What was your progression of speakers? - Page 4

Hmmm...

Early 70's Fischer bookshelves (brother is presently using as surrounds)

Criterion (Layfette Radio Electronics) monsters

Bang and Olufsen Red line 60's (Had these a long time. Kids put fun and $ on hold for a good time.

Paradigm monitor 7

Paradigm Studio 60

Cheers!

*L* Great thread.

1978-84 - Advent/1 - got me through high school. I still miss those...
1984-89? Onkyos - Can't remember the model - 3-ways, with 12 or 15-inch woofer. In retrospect, not a great purchase, but they got me through college.
1989-today - AR M6s and AR M1s - I've rally enjoyed these and got a LOT of use out of these. But they are now in the process of being retired.
2006 - Energy RC-70s w/ Energy S12.3 - Still in the boxes. I'll be installing them in the couple of weeks when the new theater space is complete.

OK I had to so some thinking to remember all this (the memory starts fading after 40)
Speakers:
Late 70's - Realisitic Quadrophonic setup (hand me down from my Dad)
Early 80's - some angular generic speakers bought at Pacific Stereo (first system I bought with my own money)
Late 80's - Klipsch Heresy II's (x4) still had the quadrophonic bug
Late 80's- Klipsch center channel (finally got a surround sound decoder)
Early 90's - Energy Connoisseur C-6
Mid 90's - NHT VS-2 (x5) First true HT system
Late 90's - M&K S-125s and Infinity (powered monitors (rears) and quadropoles (side surrounds)) (7.1 system) (tried something new, went back to the NHTs)
2000 - moved into a new house and built a dedicated HT in the basement
2000 - Energy Take 5 system (master bedrooms need surround sound too!)
2003 - Def Tech BP 2002TL, BP2004TL, CLR 2500, BP2X, UIW BP/A (new HT system) and Magnepan MMGs (dedicated stereo system)

2004 - Energy AC-300 (x5) (living room surround system)
2007 - Athena system (my oldest son wanted an HT system)
2007 - Mission M31s, M70 and M7c1i (new bedroom system)
2007 - B&W 604 towers and center channel (inherited)

Subwoofers:
Mid 90's - Velodyne 1012x
Mid 90's - BIC 100 watt 10"
Late 90's - M&K MX125 Mk II
2000 - Energy 8" (part of the Take 5 system)
2002 - HSU TN 1225HO
2003 - SVS 16-46
2007 - Velodyne F1800X/R (inherited)

Fun thread - love to stroll down memory lane

Late 60's (High School) - Wharfdale 8" speakers in RJ enclosures (hand me down from Dad)

Early 70's (College) - Allied Electronics 3-way coaxials in Lafayette DIY enclosures

Added KLH 6's (another hand me down from Dad - after I blowed up the tweeters on summer vacation, he bought some Bozaks & I replaced the tweets) - ran all 4 off a Heathkit amp.

1978 - Quantum leap time - Magnepan MG-2's with DIY sub - 15" Altec driver in 14 cu ft folded path box, design from a 1952 Jensen technical paper, usable output down to 10 Hz - still set up and active in the basement

1987 - Mission 70II replaced Maggies due to WAF in new house but still used the big sub (for a while)

1990 - NHT SW-1 passive sub (WAF), big box went to the basement with the Maggies

1992 - Added Polk CS-100 center

1995 - M&K MX70-B replaced NHT sub

1997? - Embarassing as it may be ... due to reconfiguration of the room and WAF (again), no room for the Missions so I had to resort to ... arghhh ... Blose HT setup, single cubes, at least it was cheap as an open box at BB - but I did keep the Polk center & M&K sub in the mix

2002 - M&K K-5's for fronts - compact enough to dump the Blose (huzzah!) - Rat Shack Optimus 7's for surrounds (5.1), good visual match to M&K's (all in white) and sound fine for surround

2005 - New receiver, added 2 more Optimus's for 7.1

2006 - Polk CS2 center to replace CS-100

Also have some Infinity RS-1000's that were surrounds at one time for remote speakers through the house, Missions are in service in the dining room, and the KLH's are still cranking in the basement at the other end from the Maggies.

Pretty happy with the M&K/Polk combo, especially with the new center - plays plenty loud & clear for movies & TV and sounds good for general music - if I really want to listen critically I'll go down and fire up the Maggies. A bigger sub for the HT setup would be nice but the M&K does a pretty respectable job for a compact box (WAF, although with the latest room setup I could fit something bigger).

Might as well do an update to the list. Last month I added B&W CM 7s as part of a "music only" system.

Here's my relatively short list:
~1989: Dad's hand-me-downs. Don't remember much about the system. Analogue amp and the speaker grill weren't removeable. 70's era. Got me from grade 5-9.
1994: JVC 2-channel receiver and massive KLH floorstanders. Dual 10/12" woofers. Shook themselves apart sometime in college. First time I spent money on equipment. Grade 9.
1997: Cambridge Soundworks 4.1 computer speakers added. Still have 3 computers later.
2001: Graduate college. Dump the JVC and KLH. Get a Pioneer HTIB that I found impressive at the time.
2006: Find HTIB really lacking. Pick up Onkyo 604, Polk Monitor 60s, Polk CSi3, Polk PSW10 sub(free), Pios go to rear. Wife not happy.
2009+? Finish Grad School and get the system I really want (TBD). Probably piss off wife again.

Why is the wife not happy?

Here is my list:

1997 - Two Channels Bose 201's Series III with a stereo onkyo receiver.

2001 - Two Channels Bose 201's Series IV with the same onkyo receiver.

2003 - 5.1 System - Bose 201's series IV, Bose VCS-10 center channel, Bose 161 rear speakers, Yamaha YST-215 sub with a Yamaha HTR-5660 85 watts per channel.

2003 two days later - 5.1 - Bose 201's series IV, Athena WS-60 center channel(I couldn't stand the Bose vcs-10), Bose 161 rear speakers, Yamaha YST-215 sub

2007 - Finally realize that Bose Blose and buy a real system! I now have ERA Design 4 mains an ERA Design 4 center channel with ERA Design 3 surrounds, and a Yamaha YST-215 sub. Bought a used Yamaha HTR-5790 110 watts per channel for $150 on Ebay. I sold my Bose speakers and the old Yamaha receiver for almost as much as I paid for the ERA speakers. Now that is a deal if I have ever heard of one!

Present day - I am looking to add an external amp to push the super Inificient ERA speakers. I might buy a used Carver AV-505, used Rotel 976, or a new Emotiva LPA-1 amp. I am also looking to replace the yamaha sub with a used Hsu sub probably.

She was perfectly happy with the Pioneer HTIB. I got an awesome deal, the Onkyo, Monitor 60s, CSi3, and sub for less than $1K. I thought she'd be happy with the money I saved. Instead she viewed it as money wasted. As angry as she was, she's somewhat agreed to letting me upgrade the rears from the HTIB fronts. Probably Polk RTi4 off ebay or something like that.

1968 - Sony 3 piece compact $200 (paper route money)

1972 - Custom 2.1 system with Electro-Voice satellites w/ SP8B 8" woofers and T35 horn
tweeters with a single CTS 18" woofer in a refrigerator sized cabinet powered by
(3) Southwest tech 60 watt mono amps and controlled by a Sony STC-7000
preamp/tuner and records played on a BIC turntable and a Shure V-15 III
phono cartridge.

1978- Sony SSU-3000 loudspeakers added to my collection. Sony as well as all
other mass produced stereo manufacturers direct their design teams every
5-10 years to produce some excellent equipment in amongst the so-so
junk. The SSU-4000 and SSU-3000 loudspeakers were awsome for their
time. They had a 10" aluminum cast framed woofer with a 4" domed cone
midrange with a fancy difuser and a 1" titanium dome tweeter in a real walnut
3 ft high bass reflex 70 lb cabinet.

1980- EPI 100 plus

1981- Advent (smaller bookshelf)

1982- JBL L62

1984-1994 - Many loudspeaker projects made. Too many to tell about. Towers
and subwoofers oh my.

1986- Design Acoustics PS-6

1988- Celestion DL-4

1992- Parasound HCA800II power amps (pair)

1994- Yamaha preamp, Yamaha tuner, Yamaha CD player, Onkyo m-504 power
amp, Acoustat 1100 electrostatic loudspeakers and a Yamaha YST-SW200
subwoofer

1996- Acoustic research M1 loudspeakers

2000- Mission M772 loudspeakers in rosewood (sweet)

2005- Sony DA3000ES reciever, Mission M73 fronts, Mission M7c2 center, Mission
M7ds rear.

2006- Mission V-60 for personal 2 channel nirvana.

2007- Mission M-64i upgrade for my HT.

Glad to hear someone else around here remembers SWTPC - I used one of those 60 watt puppies for my freezer sized 15" sub - worked great, still running today!

That soundesign better not have been the one that I'm going to get at a consigment store in a few weeks to add to my big stack of Vintage gear...

1970s era Realistic Receiver and speakers. (Still use them out in the shop)

Late 80s DBX Soundfield 5 (Anybody remember these?) Purchased via mail order from DAK electronics. Big monster towers with 12 inch woofers that are still in use as my front speakers in a hodge-podge 5.1 system consisting of a JBL N-center, JBL 12" Sub and atlantic technology Bipole surrounds.

Next month: Pioneer Elite VSX 81 and Aperion 5.1 system (533 towers for fronts)

1983 - Family tape cassette player
1984 - Sony "Walkman"
1986 - Some wierd ~Boom Box~ with dual tape cassette.
1888 - dbx sat + sub speakers
1990 - dbx 5 way towers (dbx is some kind of mail order speaker company) These lasted until my wife who was then my girlfriend put her head through one of the woofers and I blew out one of the ribbon tweeters

1995 - 1999 period of abject poverty with no speakers other than the very tiny crappy speakers hooked up to my computer

1999 Klipsch Promedia 4.1
2001 Creative Gigaworks S750
2005 Logitech Z5500
2006 AV123 X-LS , Polk R15, Polk Csi 25
2007 Dana 630

How did she get her head into the woofer?!!

Sony Towers -> Athena Point 5 -> Athena B1 bookshelves -> Swan 5.1's

Sony SubWoofer - > SVS Cylinder -> Mirage S12

Didn't I hear about this on Dr. Laura?? Could you elaborate a bit?

I won't even mention the junk I started with but just start on the good stuff. I did not buy pairs, all were matching 5.0 speakers.:
1. M&K 750 THX speakers
2. M&K S-80 system
3. M&K S-85 system
4. M&K S-125 system
5. M&K S-100B system
6. Behringer powered monitors
7. Axiom epic 80 system
8. Magnepan MMg system(6 of them)
9. M&K S-250 system
10. Klipsch THX ultra 2 system
11. M&K S-5000 THX system
12. JTR triple 8's.
I have been thru even more amps and processors.

Subs:
M&K MX-70b
M&K MX-90
M&K MX-5000
SVS 16-46 cs+
Added another 16-46CS +
Bought pb10 and 16-46 cs
SVS PB12/plus/2
Klipsch THX ultra 2 subs(2 of them)
Madison folded horns
Madison dual cab subs
I have the 2 horns and the 2 dual cab subs as we speak(or type).

The tweeter was blown because I was pushing the amp too hard and it was clipping - boom - no more tweeter.

The woofer? Well we were partying [hard] in college and my girlfriend (now wife) was sitting near the speaker. She fell over for some reason long forgotten and her head went into the speaker which was close to the wall and to make a long story short she ripped the cone of the woofer.

Sorry that wasn't as exciting as you all hoped.

I thought her head got in there for another reason!

I thought she was examining your bass port!

1979 DLK 1.5s
1992 Cerwin Vega ??
2000 Bose accoustimass
2003 Polk RTI
2005 NHT classic's
2007 Tyler Acoustics

1. Sony 4-speaker stereo system
2. Athena Technologies AS-F1 w/ AS-P400
3. Athena Point 5 system
4. Boston Acoustics Micro System
5. Boston acoustics VR 975
6. Boston acoustics CR-75
7. Boston Acoustics VR-M50
8. Swans Diva 4.1
9. Boston Acoustics VR-960
10. Boston Acoustics VR3
11. Back to VR-960

VR3's were simply too much for the room they're in.

My "progression" has come full circle. I am back to the Def Tech BP10bs that I started with 7 years ago. I still prefer them to everything else I have tried from then to now.

Pulliamm,
The same thing has happened to me. I started with ADA equipment and M&K speakers, I tried so many different amps and processors with different speakers. I now have ADA and M&K again, just their higher levels. I think I have finally found a replacement for M&K though.

For our HT:
Early 90s - KEF 104s and KEF 100 (center)
2007 - KEF 205/2 (front) and KEF 202/2c (center)

KEF Q series for surrounds in our HT (might upgrade to newer KEF Reference).

I also have KEF Q series in other rooms as well as in wall KEF....

Guess I'm a KEF Guy

I've had the same Aiwa bookshelf system since high school (~15 years). After using it for Cds and radio for the first 12 years of it's life, it was moved under the computer desk to pull a third duty as PC speakers.

Earier this year, we replaced our old 27" TV with a projector. Had I paid a little more attention during the research phase of the purchasing decision, I may have realized that projectors do not have built-in speakers, as TVs do.

So, the first step was sending stereo sound fromt he DVD player to the Aiwa. Not bad, but the little shelf system only had one Aux input, so I bought an Onkyo receiver and used the Aiwa speakers with that. My brother found an old RCA shelf system in the back of his closet, so I appropriated those speakers to use as rears with teh surround sound receiver. Much better.

We then took a 6x9 from an old car audio system, pu it in a box, and hooked it up as a center. Even better.

Finally broke down last month and got a pair of Polk RTi6's anda CSi3 to go across the front. SO. MUCH. BETTER.

The plan going forward is to get a pair of RTi8's or RTi10's for the front, and move the RTi6's to the back. HAve to wait for finances to improve a bit, though. Hopefully they won't all be gone by the time I can afford them.

First stereo system (college): Technics 2 way floor standers. (1978).
Replaced with Acoustat 2+2 Electrostatic panels (1984).
Replaced with Revel F30's (& C30) (2001).