I have come across a number of interesting speakers and a vintage receiver via our local thrift stores.
Here's the room with all the speakers posing before I got the newest ones:
Note the powered 12" subwoofer in the middle with a single vintage Pioneer speaker on top.Here's the vintage Pioneer receiver on top. I've set it up as a mono "Hi-Fi". I've run a single RCA cable with "Y" adapters on both ends from the turntable to the receiver. Plus I ran a long ground wire between the receiver and the stereo's pre-amplifier to prevent hum while playing records.
When I play mono records, of which I have many, I unplug the phono cables from the turntable that connect to the big stereo and plug in the "Y" adapter. That way I can experience old mono recordings in a similar way to how they sounded way back then. The Pioneer stuff is mid-1970's, long after almost everything was stereo, but it's close as I can get, equipment-wise to 1950's tube equipment. Pricey stuff these days. The receiver had "walnut" vinyl end panels and top plate. The former were peeling. So, I completed the peel and sanded them and the top and painted them black. Modernizes the look and looks far better than it did. I think the receiver was $25 and the single speaker $6. What happened to it's mate? A mystery. 
Above is how the room was set up before. The Wharfedales, which are model: Diamond 7.1, and the powered subwoofer were played together with the sub dividing the signals; bass it kept, the rest it sent to the small speakers. The Bose 301s were to be the main speakers. They really do sound amazing. Here is a close-up of one Wharfedale with one of the Sony speakers on top. The Sony's I found at Salvation Army and for $20, I thought, give 'em a try. They are currently in series with the NON-powered sub which I got for $25. It is a vintage Radio Shack Optimus 12" model. It too divides the music. Remember, I like the speaker grilles off. They sound better. 
Here is a close-up of the vintage 1975 Genesis model I speaker. $14.95 at a small thrift shop we hadn't visited in years.
Note the wooden, "masonite" tweeter face plate! The rest, save the inverted dome, is metal or magnet. First speakers I've heard where the tweeter dome is concave rather than convex. Does a fantastic job. Highs are tight and crisp and the sound stage images are excellent. The woofers are Radio Shack replacements that some prior owner installed some ten years ago. Very nice drivers at $30 a piece then. About $40. today. The original woofers had green foam surrounds. As is my practice, I have "rubberized" these surrounds. Here is a link to "Human Speakers" the company that formed from the original Genesis Physics: HUMAN Speakers: Home
Above is how the room looks right now. I'm thinking of trying the speaker stands that are shown in the very top picture under the Lyric/Eosone speakers. They are in this room.I'm thinking, once I sell the excess speakers, yes dear, really, I will buy some rebuilt woofers from Human to fully experience the 1970's Genesis sound.
The above image is courtesy of Human speakers. It shows that groovy green surround. Their signature like Cerwin-Vega uses red surrounds.That's it for now. Thanks for reading my blog!
Scott
