|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
152.163.101.12
Just snaged a pair of Lafayette Criterion 200A speakers while driving my daughter to school. It was fun to embarass her 2 blocks from school while double parked, so I took time to pick up the white cabinet 20" Panasonic TV with built in VCR too.Anything special about the Criterion 200A's?
Follow Ups:
I just came across this thread while trolling for Lafayette speaker info. My buddy popped for a modest system from Lafayette back in '73 and used it for well over a decade. I always preferred them to Rat Shack for all my electronic needs (the parts and equipment they sold were superior in quality). What was said about the speakers though was true, at least for the more 'expensive' models. My friends cheapo set were fairly respectable but a few years later I bought a pair of the Criterion 2005's with the Heil "PowerRing" air motion transformer. These were actually glowingly reviewed by High Fidelity magazine in the mid seventies and I didn't have enough money to buy the ESS AMT Towers with a nice t-line enclosure and full-sized amt so I thought I would go for the 2005's because they were supposedly built by ESS for Lafayette (must have been built with contempt!). Well the "PowerRing" in the right speaker failed after about a week later and the store had to order a new one which took about six weeks and then it was made differently and didn't quite fit right in the cabinet. And this speaker just had the most lackluster sound in my room and no bass at all what to speak of. It had the same fairly crappy 10" woofer in a cheap ported box like the original ESS AMT-1. Well, later I removed the PowerRings and installed them in a small cabinet to go on top of a demo pair of EV Interface B speakers I picked up for cheap at a local stereo shop. The higher x-over freq in the EV worked better for the little amts and I was happy...for a time.So that is my 'Criterion' story. I sort of miss Lafayette and wish they had beat-out Rat Shack. Some of their speakers weren't too bad but AVOID those 2005's like the plague!
have great hi-eff drivers with huuge magnets of your name (Alnico). I have a pair from Criterion 100, Japanese made, wonderful full rangers for lower power tube amps. Boxes were flimsy though, so I trashed them.
.
Since it is a proper name, I beleive "Criterions" would be correct. "Cirterion speakers" would avoid the problem.
Or a cafeteria not fit for humans.Or a recreation spot for pets decorated with fake legs and fire hydrants. All full of old shoes and scocks with curtains to climb etc.
Best way to keep the dog from drinking out of the toilet? Pee in the dog bowl!
Have a great weekend and hope to see you all next weekend at Kutztown.
Al
Were you able to identify the drivers? What type of box did you put them in? Open baffle?
Thank you for the reference to my Al ma mater. I appreciate the information. I will pass them along to a deserving person. (Malcom)
At my family's shore house we have a pair for garage speakers and they rock loud hooked up to a Marantz 2215B. In the shop are Bose 201's driven by the same amp and I like the criterions better. My old man got them at the salvy way back for $5. CD source is Sony ES given to me, I like that player and may bring it home.I don't know AL Nico you could have gotten a better deal, like catching the guy carrying them to the curb and loads them in the car for you . ;-D
lolCheers
I have a pair of Criterion 4x I got for free. They're in my office, hooked to a Fisher 4035 receiver. When I got the speakers they didn't sound like much. I re-capped them (with basic electrolytics, I didn't want to spend $ on Daytons) and they sound surprisingly good. Nothing revolutionary, just a clean, open sound with decent bass and imaging.The caps I pulled out of the speakers were the smallest I'd ever seen, like those tiny, cheapo caps in the parts drawers at Radio Shack. I suspect that's the "secret" behind many Lafayette speakers' crappy sound. Maybe the 4x is an anomaly, but for freebies they're pretty nice.
House brand speakers of Lafayette Radio which was a respected East Coast electronics chain way back when. LR carried excellent stuff like Dynaco, McIntosh, Marantz, KLH, AR, and more. Their electronics were pretty good, too. Later solid-state receivers were built by Pioneer. However, Criterion speakers were inferior stuff. Every model sucked. It allowed Lafayette to pad their profits on system packages. Bought my first rig from LR in 1969. I'm proud to say I didn't go for the Criterions. I paid a bit more and got KLH.
Actually it was Allied Radio who used Pioneer for their later solid state Receivers. Lafayette I believe sourced from Trio/Kenwood (which may account for the excellent tuner section in their LR1500TA receiver)
When I sold the Lafayette LR1500 they were consumer magazine best rated and went out the door pretty fast. Later when I had a service based shop they would come in with an exploded electrolytic cap and foil all over the inside like streamers.
I took my trusty reversible (Slotted or Philips head) screwdriver and removed some perfectly good drivers from otherwise trashed speakers on the side of the road. Fortunately for him, no one we knew drove by.I was so proud of my Criterion 50 speakers when I entered college because they were real "component" speakers. I quickly realized I had to upgrade and managed to get some Smaller Advents. The Criterions were not a bad value for their price, but emphasized number of drivers/$'s over other design aspects and certainly didn't measure up to the major names.
Gary
carefully saving my money for Advent speakers, and projecting when I would have enough saved to buy them. Every week I would write down how much I had saved and the total accumulated.Where? Why, on an Advent calendar, of course.
"Where? Why, on an Advent calendar, of course."
I'm telling my wife! Maybe she will relent a little now. Norm
ISAIDNT
Could you give me about $300,000.00 for the speakers so I can pay for her college? I would send you a thank you card every week and she would offer you free Epidemiological care for life!!She is a good person with thick enough skin to handle it. I made sure of that. Also I trashpicked them with style, in a nice car and dressed well.
..when I worked in the Lafayette warehouse in 1971.
Man, we shipped a ton of those speakers.My buddy used to hand unload them from containers packed tight at the front door, while we were stacking pallet after pallet out the shipping doors.
Oak Park Illinois used to get hundreds and hundreds of Criter 6's. Basically a big piece of crap with 6 drivers.
| ||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: