Matthews Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 A pair of McIntosh XD717's. According to some here I would have had "buyers remorse" if I did not pick them up @ $150/pair. Still have no idea what to do with them, have not even hooked them up to listen yet. Sister said they sound fantastic... Rock n' Roll my friends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
germerikan Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 When does vintage start?? I had a pair of KEF 104/2 that were the start of my journey and really got me into hifi. Really miss those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 When does vintage start?? One of the below; 1. When production ends. 2. When you are sorry you got rid of them. 3. When the wife says they are butt ugly. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juniper8 Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 When does vintage start?? One of the below; 1. When production ends. 2. When you are sorry you got rid of them. 3. When the wife says they are butt ugly. Dave This is very funny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
germerikan Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 When does vintage start?? One of the below; 1. When production ends. 2. When you are sorry you got rid of them. 3. When the wife says they are butt ugly. Dave 1 & 2 are correct so they must be vintage. I always thought they were prudy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rongon Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 First of all, since this is the Klipsch forum... Klipschorn (I don't know what year, but probably 1980s) - I heard them in a guy's apartment, driven by a big '70s Denon receiver. Awesome. Lots of dynamics, effortless (of course). Surprisingly good highs, but maybe a little "sharp" or "etched" (but that could have been the receiver's fault). Not at all "shouty," as I recall. Even orchestral music sounded really good. I was thrilled by them. Altec Voice Of The Theater - I've heard two pairs of these, driven by a variety of systems. First ones I heard were at the Fi store on Watts St. in NYC, back around 1991. Driven by a Fi 2A3 amp (SE, about 3 watts). I remember they had a glorious midrange, and great dynamics. No bass. Didn't go very high. But exciting, and surprisingly smooth, considering their "public address" looks. The second pair I heard was in a guy's loft, driven by a Sony receiver (probably late '70s vintage). Nice. Filled the large room effortlessly. Surprisingly smooth sound considering the receiver. I was expecting "shouty" mids. Only a tiny little bit, as I remember. I'm not sure how they'd do on orchestral music (strings?). Snell Type J/III (ca. 1993) - I first heard them driven by a single-ended, parallel 45 amp (ca. 3 watts per channel) at a friend's place. They sounded amazing for such little power. Great soundstage, good dynamics, very clear. Excellent on strings (hard to do!). Kind of a "polite" sounding speaker, but with good dynamics. I also heard the Audio Note version driven by an honest-to-gosh Audio Note Ongaku (no comment...) I got a pair just recently, and driven by my push-pull 2A3 amp (6 watts/ch) they sound just like I remembered them. Only problem is some dynamics compression at loud-ish volumes, and maybe an overall "warm" presentation. But nice, and easy to drive. And by the way... The silk dome tweeter is partially horn-loaded [] . I remember hearing a Snell Type K back in the 1980's, at a hifi store. I thought they sounded punchy and dynamic, and nicely clear. I think I had a small pair of B&W speakers at the time and thought I was happy with them. Tannoy T185 Dorset (ca. 1981) - I got these in the mid-'90s from a guy who found them in the street! (He also found a mint pair of T155 Chester in a thrift shop. He's got Tannoy karma.) These have pretty woolly bass from the passive radiator, but they are of the high quality Dual-Concentric (horn tweeter) type. Very, very smooth for a horn tweeter. Nice detail, clarity. Warm presentation, maybe a touch "shouty." Sound a little flat or "opaque" on orchestral recordings, but tympani, etc. are "you-are-there." Excellent on vocals. Plays loud and clean from 6 class A watts per channel. These have kept me happy for 15 years. Quad ESL (original version with the brass grille) - They don't go low, they don't go high, but what a beautiful, smooth midrange. I've heard two different pairs, and loved them both. I understand they need at least 20 watts or so to sound good. Lowther (don't know the driver model or the cabinet type, about 1990 or so) - Extremely crisp detail, sometimes "you-are-there" real. But shouty. Sounded like a bad peak in the response at about 2kHz. Super-efficient, full-range driver. Some SET lovers swear by them. My family had a pair of Dynaco A25 back when I was a teen. I remember them sounding very good. My mother decided they would make good outdoor speakers, and of course they got ruined. C'est la vie. I'd like to get a pair to check out... About the same time, my then-girlfriend's parents had a pair of AR-3a. They had a really loose, woofy bass, and typical 1960s dome tweeter sound. I didn't like them at all. But those are the only ones I ever heard, so who knows... I've heard several B&W 801's, and had a friend with 802's driven by Bryston amps. They're very good, but to me they sounded kind of... dead. I never could use them because I like weenie little tube amps. I wish I had known about Rectilinear, ADS, etc. Back in the '90s, you could find them being thrown away, or practically given away. I remember hearing a pair of ADS that I thought sounded OK. -=|=- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike stehr Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 I notice a lot of mention of Dynaco A25. Maybe I should drag the pair I have out and listen to them again. About a year ago I tore them down, refinished them, repainted the back panels and front baffles, vacuumed and cleaned the insides out, and then swapped out the old crossover cap for a metal polypropelene "Audiophiler" brand cap. The grills were cleaned and straightened, then set-up to be removable with velcro. Unfortunately, I'm missing one Dynaco badge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Lindsey Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 ESS AMT 1B's and KEF 105's. I had a friend in the mid 70's that turned me on to hi-fi and he had these 2 pairs of speakers. I loved both of them and remember them well. I would like to hear them today. I know Old Buckster loved the ESS's. My first pair of speakers were Infinity Column II's, which I owned for 18 years. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyrc Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 If you go way back to the '50s and '60s it seems to me that most speakers fell into one of two categories. One kind had ample bass, was fairly smooth, but sounded a little muddy, and lacked some detail; this group included the AR3A and acoustical suspension, inefficient speakers in general. The other group sounded very precise, clean, detailed, dynamic, had great transient response, etc. but lacked deep bass, and seemed to be unbalanced toward the midrange and treble. These would include many JBL and Electrovioce systems (excluding their top-of -the-line, uber expensive models). A third group seemed to have the best of both worlds, particularly if you EQ'd them a bit with tone controls: Klipschorns, EV Patrician (and the like), JBL Paragon (under certain circumstances), and the largest Altecs and JBLs that were actually used in theaters (not just advertised as being so used), particularly the special JBLs placed by Ampex in 70 mm Todd-AO theaters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 ESS AMT 1B's I recall making my first "major" investment in audio in 1973. Settled on a Lux amp but went back to the store several times trying to decide between Rectilinear IIIs and ESS. Can't exactly recall the model of the ESS, but the Heil AMT high end was spectacular. In fact, it was the "spectacular" nature of it that cause med to go with the Rectilinears. As my tastes then, as now, were for acoustic instruments the Rectinlinears sounded more natural. But on rock and stuff with cymbals and such, the ESS were truly killer. However, I finally decided that would get a bit tiring as well as sounding just a bit too "in your face" on pipe organ and orchestral pieces and especially harpsichord. Those Rectilinears were my main speakers for 30 years until being replaced by K'horns in '02. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Lindsey Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 Dave, I really liked the ESS's as well, and yes, they had the Heil Air Motion Tweeter. The problem with that speaker is it had no mids. The bass was decent and the highs were great., but it wasn't a very balanced speaker. The KEF 105's on the other hand were a tremendous speaker for its time. Until I heard the La Scala's in '79 that was the nicest sounding speaker I heard to that point. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T.H.E. Droid Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 JBL L-300 Summits. If I could only keep one pair of speakers, it would be the Summits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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