What brand was better than it is today?

Kqvkq9

“KLH, the 9's were pretty nice. Those were the first fancy speakers I ever heard. What do they make today?”

Oddly enough, I just saw a new pair of KLH speakers at Decibel Audio in Chicago, and I was quite surprised.  I owned a pair of KLH One’s from 1977 to who knows when, and loved them in their time.  I asked the salesperson if he knew anything about who was making them now, and didn’t have much info except that it wasn’t a corporate conglomerate.  I think the model was the Kensington or something like that.  I got to a/b them with a pair of mid-range Harbeths, and they kind of held their own, at less than half the price of the Harbeths.  They looked very nice also, looked like high quality construction at least on the outside.  I think the KLH pair was$1300, the Harbeth pair was $4000.  I was very nicely surprised considering how low KLH went quality-wise in the 90’s.  I still have the One’s cabinets in the basement.  Seeing the new model was like bumping into an old friend.

Dave

Dave-

That's pretty cool. I honestly had no idea. That $1300 is way more than I spent for my KLH 9's in the misguided days of my youth.

Time files.



Lance

The good ol’ Red, White and Blue. Member..? The American Dream and all that..

Oh, and Pioneer. 

Dual, Sansui, Adcom ... solid value icons of the past ... I had all of these in my youth ... but they are gone and so don't really qualify as answers to  the original question.  They have been replaced with more modern .. and better .. alternatives from Rega, Rogue Audio and Outlaw respectively.

I have a new Marantz for my home theatre and I think it to be a most excellent product and at least equal to anything from the past in its inflation-adjusted price range.

For me, the clear answer to the original question of this thread is Infinity.  I still have a Modulus satellite-subwoofer system I bought brand new in 1989.  When I bought it, Infinity gave me a personal tour of their factory in Chatsworth, California.  That system represented the zenith of Infinity's excellence and it served me very for many years.  I attend AXPONA every year and always listened for speakers that could better that Modulus system.  Of course many always could, but at what price?  I eventually replaced the them in my reference system with a pair of Magico S3.  I never have heard any speaker match those Infinitys for the $3300 I paid.

Ihasaguy.....I have a Dual 1219 on my 3rd system that looks like it was made yesterday and sounds better tan new due to upgrades
M