Know anything about Pentagram Loudspeakers?

RC22, I haven't heard any of the Alta Audio speakers, but I too have read favorable comments about them.  And of course they have the benefit of 30+ years of additional experience Mr. Levy has had since his Pentagram days.

About a year after my previous posts in this thread I moved on to a $15K pair of the highly regarded Daedalus Ulysses speakers.  They are of course better than the Pentagram P10 in various ways, but I'll say that they certainly don't make me regret that I had used the P10 for all those years.  And as I said earlier in the thread the P10 handily outperformed several other large speakers I briefly owned and then sold during those years, including B&W 801s and two different pairs of large vintage Tannoys.

Best of luck in your search.  Regards,
-- Al
 

I have used a pair of second-generation Pentagram P10's as my main speakers for the past 26 years. They are excellent all-around performers, with no major weaknesses. They cost $1800 in 1983, iirc.

If the woofers on your speakers are truly 8 inches, they may be a smaller model which I believe they also produced, called the P8. My P10's have a 10 inch woofer, a 4 inch or so dome mid-range, and a one-inch or so ribbon tweeter (it was claimed to be a ribbon, but I don't recall if it really was one, the alternative possibility being an etched voicecoil leaf tweeter). It also has a 15 inch mechanically tuned passive radiator on the bottom. "Mechanically tuned" means in this case a large rubber band-like thing attached between the center of the cone and a wooden cross-member within the speaker, which holds the cone under a certain amount of tension.

There was an early version and a late version of the P10. They can be distinguished by the fact that the early version had a smaller dome mid-range (around 2 inches, instead of 4), and a mica top. My later version has the 4 inch or so mid-range, and a painted wood top.

Mine is finished in a beautiful light oak veneer.

Specs are as follows:

Power handling 35W minimum, 200W continuous
Sensitivity 90db (1W, 1meter)
Frequency response 24 to 20000 Hz +/- 2db
Impedance 7.2 ohms nominal, 5.7 ohms min

The truncated pyramid design serves two purposes: It time-aligns the drivers with each other, and results in there being no parallel surfaces internally, which eliminates the need for internal damping.

They are a fairly easy speaker to drive, and I've had excellent results with both tube and solid state amplifiers. Their bass is deep, loud (when it should be), and tight. The rest of the spectrum is very well balanced and integrated. Imaging is very good, especially with tube amps. There are no particular colorations in any part of the spectrum, and I consider their weaknesses to be subtractive, i.e., a lack of the kind of detailing that good planar speakers can provide.

I recently had the surrounds redone on the woofers and passive radiators by Bill LeGall of Millersound.net (not .com), who did a wonderful job. They were not rotted or disintegrated, just torn, I suspect due to a combination of age-related loss of flexibility coupled with being driven hard.

The company only existed for around 3 years or so in the early to mid-1980's. Its president was a youngish fellow named Michael Levy, who was the designer, and the speakers were assembled in the garage or basement of his house in Queens, NYC. The cabinet was custom-made to his specs by an outside cabinet-maker, and the drivers were from well-regarded companies such as Seas.

Hope you can get them restored to good shape -- they are excellent performers, especially if they are P10's in the later version, and I feel that you would have to spend perhaps $5K or more to duplicate their combination of bass performance, dynamic range, and overall balance and accuracy with today's speakers.

Regards,
-- Al

Actually, about 95% of my listening is to classical music, generally on high quality audiophile-oriented labels, about 3/4 of it vinyl and 1/4 cd.

I've owned several large speakers during that time, including much more expensive B&W's, and sold them all and stayed with the Pentagrams.

Regards,
-- Al

Hi Roy,

The Pentagram's were unusual in that they contained no internal damping material whatsoever. That was made possible by the five-sided truncated pyramid design, which has no parallel surfaces (you'll note that each side is opposite a corner edge).

I'm sure Bill LeGall can effectively repair the damage the other person did to the woofers, for reasonable cost. He is the best in the business at re-coning and repairing surrounds. His phone number and email address can be found at http://www.millersound.net. The main downside would be the time and effort required on your part to remove, pack, and ship the drivers, and reinstall them subsequently.

Before sending him my drivers for repair of the tears I mentioned, I spoke to him at length on the phone (he is a delight to talk to, and very informative), and he actually recalled having listened to the P10's, and commented that they were "very, very musical."

If your passive radiators simply need cone replacement, I'm sure he could do that as well. If they are completely missing for some reason, I have no suggestions to offer other than asking Bill for his advice.

Not sure what became of Michael Levy after his Pentagram days. I haven't seen his name come up ever since in any of the numerous audiophile publications I subscribe to.

Best of luck with them!
-- Al

Some good additional background and information on the Pentagrams is provided in post no. 49 of this thread.

Among many other things, he notes that the P10's were the reference speakers of a reviewer at "Audio" magazine.

Regards,
-- Al