In Reply to: Your favorite vintage speakers? posted by Niteshade on November 23, 2010 at 04:11:59:
I put them in the title because I used a pair for about 18 years. Their on axis dispersion was was pretty flat, their off axis dispersion was not so they required careful placement to get the best result. By today's standards the crossover between the 8 inch woofer and the 3/4 tweeter at 3 kHz was too high (but had to be because tweeters in those days were generally not as robust as post-digital one, so there was an off axis flare in the response when the tweeter cut in. It was excellent on piano and voices, very good on orchestra, and the impulse response was superb. I'm not at all sure the new 104aB crossover was an improvement, but still the Kef 104aB was also very good.
Others I liked were:
Altec 19--with the controls adjusted properly, it could have a very even response and a 3 dimensional image.
Quad ESL -- the original model. I liked it but did not consider it an all-rounder, like the Kef 104.
IMF Monitors TLS 50 and TLS 80
Quad ESL-63 -- I had these for a dozen years. Can sound excellent in many respects if one can place them properly. They needs lots of room. Tough to get piano to sound right on them.
AR-9
Allison 4
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Follow Ups
- Kef 104 - Pat D 19:06:38 11/23/10 (0)