What were your first "audiophile" speakers and when? - Page 6

Kal - WOW! I am so glad you said that!!

These were my first too, maybe a year or two earlier though since I graduated in '85. I spent everything I had on them and picked up my brother's Hafler 220 and 101 amp/pre-amp which had no problem driving them. CDs were brand new about then as well and I got a Denon player.

What's funny is that I still had my Nakamichi BX-300 cassette player until about a year ago. It was in great shape, but the belts couldn't drive a cassette anymore. I had some tapes of my grandmother I wanted to digitize and thought I could get it working and eventually gave up. The guy I sold it to had it up and working again the day he received it...strangely, this makes me happy.

I remember listening the U2 and Dire Straits when they first came out on CDs with the Magnapans. The speakers totally dissapeared with 3D imaging. I can remember it like it was yesterday. They were so fragile though.

I still use my 2.5s in the family room. My wife really likes them, so do I.

B&W 802 series 3.

I still have a fondness for those, although I haven't had B&Ws since the early 'naughts.

Koss Model 2's, purchased in 1977 for $1300 or $1500, can't remember. Awesome sounding for that time frame. Imaging is good when setup correctly. No beaming. Looks like it has ribbons for mids and highs and double ESL panels for lows! Accurate sounds.
Still use them.

Has anyone actually heard the new Maggie 1.7's? We auditioned the 1.6's for a very short time at what used to be Underground Sound in Memphis but they've now bitten the dust, too. Sure would like to hear those 1.7's.

My first high end speaker was a kit I built using a Focal TC120 tweeter and 6W woofer. At the time I had some Wharfedale Evo40's and a pair of B&W DM603's ... but the Focal kit literally wiped the floor with both. Since then it's been a never ending quest to build better and better designs.

Advent Large Original 1975

Infinity QLS (Quantum Line Source) in @197? . Couldn't tame its bass then quad-amp. it with Symmetry X-covers (following speaker's X-cover points) , EMIMs (8 each side) & Dome mids (6 each side) & mid bass (1) still working to-day , bass driver long gone and replaced with similar speakers . Just purchased Trinnov ST2 HiFi , not yet installed (next month , promised I) just hope to gain a more coherent low to mid . If wonder works , that would be perfect sound for me .

Larry

JBL 4333 in a studio apartment. Amazing dynamics on the then "audiophile" Fleetwood Mac, Eagles, and Pure Prairie League. Horrified the neighbors though.

Polk 10B

Kef 104/2. Worked as a waiter at the infamous Bulldog in Amsterdam to scrape together the funds to buy them. Hauled them half way around the world to the US and still use them in my upstairs secondary system.

Linn isobariks and then naim sbl. Still have the sbl's.

This post triggered some fond memories. I remember in the 70's:
1. The big thing with the Mac & JBL crowd, was to hang there speakers from the ceiling with chains. Ithought that was the dumbest thing I ever heard/saw.
2. Actually the same guy pissed off his girlfriend, when he was out of town she came over scracthed everyone of his 2000 albums, both sides. But them all back on the shelf. The most amazing thing though, was somehow she obtained a bulk tape erasure, and also erased about 200-300 reels of tape. She wasted his entire music collection. I must add the guy was really a big jerk. How big you might ask? Well he pissed off his coke dealer, said some smart ass comment to him when he came to collect some cash, the drug dealer overheard it, didn't see the humor in it, turned around, popped a cap in his head. What a friggin mess. Ah, the 70's.
Actually didnt feel that bad about it, he was a major league jerk.
3. The East vs West Coast sound battle.
4. Listening to music was a event not background noise for most today.

Phase Research LIttle-Ds. Ribbon tweeter, early polypro midwoof in a 'compression-line' loading scheme. These were designed by Phil Clements of Clements Audio who has the patent on the H-PAS bass loading Atlantic Tech uses -- compression line was a precursor to this. Awesome speakers back in the day. Factory burnt down and so went Phase Research.

First speakers ever were some old Marantz's -- blue woofer, yellow cone tweeter, stick on walnut 'veneer' over particle board. Bought in high school when you didn't get laughed at for having $250 to buy a system. Walked out with those, a Sansui receiver and BSR tt. Very happy day. For those here living on the north shore of Chi., store was Columbia Hifi, a hotbed of activity when audio stores could be that.

True sign of age....posting again years later in the same thread.

Thanks for reviving this thread. Many good memories here. Glad to hear I wasn't the only one with my choice of a.first good pair of speakers. That was in late 72/early 73 IIRC and were the Original Advents (think that's what they called them, maybe Large Advents?). I saved up my after school work money for a while so I could get those to go with the Fisher receiver my dad handed down to me, and a bit later got a Dual record player. I was 16. Loved those speakers.

Sonab 116
These were simply amazing speakers, and revolutionary for the early (mid?) 70s.
They were balls-y speakers and played very, VERY loud, but the amazing thing was the 3-dimensional presence - unlike any direct-radiating speakers. The instruments/voices seemed to individually hover in the air; you could move anywhere in the room but they stayed in the same place. Supposedly Stevie Wonder and other musicians used them (or the larger 2212 model) as studio monitors for recording back then.

I bought mine used, since they were no longer being produced at that time. I still have them stashed away in the attic....

Here's some pics from an old brochure I have. The last one shows the floor-firing woofer at the bottom of the cabinet.



Right speaker (they were sold in mirror pairs):

Here's a pair side-by-side:

Here's the 2212 model (top view, grilles off), the largest Sonab. These speakers were quite large in person.
(2212 = 2 woofers + 2 bass/midrange + 12 tweeters)
They were waaaaay beyond my budget (even used), and they also needed a much bigger room than I had.


Edited by rider - 12/27/12 at 1:48am

Apogee Caliper Signatures.

Still own them as I've yet to hear something better, though both the Vivid Giya G2s and Wilson Alexia are promising.

Audax something or other ... after 25 years my brother finally got rid of them just last year !

Cheers,

Something that still amazes me, is how far driver technology has come over the years. If you look at a driver from one of the audiophile speakers from the 70's and what they look like today, its just friggin amazing. No more plain, old stamp steel and paper basket.