In Reply to: Vintage low cost speakers that still fly under radar posted by Neff on February 25, 2012 at 11:14:15:
I wouldn't fixate on woofer diameter, unless you're a bass freak. A 12" woofer isn't necessarily going to sound better than a 10"; and an 8" isn't necessarily going to sound worse.
As others have mentioned: Snells from the era when Peter Snell was alive. Old Bozaks, if you can find them, sound surprisingly "natural" even though they won't have ear-popping bass.
A lot of acoustic suspension speakers have a pretty thick sound, unless you're into listening to cello recordings: Advents (really nasty treble), KLH-17s, AR-3 anythings, AR-4, EPIs (except the 100, which is nice). So I would avoid them.
For my money, the AR-5 and AR-2ax are the best balanced of the classic AR speakers. KLH-6's sound surprisingly good, considering that they have a 12" woofer and, IIRC, no midrange.
Avoid just about any Japanese-branded stuff: Pioneer, Onkyo, Yamaha (except the NX-1000) from the 70s. It's pretty awful.
Also avoid the Klipsch Heresy, which is just an ear-bleeder of the first order . . . suitable only as a PA speaker, in my opinion.
All of these speakers will sound much better on a stand that puts the tweeter at ear level and gets them off the floor.
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Follow Ups
- RE: Vintage low cost speakers that still fly under radar - Bruce from DC 17:55:33 03/01/12 (2)
- RE: Vintage low cost speakers that still fly under radar - audio1025 16:37:02 03/02/12 (1)
- RE: Vintage low cost speakers that still fly under radar - cjpremierfour 18:22:50 03/02/12 (0)