I had just sold my Proceed PAV/PDSD combo, with a trio of Jeff Rowland Model 7s, and EAD Theatermaster. While I was waiting for my new system (Cal Audio CL-2500 pack) to arrive, I realized I needed some tunes and went to the yard to see what was 'laying' around. What I found was not only fun, but the idea to begin this thread. Personally, I am interested in this question from a Home Theater standpoint, but welcome 2 channel responses as well.
What is the BEST systems or pieces you have heard from companies that are no longer in business!!
I went to the garage, and pulled up a Golden Theater GTX-1 I had purchased a few years back. Solo Electronics went under about a year into these units. They received rave reviews from the magazines, but they just didn't hang around for a curtain call. I then pulled out an older 5 channel amp and here is what I gathered!
The DTS/DD Golden Theater GTX-1, which is STUNNINGLY good in 2 channel (what everyone loved about this unit!) was the start, and I paired it with a Chiro 5 channel C-500 amp. I thought, hey, this company is also out of business too!!! This amp was also favorably reviewed and when I put this system together, I realized how good they both were, specifically in 2 channel!! These companies both had GREAT products and when matched together, WOW! Obviously this set didn't chase the Proceed/Rowland gear out of my house, but you know, it did give it a run for its money!! Here is my thoughts on the BEST OutOfBusiness Home Theater!!
Golden Theater GTX-1 (DTS, DD) Chiro C-500 (140 x 5, THX (for whatever that is worth) Hales Concept 5 (owned these 250 lbs monsters some time ago) and for a center channel the Hales Rev 1!!
This system would be stellar for music and if for music, it would kick butt for Home Theater!! The Hales are fabulous speakers, require substantial power (like the Aerials I run now) but if fed properly, even the mother of 'The Fridge' would be proud!
Put your best OutOfBusiness (OOB) companies down!!!
scientific fidelity, the original fried, advent, ar and allison, spica, the original rogers, the original mission,hundreds of splendid casualties......all tried to offer great value and expand this hobby. oh well
Dokorder. I had a 10 inch reel to reel deck made by them. In college I was king of the hill, all of my buddies had cassette decks....I had the big Dokorder. Man I miss that deck.
Allied Radio. Allied Was a gigantic electronics super store in the '60s. Noted for their catalogs, Allied sold everything audio and even had their own brand (receivers, speakers, etc.).
I have fond memories of attending their "midnight madness" sales at the Western ave. super store in Chicago.
Empire "pedestal" marble top speakers? Sure! AR turntables? You bet! Marantz receivers with the built in tuning oscilloscope? Right over "there".
I saw my first video recorder at Allied (Sony).
At 16, I owned some kick-ass acoustic suspension speakers with horn midrange and tweeters (12 inch woofers). Drove these to thrilling levels with a 25 watt Kenwood S/S receiver via Gerrard SL-95B (later a Zero-100). I heard Allied's parent co. was Altec-Lansing which would account for why the speakers sounded so good!
Entec! I was surprised nobody mentioned them yet. They made great subwoofers until the late 80's or early 90's. Many folks used them along with electrostatic and ribbon main speakers due to their speed; they are servo based designs. I used a pair of the SW-5's with great results until recently, when one developed a problem... it is at a local repair shop. You see them pop up every now and then here on Audiogon.
Jaybo, Dale Pitcher, who used to make Essence loudspeakers and electronics, is still around. His new company is called Intuitive Design, intuitiveaudio.com
Slightly OT, ..I sure do miss them some of the old stereo retailers of SO CA - even though not all were "high end"...Absolute Audio (In OC carried high gear like Rowland, Wilson, Audio Research, CAL, etc.), Pacific Stereo (Parasound, Bose 901s hanging from the ceiling,Quadraflex), Leo's Stereo (ESS, Nikko, Aiwa, Acoustic Research), CA Stereo, Federated (Yamaha, Infinity, SAE, Vector Research)...I was so impressed with it all...from Vector Research's boombox with speakers that were made out of particle board and not plastic to the awesome Rowland gear at Absolute.
. If you are going to mention SoCal retailers, you have to mention RogerSound Labs. Rogersound Labs manufactured their own speakers that carried a lifetime warranty.
No one mentioned SuperScope. I had a SuperScope cassette deck before I moved up to a Dokorder reel to reel deck. .
Supratek. I still love my Dual Cabernet. I have heard that Mick takes custom orders from time to time, but he's not producing on the scale he once was.
Soliloquy. I never owned any of their speakers, but I did demo a pair several years ago and really enjoyed them.
California Audio Labs(Had a couple Icons, then an Alpha/Delta combo), Dynaco(David Hafler and his tube designs/kits were excellent learning/teaching tools), Acoustat(Wish I still had my Model III's, and the room in which they resided. Wonder how they'd sound with the system I have now?)
Proton anyone? Anyone love Proton? Can't beleive i almost bought that stuff.
NHT - it looked like they were headed in the right direction at first and then.......splat!! I guess the founder has now retaken the company,so we will have to see.
Someone mentioned "Normal Labs", wasn't it NORMAN LABS for NORMAN, OKLA.? Yes!! I remember a local record store that always had a sound system cranked to 11 and several pairs on Norman Labs Speakers. I always wanted a pair and thought they out-rocked anyting else I was familar with.
Acoustic Electronics Air 2.2 power amp from the early 80's. I believe a fellow by the name of Roger Paul designed these amps. John Iverson Electron Kinetics Eagle amps and David Berning amps all designed during the 80's.
Proton anyone? Anyone love Proton? Can't beleive i almost bought that stuff.
Sounds like you didn't love them, but I did. Their greatest product was probably their clock radio. Still made under the Sangean label, but the last one I got had a hum problem I couldn't solve. Wonderful sound. I also had a Proton tape deck in a car back in the 80's and it was terrific. Finally, I bought a Proton TV in the 80s. Actually, that was probably a mistake. It was pretty good but not completely reliable.
From the Seventies, I remember fondly the Sonus Blue phono cartridges,IMF,Sonab,Fried and TDL speakers, Fulton speakers and cables, Dual turntables, Connoisseur turntables, Audionics of Oregon,ESS Speakers with their Heil Air Motion transformer drivers,Dahlquist,Cizek,and Luxman. Mostly, I miss the pair of Audioanalyst M6 Phase Matrix speakers I owned back in the day. They were a 1977 vintage 3-way speaker that the manufacturer claimed were time and phase correct.
From the eighties, Threshold, Apogee, Forte'(Threshold's second line), Counterpoint, Synthesis speakers, and most of all Spica. Too bad John Bau didn't stick with designing high-end speakers. I still consider the TC-50 an inspired work.
Vero Research/Soundwave. I'm using them now for 5 channels of my 7.4 HT setup and they are excellent speakers. Not real easy to find, but they seem to go for pennies on the dollar now because no one remembers them.
I have to add to the Dunlavy fan club. I bought a pair of SC 3's in 1998. And I still have them. Everything else has changed down the line, but not my treasured Dunlavys. They just sound fantastic: clear, clean, precise, quick, revealing; those speakers just ooze magic. I'll never sell them unless the cross-overs burn up or an act of god destroys them, heaven forbid.
Another for the ads line, after buying some l810' s in 1977, I fell in love with their warmth and accuracy. Sadly I parted with them, and settled for other speakers for a couple decades.. In the last few years due to the advent of ebay and CL. I have been acquiring vintage ads speakers as sort of a hobby. I guess I am not alone from other people I have met. Fortunately we can still get repairs and replacement parts still through Mr. So.
I have owned and still own many pairs of ads speakers. Just gave my daughter a pair with my old NAD integrated amp. She no longer listens to ear buds :)
Prof-Great choices. Have heard Dunlavy and Meadowlark speakers but never Hales. The Hales Transcendence 8 has always been on my "wanted" vintage speaker list due to the rave reviews and build quality.
My first encounters with Hales were the T-8s at my local dealer, years ago, and I was always transfixed by how "right" they sounded in terms of tonality.
Way back at CES2000 I was trying to discern which system sounded the most "real." I'd come from watching shows of live musicians, unamplified, in the off-time. And during the show I'd judge how convincing it sounded from outside the room - "could that be live music, and if not what's different about it?" I'd pay attention to the voices of people in the room with voices coming through the system to note what the reproduction was missing from real life sound, etc. Not surprisingly, just about every system came up quite short, one of the most prominent failings IMO being a "one note" quality to the timbre of voices and instruments through each sound system - each seemed to put real sound through it's own blanching process, and then reproduce it with a single tone - the speaker's sonic signature. I pretty much despaired of finding any system no matter how expensive that could reproduce the gorgeous rainbow of timbres I was hearing in real life.
Then right at the end I heard some startlingly convincing big band playing in a room. I stood outside and marveled at how convincing it was tonally. Walking inside, there were the Hales T-8s playing the music! (Loud! With little strain). I played some selections on the T-8s and was really astonished at how many convincing timbral colors were coming from those speakers. Vocals in particular had easily the most consonant reproduction, comparing remarkably well with voices of people in the room in terms of the sense of organic quality, ease, and "human" timbral tone.
It made quite an impression on me :-)
I later ended up with Hales T-5s for quite a while, and they did indeed impress me much like the T-8s, though nothing quite does it like the T-8s. Sadly, I don't have the room for T-8s.
The other thing Hales did for me was put to bed this idea of metal drivers sounding metallic or harsh or fatiguing. Paul Hales was a wizard at rendering lush, grain-free, unfatiguing sound from those metal drivers. I still use Hales Transcendence monitors for both home theater and some music listening, and as someone with very sensitive ears I find them to be the smoothest, most ear-fatigue-free speakers I know of.
I know most T-8 owners get the upgrade itch like any other audiophile, but almost all of them seem to have immense troubles finding anything else that is such a complete package in terms of clarity, timbral realism, soundstaging, dynamics and smooth sound.
Prof-THX for the insight. With the cost of current near SOTA speakers newer vintage(10-15 years old) might be worth the risk. Is there any current speaker(s) you would compare the T-5 or T-8 with?
At one point I was pretty familiar with just about every well known speaker in the market, but not now. Home Theater diverted my energies for quite a while. So I can't help you much.
I'm trying to get hold of some Thiel 3.7 speakers, and from what I'm told by a current Hales T-8 owner who had the 3.7s on demo, they are *very* similar to the Hales. Though I think the Hales would come across as still more relaxed. (I don't mean laid back though - the Hales have almost an electrostatic quality for transients, but they are so smooth sounding and full bodied I'd think they'd be overall more relaxing to listen to than the Thiels).
I'm going to try and warm up the Thiels with a bit of tubes :-)
A minor correction to Larryi's excellent list, if I may: Undoubtedly you meant to refer to Brook (Lincoln Walsh's Brook Electronics Company). Not to Brooks, which was an unrelated, less well known, and less highly regarded manufacturer of tube tuners in approximately the same early 1950s era.
I think you might be correct. I am thinking of the 1950s tube amps. I also like amps by the Canadian affiliate of Western Electric (Northern Electric). By the way, I also like the Ohm speakers that Lincoln Walsh developed.
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