding speaker in a small floorstander. I wonder if a pair of those new Strada 2 separate units with a REL sub would sound close.
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When I bought the Gallo 3 series, I multiply auditioned the Strada 1s, and while I found them good with the Gallo sub, I had a clear preference for the 3s. Interesting sidenote: I've bought most of my speakers without hearing them, but the Gallo's were an exception, and I got to closely listen to both the Stradas and the 3s several times. I've enjoyed almost all of my speakers, but the Gallo's lasted about a week, despite my loving the auditions. As I said, I suspect power issues, despite the Gallos being rated down to 30w. With the right amp, I could se an old pair of 3s being a steal, though I'd not want to find service on that CDT3. |
One set of designs that ought be much missed by DIYers (and everyone else) are the kit speakers from George Short at North Creek. Mostly pretty basic MTM or two way designs, with top quality components, often voiced to be placed quite near boundaries (very helpful for many of us), and sold at real world prices. Below is is somebody's very attractive build of the Big Kat. The smaller, and still very good, Eska was one of my first serious speakers, with figured walnut boxes built by George's colleague Lee Taylor. They still serve admirably as the fronts in my small home theater.
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When Jim Winey left 3-M and invented Magnepans, boxes became obsolete. I am sure there are some very fine ones out there, and Maggies are not for every room or every hardware set-up, but pair them with some good HW (Audio Research, for example) and have them set up properly IN YOUR ROOM. If then you still prefer boxes, go for it. Cheers! |
Thanks, I can noe see where you are coming from. I think the planer/box question is very much a matter of taste, rather than a question of objective obsolescence.
I've listened to decent bit to Maggies, and while I admire them, the sound a bit vaporous to me, and I prefer the punch I hear in boxes. Judging by the composition of the market, many others, including those who can fool with room and kit all they want, have similar sentiments. Nobody has to be "right" here, of course.
Cheers, and back to our originally scheduled programming! 😊 |
Exactly! As a former dealer, I totally understand your POV, and given that at any one time there are about 300 speaker manufacturers out there, Maggies are not for everyone. The type of music one listens to, the room (THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF ANY SYSTEM), and personal taste rule. My experiences with all types of speakers over the years says that some pretty inventive design points are out there as we can see from this thread. The range of drivers and enclosures is breathtaking and fun. In the end, every designer was looking to give the best sound for their product (other than those who were just playing around for money), and some serious stuff has been invented. My personal opinion is just that, personal, and I sold many of these boxes to happy customers over the years. While I can appreciate your love for a specific SPL, I kind of bet you (for fun) that I can set up a Maggie system that will blow you out of your shorts given the right room, etc. BUT, thank goodness for those 300+ makers out there since there are as many people who love what they do as who prefer what I like. Keep the hobby alive! Cheers! |
To [@oldhvymech], Interesting. Not sure where this photo came from, I went to a PAP listening session years back and heard these same units. It was an evaluator rep here in NorCal, he had the same hard floors and drapes to the side :) The speakers were overly sensitive for my ears paired with what I felt were the wrong amplifiers for the speakers. Some lower power mono tube amps with good tubes, would have been better for demos imo. It gave some ideas at least. I too wondered what happened with their production, frames, was sorta looking to test the AMT version, and did not get the chance. Was a clever idea with modular sections. You’ve probably seen these too, this is what I was looking over, great heil at center.
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