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Decent speakers for basement/workbench use?


Pieman

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Posted

I had the old Marantz 2230 serviced.  I also re-did some basement space for an office.   Any suggestions for decent inexpensive speakers.  Thinking floor/towers would work best.   Thanks in advance. t

11 answers to this question

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Posted

Craigslist will have piles of vintage stereo speakers.

You want a pair of Smaller Advents? I have a pair gathering dust.

My favorites from that era are a pair of Mission 737. Still my favorites after 35 years.

Posted

Yes, look to Craigslist first. I am sure I have an extra pair of Ohm Walsh speakers (tower style) sitting around. They are great. Unfortunately, they are big and heavy and too much a problem to ship. They are (or at least were) up there in some audiophile circles. Still available on line, but pretty damn expensive.....Up to $3k each. BUT I have found really good ones available for very low prices, like a couple hundred a pair for anyone that can fit them into their car...... Just be sure they work and the speakers (as in surrounds) have not deteriorated.

Posted

I've picked up Bose IIs and IIIs really cheap, as well as JBL bookshelfs and towers, at garage sales. Goodwill, St. Vinnies, CL, etc. usually have something as well.

Dayton Audio (Parts Express) has some great stuff. I use their bookshelf speakers (B652-AIR) at work and they're way better than you'd expect for the money. Those AMT tweeters get great reviews, and I'd have to agree. They sound great. They have towers too, but I've never heard them:

https://www.parts-express.com/Dayton-Audio-T652-AIR-Dual-6-1-2-2-Way-Tower-Speaker-Pair-with-AMT-Tweeter-300-654

Either way, if you have room for a sub, get one.

 

Posted
44 minutes ago, hamerhead said:

I've picked up Bose IIs and IIIs really cheap, as well as JBL bookshelfs and towers, at garage sales. Goodwill, St. Vinnies, CL, etc. usually have something as well.

Dayton Audio (Parts Express) has some great stuff. I use their bookshelf speakers (B652-AIR) at work and they're way better than you'd expect for the money. Those AMT tweeters get great reviews, and I'd have to agree. They sound great. They have towers too, but I've never heard them:

https://www.parts-express.com/Dayton-Audio-T652-AIR-Dual-6-1-2-2-Way-Tower-Speaker-Pair-with-AMT-Tweeter-300-654

Either way, if you have room for a sub, get one.

 

At their price point, there's nothing even close to the Daytons, at least brand new.

Posted

I agree, visit your local Goodwill or local thrift shop... I picked up two pairs of JBL L100's, Klipsch Forte's JBL 4311's, DLK's and a pair of Cerwin Vega R-26s, etc throughout the years for dirt cheap

Posted

Yup, lots of vintage equipment available on Craigslist.  

Speaker surrounds tend to go; amp capacitors tend to leak.  But the difference in quality back before the cheap surround-sound boom of the mid nineties is amazing.

Posted

Yeah, but when the crossover looks like this and you can’t even get it out of the cabinet, you just put it back and leave well enough alone. 
84620549-8C5B-4666-8BA1-0C603C797EC7.jpeg

Posted
2 hours ago, Toadroller said:

Yeah, but when the crossover looks like this and you can’t even get it out of the cabinet, you just put it back and leave well enough alone. 
84620549-8C5B-4666-8BA1-0C603C797EC7.jpeg

The yellow blob on the top may be a done for spillin it's guts cap? Or skittles mouse shit!!

Posted

That's all hot-glue used at the factory to keep everything still and from rattling about.  It's a hell of a crossover.  The board it's mounted to won't make it out of the 12" woofer's hole as it's wedged behind a cylinder encasing one of the mid drivers.  I can't get that cylinder out without ruining it.  So the caps stay until I feel like really doing surgery.  I can picture them lying on a table and me going in like some doctor in a Far Side cartoon.  Since I've moved them into a bigger room with a pool table in it, they're more for background music than serious listening.

It's a pair of Snell B Minors, and they hand-tuned their crossovers to match the reference pair.  Note the rheostat in the lower right and the coils, which were hand-adjusted loop by loop.  

Posted
On 2/9/2021 at 11:44 AM, killerteddybear said:

Craigslist will have piles of vintage stereo speakers.

You want a pair of Smaller Advents? I have a pair gathering dust.

My favorites from that era are a pair of Mission 737. Still my favorites after 35 years.

I ended up with a pair of craigslist sourced Mission speakers for my office.  Dirt cheap.  And they sound pretty  good regardless of the price.

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