Bose 301 Speakers

I picked up a trashed pair of original Bose 301 speakers this week, not that I am a Bose fan, I had a few spare drivers to get these in working order again. The tweeters were fine but the woofers were beyond repair.

I had a spare set of EPI 100T/E woofers that I dropped in along with a CTS 2T2 phenolic ring tweeter.

The crossover I left as is as there was a 2.7uf metal polyester film cap with 5% tolerance, I was not going to invest any more money in these speakers.

The end result is they are now cranking pretty good in a store as I donated them for a greater cause. (They were not worth selling).

Mission 700 Leading Edge upgraded again

I usually do not upgrade an already upgraded crossover....but the Mission 700 Leading Edge paired with the Rotel RX-830 receiver sounds pretty damn nice that I thought I would squeeze a bit more clarity out of the system by upping the caps to Solen polypropylene 5% caps.

Also I doubled the acoustic filling in the back of the speaker to take away a the small remnants of boominess, now this system is as clear as a bell. It is all that I have been listening to lately.

Speakerholic's guide to quality vintage speakers

Okay, okay...you are finally buying some vinyl records at $10-$20 a pop and on the "vinyl sounds better" bandwagon, but does it really on that crappy system you bought?

I have had young hipsters tell me how good their Akai speakers sound and I usually say have you heard them against another speaker?......Crickets is usually the answer. I even donated this pair of JVC SK-202 speakers and the young fellows were blown away by how good the sound was.

I gave these speakers away because they are not worth selling. In fact these were the cheapest built speakers that I have come across in  along time.

There are two immediate upgrades you can do to your stereo to get the best sound, the first and best upgrade is the speakers. It is the easiest and most profound upgrade you can make. The second upgrade after you have a decent pair of speakers is the amplifier, a decent amp can compliment a great pair of speakers.

After these two upgrades the laws of diminishing returns start to apply. The next place to spend money may be on the cartridge on your turntable and a good set of speaker wire.

Not all stereo equipment from the 70's and early 80's is golden, there was a lot of crap produced during these times also as major manufactures had some price point systems and rack systems to meet the consumer demands.

So here goes on the type of speakers not to buy..First the JVC SK line as pictured above..Absolute shit.

Here is an example of a pair of Akai speakers that would be at home beside the curb.

Or a pair of Technics.

Here is a pair of Fisher speakers with crappy cone mid range and tweeters, complete with the frequency graph to convince you that they sound smooth.

Any speaker that has a little frequency graph attached to the front or rear baffle is also a pass.

I see lots of this type of speaker being overpriced on Craigslist waiting for unsuspecting buyers to pay too much for their crap because it is now old enough to consider vintage.

So, what does that leave you as a guide as to which speakers are worth the pursuit. Anything that is written on this blog or the Seventies Stereo Blog is a good starting point.

 In fact any Japanese speakers besides a few of the higher end offerings from Pioneer (HPM series), Sony (SS-G sereis), Yamaha (NS higher end 3 way's) are worth seeking out.

I was going to sell a young lad at work a nicely paired Rotel receiver with a recently recapped Mission 700 Leading Edge speakers that I re capped with Solen caps, but no... he had to drive an hour in each direction to buy a BCP (Black Plastic Crap) Technics rack system for $90, because he thought it was good deal and he did not want to spend more that what he paid 5 records for. Funny that you would buy 5 records at $20.00 each yet play them on a crappy stereo that costs $90.00.

So what speakers are meant to be avoided?

Anything from Kenwood, Sansui, Fisher, JVC, Technics, Sanyo, Pioneer (except the HPM series), Sony (except some rare SS-E or SS-G Series)  In fact most Japanese brands should be glossed over with the exception of some 3 way Yamaha's. Glitzy speakers with a frequency graph attached to front are also a indicator of pure crap.

Current Collection

Left to right
 NAD Model 30
Mission 700 Leading Edge
Mission 770 Freedom IV
Camber 2.5
B&W D5
Dual CL390
B&W DM100
Visonik Euro 7's
Angstrom Radix 300

All great speakers......Wow!! What a pleasure.

Rotel RX-830 Receiver

This little gem was found today with a blown fuse on the speaker fuse panel.

Rotel made a few receivers and this one is basically a well revered RA-820BX amp with a tuner.

In the Early 80's the Rotel RA-820BX and RA-840BX received many accolades in the budget audiophile category, I know as I still have a RA-840BX amp.

A little clean up and a spray of DeOxit in the pots and switched has it singing. I will session this amp out with both the Mission 700 Leading Edge and the B&W DM100.

Conservatively rated at 20 Watts per channel, Rotel built these to triple their output into 2 ohms. Rotel is an English Japanese company with English design from B&W that manufactured their products in Taiwan.

Update: This little receiver matches really well with the Mission 700 Leading Edge speakers, Why?

The Mission's are forward in their mid range where as the Rotel is a little recessed in that area. The Rotel has a solid bottom end and nice controlled high end, which lends to the characteristics of the Mission speakers.

More so than the B&W DM100's and the B&W D5's.

Together the Rotel and Mission speakers brings about the best in musical attack, clarity and excitement that an inexpensive system should.

JVC R-S33 Receiver

I always liked the JVC R-S33 receiver since I was a kid and heard it for the first time.

This 40 watt per channel Super-A receiver was second to the TOTL and has great aesthetics, just before the launch of the Black Plastic Crap (BPC) era.

This unit produces a nice clean sound with an open sound stage and plenty of power to spare. At the time "A" class hybrid amps were a bit of a trend in this era with Techics having a Super AA technology and Luxman having a Duo B circuit.

According to the Vintage Knob site the Super A circuit works by the following.

 Super-A works with an Active Bias Circuit, strapped across the input of the power stage : this ABC controls the amount of bias following the output level's variation.
By feeding them sinusoidally-varying reverse bias during their half-cycles of non-conductivity, output transistors never switch off. No switching distortion as in normal Class B, no useless heat production as in Class A.

 I love the mix of analog with the L.E.D. power output meters and tuning controls.

The looks and sound is far superior to the generation receiver prior to the this one the JVC JR-S300 which was featured on this blog a few months ago.

Here is the ad for the JVC R-S33.

B&W DM100i Speakers

Another pair of speakers that made it my way was this pair of B&W DM100i speakers. Like the Mission 700 Leading Edge speakers, These are about the same size with a 6 1/2 inch woofer and a 25mm dome tweeter. The crossover is much more sophisticated that the Mission as is the build quality. The bass goes a bit lower and the mid range is recessed from the Mission's and the highs are clearer.

To say these speakers fall into the British polite category, well these do. They can play for hours without listener fatigue. I will try them against the B&W D5's to see how much technology had changed over 20 years.

This is a nice polite, well behaved speaker suitable for smaller, near field listening. The sound is well balanced and the imaging is spot on. These remind me of Paradigm 3se Mini's but without as much bass due to the acoustic suspension design.