What unknown speakers do you have that have you grinning?

B

bd1886

Super Member
What speakers do you have that are mostly "unknown", you have them and "know" how much better they are than so much other stuff you've had ears on?

I have two pair, and it's so ridiculous how one pair I just purchased has been on CL for weeks. A bud stumbled across a very rare pair of "mirrored" Chapman SCJ1s' (Population less than twenty for these.) and the regular model sold like hotcakes in Germany and specialty/small niche markets in the U.S.
Once we did a lot of A/B'ing...committed to them as fast as I could get to his computer. (Mine not mirrored of coarse...)

What "unknowns" do you have that go a long way towards being "dragon slayers" of the famous?
 
Sequerra Futuresonic Sound System
Nicer than my Quad ESL 57s and that's somethin':)
 

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Klipsch RF-83's. Nobody ever talks about them except the occasional mention on the Klipsch forum. I think they only made them for 2-3 years last decade.

I had to stuff 2 of the 3 ports and pad the tweeter horns by 2dB for my room but now they really sing. Had them for 5-6 years and it'll take something really spectacular for me to give them up. Very dynamic, detailed and sweet sounding with deep tight bass.
 
As I get the amps & location dialed in, I keep getting more and more excited by my Crown ES-224s. I just turned the basement system off for the night (it's 1:30am after all), and I was just listening to Cassandra Wilson sounding like she was right there... really, these things are shaping up to give the Quad ESL-63s a run in detail, and they have dynamics like a party speaker.
 
more 'forgotten' than unknown...I think the mid 80s B&W DM110 and Castle Durhams have definitely stood the test of time for the classic 2 way 'brit box' design. You can run these with a budget,mid level or high end source and 20 clean watts and they just disappear.:music:
 
Pretty happy with my MB Quart QLS-530's...

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(Photos from Google images)
 
I haven't opened up the Fisher console from GW but I'm smiling over the big full rangers that hopefully reside inside.
 
Bozak

My Bozak CS-501A speakers. I had heard of Bozak but could never touch any due to price until I stumbled across these bad boys at an estate sale for $130. I can't post pics cuz I posted pics on here under my help post so you can check them out in the forum under Bozak CS-501A help needed. They are so crisp and clear and the bass is so tight. They are MAMMOTH compared to my Pioneer CS-63DXs or HPM 100s. The single amp or bi amplification hookups on the backs are something I had never seen before on vintage speakers. I'm waiting to hear some specifications on these. I currently have them hooked up to my Pioneer SX-1250 and they handle amazing power without losing any of the crispness. I'm just astounded by these incredible speakers still and have only had them a few days.
 
I no longer own them, but the Sequerra Metronome 7 Mk.II's have a special place in my audio heart. I bought them from Dick Sequerra when he was still working out of his basement in Bayside, NY. For less than $500, their performance was quite remarkable.

A huge improvement upon the original Met 7's and IMO, better than some of the later incarnations I've heard.

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trhee said:
I no longer own them, but the Sequerra Metronome 7 Mk.II's have a special place in my audio heart. I bought them from Dick Sequerra when he was still working out of his basement in Bayside, NY. For less than $500, their performance was quite remarkable.

A huge improvement upon the original Met 7's and IMO, better than some of the later incarnations I've heard.

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I've read very good reviews on the Sequerras. I was surprised to see the paper tweeter. I know these are good, well respected speakers. Reminds me of rack system speakers. Anyone know of other well-respected modern (built after the development of dome tweeters) speakers with paper tweeters?
 
My pick is somewhat regional, Phase Tech is more well known on the east coast, almost not heard of or seen here on the west coast. Here they can be mistaken for white van. Some are better than others, the euro series towers are great (not so much the non towers) I found my 535es among a pile of rack system speakers at a thrift store due to no name recognition.
 
The Sequerra's are definately nice indeed. I had a pair of the Met 7's back in the early 80's. Always wanted to get the subs and ribbon tweeters for them but never did. Eventually traded them into the same dealer for a pair of Maggies.

Kfalls-several new models that incorporates a cone tweeter is the WLM speaker systems from Austria, the Stella, La Scala both have good old Visiton paper tweeters and sound very good.

As far as relatively unknown speakers that I own that give me musical enjoyment to no end are my Larsen Model 4's from Sweden, and my Shahinian Obelisk 2's from NYC.

Tim
 
My candidate would be the Heybrook SB3 Series II. Every time I bring them in from rotation I wonder why I put them away.
These are the speakers that surprised me the most of any that I've owned or heard and I've had a lot of speakers pass thru.
i would say there's a hint of Dynaco, EPI, Celestion and Dahquist all rolled into one box. Silky smooth upper end and mid with enough lower end to be noticed.
Close second is NEAR 10M monitors. These are incredible near field monitors and have enough to fill a small room as well. A lot of low end and they also weigh a ton for their size. I put them ahead of my Dynaco A10's and Mordaunt Short MS10's
 
Grafyx SP-6. I've been trying to let go of unused gear lately; I took these pictures with intentions to sell. Then, I hooked them up again, back to the pile they went!

Mirror imaged, maybe even a little time alignment? They sound excellent for what they are. The tweeter is nothing special, but that little woofer cranks out amazing bass for a speaker this size. From what I've read, the larger SP-8 and SP-10s are even better.


 
I'll play.

I have a pretty rare, relatively unknown pair of von Schwiekert designed and built speakers from when he worked under the Counterpoint umbrella in the 90s. The Line was Clearfield by Counterpoint. There were 5 or 6 models and a Sub. My model is the Continental. If you google it, you will see my pics and maybe 1 other person. I recently was contacted by someone in New Zealand who saw I had a pair like his.

What I like about these speakers is that they have the best midrange of any speaker I own. They are very clear and reproduce instruments correctly. They lack deep bass extension but provide convincing and accurate sounding bass. I rotate them in and out of my main setup with a pair of Dynaudio 82s but prefer the CFs over all.

 
Well, they WERE relatively-unknown, but I'm afraid the cat is out of the bag due to the gushing of myself and a few other people. I noticed a lot of cone-tweeters in this thread, and that's one thing I learned as a result of the Wharfedale W90's and W60's. There are some REALLY-nice-sounding cone-tweeters out there (I even remember a modern $140,000 a pair uber-speaker recently that used a cone-tweeter, which surprised a lot of AK'ers who heard about them... Rudy Bozak favored cone-drivers as well). The Super 3 cone-tweeters are the sweetest thing I've ever heard. Smooth as silk and completely-non-strident. The W90 is a 6-driver system that uses all cone-drivers. In fact, ALL the Briggs-era Wharfedales were strictly cones. Even the Airedale. Wonderful stuff.

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