PART ONE: Forty Plus Years Buying and Trying Home Stereo Speakers. Dynaco Spendor B&W

November 1, 2018

#283

Gentle reader,

"In a world where men are never satisfied with their stereo...." Or so the trailer for a movie about audiophiles might start, I have bought, tried and passed on hundreds of components and speakers. And cables, and.....

I never intended to get into stereos. In 1975 at nineteen, I was into cars and girls. OK, I put a better stereo in my 1967 Chevrolet Impala Super Sport convertible, but I could play dad's stereo when he wasn't home. And I had my plastic fold-up suitcase stereo that sounded fine to me. Or so I thought.

Then I met Philip. He had built enormous speakers out of plywood with 18" woofers. He didn't know what he was doing, but they were big and played loud. Driven by a Pioneer integrated amp that put out 60 WPC, a big Revox reel-to-reel deck and a Pioneer turntable. This being Richmond, Virginia, he played Pure Prairie League's Two Lane Highway. I was hooked.

I won't go into my next steps, if you are a regular reader, (I thank you), then you know that story. This article is going to show you photos of all the stereo speakers, no subwoofers or center channel speakers, just stereo specific ones that I managed to photograph. I did not own a camera until April, 1995. So, sit back and enjoy the show.

Five pairs of the many that I posed several years ago.

This is the earliest photograph of most of my first stereo that I have. A Dynaco PAT-5 preamp that I built from a kit and one of the Dynaco A25 speakers. The SWTPC Tiger .01 60 watt mono amps died many years earlier than this 1995 photo.

These are the same speakers on stands in this very room. So, it is 2001 or later. Still 35mm film images.

It turns out that Dixie HiFi tricked my 19-year-old mind by selling me the "floor models" A25 speakers. Since the grilles were glued on at the factory, I had no reason to pry them off. 
Then one day, I noticed one of the woofers was buzzy. Off came the grille and I found that they were not Seas drivers! Out came the offending woofer and I found they had stuffed the cabinet with fiberglass. So much for my "golden ears" award!

The logical way to do this is alphabetically. 

I found these Acutex MTS/3 speakers and was intrigued. Having read that mirror image speakers sound "better", I decided to flip the smaller drivers on one. Turns out the midrange is not one. They called it a "Passive Reflexer".

I found these a/d/s MV30/t towers at a pawn shop. Got them for less than one hundred bucks. First ones I'd owned that could be bi-amplified.

The metal mesh grilles were convex and held on by tiny screws.

Next, my famous Advent Baby Advent II speakers that I refoamed, upgraded the crossovers and refinished the wood.

They are famous because I wrote about the project and hundreds of you read the article. One of you sent me the specs for these speakers:

Freq response:   (+/- 3dB): 60Hz – 21KHz
Impedance:       6 ohms nominal
Power Handling:  50 watts RMS, 150 watts peak
Sensitivity:     89 dB
Crossover freq:  4500 Hz
Woofer:          6.5" Long Throw
Tweeter:         .75" Mylar dome

The only AR (Acoustic Research) speakers I've ever owned. A far cry from the legends of the 1960's to 1970's models.

For once, I did not open them up. Proper three-way binding/banana terminals. Now, I'm curious about the mid-bass drivers. Are there cones behind those flat faces?

Avid 100 speakers. The original owner wanted to make sure he put his name on them. Over and over.  

I replaced the spring terminals with inexpensive three-way binding/banana terminals, as I often did if possible.

Canadian, you hoser! To my knowledge the first for me from north of the border, first with non-parallel sides and first with, um, ah, different, yeah, let's go with that, reflex port design. M3Ti are the model names. 

My eyes almost popped out of my head like a cartoon character seeing a pretty woman when I saw these at Salvation Army.

My first and only, so far, Bowers & Wilkins speakers. DM17 is the model number. First I'd seen with tweeters (OK, Radio Shack models with Linaeum tweeters on top, don't count.) atop of the cabinet. Also the only ones I've see with the backs also finished. Beautifully done, too. 

British Industries Corporation, or B.I.C. These Formula 6 were their top speakers then. Ones I sorely wanted to own.

I found them in an antiques store and I think they were a hundred for the pair. 

Foam grilles of course disintegrated long ago. The woofer dust covers were poked, but careful work with a bent pin and I popped them back out.
The paper surrounds on the mid-range drivers had separated, but were so close together, that speaker foam glue was able to reattach them.
Note the wide vent at the bottom of the baffles. B.I.C's famous VENTURI design. The current models (Parts Express sells some) claim to have "the famous B.I.C Venturi ports" but I doubt it.
Frankly, I was unimpressed with their sound, so passed them on.

In an attempt to get me to stop using the big speakers in the living room, my wife, Nancy, spent $300 buying me these BOSE 301 Series V speakers. These are the only new speakers I've ever had.

That's Nancy in 3 of 4 photos above. Her ploy didn't work. But, when I set them up and started listening to them, I became a convert.

Since they are designed to "Direct-Reflecting", similar to their famous 901 speakers, I mounted them like this and they are very effective. 

If you haven't figured it out, these and many of the photos are in a bedroom we set up from the beginning as a sort of home office. It became man-cave #1. Later when the kids moved out and stopped moving back in, the larger bedroom became the den with TV, etc. After a few weeks, we decided to move the TV and everything back to the living room and the den became the listening room.

The other bedroom became my wife's woman cave. I set her up with a wee TV running off the same antenna as the vintage Fisher and millennial Yamaha stereo receivers next to me.

This is one of the "big" speakers she was referring to. I've never seen another photo of these 15 inch woofer'd speakers made and sold by Radio Shack: Optimus PRO 4000.

Someone once told me, "If you see Coral speakers, buy them. So I did. I have no idea who told me that.

The model number is not visible in this photo and I am not sure if it is the same as these below, which I bought later.

Seeing the drivers mounted from the rear caused a great desire in me to removed them all and mount them from the front.

I fought the urge. Sadly, no one on eBay shared my friend's interest in Coral speakers, so I parted them out.

Since I have chosen 331 photos for these articles, I will make Part One A to D.

Regular readers are aware of the fate of this solo Criterion speaker I found.

"75W PROGRAM MATERIAL" Quite impressive for the times it hailed from.

I don't know what material they used on the surround.

Cast metal frame and interesting type of magnet structure. Awesome that they completely prevented any of the fiberglass from interfering with movement of the woofer cone.

There are a number of Audio companies that start with D. So, an American one is first: DCM.

"THE AMERICAN LOUDSPEAKER COMPANY"

Those are Motorola piezo tweeters, said to be the only good brand.

Purchased at the same pawn shop as the a/d/s tower speakers. These were the first I'd seen or heard from DCM. Ruler shows how big the twin reflex ports are.

A completely different approach to speaker building. These DCM Timeframe 275 speakers use coaxial drivers in transmission line cabinets. 

Unlike their robust KX12 brothers, they used cheaper spring terminals. I so wanted to skin them and see what lay beneath the one-piece fabric. But I sat down for a while and that feeling went away.

These photos are early "listening room" ones. I used that 12" subwoofer in combination with many speakers.

You can see how I set up the BOSE 301s in that room on wall brackets for small standard televisions. I mounted them to stud and got them as equally close to the side walls as allowed by the studs.

These and the set of five below, are the exception to my rule of no home theater speakers in this article. All made by Definitive Technology.

I found the smaller pair at a thrift store and since they were larger and better quality than the tiny Infinity models we started with, I sought out a third for the center channel. Very well made and great sounding too.

The ones below, while traditional and a little time worn, are also Definitive Technology speakers. All five for $99.

Quite a large reflex port on the center channel.

These are the only dipole speakers I've seen nor heard. Designed to mount on the wall so that the drivers face front and back.

Proper terminals on all of them. Still find these "side" speakers a bit odd.

Tower speaker's ports are even larger. They call them "STUDIO MONITOR". Model DR-7.

Dual is a famous name in the stereo world, especially for their turntables. I've had a few. These plastic cased speakers carry that name, but that's all the good I can say about them.

I had a similar pair with another great name: KLH. I put them together with a car stereo in a cabinet made of 1/4" Lexan panels for a stereo to listen to at work. Why 3-way when they are so small?

Last of the D speakers are Dynaco. You've seen my original ones. I got lucky and found a pair of the more expensive, much more rare and 3 decibels more efficient A25XLs for $99 via eBay.

But first, here is a shot of an XL tweeter on the left compared to the standard A25 (and other models) less efficient tweeters.

In the series of articles I wrote about trying to recreate my first stereo of 1976, I bought this solo A25VW speaker. I hoped to find a mate soon. I did not. And after using it for a mono system along with a LUXMAN turntable, I sold it.

ALL NUDE ALL THE TIME! These are the drivers from the one true Dynaco speaker from Dixie HiFi. The cabinets were so beat up, I parted it out.

Here are the A25XLs. Aside from the grilles I removed for the photo, this is how the A25XL speakers were packed. Fortunately, the box was never dropped in transit. Look how dirty the woofer is on the left one.

Unfortunately as happens sometimes with old speakers. One of the tweeters came apart in transit! I found a replacement in Poland that cost almost as much as the pair of speakers did. But it was genuine and works perfectly.

I almost forgot these D speakers. While these "DIGITAL AUDIO 2002" white van speakers were never intended to be listened to by me, I bought them the same place and time as my Cerwin-Vega! LS12 speakers.

Pure curiosity drove me to bring them home and try them out.

White van speakers are meant to look impressive. So they often tout their superiority with stickers.

I took them apart after listening to them. Actually sounded OK.

The components look pretty good and they had real crossovers inside.

Since I'm on the subject of white van speakers, I will close with this photo which shows you the first pair I bought prior to knowing about the phenomenon. I got them from the same store as the B.I.C Formula 6 speakers.

No photos were made of them with the grilles off. 12" woofers, as I recall and the tell-tale stickers on the baffle face praising their quality. Again, they sounded OK. I also gave these to my son.

That's it for Chapter One. I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into the past speaker exploits. There is MUCH to come in future chapters. Stay tuned!

Scott
November 1, 2018
#283

PS Coincidentally the displacement in cubic inches of the V8 engine in my first car in 1973. A 1964 Chevrolet Impala two-door hardtop. Whenever I hear that live Elton John song that year, what was it called? I remember the joy and freedom of owning a car.