Speakers

[dazed_and_confused]

The original poster craved clarity and dynamics in speakers. Try finding both of them in modern British speakers.

Quad Electrostatics. Are they made in China now?
I know that Richard rated the 57's above the 63's. I'm not sure if he ever seriously auditioned modern quad ESL's.

Brand new Klipschorns in the UK sell for crazy money. Forking out £20k for them is bonkers.

Avantgarde are good, but crazy money - new and 2nd hand. The ones with ported bass bins have mediocre bass.

The USA is a great place to buy speakers because of all the reasonable deals on classic Altecs, JBL's, EV, Bozak, Urei. Not just full speakers but speaker drivers too.

If British speakers are respected in the States, that will be more down to marketing or WAF than sound quality per $.

[dazed_and_confused]

The original poster craved clarity and dynamics in speakers. Try finding both of them in modern British speakers.

Quad Electrostatics. Are they made in China now?
I know that Richard rated the 57's above the 63's. I'm not sure if he ever seriously auditioned modern quad ESL's.

Brand new Klipschorns in the UK sell for crazy money. Forking out £20k for them is bonkers.

Avantgarde are good, but crazy money - new and 2nd hand. The ones with ported bass bins have mediocre bass.

The USA is a great place to buy speakers because of all the reasonable deals on classic Altecs, JBL's, EV, Bozak, Urei. Not just full speakers but speaker drivers too.

If British speakers are respected in the States, that will be more down to marketing or WAF than sound quality per $.

I'm not really flying the flag for British speakers. I own speakers from Altec, Piega, and QLN, so not a Brit-speaker to be seen. But I did come across a pair of Castle Harlech a while back and I enjoyed them for a while. And I enjoyed my vintage Quads, but sold them recently.

25 years ago in the UK I owned Epos 14's, Quads, Monitor Audio, and heard a lot of stuff from Linn, some of which sounded OK. I heard a lot of crap, too.

A year ago I visited a retailer near DC and heard Harbeth Compact 7ES-3 XD Loudspeakers ($5,190.00 3,900GBP / Used $4,000 3,000GBP) - they sounded very good to my ears and I could have lived with them quite happily.

My point is, these speakers didn't all sound the same, which is clearly stating the obvious. And they didn't all sound horrible, else they wouldn't be so readily available here in the US. There are several US speaker makers who build speakers with good WAF, we don't need to import them from the UK if it's a plain looking box that we're interested in.

That said, there are a lot of 'anglophiles' over here who think you're all on first name terms with the Queen and would love to get their hands on an MGB-GT and use it as a daily driver, so perhaps that accounts for the lion's share of British stuff sold into the US? I don't know for sure

In many cases I think British speakers are voiced for a smaller listening space and have lower bass extension than the typical US speaker with a similar cabinet size. That's everything to do with the different listening environments they'll be used in on your side of the pond.

As for clarity and dynamics being sought-after virtues, sure, I like me some of that too. I paid about 3000GBP for the 1993 Khorns, a bargain for a big, bold and dynamic speaker with plenty of clarity. Most audiophiles over here believe that all Klipsch stuff is Mid-Fi at best, so I had to sell mine before anyone heard I had them.
The ProAc stuff I've heard over the years also offers clarity and dynamics, but with a more refined and less forward presentation. I'm sure there are other that do, too.

Anyway, I guess it's a simple enough point. I think there are some decent sounding British speakers. I respect the opinion of the OP even though I disagree with it in principal.

Oh, and yes, I believe I read somewhere that modern Quads are made in China, though I'd love to stand corrected on that point (I'm too idle to google it.)
Cheers
DAC

[TheMadMick]

. . . . . Most audiophiles over here believe that all Klipsch stuff is Mid-Fi at best, so I had to sell mine before anyone heard I had them. . . . .

Seems like a pretty odd reason to sell your speakers. If you enjoyed them then keep them. If not then surely they should have been gone already?

Hey ho?

[dazed_and_confused]

. . . . . Most audiophiles over here believe that all Klipsch stuff is Mid-Fi at best, so I had to sell mine before anyone heard I had them. . . . .

Seems like a pretty odd reason to sell your speakers. If you enjoyed them then keep them. If not then surely they should have been gone already?

Hey ho?

It was just a little attempt at humour. I sold them because they were a bit too forward sounding for my tastes. There are modifications one can make to tame some of the excess treble energy but I didn't want to go down that path.

[Lindsayt]

I'm not really flying the flag for British speakers. I own speakers from Altec, Piega, and QLN, so not a Brit-speaker to be seen. But I did come across a pair of Castle Harlech a while back and I enjoyed them for a while. And I enjoyed my vintage Quads, but sold them recently.

Which models of Altec, Piega and QLN speakers are they?
And can you give us an overview of the relative strengths and weaknesses of each speaker when compared to the others? As well as an indication of how much you paid for each?
Or alternatively, you could tell us the models (and condition if relevant) of each speaker and allow us to guess / speculate as to the relative sonic merits and then give us your findings on how they sound. As a little forum game...

[dazed_and_confused]

[quote=dazed_and_confused post_id=227742 time=1646162277 user_id=30179

Which models of Altec, Piega and QLN speakers are they?
And can you give us an overview of the relative strengths and weaknesses of each speaker when compared to the others? As well as an indication of how much you paid for each?
Or alternatively, you could tell us the models (and condition if relevant) of each speaker and allow us to guess / speculate as to the relative sonic merits and then give us your findings on how they sound. As a little forum game...

Well, here goes:
My QLN are the signature splitfield 2. They’re over25 years old yet in perfect working order. They have the external crossover which is completely stock.

My Piega’s are the C40. They’re also a couple decades old and these are in mint condition and are my daily drivers. I run them with a modified pair of Allnic Audio A-6000 300b monoblocks. Using the EML XLS 300b tubes the amps are good for 60watts. Some would argue that they’re underpowered for the Piegas 4 ohm load, but they never sound strained. If I plan on throwing back a few beers and spinning some Rush I’ve a pretty good class D amp that has the capacity to drive 1 ohm scintillas. But I like the 300b for most of what I listen to most of the time.

The Altecs are the Valencia 846b with modified crossover from a company here in the states that actually make replacement drivers and crossovers for all the old Altec stuff.

DAC

[Lindsayt]

The Altec 416 drivers in the Valencias are all time classics, for what they do in the upper bass and midrange. The ported bass is a compromise on them. Was it Great Plains Audio (GPA) that you got the modded crossover from?

The Piega C40's have interesting ribbon drivers. And an all aluminium cabinet construction. I'm not too sure about the twin Vifa woofers with the 3 x passive radiators.

[dazed_and_confused]

The Altec 416 drivers in the Valencias are all time classics, for what they do in the upper bass and midrange. The ported bass is a compromise on them. Was it Great Plains Audio (GPA) that you got the modded crossover from?

The Piega C40's have interesting ribbon drivers. And an all aluminium cabinet construction. I'm not too sure about the twin Vifa woofers with the 3 x passive radiators.

Yes, GPA supplied the XOs. They're actually for the Model 19 as recommended by GPA. The XO points are a little different and they claim it's an improved balance vs the original Valencia XO. They also reconed the woofers and recharged the drivers. I'm thinking about going active at some point soon, I've been chatting with Marchand Electronics and I'm thinking about maybe going with their tube XO. That would be new territory for me. It may not happen.

The Piega's strength is definitely their mids and highs. They have weaknesses like all speakers but I'm ok with what they do. I use subs in a DBA to lend a helping hand with the LF.

PS - I've been reading through some old posts and I keep coming across 'Cubes', in reference to speakers. Can someone please point me at a website where I can see what these things look like. Ain't never heard of 'em State-side.

[karatestu]

NVA Cubes (courtesy of Fretless). Up firing mid bass, front firing tweeter. Mid bass is doped and run wide open, tweeter has a single high pass filter capacitor and a padding resistor. Simplicity

[TheMarlin]

I do like a Tannoy Dual Concentric speaker.
Close in sound to a Quad 57, but without unwieldy size.

I had 12” Monitor Golds back in my the 90’s. Really lovely sound. A friend had 15” Tannoys, sounded fabulous.

Also has NS1000M’s, got a bit fatiguing after a while. But excellent details for short burst listing.

I’ve only ever tried the Cubettes, they didn’t work in my Hifi room, would like to hear the big ones at some point.



Marlin