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Seasoned ears only

I've got too much time on my hands. Like many audiophiles, I'm always trying to achieve that symbiotic system nirvana; the sound you remember from one place or another that you just can't seem to achieve again. I was thinking that several companies have introduced truly remarkable speakers in the last 30 years, but many of us are obsessed with the "newest thing."

Think of such speakers as the ugly but brilliant Yamaha NS-1000 monitors, the many Quad electrostatics, the AR-9, the original Von Schweikert VR-4. Some truly amazing speakers that you can find at a fraction of their original cost today.

How do those of you with the more seasoned ears think a pair of, for example, Von Schweikert VR-4 would match up with most of today's under $10,000 speakers? Sometimes I think the Quads, VR-4 and NS-1000 knocked my socks off at the time more than most speakers introduced today. Do you think we are being seduced into buying the "newest thing" because of our audio bug vulnerability, or are today's speakers really any better??
klipschking

Showing 1 response by plato

plato
1,543 posts
 
Interesting Question... I've owned some very good speakers over the years. I think my favorites were my Acoustat Monitor III's with custom-built tube servo-charge amplifiers. For sure they were not the most detailed or extended speakers available, but they were among the most harmonically coherent and musical. They reproduced male and female vocals like no other. I still miss them at times.

I have some newer speakers from NSR, the Sonata D3, and a pair of VMPS RM2 ribbon hybrid speakers. I like both of them but I don't know if either had the same kind of midrange magic as those Acoustats.

Curiously, I have a pair of Magnepan SMGa Series II speakers in a small room powered by a QuickSilver GLA tube amp and they give me a taste of the same kind of musical midrange magic.

There are a lot of super expensive speakers out there with crossovers and internal wiring that costs thousands of dollars by itself. Many of them have superb detailing, focus, and soundstaging qualities. But I don't think any of them are much better than some of the old classics at achieving midrange magic.

Anyway, my latest idea is to put a tube OTL amp on some Magnepans in my small room and see how that goes.
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