Personal speaker evolution

I started in 1976 with some speakers from Team electronics. I think the brand was Atlantis? I was 16 and within 6 months I had went through every speaker they sold and ended up with with Bose 901s the best thing they had. I had the stands but eventually hung them from chains from my ceiling and when I crakned AC/DC they would swing because of the massive amounts of air coming from the ports in the back. I thought they sounded great and they went pretty loud. I had those for about 2 years and then I built a huge pair of speakers using Gauss 15" woofers in 6 cubic foot ported boxes. For mids I used JBL wooden horns hooked up to JBL 2461 midrange drivers and JBL2405 slot tweeters in their own seperate boxes. Now I had the same speakers that the bands were using to make the music. They were bi-amped with a yamaha power amp for the bass and a NAD integrated for the high end all running through passive and electronic crossovers. I was 18 and didn't have a car but EVERYBODY partied at my house!! LOL. With only 35 more watts per channel than with the bose I now had concert level decibles and I realized how bad the bose not only sucked watts but how bad they sounded. Then came marriage, kids, and the big speakers went in to storage. B&W 601 for years, then Totem Sttaf, and now I have JMR Offrandes, but I have the bug and I have been looking for some floorstanders that will get down to the low 20's. P.S. I sold the Bose for what I paid for them after owning them for 2 years and I just sold all of the individual components to the speakers I built in 1976 on Ebay.
Russ

Scott S-17 1972 $40 pair
EPI Microtowers 1975 $60 pair
B&O S45 1978 $300 pair
CHARTWELL LS3/5a 1980 $375 pair
Large Advent 1986 $125 pair
MAGNEPAN SMG1 1986 $475 pair
Theil CS2 1990 $750 pair
LINN KAN 2 1993 $400 pair
Cambridge Soundworks 1996 $500 pair
SOUND DYNAMICS 300 TI 1997 $525 pair
Paradigm Monitor 5 v2 2001 $400 pair
Von Schweikert VR1 2003 $899 pair
SPENDOR SP1/2 2003 $1000 pair

Overall favorites: LS3/5a and Magnepans.
Second tier: Spendor SP1/2, Linn Kan, Sound Dynamics

And a few others that we either HT oriented or short lived.

Wow, lets seeif I can remember.

*Design Acoustics DA-10 Sub/Sat System, mid-80's & college.
*Calibration Standard Instruments, (Ed Long Designed) MDM-TA3 near field studio monitors late 80's, mid 90's.
*Monitor Audio Silver 4i's, late 90's
*JM Labs Cobalt 826's Current
***COMING SOON... Totem Acoustic, Wind's***

OK, I'm doing this for the therapeutic value as I have not confronted the problem...

I. No longer have:

1. Home made 3-way acoustic suspension
2. Cerwin-Vega D-3, great when I primarily listened to rock

II. Still have:

1. SoundSource (Cuthbert, GA 1983) dMa, approx. $300 new
2. Advent Laureate, used $75
3. Klipsch kg2, used, $100
4. Klipsch KG 3.5, used, $185
5. KLIPSCH CHORUS II, used, $750
6. Spica TC-50, used, $100
7. SPICA TC-60, used, $375
8. SPICA ANGELUS, used, $305
9. JBL L166 Horizon, used, factory surround replacement, $450
10. JBL S109 AQUARIUS IV, TWO PAIR, total $610
11. Harman/Kardon HK50, used, $50
12. SNELL J SERIES II, used, $350 plus new surrounds
13. SNELL E SERIES II, used, $200 plus new surrounds
14. B&W DM601 S2, new, $440
15. Spendor S6e, demo, $1,400

I have a tolerant wife, the finished, windowless basement is mine, and I tend to have several vintage systems that I don't get rid of (an Arcam/Rega system bi-amping the Spendors in the living room is the exception). I am a public and college radio junkie, so several vintage tuners simultaneously running and spread throughout the house explains the need for the large number of mediocre boxes (that and my love for tung oil and steel wool sessions). I wish I had traded up sonically, but I suppose that would come if I moved or downsized. The Aquarius IV's (running off the A+B of a Kenwood KA-8300) got me into omnidirectional sound, and I imagine that my next pair will be ordered from Ohm new or purchased here on Audiogon. Always wanted a pair of Thiels, perhaps after I divest of all this old lumber and buy some modern monoblocks to drive the Ohms... She swallwoed the spider to catch the fly...

Canton Nestors
Boston Acoustics vr3

Justin Olson
Jolson@mail.roosevelt.edu
Trumpet
Gaudete Brass
www.GaudeteBrass.com