The age of speakers doesn't hold much interest to me unless where it's followed by a shift in design - at least that to me is what truly signifies a "vintage" speaker, when they eschew in central areas what is typically seen with contemporary speakers and for the latest decades now. If age alone was the main factor defining vintage speakers - that is, counting no more than 30-40 years - I'd find their use mostly trivial and lacking compared to their newer siblings in light of the (lack of) development found in this period of time; age would simply begin to slowly work against them, with nothing really to "counter-balance" this decline inherent to the design. Going back 40 or more years, to me, is where vintage begins to truly establish itself via different, and physically larger designs - mostly horns. Really interesting is where these vintage designs are sought refined through re-builds with better materials and construction (cabinetry), better cross-overs, and the equivalent in or evolutionary advanced (pro-)drivers. Vintage designs by that nature hold advantages through sheer size, principle (i.e.: horns), sensitivity, and the type of drivers used. Where these are sought refined (or even replicated/used as is) I find them potentially much more interesting and authentic sounding than contemporary designs of the typical "acoustic suspension"/direct radiating design philosophy brought forth by Edgar Villchur in the early 50's. Hearing some of these vintage speakers is oftentimes a revelation, and makes me wonder the direction "hifi" has taken in the latest decades - for something that is essentially better? No, to the contrary.
What vintage speaker might you use today
Like to find out what "vintage speakers" members would/might use in their current audio set-up
Do you think what made them special was the synergy between them and the amp used, or just the fact they were well designed and performed way above their price tag.??
Do you think what made them special was the synergy between them and the amp used, or just the fact they were well designed and performed way above their price tag.??
Showing 3 responses by phusis
One sonic aspect as heard via some of the vintage speaker designs, their reproduction of bass compared to modern designs, gets an interesting comment in below quote. [...] all this talk about bass started me thinking about some of the speakers I have reviewed and listened to at audio shows in the last couple of years. A few came to mind: the Burwell & Sons Homage speakers, the big JBL Everest, the incredible sounding RCA LC-1A LS-11 and those wonderful sounding Tannoy Golds mounted in a Jensen Imperial Cabinets turned upside down so that the empty horn part of the cabinet acted as a stand to raise the Tannoy Gold drivers to the right height. Those were in the Pass Labs room at the 2014 California Audio Show. http://www.dagogo.com/beatnik-pet-peeve-3-way-modern-speakers-play-bass I can attest to the merits of vintage designs incorporating large bass units and their supposed "musical" imprinting. My recently acquired all-horn loaded speakers use 15" bass drivers in folded horns, and are a pretty radical departure from my previous bass reflex-loaded speakers in providing what can actually be described as timbre and tunefulness in the bass with a seamless blend to the mid horn above them. They are specified to reach 56Hz only, a likely reason why many an interested audiophile would probably discount them prior to any audition, but the physicality, effortless power, speed and gently pressurized "wavefront" here presented is so tunefully imbedded in the remaining frequency spectrum above that it makes any preoccupation with bass extension per se seem utterly misplaced. I didn't know that prior to listening to them and how much the quality (and type) of bass could truly matter, so much indeed as to come to eschew most of what I've heard of the typical bass in modern designs with smaller (usually reflex loaded) drivers. I can still enjoy such more modern bass designs for what they are, but it's with the proviso that I probably wouldn't want to own them. |
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