The de-man-ification of speakers

These are what I want some day, but Ill have to wait till I find a pair cheap, as the woofer is a 30" Electro Voice 30W that usually goes for $3000 to $4000. The frequency range is a crazy 15Hz - 23KHz; has a 30" woofer, EV 1824 upper mid-horn, EV SP12 lower-mid, and a EV T350 horn supertweeter. Its actually kind of common to find these at church sales for very cheap...oftentimes under $500. These are Michigan-made speakers...as Electro Voice manufactured all of their speakers in Buchanan, MI up until about 2002. Enter the Electro Voice Patrician 800 :D.

a.jpg


Here are my Electro Voices. 12" coaxial drivers in 6 cubic foot cabinets. Theyre a little churchy lookin, but man do they sound sweet.

_MG_0116.jpg
 
Last edited:
After reading this thread, I have concluded that I am an audio lightweight. And after many years of open headers and rock concerts, I am grateful to hear ANYTHING.
I have an Onkyo AV reciever and a Klipsh "Home Theater" 5.1 setup. itsy-bitsy speakers, but the 10" sub is enough to rattle the room. And I have a wall-hanger TV. Does this make me less of a man?!?!?!? :ohnoes: I feel guilty even admitting all this to those of you who still have enough hearing left to be able to tell the difference between "good enough" and "great".
 
OldbutNew said:
Does this make me less of a man?!?!?!? :ohnoes:
Click to expand...

Thats not what this is implying...just simply that speakers themselves have gotten less manly, not the user. No speaker should be imposing in relation to the size of the room, but the common folks have been lead down a bottomless pit of sorts. Each and every manufacturer commonly found in a big box store always touts the "you are there" experience, while not truly offering it. Its the horse chasing the carrot, empty advertising. Small home theater satellite speakers cant offer that, because their size limits them. When something is played on a larger speaker, you REALLY are there. When youre playing it on a satellite speaker, it sounds exactly like what its coming from...a small speaker.
 
OldbutNew said:
After reading this thread, I have concluded that I am an audio lightweight. And after many years of open headers and rock concerts, I am grateful to hear ANYTHING.
I have an Onkyo AV reciever and a Klipsh "Home Theater" 5.1 setup. itsy-bitsy speakers, but the 10" sub is enough to rattle the room. And I have a wall-hanger TV. Does this make me less of a man?!?!?!? :ohnoes: I feel guilty even admitting all this to those of you who still have enough hearing left to be able to tell the difference between "good enough" and "great".
Click to expand...

At least its Klipsh and not some sony or samsung setup.
 
After firing up my sounds in the basement last night, I figured I'd finally make a post on this thread. :lol:

I have a Kenwood KR-9400 that I picked up off of Tin, paired to some Klipsch Chorus I's. MAMMOTH speakers, but you can't replicate that sound, without the size. The biggest issue with home theaters now, is that people have unknowingly sacrificed sound quality for floorspace. 9 times out of 10, the individuals are satisfied. But, it's the same as people driving Camry's and Corolla's....they do their job. Would a different car offer a better experience? Absolutely. Would better/bigger speakers offer a MUCH better listening experience? Absolutely.

My home theater upstairs blows. But, when I want to truly "listen" to something, I throw some vinyl on the turntable downstairs and get lost in audio euphoria. :lol: My junk was cheap and middle of the road at best, but it sounds damn good to me. Only thing I want to change is to eventually add a nice vintage tube amp.
 
jhilla68 said:
My junk was cheap and middle of the road at best, but it sounds damn good to me. Only thing I want to change is to eventually add a nice vintage tube amp.
Click to expand...

Youre one step down from the baddest ass piece of audio equipment Kenwood ever made, the KR-9600, and your speakers are up towards the top of the Klipsch Heritage line....and you call it junk and middle of the road? :lol: If you feel that way about em, put em by the curb and Ill swing by later on :D.
 
Tin said:
Youre one step down from the baddest ass piece of audio equipment Kenwood ever made, the KR-9600, and your speakers are up towards the top of the Klipsch Heritage line....and you call it junk and middle of the road? :lol: If you feel that way about em, put em by the curb and Ill swing by later on :D.
Click to expand...

LOL...maybe junk was a little harsh. I hop on these audio forums and cry at how "weak" my stuff is. But, it suits my needs damn well....especially for what I have invested in it. ;)

But, it's the same thing with car forums, gun forums, etc. I need to quit picking up hobbies.
 
jhilla68 said:
LOL...maybe junk was a little harsh. I hop on these audio forums and cry at how "weak" my stuff is. But, it suits my needs damn well....especially for what I have invested in it. ;)

But, it's the same thing with car forums, gun forums, etc. I need to quit picking up hobbies.
Click to expand...

Believe it or not, most of those really high dollar systems wont put yours to shame. Will they sound better? Probably. Is the difference in cost worth it? To some it might be, but to most of us, it isnt. There comes a point of diminishing returns, once you go beyond some point the differences in sound can be subtle at best. You know youve got something going on once the speakers "disappear" into the background, like the music is flowing effortlessly from the air, and not speakers. This disappearing act can be done by systems at many budgets, not just the super high end. More often, its synergy between components, and not money, that make speakers do unbelievable things. How well your components jive together as a whole is what determines the final sound.
 
Speaking of manly speakers...

Sometime over the next few months, my EVs will finally be getting new homes :). A friend of mine is a carpenter/cabinet maker and has access to alot of good tools at his shop, so I know these will be high quality. The new cabinets are huge, 72"H x 23.5"D x 19.5"W...in a tapered quarter wave pipe cabinet. These plans are from the now defunct vintage-ev.com website, very hard to find the plans since the site hasnt existed in a few years. The bass response is astounding, measuring 29Hz at -3dB, far below even that of most consumer-grade subwoofers. Large coaxial speakers have a sound to them that nothing else can recreate, and these cabs were designed specifically for my Electro Voices, making the combo that much sweeter. The concept is that the sound emitted from the rear of the loudspeaker driver is progressively reflected and absorbed along the length of the tapering tube, almost completely preventing internally reflected sound being retransmitted through the cone of the loudspeaker. The lower part of the pipe acts as a horn while the top can be visualized as an extended compression chamber. This will result in higher efficiency, meaning less power required to drive, as well as deeper bass that otherwise couldnt be obtained in a standard box-style cabinet. In laymans terms, these will be the bees knees. With this setup, i might be able to finally run the venerable 45 Triode tube...good for a whopping 1.5W of output power, but known to be one of the sweetest sounding audio amplifiers known. Who wouldve ever thought that 100 year old technology sounded better than new stuff?

12trxbtqwp.jpg
 
YLWFVR said:
Tin, what's your take on B&W speakers?
Click to expand...

B&W is good stuff. As a matter of fact, I cant think of anything lackluster that theyve put out, but I can find atleast one model from other higher-end manufacturers that is.
 
They auctioned off a complete Macintosh system down at Dumouchelles last night. I am going to see if I can find out what it went for, their estimator had it at $600 to $1000. I was going to bid, but usually when I head down it goes for at least double. What do you think it is worth, Tin? I hear those tuners are the best ever made. Ever.

-Geoff
 

Attachments

  • mac1.JPG
    mac1.JPG
    38.8 KB · Views: 97
  • mac2.JPG
    mac2.JPG
    26.7 KB · Views: 97
The tuner and preamp I could see fetching $1000...maybe even up to $1500. The speakers on the other hand, Ill just say they were never one of McIntoshes stronger endeavors. Some of their newer line-arrays are nice, but their older stuff never gained the following other speakers have.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top