What vintage speaker might you use today

Fusiliers from the early 80s...

Yes the Vandy 2's are the most purchased high end speaker ever right?  If not, they are close to it.  I remember when my old dealer got that 4 in. We burned it in and set it up, but I don't feel my former dealer knew how to set up the Steen's. I didn't love them at first.  Many years later I heard them in a great system and was floored.  They weren't the same speakers my buddy sold back in the day.  I now own the Treo's and can't wait to get the Quatro's.  Just LOVE what he's doing with Vandersteen speakers.  Glad he's stopped working on the 9's in order to focus on other and better products that we will also love.  

About 3 years ago I was happily enjoying my Large walnut Advents in my main family room system when I happened upon a pristine pair of NHT 2.5's in a beautiful mahogany finish. When I showed my wife a photo of them she loved the narrow profile and more modern look of these well received towers and since she's never been a fan of the looks of the NLA's I decided grab them.

I hooked them up to my 125 watt Onix integrated amp and...Ugh, where'd the music go?  While they sounded fairly clean and polite I couldn't get over how detached the bass was from the rest of the music. It was rubbery,  detached and frankly just artificial sounding. Now I tried every position and adjustment imaginable with these cuz I REALLY wanted to like them but I could not get them to sound coherent no matter what I tried.

I decided one evening to reinsert the Advents just to see if it was in my head and bang! There it was, music, with a top to bottom coherence that just sounded more RIGHT to me.  I was really disappointed as the NHT's were just beautiful but I gotta go with what I hear so back in go the Advents and I sold the NHT's off the following week. I understand the NHT's are not currently a modern speaker but their design is mimicked by a lot of current speaker manufacturers using a narrow baffle and side firing woofers. I've also heard from several satisfied owners of the 2.5's so this isn't meant to be critical of what was considered a very fine and well received speaker line. I guess it just means what's good for one may not work for another and that's O.K., I'll never try to convince someone that what they like or prefer is wrong, frankly it's insulting and unnecessary.

What Onix do you use?  I have two of their original integrated amps that sound incredible still today.  Going to sell them as I can't use them anymore, but I didn't realize they made such a powerful amp.  Mine output 50 watts I think.  Huge toroidal transformers in those small boxes, that's for sure.  Sorry guys, didn't mean to get off track, but it caught my eye.

I remember back in '78 or '79 while away at college in Florida, I wandered into a stereo store and was blown away by a pair of KEF 105's. They were absolutely amazing. Being a poor college student I ended up with a pair of Pioneer HPM-40's, which I still have today, but I must say, although they probably gave me the most musical enjoyment I remember, they are no where new as good as speakers today.

Last year I bought a pair of Quad 57 to see what I was missing but I haven't had the chance to set them up yet, still looking for the right amplification.