Recommendations for Vintage Speakers

The Gales do sound big but the low end is very tight and textured and most especially rhythmical rather than hefty.Hefty for their size  I suppose because they have a two 8 inch woofers in a compact box.I have always wondered if part of the reason for them sounding so good is that they have a very high ratio of driver area to box surface area which should mean relatively less box colouration -which is exactly how they sound.Very very few modern speakers can match that.Perhaps some of the Magicos and the Dynaudio Confidence C1.

What is your budget? I have had about 30 different pairs of vintage speakers over the last 3 years and also recapped most of them to get the best out of them. 

I would be happy to help

Here are a few of my favourites not in order. 

I will say that if what you choose has not been recapped it should be done to get the full potential from them

Celestion ditton line
Ditton 33 if you can find them. 
Ditton 44
Ditton 66
With Ditton's you Must recap them if original. It makes a huge difference.

AR9 are Awsome now quite pricey
AR 3a same thing. 
AR 4x are decent for the money
IMF TLS 50 and 80 are awsome.
EPI 100's ok for the money

JBL early L line
100's are cool but screechy and tiresome. Crossover upgrades can fix this. Great punchy bottom end on all the L line. 19, 26, 36, 46, 50 
Apparently L112 are very very good. 

Yamaha NS 690 and 1000 are quite good. I have 690's

KLH model 6 not the 17 are the ones you want IMHO. Had both

Snell Type E. Close to $6000.00 Audio Note ANE., seriously.

Tannoy Gold's in various cabinets 

Boston A400
Infinity Kappa 8 and 9. Had 8's. You need to mod the crossover on the 8's so they don't kill your amp. 

Paradigm 9se and 90p monitors. Both good speakers. Most of the monitor line are considered quite good. 

All suggestions should be under 
$1000.00 eccept the Tannoy's

As I mentioned earlier.. I recapped most of them and put them in front of quality gear so I beleive I heard them at or close to their best. 

Good luck

Already mentioned with good reason...Aerial 10t's

My two my cents... I have owned dozens of speakers from planars to bookshelf to full range floorstanders.  I have a pair of 20 year old Monitor Audio GR60s in my second system that I will never get rid of. If I did, someone would be buying the best used speakers I can recommend (for your listening tastes, anyway). Do I use them for jazz? No. My LFT-8bs take care of that thank you very much.  But several thousands of Phish shows have been played by the stalwart MA GR60 beasts (with a 20 year rotation of separates) and they have never let me down when it comes to rock slam. Built like tanks. 4 ohm amp, 8 ohm amp? No issues. Tube or solid state? I’ve used both and they respond like loyal soldiers to either. Hard to find that model, as they were the flagships when purchased, but you may want to consider any of the Monitor Audio family of floorstanders. Full range beasts. Are they too “bright” for those with tiniitis or refined tastes? Maybe. They are for me if I want to hear horn music. But they will do your Dead shows full justice. Grab a pair of used MA gold from two or more generations ago and you won’t be disappointed.