I Counted Up ALL of The Stereo And Audio Components And Speakers I Have Owned Since 1975 PART FOUR

September 13, 2019

#330

Gentle reader,

This is the final chapter of this saga, the previous one is linked here:  I Counted Up ALL of The Stereo And Audio Components And Speakers I Have Owned Since 1975 PART THREE 

NOTE: If you click on any photo, a second window will open OVER this one. The pictures will be larger and you can either click through them or use < and > arrow keys to look at them.

This speaker hails from the days before stereo became common. It is a Radio Shack Realistic Electrostat 2.

Yes, believe it or not, Radio Shack did build and sell electrostatic speakers. I never got it to work, however.

I found a pair of MACH TWO speakers at a pawn shop for a good price. No photos of them. 

When I looked at pictures of them online, I saw the woofers were not original. Shocker. When I removed them, I saw they were generic ones. They butchered the cabinets trying to get them to fit.

So, I parted them out and sold the pieces. As close to MACH ONE speakers that I have come.

After DECADES of Radio Shack selling their own audio equipment under their various brand names: Realistic, Optimus, Archer, Minimus and I don't know how many other ones, it began selling nothing but RCA branded equipment. These two pairs of speakers were simply re-badged Minimus 7 speakers.

I came across these very effective, strong and versatile brackets to wall mount speakers for home theater use. They are made of some kind of very sturdy polymer.

Everyone who dabbles in old stereo equipment needs to own at least one pair of Japanese "More-is-better" multiple drivers speakers.

These Sansui SP-X9 models have the requisite 15" woofers and as many other drivers as they could stuff onto the baffle board. Their sound was as bad as I suspected.

There was a mystery house on our street. No one seemed to live there, but somehow the grass was cut often. No one seemed to come or go from it. But it seemed as though someone was there.

Then one day, my wife came home from work and there were piles of audio equipment on the curb.

She started grabbing what she thought might interest me, including a Pioneer Laserdisc player.

In my perusal of the stuff, all mid-1980's Japanese equipment, these odd SONY speakers caught my eye. A second cone tweeter and the reflex port on the side. Similar to BOSE.

NO model number at all. They are marked left and right and had these brackets for wall mounting.

I concluded that if they were to mimic BOSE "Direct-Reflecting" speakers, then the brackets were on the wrong ones. 

I used them for a while, then like SO many other things, passed them on via eBay. 

These compact SONY speakers are model SS-70. Nothing particular about them. They handle a maximum of ten watts.

These mirror image SONY speakers are quite compact, four inch woofers, I think. Model numbers are SS-MB100H.

AND NOW, the BEST BARGAIN I ever found in audio equipment. For the lowly price of TEN DOLLARS, I bought these:

Don't recognize them? I didn't either, they was no price marked on them and I told the guy I had never heard of the brand. "Ten bucks OK?"

It wasn't until I got them home and looked them up, Spendor LS3/5A, in my trusty Orion Blue Book of Audio did my jaw drop.

Made from 1985 to 1995 and retailing for $1,295! That is $3,150 today. Frankly I was not impressed with their sound. A fellow in Hong Kong bought them for 11,000% of what I paid for them.

I have MANY boxes from things I have bought stored in the attic. So I appreciate when someone packs what they are going to donate back it their factory packaging.

Absolutely nothing special about these speakers except they did design and build them as mirror images and their veneer is very light wood.

I had quite forgotten about having these TANNOY PBM 6.5 speakers when I found the C-88s in May. I did a top to bottom tear down and upgraded the tweeters because they were lacking in highs.
Tannoy C-88 Twin Tweeter Transplant Step By Step 

Well and proudly made in Canada. 

Once again, I suspected these beautiful TEAC LS-MC95 speakers were part of an "Executive Stereo".

We are finally nearing the end of the speakers which I have chosen to share with you.

To the best of my knowledge, this University brand speaker was from the mono days. While not a corner speaker like a Klipschorn, it did fit in a corner well.

Shaped to direct the rear waves through the bottom port seen in the first photo.

I decided to make a new baffle and convert it a two way and bought this 16 ohm tweeter from Cy Beam.

That's a 10" cast-frame Wharfedale woofer. Or perhaps a full range one. A generic replacement foam was not the right size so I had to cut and paste. Literally.

I don't know what "14,000 LINES" refers to.

It did not sound very good even with the crossover I put in it. So I sold it on.

Someone donated these UTAH AS-2AX speakers new-in-the-box.

I eagerly bought them since UTAH speakers have quite a good reputation. I checked them out and cleaned them well, inside and out. Sadly, I lost money on them. It happens.

Speaking of Wharfedale, these W40 models were a lucky find.

I found a photo of the label for the terminals, printed them out and glued them on. Attached to one speaker was this sheet:

And to that, this card.

Sold years before my wife was born. But six years after I came into being.

Model, Diamond 7, are these much more modern Wharfedale bookshelf speakers.

Since we are in the "WH" section, I have to show you these White Van speakers.

I knew fully well what they were, I found them the same time as the Cerwin-Vega! LS-12 models. Good thing I had my Volvo wagon as they would not have fit in my little red Capri.

While little effort was put into the cabinets and ports, they did not sound that bad.

As you can see, they had proper crossovers and the drivers seem well made.

I sold all the guts and tossed the crappy cabinets. 

ONLY ONE MORE PAIR TO SHOW YOU!

I found these at the  same store  as the  crappy Sansui speakers above,  but a couple years later. I never did figure out what that white stuff was sprayed on the woofers.

Model NS-15, they are part of a line of speakers from YAMAHA with Styrofoam bass drivers. 

With largely open backs and due to the bass driver's construction, bass was lacking.

Not the first time I'd seen speakers made of the stuff. At work, in the store room, LONG ago, I spied speakers the size and shape of acoustic ceiling tiles. But they were made of Styrofoam. It blew my mind then.

Well, that is it for some of the nearly 100 pairs of speakers I have found and tried out. Only one pair did I buy new.

Thank you once again for taking the time to read my humble blog. Coming soon, Matched Sets of components.

Scott
September 13, 2019
#330