Sony SS-G5 Speakers

Super rare to wash up on the shores of North America is a pair of Sony SS-G5 speakers. These were Sony's audiophile speaker line just below the SS-G7 at the time.

Definitely the larger brother of the wonderful Sony SS-E70 that graced this blog a few years back. Sony pulled out no stops in the build of these speakers including large Alnico 12 inch woofers and titanium tweeters.

Listening test are ongoing.....

More on this speaker over here at audio-heritage. 

Merak Mk1speaker update

So I have been listening to the Merak's on a pretty constant basis the past week and when hooked to the Creek 4040s2 amp the Merak's sound incredibly deep and full.

As with some speakers I get fatigued listening to them after an hour or so but the Merak's are as smooth as silk. They give a very deep image in where the instruments are laid out in front of you in a very 3 dimensional way and that is what I mean by depth.

The mid range is very smooth and the highs are just perfect without the brashness.

These speakers really do remind me of my Mission 770 Freedom IV's, they are just not as forward in the mid range as the Missions.

Matched with the Creek Merak Mk1's are a great find and a real pleasure to listen to and almost rival my tube amp/Tannoy combo in openness and clarity, and that is very high praise.

Merak Mk1 Speakers

Another pair of speakers showed today, the Merak Mk1 Speakers. These are a Canadian version of a Mission 770 speaker that uses Seas drivers. The 8 inch woofer looks to have been re foamed already and the cabinets are in pretty good shape.

I have only had a small audition of these speakers and so far I am impressed with what I hear. I will run these through the solid state amplifiers including the Creek 4040s2, Yamaha CR-400 and the Sherwood S-7200.

JBL L16 Decade finished

It was a bit of work but well worth the effort for this beautiful pair of JBL L16 Decade speakers.

I first hooked them up to a solid state amplifier and thought they sound good but not great, then I connected them to the tube amp and Oh My Goodness..... completely different speaker. These little speakers were meant for tube gear, not as good with the imaging as the Tannoy Oxford Gold.

The 8" JBL 116A woofer is from the same pedigree as the L26 and L100's that use a cast basket and Alnico magnet.

I could not source the proper surrounds locally so I turned to my good friend Audio Dogs Vintage Stereo in Comox for my hard to get parts, Thank you guys for the prompt and expert service.

The woofers where re foamed using a 50 hertz sine wave from my iPhone.

This is a really simple way of re foaming your drivers without cutting to dust cap off and shimming the voice coil, so far I have had a 100% success rate with this method.

The cabinets which were in excellent condition just got a light 220 grit sanding and a coat of Circa 1850 wood oil to bring out the grain richness. the small dimples in the tweeter were pulled out with a pin and re sealed with a dab of glue.

I have been really enjoying this set of JBL L16's through the tube amp, the bass is nice and deep for an8" woofer, the mid range is spot on without the fatigue I got from the JBL L26's that I have had in the past. It is a shame as the the bigger brother L26 gets more press than these speakers do.

I really like these speakers and I have a feeling they will be in the rotation for quite some time, absolutely amazing through the tube amp.....

ReVox Piccolo sub woofer & Beovox MCX-35 satellites

I spotted a ReVox Piccolo sub recently and figured it would be worth the purchase even to hook up to a pair of Realistic Minimus 7's that I have on hand. ReVox subs were made in Germany and they have the distinctive Braun, A/D/S, Canton, etc look.

Later I came across this entry level B&O Beovox offering, the Beovox MCX-35 for a price I could not refuse. These Beovox speakers are very entry level but use a Vifa D19td tweeter and a 5.25" German made woofer that you would find in most Braun A/D/S/ compact speaker systems, I figured I got a winning combination on my hands.

As a stand alone system the Beovox MCX-35's small woofer strives to hit the low notes only to break up the bass and become muddy. The ReVox sub crossover the Beovox at 150Hz which is perfect for the diminutive woofer to focus on the music above that cut off, which it does very well. Once the Beovox does not have to focus on the lower registries, these speakers can shine in the mid range and highs.

One of the speakers needed an extensive tweeter and crossover fix, my trusty solder iron did the trick along with a hot glue gun. Since I had the crossovers out I replaced the tweeter cap with a Solen metalized polyester cap (3.3uf).

This pairing of satellites and sub along with the Creek 4040s2 sounds pretty amazing. The ReVox sub needed to be off the floor by about 18" to clean up the bass. I found the bass a little boomy and muddled when on the floor. This system really works well and I am enjoying how open and clear the music is.

Creek 4040s2 with NAD Model 30 speakers.

So I have had some time to run through the speaker line up with the recently purchased Creek 4040s2 amp.

These two were meant to play together, the Creek 4040s2 has incredible detail and sound stage and the clarity of the NAD Model 30 pinpoints the music perfectly.

Due to the fact that the NAD Model 30 runs at 4 ohms it pulls 40WPC out of the Creek and fills the bottom end better than an 8 ohm speaker.

The Creek 4040s2 has been compared in many ways to the A&R A60 amp that I almost bought in the 80's but I opted for the Rotel RA840BX instead.

I spent hours running the Creek with Mission 770 Freedom IV's, the Tannoy Oxford Gold's, B&W D5's and by far the best pairing is the NAD Model 30's.

Wow!!!

Sherwood S-7200 Receiver

Along with the JBL L16 Decades that I got last night, this Sherwood S-7200 receiver was also available.
This one is in absolute mint condition with not a scratch in the wood veneer and all bulbs working. the second Sherwood that I have picked up in the past week, I recently came home with an 18WPC Sherwood S-7100A.

The Sherwood S-7200 is the middle of the line 32 watt per channel unit and from the limited time I have spent with the S-7100A I expect great things from this receiver.

From my research online, these early model Sherwood's rival the Marantz and Pioneer's of their day but flew way under the radar and still do.