What were your first "audiophile" speakers and when? - Page 4

I would buy a set of DQ-10s or TC-50s in a heartbeat if they were in good shape.

Big spender
The L300s were my first, and I still have them in my office at work.

Steve. That's a great system but I would use triple stacked subs on each channel. Kidding. Just kidding. What frequency do you cross the subs in?

Trivia question. When Spica went under who bought the company and then decided not to resume production? Hint. The company is still in business today and is purely two channel electronics and in wall and ceiling speakers..

I went my local audio store in '1973' to buy a pair of Magnapans, loved the look and love the sound. I was with my brother, also an audiophile, and the salesman said, why don't you take a listen to this Daulquist DQ10. Keep in mine, I REALLY wanted the Magnapans, they look cool and sound good, I was very bias toward the Magnapans. Long story short I walked out with the Daulquist DQ10"s, both of us felt the Daulquists were SO! much better that I had to go with the DQ10's

Funny how things turn out

Rick

Dahlquist DQ-10's were my first with the DQ-1W sub added soon after.

I



I also added the Daulquist subwoofer and crossover and it was great

That would be Parasound.

However the hint is a little off as they do sell speakers...

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bose 901 series 2 in 1979, at that time I thought they were audiophile, then in 1983 Kef 105/4.

I owned a/d/s/ L7's for just over a year ... then moved up to the M20's (used for 17 years ... now in storage).

Accoustat Model III's paired with two Dahlquist subs and driven with a Hafler DH-500. A 100W RatShack receiver drove the subs and I designed my own butterworth active Xover. Early-Mid 80s before cohabit with girlfriends/wifeage.

They ended up donated to Goodwill after spending years in storage...

Dave

B Curry. I fixed the hint. They do sell in wall and in ceiling speakers. I should have remembered this because when the inwall and inceiling craize hit, They were one of the first companies to come to market in this category. They currently have only a few products in this category.

Steve are you sure? You've got two different start dates here and I don't think Spica TC-60s were introduced until 1994, WCES.

I sold many more pairs of TC50 than 60. I also sold the Angelus. The first pair came in with one woofer out of phase. I took the mother apart and found the two wires from the woofer reversed on the cross over board. When we first set them up, a customer remarked it sounds like the woofers are out of phase. We applied a small battery voltage and one woofer went out on plus and the other went in. Dealers remanufacturing products was common in those days.

Those were my first ones. In fact, I still used them even for HT until I replaced them a few years ago with KEF Ref 205/2s and 202/2c. My sister has them now (including my KEF Ref C100 speaker). They are still going strong and they are really enjoying them. SJ

Hardly audiophile but my first set of speakers were c. 1980 Lafayette Criterion's driven by a Marantz 2252B (still in the attic). I bought the Marantz for $300. which at that time was a LOT for a high school kid. My first audio revelation was buying a pair of butt ugly, cheap-looking headphones that sounded wonderful to me. An original pair of Sennheiser HD 414's, the first of the open air designs. $40. at Radio Shack.

Now I've got Seaton Catalysts and a set of Grado SR125's.

Chris

Looks like most here is rather old, around 45-65 years old, right?

That's because it was a better speaker.

One of my former colleagues at opusone in Pgh (we were the biggest Spica dealer) became the national sales manager for Spica near the end, and then went on to work with Dick Sequerra. Never heard from him after that.

I repaired I would say 100 tweeters on TC50s. The coil on the tweeter would burn out. The cone came off the magnet sort of like a bra cup coming of a .... and a coil was attached. There were two different brac cup coils. The earlier one had more turns on the coil. The replacent part cos $5. Had to undue four screws holding the whole tweeter assmbly in if I remember correctly, then 4 screws holding the cup\\coil on. Then unsolder and reverse to install the new cup\\coil.`

No disrespect intended, but if you have to ask you probably weren't there.

A good many of the speakers mentioned here, properly set up, could pass for magic. It was a time when audio was really something special and not an accessory for video.

JBLs that cost around $1k for the pair in 1988 (I was in highschool). I also bought a Bob Carver receiver and CD player. They were full size speakers, and they sounded great. My friends would come over after school to hang out and listen to music on them.

They lasted me 10 years! During that time I met my future wife and they finally went on me and the low range cones had to be replaced because one of them stopped working, but they never sounded the same again after that. I still remember that Sonic Hologram button fondly (though I have no friggen clue if it really did anything worthwhile...).

Before that I had boom boxes and those one piece AWAI & SONY pieces of crap.

They were probably L100t speakers. I remember auditioning them in 1987 (highschool for me too) and they were pretty nice.

No problem at all, I'm probably one of the younger ones here in 20,000$. And that is maybe something to think about for the market, that so few are interested in high-end hifi.

That sounds familiar, but honestly, you could have said almost anything and it might have sounded familiar....

Pair of AR-3a's in the late 60's. Still have them, along with AR-2ax and AR-4. Added the AR-2's when quadraphonic sound came along.

We bought a pair of Advent speakers in 1974. Buying two speakers housed in utility cabinets instead of the wood veneer and fancy woodwork cost $214 total. The Advents far surpassed the Sears Silvertone pair that I had since 1963. The larger Advent was a two-driver system with a crossover at about 1000 Hz.

Around 1977 after reading about the outstanding sound of stacked double Advents in The Absolute Sound magazine, we bought an additional pair of Advents with the wood veneer cabinets. On the left and right we stacked the older and newer speakers with the low frequency drivers next to each other and one high frequency driver near the floor and the other in the topmost position. One-inch adhesive bumpers kept the speakers from sliding.

We enjoyed listening to this superb system with a Pioneer SX-3900 120-watts per channel receiver, a Pioneer CT-F1250 cassette deck, and a Dual CS5000 turntable. We used this system until the foam surrounds of the low frequency drivers rotted. Instead of replacing the foam surrounds, we sold them, and in 1991 we bought the original Cambridge SoundWorks Ensemble. Take a look at the Advent pics.

My first 'audiophile' speakers (and I use the term loosely) was a pair of Boston Acoustics A 70 series II's in 1986. At the time I powered them with a Technics SU-V40 integrated amp with 50 watts per channel. Good sound, but I blew the woofers twice because I loved bass. I kept these speakers for a long time, perhaps until 2000 or later, when I bought my first audio-phile-video-phile system with PSB speakers and Marantz receivers. I say 'receivers' because I have tried so many it's crazy. I guess I'm crazy.

Don't just think about the past, you can re-live it too. Not only re-live it, but improve upon it! This spring I wanted speakers for my bedroom. My bedroom is small but I wanted speakers with big full sound and bass, so, I bought a pair of very large but slim Boston Acoustics A400's and also found a Technics SU-V60 integrated amp with 90 watts per channel. Wow. I like my PSB speakers, but the sound of these 20 plus year old speakers (re-foaming aside) is just amazing. I am now powering them with a Marantz SR7000 because I was planning a second surround / multi-channel audio-video system, I liked the A400's so much. In fact I bought a pair of A40 II's for surrounds. I actually have a pair of A150's I will probably sell. Also very nice but I think I prefer the A400's.