What is the charm of a Vintage speaker?
- Thread starter heliumflight
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Which JBL's are you preferring over the TAD's and ennumerate/explain reason also if possible
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After reading all the posts in this thread, I got tempted and borrowed a Pioneer vintage speaker CS 609 and paired it with my Yamaha AX 590. Big sound. Very loud. Room filling bass. But....I think I will stay with my Spendor and Chario. Vintage is not my cup of tea.
The Japanese vintage speakers are usually a waste of time. Exceptions are the Pioneer TAD exclusive ones, two models of Technics, couple of models of Diatone.
In JBL, try and hear the L 300/4333, 4343, 4344, 4345, 4350. These are all very very good. You get the big sound, dynamics with the resolution of today’s speakers.
Vintage WE speakers, Altec VOTT, Tannoy GRF, Klipsch Horn, Vitavox. These are also super speakers.
About 25-30 speakers from the 60s and 70s are worth listening to. Rest I wouldn’t bother.
In JBL, try and hear the L 300/4333, 4343, 4344, 4345, 4350. These are all very very good. You get the big sound, dynamics with the resolution of today’s speakers.
Vintage WE speakers, Altec VOTT, Tannoy GRF, Klipsch Horn, Vitavox. These are also super speakers.
About 25-30 speakers from the 60s and 70s are worth listening to. Rest I wouldn’t bother.
NewBee2020
Active Member
Nice!! He is to the point where he listen to the music than nit picking and enjoys them.Now there is a trend where the manufacturers are introducing some of there new lineups based on vintage speakers e.g., klh(Model 5), mission audio(770),JBL(L100 and 4312se),Klipsch(Heritage series)and elipson(xls15).Not sure how they would sound but trying to revive the vintage series.
I am using tad evolution one floor standing spks, they have Be hf and concentric mid, sounds fantastic. Resolution and sound stage is amazing
For me vintage speakers and their sealed cabinets did the trick along with the paper woofer and midrange drivers. I still believe paper is the best material for woofer and midrange drivers and I know I maybe in the minority.
Fast controlled bass from those big ass 10-12 inch woofers was something else and especially for my kind of music. I also remember the sealed boxes to be very resolving in the lower part of the spectrum and room friendly. The midrange paper drivers were to say very intimate in reproduction of music in their frequency range. I do believe the tweeters of today are comparatively better sounding than what was available back in the 70-80’.
I always wish sealed box designs come back into mainstream and be affordable with a combo of paper drivers and todays tweeters, only to see the jaws of the kids of today drop to the floor.
Sealed cabinets would do well with any genre of music.
Manek
Fast controlled bass from those big ass 10-12 inch woofers was something else and especially for my kind of music. I also remember the sealed boxes to be very resolving in the lower part of the spectrum and room friendly. The midrange paper drivers were to say very intimate in reproduction of music in their frequency range. I do believe the tweeters of today are comparatively better sounding than what was available back in the 70-80’.
I always wish sealed box designs come back into mainstream and be affordable with a combo of paper drivers and todays tweeters, only to see the jaws of the kids of today drop to the floor.
Sealed cabinets would do well with any genre of music.
Manek
Audio_Freek
Well-Known Member
Pioneer is not supposed to be paired with Yamaha, Also Yamaha AX 590 is in in Vintage league.Pioneer does with Sansui,NAD, Denon . As mentioned earlier Matching vintage is a art and it takes time and experiment to find the best synergy.
Yamaha Vintage receivers had the vintage sound and not the amplifier.Probably you may\may not like Vintage sound but you should feel real Vintage sound with paired Chain.
Sorry to differ in your opinion. Japan Vintage stuff were more into Receivers and Amps and they had little focus for Speakers TAD,Diatone,Yamaha only made good line ups and Sony\pioneer\sansui\Panasonic speakers just to above average but worth for the money we pay.
British and US Speakers were good compared to Japanese speakers, Agree to your statement
Many of the Pioneer Exclusive range were TAD ( 230X, 240x series horns) and their speakers still sell for a small fortune . Do read up on the Yamaha NS series amps as well as Yamaha GT range on Turntables . the NS series speakers is still loved by many. The NS1000 was i believe the first to use the beryllium tweeter . they gave up High end audio in the early 90s.
Of course another iconic name is Nakamichi but not into speakers
Sony , Onkyo ( Grand Scepter ,Technics ( SB Range) , Diatone ( part of Mitsubishi) all made some truly High end speakers as well as turntables.
Sonys professional Turntable was in the league to EMTs and so was Kenwood (L07D), Luxman PD555/444 and even Denon had great Turntables which cannot be replicated today- all direct drives with sophisticated mechanism and arms made by Microseiki. Micro Seiki themselves had a fantastic range of Turntables which go at really high prices still.
Sony apparently had some truly High end speakers in Japan and they did try to launch it again in the 2000s but their brand name went against them in the audiophile circles. Kenwood also had a very advanced speaker, forgot the name to go around with their legendary L 7D turntable but not something you might see floating around these days
Sansui did have some good speakers made with JBL drivers as well and some of them still float around
On american speakers there are good ones and then there were many of the others which have all died and hence we dont hear much of them
Dev.R
Well-Known Member
+1 to the above.
The vintage speakers are not without problems, after all these 40+ years of usage / non usage , the spider, surrounds and capacitors in the X over would have worn out and in many models the spares are not available, if that is the case, then there is a huge compromise in sound quality. Luckily spares for Altec, JBL and Tannoy are available as of now, but at a premium cost.
So true..hence need to buy carefully, from renowned sources or be the type who does not mind getting hands dirty with some little DIY
After 40+ years any speaker would probably need a rebuild.
And probably the same issue with parts, availability and cost.We are lucky that parts are still available.
One wonders which of the modern day commercial speaker manufacturers(e.g quad/wharfdale, Kef, psb, polk, etc.) stock parts for decades to service loyal customers ? Any ideas/experiences ? I would assume the high end manufacturers would stock if they are still in business.
square_wave
Well-Known Member
That's the usual experience with many vintage speakers. Like a few others rightly pointed out, seeking out certain models from the past is the right way to go. And pairing them with the right kind of amplification. Some of those good ones are sought after by people who prioritise performance over anything else. Just some food for thought.
The very fact that someone has a JBL L300 in the same room as a high end TAD says something !
Personal preference also plays a part in all this. Mastering and recording practices in the past have been influenced by the trends and high end equipment available those days.. especially the good ones. Hence a lot of music music from the past tend to sound better on high end speakers from the past. If your music spans many decades, it is good to have two pairs of speakers.
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luckly the vintage jbl had spares in ebay like spiders and voice coils and diaphragms, i kept a spare diaphragma and complete recone kit as a spare for my jbl l300, i hope the spare will available in next decade also, i had done some extensive listening between jbl l300 and TAD Evolution one, each had their own adv and drawbacks. i still prefer jbls for my musical tasts of ghazals and old songs, but the dinamics and microdetails from tad are unbeatable.i have changed crossover of jbl l300 to nelson pass crossover,so no crossover components aging.
when comparing vintage sound signature its purely based on individual preferences, some of my friends who visits my house prefer tads and some prefer jbls. its a tie most of the times.
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