Speakers probably considered crap, but you think are excellent?

Locobreth · Oct 24, 2014

Polk

baco99 said:
My short list would have to be:

Koss CM/1020 - These speakers get a bad rap. They are monstrous, but very efficient and they sound as big as they look.

Polk "S" Series - Totally under rated. The whole line up performed well: S4, S6, S8 and S10. I've owned all but the S8 at one point in time. The collector focus seems to skip this generation of Polk.

Advent "New Vision" A2000 - All reports indicated that I wasn't supposed to like this speaker. But I did. It had a very strong presence and was not overbearing. The Advent purists hate the New Vision line, but I think they deserve a shot.

I have the Polk s-10s as mains on a theater set up in my den. Using all there mates for rears and center. Sub is Polk also. There all 20years old and still sound awesome. These polls are seriously overlooked

Locobreth · Oct 24, 2014

I have sansui sp300s as fronts and ev fr10 2b's for rears and they sound great. Also have sansui sp3700a's in the bedroom. I get grief on all these. Many don't realize that sansui made a few very good speakers. Just gotta know what your looking at. The ev's were salvaged from a defunct theater. They were rears in there system.

Locobreth · Oct 24, 2014

Xtinc said:
My choice is Zenith Allegro 2000 with 8" alinico woofer and Foster horn tweeter. I picked up a pair for $2 and was surprised how good they sound. Terrible cabinets, grills and wiring, but capable drivers.

I completely forgot about allegros. I completely abused a pair of those with a old magnavox combo system in my early teens. Lots of black sabbath and pink Floyd.

greg s · Oct 24, 2014

my klh pr950s linear dynamic speakers. while they dont sound like my boston A100 or ADS l620 they do sound pretty good for a large cheap speaker.

greg s · Oct 24, 2014

those rtrs look cool ill keep an eye out for some

moejr · Oct 25, 2014

Greg you changed one of the drivers in those KLH's?

Decibel_116 · Oct 25, 2014

Pioneer CS-G301WAII. After replacing the old cheap rotted out 12" factory woofers with some GRS poly woofers, they sound really nice. Definitely not high end sounding, but they have an overall well-balanced sound to them and the bass response is top-notch. I think they would sound even better with upgraded tweeters to clean up the high frequencies (although they are not bad with the cheap paper cone tweeters).

desertlizard · Oct 25, 2014

these little denon's sc-a76, not great for all types of music but jazz and blues sound pretty kick ass, mated to a HK 330c

greg s · Oct 25, 2014

moejr said:
Greg you changed one of the drivers in those KLH's?

ya i did its an experiment. i said i liked them i didnt say i wouldnt try to make them sound a little better. granted that experiment is a fail but the original mids are on a shelf 5 feet away. that the best part of speakers like this i can largely do what i want and not worry much.

Locobreth · Oct 25, 2014

Also have a cpl pro linear stage fours that I was td not to waste my money on. I've been pretty pleased with them in the garage.

Locobreth · Oct 25, 2014

I was reading a Canadian site and a thread was discussing a cpl stores up there that push modern pro linears that stores push as affordable surround speakers. The consensus being they are just a thin line above white van speakers. I have the phase 4's that are pretty old and they seem like pretty good quality speakers. The cabs are built like furniture. Is this the same company and the quality has just gotten that bad or was the name sold to Chinese or some other low quality outfit. Or maybe I'm reading wrong and there not that bad. Anyone know the truth? I have to admit I don't really know much about the ones I have let alone the newer ones.

motorstereo · Oct 26, 2014

They might not be considered crap but they sure don't get the respect they deserve even among Mac enthusiasts. With the accompanying mq101 they're quite capable of 20hz bass. In my situation they've handily embarrassed every single pair of similarly sized speakers I've ever owned.

birdmannj · Oct 26, 2014

Alot of the Jensen era Advents like the Legacy's/1008 dont get alot of Advent love. Sure, the drivers were ok and the cabinets ok. The crossovers/wiring sucked.
My 1008's have always sounded very balanced and natural. Maybe a bit held back in sound but overall very nice to listen to.

Both Advents and BA's were at a similar price point during the mid 80's and the BA's just blew away these Advents as far as quality and better sound.

tchuck · Nov 19, 2014

motorstereo said:
They might not be considered crap but they sure don't get the respect they deserve even among Mac enthusiasts. With the accompanying mq101 they're quite capable of 20hz bass. In my situation they've handily embarrassed every single pair of similarly sized speakers I've ever owned.

I used to have a set of those! They really are pretty incredible, especially with the mac eq (I had an mq104). That overdamped technology was a brilliant move.

MJB1959 · Dec 27, 2014

Sony plastic component speakers 3 ways. without the components.

I have these in my work van, hooked up to a lepai tripath 15wpc., and they sound great, at least everyone else thinks so.

tubeampking · Dec 27, 2014

My vote is for the Yamaha NS6390s. They certainly get no love here at AK. I posted a thread on them and got zero response...zilch...zizzeroni...zamboni...I think they're ok...I payed $79 for a 3 way pair. Well balanced....can get bright if you let them.

muchospamo · Sep 3, 2017

Waking up this thread after 3 years. 2 low cost speaks that I like that you can easily find for $40-$50

Cambridge Soundworks Model Six.
Infinity IL10.

bimasta · Sep 3, 2017

I just started using a pretty great power amp, very high current, handles all speaker loads (high-endish, cost $2,200 back in 1990, about 4K in today-dollars). I'm testing various speakers I have which I never rated highly — and they all sound pretty damn good now. Feeding them good clean power can turn a frog into a prince...

rkgren1 · Sep 4, 2017

I will throw another voice behind the Bose 601s.
I have a set of Series IIs.
Very pleasant speakers that are easy on the ears.

bigtuna · Sep 14, 2017

Most people say these are shit, but my tube amp and my ears say diff. Magnavox s8765 12" woofer and horn tweets, .....cheers

Speakers probably considered crap, but you think are excellent?

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