Best Vintage Speaker Kickoff!

Second on the ADS L810, and good era ADS speakers in general. As everyone always says, you have to go with your own ears and preferences on these things. Having said that, you really have to search to find someone who truly dislikes these speakers. I think of all the equipment I've ever researched on the forums, these might be the most universally loved piece of audio you will find.
 
I agree with this statement, I have owned a pair of ADS L810's for about 10 years now, and have used them extensively for all types and volumes of music, with different solid state and tube amplification, and they always sound great. As previously stated, the butyl rubber surrounds last practically forever, and the overall quality of construction is excellent. I've owned and sold a few dozen pairs of good to excellent speakers over the years, but I've always held on to my L810's.
As for the best, I'd say JBL L300 Summits, then Altec 19's, from owning both. JBL 4350's I'm sure are great too, I just haven't had the pleasure of hear in any.
 
Running all three of these right now at same time powered by Epicure M1.

Pioneer HPM 150's
Sansui SP-Z9's
Epicure M 100's

Z9's are great with Rock.

Running all morning and amp is barely even warm.

Time to go to Radio Shack for some more speaker wire!

Photo attached.

Sorry about the edits but also waned to add that I also had Pioneer HPM 1500's and sold those because the 150's have a larger soundstage.
 

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While I would like a pair of of ADS l1590's I do have a pair of l1290's that have the top to bottom coherence and instrumental timbre that makes them hard to beat in a listening room. Biggest problem is getting the associated electronics to allow that sound to come forth. I'm still tweaking that part of things but they never disappoint. Many of those listed indeed have them beat but I haven't many of them except in specially tweaked environments where they excelled. Altec 19's and Wharfdale w90's are incredible. I prefer the Wharfdale's myself but obviously when talking about these gems it's personal taste in many ways. I could never get the reason so many became enamored of HPM series as they always seemed to lack an overall coherence, timbral honesty and organic feel to the music that those others could. But again I realize the limitation could very well be the rooms and electronics used behind them limited what I heard.

Personal discovery has shown the ADS l1290's sound good at any level I listen and not just larger volumes of sound. I can't say much about the larger Infinities or JBL's due to lack of listening time. The only one's of those I enjoyed were some of those butt cheek jobs that were set up on special stands in a dedicated room with CJ tubes. Just amazing immersion in the music I've yet to hear again.
 
The best I've ever heard would probably be the Altec 19's.I had no way to compare them but the AR-9s were awesome and the Polk SDA SRS was right up there too.Honorable mention goes to the dbx Soundfield One,their stereo everywhere effect was amazing,just didn't have the dynamics off the others especially the Altec's.
 
In years past, I have had stacked Advent Large (powered by a Phase Linear 700 amp), my roomie and I used to CRANK the Who`s "Live At Leeds" on that setup, it never failed to impress.
AR-9s were also wonderful rock speakers, hard to fault `em....
Bose 601....surprisingly capable and elegant for a 2-way speaker, especially considering the brand :)
Pioneer HPM-100....stacked, they offer an absolutely killer soundstage....

Many moons ago, I provided storage for my friend`s Ohm Fs....a rather unusual speaker, large, inverted cone shape, with a 360-degree radiation pattern....they were the best jazz speakers I have ever heard. Spyro Gyra`s "Morning Dance" LP never sounded so alive as when played through those Fs....
 
It all depends upon the demands you place on the speakers and the room you place them. If you like intimate sound, you want line arrays or Horns or a very padded room. I you want large sweet spot, then you want point source speakers. If you want clean authentic bass below 35 hz, then you want a form of acoustic suspension speakers. Horn speakers just down't work well below 35 hz. If you want huge dynamics and you don't like horns that leaves line arrays, with big power, If big power is out of the question you are stuck with horns. In the Altec family my favorite is the 604 used in Urei monitor speakers with the supplemental 15" woofer and the unique crossover allowing time alignment. Its efficient, and has faithful reproduction as a studio Monitor from 30 to 18,000. Its competition from JBL is the 4435, another great monitor speaker. To get the octave below these speakers you need Macs multiple woofer speakers and big power. You can stack AR-3'a, ML-1c, etc and go for it. My favorite was stacked ML-4c pairs, or XR290 with 5 to 600 watts per channel. A Urei with 150 watts was easily a better choice for most folks. 3 pairs of Stacked AR-3a's with 300 watts a channel is great sound, too. Afforable Wilson, Thiel, KEF,B&W, Canton, can make for great sound, . But they are Dynamically challenged. Some Tannoys can be very surprising, in some ways surpassing the 604 and like wise just as efficient. There are a lot of new speakers out there that can surpass the speakers above. But not only do you need big money, but it seems you need big power. $$$$$$$$$$$$ . I use to like Acoustat electro static and early Magnepan ribbon speakers for realism, with 150 watt tube amps. Of course I had to sit close and give up bass and dynamic range, but then it was amazing sound. Apogee in the right room were thrilling, too. But for my type of listeing, I'll stick with line arrays. Infinity seemed to have right ideas and the right direction, but their execution left me to confused, to enjoy. I loved the last series of Snell speakers, its a shame they fell into the acquisition trap. Te best tweeter I've heard belongs to Magico, and their mids aren't bad, the woofers top octaves have serious issues and the costs are horrendous. In the 70's B&O use to contract with Celestion to build speakers. They were a great realistic sound reproducers for smaller spaces.

For a different private listening experience try Stax ear speakers.
 
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For a mellow rock speaker that does not induce ear fatigue even after six hours of listening I would recommend the Linn Sara 9.

For louder rock I am not that picky - any of my cheaply acquired vintage speakers do just fine. EPI M180, ADC 303AX, Optimus 5B. Sometimes I can even hear the guitar amps buzzing, if I play them loud enough.
 
Goodman Triaxiom 212 c in these cabinets.
A mate dropped over yesterday to audition them.
He bought his own cd
He was comparing them to some Martin Logan electrostatics that he paid $20,000 for in 1990.
He said that mine were $20,000 speakers:thumbsup:

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I'm a Stephens fan,these late 50's tru-sonic 3ways are dam nice sounding speakers,have a custom made x-over in lue of the factory x-over,15 inch w150/8 inch 8m mid/5kt horns in soDSCF1763.JPG 2015-08-24 05.30.31.jpg veriegn type cabinets.
My home made jobs will give a lot of the speakers mentioned a good run for the money,late 50's Stephens trusonic FR 150's ,15 inch full rangers in large older tannoy cabs ,I added a JBL 075 horn to supplement the top end,dyno-mit on Triode tube power

hunter
 
Hunter, okay, you built those speakers?
Man that's a great diy, I can imagine how good they sound, thanks for sharing.
 
well put them together anyways...I sourced the Stephens Tru-sonics and jbl horns in separate trades ,scored the cabinets in another trade,Still have to make grills for them...

hunter
 
I primarily listen to music under the umbrella of rock< hard rock, punk rock, metal, heavy metal, grindcore, etc. Sad to say not all speakers can handle that style of music. Those that can, from my limited but slowly progressing experience:
Cerwin-Vega D-3 loudspeakers (I was 14 when I got them circa 1985ish. Long gone now).
Cerwin-Vega CLS-6 bookshelf (currently own) are surprisingly good. Rumor has it these are better than the XLS series. I cannot verify.
Advent Large and Small. Overall a classic great sounding speaker.
Infinity 2600 giant bookshelf speakers. Odd sounding at first but somehow they grow on you, especially the more power you give'em. No need for a subwoofer either.
BIC RtR-EV15 Eviction Series. Got these just for the hell of it and they were cheap (not the best assembly quality. Poor customer service, btw) Great sounding, well balanced while they lasted. Party speakers.
My favorites speakers for rock (jazz, bluegrass, techno, etc) and currently use:
GNP Valkyrie and Altec Lansing Model 14. Two different speakers on all levels but equally pleasurable to listen to at any volume. But the more you turn it up- the more they open up and reveal what makes them unique. Love the 14's. I've never had the chance to hear them but I can only imagine how wonderful the 19's must sound.
A little off subject but my computer speakers sound rad…Monsoon MM-700.
 
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