Collector Jason will let us know if they actually hold up.
Some day.
If he hasn't been tainted by memory.
Old school shootout: Snell A/III vs. Original B&W 801
I miss Snell so much, especially the A/III. Amazing imaging on and off axis and bass that made you think they could pop your room apart like a balloon.
Along this time the original B&W 801s also were making the rounds, and ... I'd still take Snell every time.
One of the weird combos that was popular was Audio Research + B&W and man, I hated that combination. It was so gutless and lean.
- ...
- 24 posts total
I managed an Audio store in 1980 and we carried the Snell Line. I ordered the Snell crossover designed for the type A and bi-amped them with a Threshold Stasis ll on bass and the Stasis 3 for the upper midrange and high frequencies. Dialing in that cross over. Wow. I kick myself for not buying a pair of those and as a retailer you had an employee purchase program which enabled you to buy them at half of retail. Wish I made more money back then. |
In Boston we had a radio show called Shop Talk on WBUR that was the model for the much more widely known Car Talk. It featured a psychiatrist audiophile and a physicist playing the romantic music lover vs the hard-headed objectivist. The shrink had double KLH 9s and Marantz 9s at home but the objectivist had Snell As and Apt Holman amps in vertical biamp in his home. I was present for a listening session with a mutual friend who recorded local orchestras with a Revox A77 and DBX NR, live feed to 2 channel with no compression (beside the compander). Memorable. The source material was far superior to LPs and the speakers sounded magnificent, full bodied and tonally true. |
Modern A3? http://szemis.nazwa.pl/type_a/index.html |
I owned the A- III’s & really enjoyed them. I had a VPI turntable, Souther Linear Arm, Adcom Cross Coil cartridge, PS Audio preamp & then an Audible Illusions pre amp, Amber power amps& then a Conrad Johnson Premier Four power amp. Then one day my brother brought over his Proac EBS speakers ( their top of the line at that time & about the same price as the Snells) & I learned what midrange clarity, top end extension & detailed imaging was all about! They were the next level in those areas, just as dynamic but “faster” although did sacrifice the last half or so octave of bass to the Snells. They had the still famous & excellent today, ATC dome midrange, a new back then & very good Scanspeak tweeter & and ATC 10” woofer in a ported cabinet. Both speakers were very good & a bit different. Good times!! |
- 24 posts total