An Amazing speaker find!

Gentle reader,

Yesterday Nancy and I set off to the mall to buy a "Go Diego, Go!" backpack for grandson #3. She was driving and I asked if we could stop at the local pawn shop on the way back.

I'd seen some PSB Alpha speakers there last year, and hoped if they were still there, they would have dropped the price by now.

They were gone but they had a number of very nice speakers. They had the smaller versions of the DCM KX-12s: KX-6, KX-10 and the KX-C center channel. With some of those, I could had a kick-ass surround sound set-up, for sure. But I am getting RID
of speakers, not getting more.

THEN I spied these nice black towers, made by Analog & Digital Systems, A/D/S/ for short. They have pierced metal grilles held on, strangely, by small black square drive screws. I borrowed a tool from the sales woman and got the grilles off to look at the drivers.

Two 5 1/2" woofers with a 1" dome tweeter between them. I felt around the back and to my delight felt four big, heavy duty binding posts. Why four? So one can by-wire them.
In other words, since high frequencies, require a fraction of the power that low frequencies do, one can have say a 50 watt amp for the tweeters and a 200 watt one for the woofers. That means four wires per speaker.

THEN I tried to pick one up. HOLY MONKEYS! These things are heavy! That was another clue these were high dollar speakers.

They'd priced them at $129 each. Then dropped it to $129 for the pair. We struggled to carry them over to their speaker testing station and she hooked them up.

WOW! What crystal clear sound! I was blown away. "So," I said to her, "you have these marked $129. Can you do better?" "How does $90 sound?" "Sold."

Were had Nancy's Scion TC with the car seat in the back for aforementioned grandson.
They proved to wide to fit sideways in the hatch, and with the car seat, we couldn't drop the seat backs. We ended up stacking them on the car seat sideways. They JUST fit there, resting against the back of the front seats.

I haven't weighed these, but they are more than fifty pounds. Here's some pics:
Above is with one of the metal grilles off. I'd taken them off, as I prefer to listen that way, but Anthony walked in and immediately started to poke the center of one of the woofers. So, to save them and my sanity, I put the grilles back on.
Here's a rather over-exposed shot of the back terminals. If you click on it, it opens full sized and you can read the label.
Here they are "in situ". I've brought the powered 12" sub back in from the living room surround sound and put the passive woofer there. I was testing the latter and the DCM KX-12s and BOSE 301s with test CDs to see, rather hear how low they go. The DCMs have a resonant vibration at 63Hz. Other things in the room vibrated at different frequencies. Not a good situation, but I can't afford to set it up as a real listening room, with treatments and such.

So, my research in my Orion Blue Book for Audio revealed that these A/D/S/ MV-30T speakers were made in 1996 and retailed for $1200. WOW! Definitely the most expensive (when new) speakers I've ever had. Not the most expensive component, I think that big Yamaha receiver that retailed for $1600 was.

Now, for your viewing pleasure, a couple photos from outside:
Cool sky, huh?
Found this fellow, or female on the recycling can lid. Cool Praying Mantis, huh?

Thanks for looking and reading!

Scott