All Pre 1970 Vintage speakers suck! Prove me wrong


Have tried many vintage speakers.

My conclusion: All pre-1970 vintage speakers suck. Well-made but crappy  sound.

Used with both vintage amps and modern.

I do like many vintage amps such as Radio Craftsmen RC-500, Marantz tube, Scott tube, Heath W5, Lafayette and Pilot tube.

But back to pre-1970 speakers:

No bass, harsh, or honky mids and no highs. Not musical or listenable to me.

Tried many including Acoustic Research AR-3a, 2Ax, etc. The entire AR product line. Also Klipsch Horn, Large EVs. Altec VOTT. Pioneer CS-88 and 99.

Nothing pre 1970 is even close to the better modern speakers.

I challenge you: Prove me wrong.

lion

Roxy54,

I agree.  I do like the Grand Utopias, but at the modest listening levels I prefer, they don’t have the liveliness of great horn systems.  Which is best depends on priorities.  For comparable dollars spent, I can get a custom designed horn system with YL horn and compression driver, and 18” Goodman field coil woofer.  It won’t go as deep or have the same bass impact as the Grand Utopia, but that kind of bass is not a personal priority.  
There are non-horn systems that I also like a lot too, some of them utilizing vintage drivers.  I particularly like the Jensen M10 field coil wide range driver (13” driver) with a simple high pass to a tweeter crossed in way on top.  The system I heard used an RP 302 tweeter, but my dream system would have a Western Electric 597 field coil tweeter.

So, vintage speakers have a lot to offer, even more if you go custom using some vintage drivers. I like that, though not sure why.

I’m sensitive to bad speakers. And those old speakers that I owned way back when and have occasion to hear once in a while now were  horrible compared to even a $500- $700 new pair of speakers.  Just don’t understand how people can praise them and brag that they listen to them. I chalk it up to the vintage people either never having heard good modern speakers or desperately trying to find something old that sounds new. I liken them to listening to a transistor radio dropped down a well. 

...I think we can safely listen to this:

....since 'vintage' is the du jour topic...  ;)

Considering all the pro's 'n con's that have been espoused, posed, deposed, and debunked in some manners (and a paltry few without)....

There's been some very good ranging to definitely atrocious in the eras (and errors) of audiophilia....we've managed to live, live with, live through, and live without a considerable span of that trudge of time.

The 'Rat Shuck' actually did have a few rough diamonds and the 'Major Players' (Enter Your Fave Rave *HERE* if you haven't already)
did market some real bombs in the NotSoHO of others.

I liked some of the Infinity's of the late '70s'~early '80s'.
Still love my ESS amt Heils'.
Still committed (no, not need to be😒) to my Walsh project...among other
'aud-atrocities'....after all, all parents love their children....regardless of how ugly and stupid they may be....😏

Oh, btw...some background on the 'lion' opening song....

Changes your whole attitude about it....😑