Speakers probably considered crap, but you think are excellent?

My Speakerlab S.1 speaker from a Seattle company sounds rather impressive like a LS3/5a
The woofer is coated poly and about 6" with a Phillips dome tweeter. The sound is warm and tuneful with good bass response for such a little guy.

I bet it would best a NHT SuperZero or Pioneer SP-BS22 in wider response and smoothness.
 
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I use ADS L500 near-field next to my computer, and Altec 95's in the living room. Both are 8 in acoustic suspension. The ADS are 2-way, the Altec 3-way. They sound very, very similar to me in their respective environments. The ADS don't sound quite as good in the living room. (I suspect the crossovers could use work -- I'm the original owner, and no work has been done on them.)

The Altec 95's were an attempt to produce a decent consumer speaker, late in Altec's lifetime. While they're not crap, they're considered nothing special. The graphs that come with speakers show them as decent in frequency response, etc., but not up to the my Studio 20's and other well-known speakers. I've tried other bookshelf speakers, particularly Paradigm Studio 20 and Vienna Acoustics Haydn. The studio 20's sound muddy to me, although reviews and frequency response don't suggest that they should be. I have a feeling I'm reacting to the mid-bass hump in the studio 20's, though that's just a guess. The Altec's are fairly flat below 2 KHz, and allow the bass to taper off rather than having a boosted mid-bass to compensate for lack of low bass.
 
During my hoarding days over the last few years I picked up a pair of 'DB Dynamics' (White Van) generic floorstanding tower speakers as seen in the pic below. They would've been approx. $250/pr when new but I got them for $20 along with an old component system the guy no longer wanted. The solid MDF cabinets weighed a ton, they were pretty filthy and the black woodgrain vinyl was starting to peel off so I really wasn't expecting them to work let alone sound good but when I connected them my mind was blown! I had to keep throwing different tracks at them to try to get them to sound bad but I couldn't, they just kept producing amazing sound. I've since passed them onto a good mate who needed a decent pair of speakers for free but I'll never forget them and their 'don't judge a book' legacy has stayed with me ever since.

Other speakers I've collected that fit into this threads subject include:

- Kenwood LS-V320-W: http://www.hifiengine.com/files/images/IMG_20140630_171055.preview.jpg
Very average looking Malaysian made speakers and as per the DB Dynamics above I wasn't expecting much however they feature a Linaeum tweeter and they actually sound really, really nice IMO. Due to their size I'm actually planning to offload them but it will be sad to see them go.

- TDL NFM1: http://www.hifidatabase.com/static/gallery/9/6739-tdl_NFM-1.jpg
Low quality feel to the cabinets and the black vinyl finish is pretty poor as it has shrunk over time exposing a slither of beige MDF around all edges. The drivers look pretty generic and the TDL name is just printed on a black circular sticker that has fallen off one of mine. The rear-ported cabinets are quite small but these things are phenomenal across a broad range of music and volume levels. Keepers for sure!

- B&O Beovox 3800: http://archivedforum.beoworld.org/c...chments/00.00.31.56.60/Beovox-3800_2D00_1.jpg
B&O stuff doesn't seem very popular here on AK and after owning a few pieces I understand why, it's very hit & miss... but when you get a hit it's very well worthwhile! I purchased these from someone who sniped them from a kerbside. Mine were really beaten up but after an initial basic test all the drivers seemed to work OK. I spent a couple of weekends restoring the cabinets and cleaning up the drivers (Goodmans all-round!) and I can honestly say even after listening to better respected speakers these are still just a pleasure to listen to. They are my go-to speakers if I ever need to recalibrate my ears, my 'reference' speakers if you will. Just incredible and if you ever see a pair just grab them at any price (within reason) as you will not be disappointed.

Also on topic, I also own a pair of unmodified Mach 1s and Mach 2s which I really love and even though most here cannot stand them I really do still like the good ol NS-10s and have three pairs of them connected to various systems around the house. I have a pair of NS-10s and a small/mid-sized Yamaha HT Sub in my Lab connected to a low powered PP valve Amp and I think they sound amazing.
 

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Akai SW-156 & SW-170!!

I bought SW-156 for next to nothing. Near mint with beautiful wood grills. Recapped with ClarityCap ESA film caps. SW-156's are best speakers I've ever heard. Yes, that's right and I auditioned lots of speakers. Weird things happens in this hobby..

My friend found SW-170's at the someones bin, cabs were tearing apart. We removed the rear panel to check, what a shock! Crossover untouched, all drivers looks like new. Sealed box, sealed midrange driver, loaded with alnico (foster?) horn tweeter. Front baffle sealed with some anti-resonant material. We re-made the boxes and veneered and used front baffle, recapped crossover. They sounds fabulous!

If I ever find any Akai speakers from that era, I will get them in a heartbeat!
 
I rarely ever see them or see anyone talking about them and I know I should hate them, but I absolutely love my Sansui PM C100's...

Bought them new in 1983 and still love the way they sound.
 
I picked up a pair of Sansui SP-3200a and I was surprised by the sound considering the negative views I've read about about them. I put them up about a foot off the ground which helped. They were only $10.00 and near mint. I played them with a little 22 watt Realistic receiver and they got loud without much power. Not bad.
 
I got a pair of Bose 901 series V's in fantastic shape with the EQ and some really cool bronze colored stands for free! The owner was tossing them because the foams had rotted out! I refoamed 'em and hooked 'em up to a Marantz 2230 and was blown away by how they sound! I wouldn't have given them a second look based on the general consensus that they suck, but they sound VERY nice in my set-up! Very impressed!
 
I've been hearing A LOT about the Wharfedale XP/2XP/3XP-type models, especially the bookshelf-sized Linton ones from each series. These models were aimed at the economically-priced mid-fi market back in the '70's. Great with tubes, apparently, as well as solid-state (I would try a warmer, more-musical, engaging solid-state amp/receiver before a neutral, transparent-sounding one... Lots of life in them with the right rig powering them, and it may take something on the warmer side to unleash it).

Here's the Linton 3XP... Apparently one of the real jewels of that series.
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these hitachi speakers are but ugly and construction was not very good...

But I thought these things sounded damn good...dunno why...but they did.

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these sony speakers...ss-81 but they sounded really good especially on the lows, couldn't handle much wattage but they were 4ohm if I remember correctly

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these 70's hitachi speakers had a full range driver and I enjoyed them while I had them

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I bought a set of Acculab 230 3-way bookshelf speakers as part of a system I bought for the receiver and Project/One TT. I almost threw the speakers away because they sounded so thin with the original 20wpc HK receiver they were sold with. But after acquiring a Proton D940 receiver I needed a test set so I wired them up and WOW! I'm no audiophile, but I would think these are the definition of near field monitor when paired with a 40-60 watt vintage receiver or amp. The tweeter is probably 3" and blends seamlessly with the midrange and 8" woofer. I've heard these inaccurately described as "white van" speakers but they were actually made by RTR in the late 70's -early 80's as part of a line of speakers. Very nice.
 
I bought a set of Acculab 230 3-way bookshelf speakers as part of a system I bought for the receiver and Project/One TT. I almost threw the speakers away because they sounded so thin with the original 20wpc HK receiver they were sold with. But after acquiring a Proton D940 receiver I needed a test set so I wired them up and WOW! I'm no audiophile, but I would think these are the definition of near field monitor when paired with a 40-60 watt vintage receiver or amp. The tweeter is probably 3" and blends seamlessly with the midrange and 8" woofer. I've heard these inaccurately described as "white van" speakers but they were actually made by RTR in the late 70's -early 80's as part of a line of speakers. Very nice.

The Acculabs which are being sold out of white vans have simply appropriated the former company's name with no association to the former company whether financial or technological. There are white van Acculabs.
 
FISHER STV-430M
DRACO D-100 (or DL1000 or some such, the labels fell off)

The Draco 3-ways were about $100/pr, new in about 1986, replacing old EPI 100 2-ways that started to buzz worse and worse. They've always sounded pretty good: very flat response, decent bass, crisp treble. Took 'em apart recently: tiny magnets on Taiwanese components. Forgotten cheapo offbrand -- still well designed to work together. Imitation walnut veneer looks real when you polish it.

The Fishers are overgrown 3-ways made to go wish some sort of overgrown TV system. Woodgrain contact paper, that's peeling off the particle board. Bad design: send them too much bass, and the big 15" woofers completely muddy the midrange and treble. I got them cheap with 3 small Kenwood speakers and a big Kenwood surround sound receiver thrown in. These ARE real crap speakers...except I replaced the tweeters (one was in really bad shape) with little horns I got off ebay, and I've found that if you dial back the bass (somewhere between -2 to -6 depending on the amp and the material played), they can sound really good. It doesn't take much bass for those big woofers to put it into the room around me.

Now I'm running the Fishers with the Dracos stacked on top of them, tweeters to tweeters. With about half of the bass in the signal going to the Dracos, the Fishers woofers aren't overdriven, and deftly fill in the low bottom end. That and the flat response curve of the Dracos help keep the mids and highs clear and vibrant. Two pairs of crap speakers making a really nice pair of 6-way stereo speakers. They sound far better than they have any right to!
 
Mainly because most folks have never heard of RtR, but also due to the number of drivers. These RtR IIFs (along with a Sansui 9090db for $20) were what got me into the hobby. They sounded surprisingly good.

12" passive radiator, (2) 10" woofers, (2) 4" mids (one top firing), 2 tweeters (one top firing) and a horn-loaded (behind the rectangular foam) super-tweeter.

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Dave
 
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