When I listen to my speakers from the 1970s, I have to suspend modern experieces.

pognoot

pognoot

Well-Known Member
Damnit.. FU advances in audio technology! I absolutely LOVE the look and feel of 1970s vintage speakers, but DAMNIT. I listen to a song on my 1970s speakers, and then listen to the same song on my NEW rig... and Jesus.. the new system sounds SO. MUCH. BETTER.

But but.. but... the old ones LOOK so much more kickass!!

It's like wanting a 1978 Trans Am that performs like a 2015 Tesla Model S.

Ugh!! You I guess ya gotta appreciate them on their own level.

Not a new vs old rant. Just an honest experience!

Cheers to all the AK music lovers. It's all great. I think I've had one too many whiskeys. Bottom line, I love music!
 
It's all that damned black paint. Browse on over to the UK websites for companies like Marantz and Denon and see what the stuff we can only buy in black here in the US looks like with silver faces.
 
Depends on the quality of your vintage speakers. If you had a pair of Ohm Fs, you probably wouldn't be saying that.
 
I'll take the 1980's ADS L-1290 floorstanders over most modern day offerings.
But yeah a bunch of stuff considered "high end" in the 70s sounds pretty bad by today's standards.
 
Luckily I don't experience cognitive dissonance when my older speakers sound better than my newer stuff.
 
Hey, I've heard a bunch of stuff considered "high end" now that sounded pretty bad to me. High price tags have never guaranteed high quality.
 
I agree, it all depends on the speaker. My Dynaco A50s sound decent, but are bested by many current offerings. The same can't be said for my Kef Reference 105.1s or ADS L1530s.

Dan
 
I've had the same speakers so long that I think my eardrums have molded themselves to the shape of their response curve. The only way anyone is ever going to sell me something new is if they're willing to let me have them on a five year trial for listener break-in.
 
gkimeng said:
I've had the same speakers so long that I think my eardrums have molded themselves to the shape of their response curve. The only way anyone is ever going to sell me something new is if they're willing to let me have them on a five year trial for listener break-in.
Click to expand...


Good point, but I think that besides eardrums it is also brain wiring. Having said that, IMHO listener break-in can happen in 3 or 4 weeks.
 
I love the look of 1970s speakers and I've had so many classics I can't remember them all, but I've never heard anything from the 1970s that even remotely holds a candle to 80s, 90s and modern speakers. It's an area of our hobby where the improvements are stark, profound, and blatantly obvious to even cloth-eared Mums and Dads.

Every single parameter has been massively improved, from coil and former winding techniques and materials, high temperature adhesives, computer aided cabinet, driver and crossover design and simulation, vibrational mode analysis, power handling and physical looks.

Older speakers did however, on the whole, maintain a higher electrical efficiency- albeit at the expense of a flat spectral delivery and overall poorer power handling capability.

When you listen to classic 70s speakers, the compromises are significant and you will find one part of their delivery that they excel in, and other parts where they fall hopelessly flat.

I will however say this, some and very few vintage (classic) 1970s TOTL speakers understood midrange (squawkers) and their importance to the fidelity of reproduced music. Later designs have become a bit "boom-tizz" and forgotten the all important midrange (vocal) area. I will still take a modern (90s+) high fidelity speaker over practically anything you can conjure up from the 60s or 70s.
 
restorer-john said:
I love the look of 1970s speakers and I've had so many classics I can't remember them all, but I've never heard anything from the 1970s that even remotely holds a candle to 80s, 90s and modern speakers. It's an area of our hobby where the improvements are stark, profound, and blatantly obvious to even cloth-eared Mums and Dads.

Every single parameter has been massively improved, from coil and former winding techniques and materials, high temperature adhesives, computer aided cabinet, driver and crossover design and simulation, vibrational mode analysis, power handling and physical looks.

Older speakers did however, on the whole, maintain a higher electrical efficiency- albeit at the expense of a flat spectral delivery and overall poorer power handling capability.

When you listen to classic 70s speakers, the compromises are significant and you will find one part of their delivery that they excel in, and other parts where they fall hopelessly flat.

I will however say this, some and very few vintage (classic) 1970s TOTL speakers understood midrange (squawkers) and their importance to the fidelity of reproduced music. Later designs have become a bit "boom-tizz" and forgotten the all important midrange (vocal) area. I will still take a modern (90s+) high fidelity speaker over practically anything you can conjure up from the 60s or 70s.
Click to expand...

Good points made. Like you said, there are a few that have true engineering genius to them.

http://kef.com/html/en/explore/about_kef/museum/1970s/Reference_Series_105/index.html

The 105.1 had so many mind hours into them and it shows. There aren't many modern offerings that I can say are better, and they were built from 77-79. They are out there, but cost big $$$.

Dan
 
pognoot said:
Damnit.. FU advances in audio technology! I absolutely LOVE the look and feel of 1970s vintage speakers, but DAMNIT. I listen to a song on my 1970s speakers, and then listen to the same song on my NEW rig... and Jesus.. the new system sounds SO. MUCH. BETTER.

But but.. but... the old ones LOOK so much more kickass!!

It's like wanting a 1978 Trans Am that performs like a 2015 Tesla Model S.

Ugh!! You I guess ya gotta appreciate them on their own level.

Not a new vs old rant. Just an honest experience!

Cheers to all the AK music lovers. It's all great. I think I've had one too many whiskeys. Bottom line, I love music!
Click to expand...

I agree with this post :)

You have to spend a lot of money to get modern speakers that look as good as old ones.

If anyone's actually following my posts (and if you are, you probably need to get out more <G>) you'll know that I am currently working on a pair of KLH 24s. Why did I pick them up? I already have a pair of later KLH "vinyl veneer" bookshelves that actually sound legitimately good. It was a total lateral move EXCEPT the newer KLHs look like crap (in my opinion.) Do I really need to put more work into vintage speakers for what's going to be an office or bedroom system? Not really... except IMHO they look good. Real veneer makes me happy, that's all there is to it.
 
I view it as a matter of "period pieces". I don't know if any of you are familiar with The Academy Of Ancient Music--they do performances of classical music with museum "period piece" instruments that were built and in use at the time the music was originally scored and performed--sounds dramatically different than a modern orchestra with modern instruments.

I feel the same way about my audio gear--I prefer "period pieces". If it was recorded in the 60's-70's-80's, I prefer to listen to it on gear from that era--as that is how it was intended to sound (good or bad), that's just the way it was.

I had set up a killer highly resolving system, and ended up selling the bulk of it and downgrading a bit, because all of that resolution brought out all of the flaws/shortcomings of the older recordings that I really enjoyed--rendering them less than enjoyable. Sometimes "perfect" isn't "perfect".
 
savatage1973 said:
I view it as a matter of "period pieces". I don't know if any of you are familiar with The Academy Of Ancient Music--they do performances of classical music with museum "period piece" instruments that were built and in use at the time the music was originally scored and performed--sounds dramatically different than a modern orchestra with modern instruments.

I feel the same way about my audio gear--I prefer "period pieces". If it was recorded in the 60's-70's-80's, I prefer to listen to it on gear from that era--as that is how it was intended to sound (good or bad), that's just the way it was.

I had set up a killer highly resolving system, and ended up selling the bulk of it and downgrading a bit, because all of that resolution brought out all of the flaws/shortcomings of the older recordings that I really enjoyed--rendering them less than enjoyable. Sometimes "perfect" isn't "perfect".
Click to expand...
I couldn't agree more. My 65 year old ears grew accustomed to hearing period music through period speakers--AR, KLH, ADS, Altec, etc, in the 60s and 70s; today's equipment doesn't do it for that. Too, there's a Zen thing listening through wood veneered cabinets that I believe makes music sound better--black painted cabs and black vinyl sound different. A psychiatrist would put me on meds for saying that, but I think it's true. Also, the compressing of music to MP3 makes me shudder, although it is handy to plug in my iPod to the aux ports in my KLH model 25 stereo console in the garage!
 
That's one way to look at it, and is perfectly valid.

I guess from my perspective I tend to go vintage (except for HT) for a different reason - I'm cheap :)

I do like the look of the gear of the 60s and 70s, and I figure that if I buy stuff that was good then, it won't lose value. I can also pick stuff up if and when I find it much less expensively than buying new, so I can have a little system in more rooms - I can have good sound wherever I wander in the house rather than being locked into one or two rooms. Of course this line of reasoning ended up with a Marantz/Boston setup in the kitchen, but hey, cooking is so much more enjoyable now :)
 
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