Jeff, I agree the Soundwaves were pretty darn nice... Another speaker people miss are the Scientific Fidelity Teslas, a true bargain in their day. |
I did a lot of business with Jim Gala...the owner and designer of the Soundwave speakers...I owned a smaller pair of Soliloquy's and then moved up to the Grand Soliloquy in the mid 90's....They've been a great speaker whether in my Krell 2 channel system or home theatre....Years ago I was all ready to walk out the door with Apogees when a friend of mine at Gala's store suggested I listen to these speakers...I quickly backtracked on my decision to buy Apogees and purchased these....been very happy ever since....I've never even had a driver problem either...too bad they're gone.... |
TAG MCLaren, Counterpoint, Apogee |
Another vote for Dunlavy -- great sounding speakers, even if they're a little intimidating on the WAF scale. When business took me to Colorado Springs one time, I stopped in uninvited and unannounced at the Dunlavy factory, hoping to pick up some brochures. What I got was a tour and about 90 minutes of John Dunlavy's time. He definitely had his own opinions and could be a prickly SOB w/ those who disagreed with him, but he was nothing but cordial and accommodating to me. It was a great afternoon -- and of course, I bought Dunlavy speakers. |
Art, CAL is gone. The following thread tells part of the story: http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1078262752&openusid&zzJameswei&4&5#Jameswei |
What happened to Cal Audio Labs?
Web site is not there.
Art |
SAE. But thanks to eBay - you still can get it. I got an '01' system (I call it 'the SAEstem' ) for $800.00 - sounds great. New it woulda been $2600.00. I also have an SAE Mark VI Tuner. Nixie Tubes and 'scope as well as good sound - Great! |
a/d/s speakers- they made the L-series w/fuses, and then the m-12's and m-15's w/solid state tweeter protection instead of fuses- sounded phenominal either way, and beautiful cabinets in black, (real) walnut, rosewood...AND, then they came out w/the m-20 and m-30 transmission line speakers. i auditioned the m-20 on two separate occasions in two separate systems- totally un-impressed. they were over $2k too. and then- nada and adios. who knows what happened then? i owned l-810's and L-1590'S (rosewood). LOVED the sound- then an EVIL high-end dealer MADE me buy b&w 801's.
it was then i "realised" all of my other components were @#$%@%!!! then, i got a subscription to stereophile- triple curse!
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SAE and American Acoustics along with Soundcraftsman!! owen them all and they may not be the best , but they might as well be if you know what i mean!! |
Dunlavy, cause I never got to try their speakers while I wasin purchase mode |
Technics!! Definitely!!! I still own my SA-GX710 and it works just as good as when I bought back in 1990 !!! |
Dayton Wright. Yeah they were a pain to repair, but the majority of the failures where due to cat scratches. Remember they were a gassed speaker, and any pinhole would make them leak and arc. |
Golden Tube. I have the SEP2 remote preamp, and I love it. Especially with upgraded NOS tubes and PC.... Been super reliable and rock solid. I just put some Aperexes in and was looking at the parts quality. All Wima caps etc... Great value. |
Beveridge can be reached via http://www.Beveridge-Audio.com or email at bls@cfcl.com ... I still own a pair of System 3's... Awsome speakers! They are working on some new designs as well as upgrades and repairs for older systems.
In response to Melos, I had an upgrade on my MA-333 preamp and was very happy with Mellos Audio Restoration. The original tech from the get-go is working there.
Paul |
Great American Sound! I loved my G.A.S Son of Ampzilla. Not only were their electronics great, but what originality for names. Who else would come up with Charlie the Tuner? |
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Platinum Audio-great speakers! |
Agree with Topnikko. I owned a number of Melos products over the years. Always the best value for the bucks IMHO of any company in the business I have had dealings with.
They were never really well funded (no deep pockets) or agressive at playing the politics of getting reviews (bribes, kickbacks and advertising tribute) so they ran into a lot of issues with keeping financially stable, in my limited observation.
However, their current service organization through expatriate employees, Melos Audio Restoration of Las Vegas is much better at service than when the company was in business. Much of ther still excellent gear can be purchased used at fire sale prices. |
BOSE. (sigh...)
Brad Day
Atlanta, GA |
Luxman Luxman Luxman...I bought the r-113 35 watt receiver in 1988 and it was so damn clear and warm sounding along with a fantastic heaphone amp built into it.To this day I miss it.One channel abruptley quit on me after 10 years of use(my fault for pushing it way too hard with two pairs of speakers).I hung onto it trying to find someone who could repair it and gave up.It's gone now.If Luxman still sold here in the States I would still buy their products.I also have a tp-114 preamp from Luxman and it sounds beautiful and works fine to this day.I opened it up to check the circuit boards and the caps are still in great shape.I can only hope it will last me 10 more years.Luxman needs to market their equipment again ! I honestly cannot think of one company that makes such great sounding equipment for reasonable prices today that compares to the 1980's/early 90's Luxman ! |
Porschecab, it's so ironic that you started this thread by mentioning that you had just bought some California Audio Labs gear...as you know, they are now out of business. Bummer! Here are the companies that I miss:
Counterpoint (but Michael Eliot is back in business as Altavista Audio)
CAL (I can only hope that CAL gets resurrected like Counterpoint) |
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dynaco-the a25 spks were a SUPERIOR bargain, even if they wouldnt play loud (unless you stacked em like advents), the pas3x and st70, and dont forget the qd-1.
fried and imf-lows to the center of the earth, imaging like surround sound w/2 ch. bud was a real stuffed shirt though, were i a dealer of his products, i would not have let him near my customers.
rabco-st4 tt/arm-amazing at its price. SL8e arm, looked like a science project but sounded great.
audio alchemy-price/perf ratio was XLNT.
acoustat-1+1s and 2+2s, electrostats that played loud and had very high performance for the money.
genesis-the natural successor to the old infinity line, now back in biz.
nakamichi-of course. the 700 and 1000 were TRULY superior to most other cassette decks.
G.A.S.-dead quiet affordable high end though not without flaws.
i am sure i missed some good ones as we all did. |
And Apogee again and again and again. |
A/D/S SPEAKERS. I own a pair of l-1290's and l-1590's. |
Melos! If they had used better parts to go along with their excellent, innovative designs and treated their customers with respect instead of trying to screw them this company could have ruled the audio world. |
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Dynaco -- Omniclassic is right. Still have an SCA-80 amp in the bedroom system, an FM-5 tuner in the living room, and an SCA-35 tube amp for an extra system. Good stuff. There are still people out there selling upgrade kits for Dynaco tube amps and preamps, years after they went out of production. |
Cal Audio Labs
when they focused on cd players they did well |
wellfed jb is back in buisness. |
Dynaco for one, I still have a few pieces like the SCA 80 integrated,PAT 5 pre and a Stereo 120 pwr amp. The 120 needs repair but everyone is amazed at how good these pieces sound 25 or so years later. NYAL is the second, 2 Moscode 300s are still the main power amps in my system driving Maggie 1.6QRs. A CJ PV8 or Counterpoint SA 3000 rounds out the front end. I also have a NYAL Minuet in A pre which needs some minor service. I thought about the Sank mods but like the way it sounds as is. |
SHEROD; VIRIDAN: Funny you should ask about Beveridge Speakers. Harold passed away some years ago. BUT his two sons are trying to bring Beveridge back to the marketplace. In fact I visited with the Beveridge boys over Thanksgiving week end and they treated me to a tour of their production facility as well as a listening session of the prototype.
Presently they are located about 20 minutes outside of Santa Rosa California. I can't remember the name of the town they are in but it is quite close to Iron Horse Winery. (GOT to stop at Iron Horse for a pop or two before meeting with the Beveridge boys). Anyway, as I said they actulally have a prototype of the proposed Beverdige set up in their warehouse (a three panel job) with a cabinet frame for a six panel speaker. The molds for the panels are done in order to make additional speakers. There was even some talk of them trying to get a pair of the Beverdiges down to CES this year but - it did not happen.
I am quite interested myself to see if the Beveridge speakers come back to market - so if you'd like - e-mail me your contact information and I'll keep you posted or pass your info on to Richard Beveridge (one of Harold's sons) and he'll get in touch.
PS: Yeah - I'm 53. I first heard the Beveridge speakers around 1976-1977 and was blown away - my first memorable exposure to high end audio. |
I'd like to add Dunlavy to the list. |
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still crying over the loss of Luxman USA. When they marketed through Alpine they were the greatest. I think Luxman is still around, but their product support & warranty issues were so shakey that I didn't buy through their Canadian dealerships, much as I wanted to. |
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Ryan Acoustics. For inexpensive monitor speakers, they weren't bad. I think that their most expensive speaker pair sold for around $1K. They recieved great press for their $400 monitor speakers, were doing well, then dropped off the face of the earth. |
Platinum Audio. Several years ago, I set out to find a new pair of speakers to replace my old Boston Acoustics T-1020s with a budget of $2K. I visited no less than 5 high-end audio boutiques and listened to all of the usual suspects (B&W, Martin Logan, Thiel, Vandersteen, Magnepan, Sonus Faber, Epos, PSB, Paradigm, Linn, you get the point) and while I enjoyed several of them - especially the Magnepans - nothing was very exciting and I was quite disappointed by what $2K would get me.
The last "Salon" that I visited carried a speaker that I'd never heard of...Platinum Audio. I noticed a "sale" tag on several of them including the Solo which was discounted to $1,300 including the factory stands. I sat there amazed, listening to disc after disc. At first I insisted that there must have been a subwoofer turned on that was giving them an unfair advantage over other "monitors" that I'd listened to. The salesman proved to me that they were playing unassisted. After several hours of listening, I took the speakers home with me.
Later I would learn that the reason for the discount was that Platinum was going out of business. Very sad indeed. They are some of the finest speakers that I've ever heard at any price. |
I'll second the Vero Research - Soundwave Speakers. My brother has a pair of the Grand Soliloquy's. They are about 11 years old, a two-way design. Both speakers had to have their bass/midrange units reconed due to a surround / cone glue issue and they sound great with the repair. When the speakers elements were removed by the repair shop the tech stated they were build exceptionally. You could see that the crossover parts and wiring were all top of the line for their time. He stated the gluing issue happends because the poly cones used with whatever glue was available; the test of time showed they reacted poorly with each other. This wasn't unique to this manufacturer and he gave other examples. Heck I had to have a pair of Magnapans sent back because of a problem with glue, voice coil and their diaphrams. I was hoping to buy a pair because of the way they are designed - very open and boxless. Well the company closed down so now I just find reasons to go to my bros' house to enjoy their sound. |
I have to second the Spica comment. I bought the first pair of TC50s to be shipped to Michigan in 1983. They are still my fondest audio memory, even more so than my first tube purchase - conrad-johnson PV3. There was indeed something magical about Spicas. Anybody know what the sensitivity and impedance of the TC60s is? I remember my TC50s being quite inefficient. |
1. FIDELITY RESEARCH
2. THAT OVOID SPEAKER COMPANY from New Brunswick Canada that used Bryston amps and crossovers and sold direct only.
3. mlas
4. Fulton as in Fulton J's, the precursor to Wilson.
'nuff for now. |
Hi ESP Speakers, Thay Made Three, brands. Grands, Harpes,Bodhran, I Have the Bodhran, running on a pair, Set-80, Bel Canto, good Speaker, I wounder What Happen. |
Have to second Nak. They made some really great decks.
- Dan |
Vero Research Inc. (SoundWave speakers). Hard to find info/reviews. OOB around 1996. Sound Advice Inc. (currently owned by Tweeters) helped give them a good start. |
Angstrom with their 200DTS/205 combo is still the best 5.1 digital surround processor I have heard. Too bad Mike M. couldn't keep them going. I love mine but hope and pray everytime I turn it on something doesn't foul up with it. |
Dayton wright great large full range electrostatics,WHEN THEY WORKED,used to own the XG-10 and XG-8.Took Mr.wright only 6 monthes to fix them if you were lucky,and they needed a lot of fixing. |
dbx...I really enjoyed the DX5 CDP |
Apogee - overwhelmingly missed the most.
I also sentimentally miss Counterpoint and Melos (my first amp and preamp respectively), though I have to say I have found other equipment that suits my tastes far more, though. Not the same for Apogee... |
Many companies like Sonic Frontiers, Technics, Fisher, etc, are still in business in name only. They really are gone. Someone just bought the name to sell something else using the old company's goodwill. Just look at all the classic American television brands that are nothing but Asian mass produced sets with the old American name slapped on because Uncle Harry will only buy a Quasar television. I wonder if anyone remembers Advance speakers? They were a little company in New Hampshire in the late 1970s to early 1980s. I think some of those principals were later involved with forming Boston Accoustics. I am still impressed with older nameplates like Superphon (Stan Warren), Motif (Conrad Johnson), APT Holman, and MillerSound Labs cables. |
Harvey Rosenberg's New York Audio Labs (NYAL). I still use the NYAL Moscode "Super-IT" phono stage and it's beat a number of higher-priced pretenders. Love him or hate him, Harvey was one of a kind. |
