Anyone remember speakers by Kindel Audio?

A friend of mine had the phantoms and they sounded great in his tiny grad school apartment. I no longer remember the character of the sound but I remember liking it at the time.

Will

Will, you the only one out there? That's a shame. I guess that's why Bill went to work for a bigger speaker co. and closed shop.

I remember them, but only through a Stereophile review of what I guess were the Phantoms. Same with the Robertson amp you referred to in a prior thread. Those were the days of the Stu Hegemanns (he was from where I live, by the way, though I don't think I ever met him) making speakers in their garages. Now such a designer would have a hard time getting his designs reviewed by the 'Phile, I'd imagine.

The PLS-a was reviewed by TAS, I was not aware of the Phantom review in the Sfool.

I'll have to check the back issues, I remember the review. Back then, the review might even have had some critical content!

Ain't that the truth. I think they(TAS) missed the boat somewhat.If I recall they hooked them up to some big bad SS amp(94db with 1 watt, come on who needs 200 watts per channel!)and muttered something about "Black Sabbath". Du Du, Du Du, oy oy oy oy, du du de de di de du da, I'm going off the rails on a crazy train, didly , didly ,didly ,didly! (Ya like the guitar transcription part?)Seriously these things work wonders with a 50 watt tube amp, why the hell didn't they use a more appropriate amp, guess they didn't cost enough for them.

I sold the Kindel line in Michigan through my store, Great Lakes Audio, for a couple of years. They were quite good for the money. The large line source model was dynamic, coherent but a little rolled off in the top. Overall, a good speaker line that wasn't marketed well enough to take on the big boys.

I not only remember them, but I own a pair of PLS-A.
They are indeed great, not to mention, big and heavy.
They also survived the 1994 earthquake intact.

I am thinking of selling them - is anyone interested?

jstromp, what else are you using with your Kindels? My friends, that I sold him still sound fantastic. What would you repalce them with? Something smaller? That's the only reason I sold mine. At the time I bought them I had a great room for them, but after moving and putting them in a smallish room it was time to set them free to roam the wide open spaces.

FWIW, I knew someone who used the Kindel Phantoms and they were pretty nice from what I can remember 13 years ago. Last I heard from a mutual friend, he refuses to get rid of them and was still using them with a modified Hafler amp and Well Tempered turntable.

Blast from the past. Good values.

I owne a pair, and I would love to find a second pair for the rear chanel. If you hear of a pair for sale, please, please let me know.

[email protected]

Oops, I suppose I should mention that I have the pls-a speakers and would love to find another pair of the pls-a's

Anyone know where to find a pic of the phantoms? Pretty please?

Hasenfeffer, I recently acquired a pair of Phantoms and am in the process of restoring them. This pair was not cared for all that lovingly and to top it off got a bit roughed up in shipping. When I am done I will take a few pics and post them in my Virtual system.

Anyone know of where I could get my hands on some of the Polydax HD13B25J/2CP12 5" woofers? I would like to replace all four of them. I have done some repairs to all four of mine. One of them, even though it seems to work well has a more serious issue. Finding a driver that drops in to replace these isn't available to the best of my knowledge. I am still researching the possibilities. It may require a bit of a x-over reworking. I would hate to screw up what they do so well.

As an almost-owner I recently had a craving to learn more about them.

The shop at which I put them on lay away (20 yrs ago!) went bankrupt or something and the owner skipped town with almost all of the store's inventory, but he did leave behind a pair of vandersteen 1's. The sherrif let me take those for the balance of the purchase price. Happy ending!

I too, as Two Jeffreys Audio, sold Kindel speakers in the '80s. The smaller ones were great values but used not-good tweeters. I bought a pair of PLS-As in 1987 and still have them. I redid the crossovers years ago with better parts and am about to do it again, with even-better parts, biwired, and with hardwired cable.

Might that pair that was for sale be be in the western US?

TYVM, jstromp--the PLS-As that were yours yesterday morn are now in my multichannel music/movie system, partnering my 'old' PLS-As. It was a pleasure doing business with you.

I hope you get your new music system running soon.

Any PLS-A owner looking for a pair of heavy-duty steel stands for theirs, almost free? The PLS-As I bought from jstromp were so equipped, and I do NOT need them. E-mail me at [email protected] for pics if you're interested. The price will be $10 for the trouble of packing them plus actual-cost shipping.

I currently use a set of PLS-As, with a pair Phantoms for center, (not a perfect vocal match, but I've gotten them close) and a pair of 50s for surround. It's fun. We sold them in Anchorage at the end of the 80s. I have no idea what happened to Bill Kindel, but I hope his tribe prospers.

I bought a pair of Phantoms last year; just like the ones I had some years ago and sold to a friend. I was hoping to be able to have another pair and soon a pair appeared for sale locally and I snatched them up. I'm very happy listening to them after years of using more exotic speakers. This is a fine speaker system with good bass extension, although they will not play terrifically loud. They are all one could ask for in a smaller room or apartment. Where is Bil Kindel now, I wonder?

I recently took my pair of PLS-A speakers out of the back office, where they were being used as computer monitors (!). I had exiled them because they are so freakin' huge. But I was getting a bit weary of the cold but accurate sound of my Martin Logans, and rearranged the living room to accommodate the PLS-A behemoths. The moment I fired them up I was reminded why I loved this pair so much. The sound is smooth, accurate, with a beautiful sound stage and a spacious, warm sound. The speakers have a definite sound personality, which may not appeal to a lot of listeners, but which I find compliments the kind of music I listen to most: organ, choral, symphonic, chamber and opera. I'm not a tech guy, and understand none of the tech talk, but I think I will get better results from these if I bi-amp them. I'll need to use a 5.1 AV amp since they also function as the from speakers for my home theatre, so I'm looking at the Onkyo 805 7.1 which has a bi-amp option and plenty of power. Any thoughts or help would be appreciated. Finally, if you run across a pair of these beauties and have the space and floor trusses to make them work, they have been great friends to me and I would recommend them.

I owned Phantoms at one time. Wonderful sound. Ultimately I gave them up for speakers that were far more dynamic.

Hi!! I more than remember them.... as I'm only 19, I'm using them!!! I'm a nerdy audio engineer type that went ahead and used the balanced output of my interface, split it in half to feed the stereo amp pairs in two Adcom 2535's... (4 channel amp aka two stereo pairs)

I have it arranged so that side A does bridged amp work on the lows and side b does work on the highs, one big amp box per speaker!!! that way I figured I could get the greatest separation (left and right are on fully independent power supplies) and most efficiency out of my amp... a plus is that this set up has an almost infinite noise floor!!! 

it's techy nonsence but when paired up with my 20ms dsp-delayed home brewed dipoles I get mind altering imaging....

I hope to be rebuilding these speakers with those cool linkwitz riley active analogue crossovers, and giving them proper zobel filters but that wont be for another few years... for now theyre being used to catch me up with anime :)

Thanks, Skaterdude50 for reviving this thread - I might otherwise not have known to look for it.  I have a pair of Kindel Purist LT's that I enjoy listening to every day.  I purchased them many years ago from an individual who had been employed at a stereo dealer where Kindel was one of their lines.  He had upgraded the crossover capacitors as well as the internal wiring.  The Purist LT's use two 6-1/2" woofers with a soft dome tweeter in a D'Appolito configuration and also have an 8" passive radiator.  The were given a pretty favorable review in the February '88 edition of Stereophile, wherein it was stated "the greatest strength of the LT's is, in my judgement, balance.  They lack the last word in openness and transparency, yet have good, unexaggerated detail.  They don't overwhelm you with presence or sock; they refuse to hype any aspect of the sound, and never offend.  They aren't dramatic in sense of depth or imaging, yet do present a good soundstage."  These haven't been my only speakers in all that time, but they have been, for me, the most consistently enjoyable.  Best of luck with your project and please provide some updates on the results!

I just recently got my hands on Kindel Purist. Will hook them up to see how they sound.

Troy:  Having a pair of Purist LT's myself, I'll be very interested in your assessment.  I've owned mine a long time - I had already purchased mine prior to the aforementioned Stereophile review coming out.  It was nice seeing the positive comments at the time, and I kept (and still have) that issue.  Although they have sometimes gone back in their boxes when other speakers stepped in, they are the ones I've hung on to and are currently my primary speakers again.  I've always felt that they did extremely well within their limits - the bass rolls off pretty rapidly somewhere around 40 hz, and they definitely are not candidates for trying to reproduce concert sound levels.  However, given compatible program material, and particularly with female vocals or jazz, I believe you will find that they can really sing.

I own a pair of PLS-A s part of my surround and stereo system. Have them linked up with a Aragon 8008x3 and three Aragon 4004s Older Aragon Stage 1 and had a cable made divide up all the channels out of the Stage 1. 2 B&W THX for center 2 for the sides and two for the rears. For records Sony P/S-X6 with a Grado into Magus Tube pre amp and run a single 4004 into the Kindel's for that. Old but classic. They lack a little deep base but not enough to run a Sub 



pre

I just bought these beauties & like them a bunch more than my other go to speakers - Sonus Fabers.... I’m starting to think there is no substitute for large speakers. I am powering them with a Technics SE-A5 MK2 amp & a Vincent SA-31MK preamp. This combination sounds wonderful. I do have a question for anyone who may have or has listened to these wonderful speakers. Are the tweeters supposed to go to the inside or outside of the sweet spot? I have them set up on the inside & since they are so heavy, I wanted a 2nd opinion before I switched them... Also these things seem to switch ohms as they play & at medium volumes they just ate up my Primaluna tube amp, which clipped halfway thru Bohemian Rhapsody. At least that is what I assume happened

I’ve had my Phantoms for years and they impress me every time I set them up. Almost sold them years ago but had second thoughts after I plugged them in and listened to some music. 

I own a pair of PLS-A speakers and drive them with 2 Threshold model SA/1 preamps, one for each speaker. I inherited them from my father-in-law, original owner. I have owned for about 10 years, the sound is awesome and can blow your mind. The wife says sell them.  anybody know the value? Had to give up but for the right price I will.