Vintage loudspeakers....Sleeper models....

I do not know what the speakers are that you list but my parents own a pair of vintage B&W DM23 (3 way) speakers that sound terrific with a NAD 3020, really sweet and warm, they were $600 in 1981. If you could find a used pair for $100 or so it would be a steal.

I have a pair of Ohm C2 speakers. I just refoamed them and reconditioned the cabinets. They are in very good shape. You can read about them at Ohmspeakers.com. They are 10" three ways in walnut cabinets. I would say they weigh about 30 lbs per speaker. I owned JBL L110s many years ago. These are comparable but from memory, I would say the JBLs sounded a little more refined. I bought these for a second, vintage system that just hasn't come together. I would like to sell them at a reasonable price. If you are interested I could send you pictures but they look exactly like the picture on the Ohm website. Also, Ohm still supports their old speakers. I spoke with the president of the company prior to refoaming...they still sell drivers and crossovers for most of their speakers. These retailed for $695 in the 1977-1982 timerame.

Well, not sure what qualifies as vintage but I had a pair of Mirage M7si speakers (made almost 20 years ago), also a pair of M5si prior to that. Some consider the Mirage 'M' series speakers their best effort. These speakers were very well made - quality drivers - X over, good design, and NOT fancy cabinets. Plus the speaker surrounds do NOT rot like Infinity ... other models. They reproduce most types of music well and sound very musical. However they require decent amplifier power. I actually first used an older NAD 7155 receiver and then went to tube amps. I sold my mint pair of M7si's for just $150 a pair to someone local. Sad to see them go as they served me so well. That's a lot of speaker for the money. They are large so shipping is not really an option. You'd need some luck finding a pair local to you.
Good luck

OHM E, L, C2, H, I, Walsh 2,4,5.

I found a pair of EPI 100's in excellent condition and original boxes for $60.00.

Klipsch KG-4s. Not the best speaker ever made, but certainly a very good speaker for the money ($150 or less). Even better if you upgrade the crossovers.

critespeakers.com. Scroll down to KG-4

If the Sony speakers that you found are the ones I'm thinking of - they had a complex cabinet shape (vaguely Avalon-esque) - then they were much more than simply decent performers. I once owned a pair: nicely finished, wide bandwidth, and quite neutral, if not terribly dynamic. Great for jazz and small scale classical music, but maybe not the right choice for Mahler or Mountain.

Good Luck

Marty

Oops, mine were 3 ways.

As Emily Latella said "Never mind".

Marty

KEF 104/2s (original BBC monitors) and Yamaha 1000. A lot of songs got mixed down on these.

The JBL L-100 and JBL L-200 don't sound anything alike. The JBL L-100 is a 3 way with cone drivers and the JBL L-200 is a 2 way with a 15" woofer and a horn.
They both have high quality drivers with Alnico magnets and they are very efficient.
JBL was sold to a new owner and one of their chief designers didn't like the direction they was taking, so he quit JBL only to be hire by Pioneer and designed the HPM series.
What about Klipsch? There are many models to chose from.

Look for EV. Seen some of craigslist for low $ some Altec models are greatly over looked and under price like model 15 14 etc

Marty

Are thinking of the Sony ssm9?
I owned them and they are outstanding but were built in the 90s

Bill

Bill,

Now that you mention it.....

I seem to recall that mine were the ssm-7 (smaller 3 way), but yep, that's the series. I thought they were quite good in a lot of ways, but I did eventually sell them. (I geuss they weren't quite good enough to keep for the long haul.) I do remember buying them pretty cheaply on closeout somewhere and thinking they were a steal, so when I sold 'em, I pretty much recouped my purchase outlay. My memory of the ownership experience is largely positive.

Marty

Klipsch LaScalla
Thiel CS 2.2
Thiel CS 3.5
Thiel CS 3.7
B& W 801
B&802

I recently gave a listen to my OHm Ls for teh first time since some recent system upgrades. I do not get to play these gems as much as my other speakers in the room they are in (an unfinished portion of the basement), but they never disappoint even in comparison to my other pricier and sexier looking speakers. They sound quite fabulous with the new 500 w/ch Class D amps!

These sold for $500 a pair in 1978. Before dropping big bucks on a pair of modern monitors or other smaller bookshelve type speakers, I would strongly encourage anyone to give OHM a call and see if they might have any refurbished and upgraded Ls available for home trial! They may be unbeatable for $600 a pair these days just as I recall they were way back then!

One caveat is I upgraded my Ls with top of the line Morel woofers and OHMs sub bass activator myself as an experiment. They still run original drivers and crossover otherwise, so they are not equivalent to OHMs complete upgrade package, but I suspect John Strohbeen knows how to tweak his designs a lot better than I do, so I would expect similar or perhaps even superior results with the stock OHM upgrades.

My hybrid 3-way Ls definitely have a distinctive timbre from my other speakers, more presence and warmth in the midrange, less neutral perhaps but quite enticing. Imaging and soundstage is up there with tsome of teh best I have heard.

I've never heard Harbeths and have no idea how the Ls compare, but their timbre is clearly more in that camp from what I have discerned than my other speakers.

These are very hard to find but they are one of the best vintage speakers ever made...Sansui sp-5500 (the only sansui speakers that were made in Japan)

JSE Infinite Slopes. Definitely a serious holy grail search, but well worth the effort should you find a pair in good condition!