EPI A70 Speakers

The second time I have had this wonderful little speaker from EPI, the EPI A70. The first pair I had was a earlier version of this speaker the EPI 70C. 

This pair was pretty mint for its' vintage and had been re foamed already by Peter at A-Tech Electronics locally. This is the last in the line up of the inverted dome EPI speakers before they went to the Time/Energy series.

I will replace the original 10uf cap inside with a Solen cap along with upgrading the internal speaker wire and I will add 5 way binding posts.

As with all EPI products before the T/E series, these are well built with matching woofer tweeter combination that requires very little in the crossover design. These EPI's along with the 100's are among my favorite bookshelf speakers.

Yamaha NS-690 Speakers

Another top of the line Japanese speaker arrived a while back the Yamaha NS-690 speakers built in 1972.

This was one of Yamaha's best selling speaker and was on the market a few years before the NS-1000 reigned supreme in the Yamaha line up.

according to the literature Yamaha engineered with a European sound and design in mind. these do look very similar to the Dual CL490's that I recently picked up.

These speakers matched best with solid state gear over the tube amp and I have paired it with the Noresco 2570 which sounds fantastic.

More on the history of the Yamaha NS-690 can be found here.

Dual CL490 Speakers

Another pair of Dual speakers crossed my path this week, the Dual CL490. This is the bigger brother to the Dual CL390's that I have had for a few years now.

The Dual CL490's use Braun woofers, the unmistakable Braun mid range dome and Braun tweeters.

This pair had one of the woofers replaced along the way.

I have yet to audition these speakers as the man cave is a little chock full of  other speakers presently, once I make some room these will find their way in.

Paradigm 5SE Speakers

Mid 80's Paradigm busted onto the audio scene with their original "S" series speakers, it was not until the "SE" series did the audio world take note.

I remember the Paradigm 7SE was directly competing with the Energy 22 and Mission 770 Freedom IV's but at a much better price point.

A Pair of Paradigm 5SE speakers were dropped off with some woofer surround issues and I was asked to work some magic. For some reason the butyl surround was cracking and separated from the cone. Trying to find the proper surrounds is difficult.

Lucky for me I had secured a pair of donor Vifa woofers from a  pair of Angstrom  Radix 300 speakers, these are a direct drop in with a much larger magnet structure, black polypropylene cone and rubber butyl surround.

This woofer was a perfect upgrade, I was surprised to see the build quality of the cabinet with proper cross member from the front and back baffles, also the crossover was built with metalized polyester caps with twin bypass caps for the tweeter. This is a well built speaker with great attention to the small details that make a great speaker.

I have had a few days of listening to this speaker and it sounds fabulous, the bass is nice and tight for a Paradigm ported system. I have had the 3SE's in the past and always found them to be boomy/muddy in the bass and I tend to pass on those speakers when they come up locally.

Aesthetically this pair looks better than the original, I have been listening to these for the past few night connected to the Noresco 2570 and they sound sweet together, I could listen and have listened to this combo for hours without ever a hint of fatigue. In fact it begs me to put on more music and to listen well past my time to retire.

The highs are spot on with smooth mid range, the bass is full and tight without any hint of boom or muddiness. Although it does not go as low as the 10 and 12 inch speakers I have I am not missing anything.

The front to back imaging depth is perfect along with the side to side imaging. I tried these speakers with the tube amp but these speakers are better suited to a solid state unit.

I am very impressed with the way this project turned out and I am sure the owner will have years of listening pleasure with these speakers.

Kenwood KD-2055 Turntable aka "The Rock"

Another sought after piece of vintage audio goodness to show up recently is the granite composite Kenwood KD-2055 turntable, better know as "The Rock".

This is an exceptionally heavy belt drive turntable with a plynth that makes this unit weigh in at a hefty 26lbs.
The idea behind a heavy turntable is to dampen the bass feedback below 30hz that can rumble a turntable for those with higher quality speakers. Hence the invention of the subsonic filter.

This is one of the cooler turntables on the market and unique in its' build quality which makes them highly sought after and rarer to get than a typical Dual or other main stream Japanese brand vintage platter. Not Thorens or Oracle quality but the best of the belt drive turntables.

Noresco 2570 Receiver

Re branded for the Canadian market, this Noresco 2570 is a Rotel RX-402 from the 1974-1976 era.

Conservatively rated at 25WPC into 8 ohms this little receiver sports a robust power supply with a hefty transformer and two Elna 6800uf filter caps. It is unusual to see such large caps in a 25WPC receiver. Rotel rated the RX-402 at 40WPC into 4 ohms which this unit easily sounds like.

The build quality is exceptionally clean on this unit. With such large capacitors for its' rated WPC the sound is very robust with the loudness switch off, similar as a tube amp.

My first foray into Rotel was back in the early 80's with the purchase of my first budget audiophile amp the Rotel RA-840BX amplifier. I had this unit for over 25 years and was a formidable, over built 40WPC unit capable of driving any speakers I could throw at it.

 
So far I have paired this unit up with the Mission 770 Freedom IV's and this unit does everything right, tight full bass, clear mid range and nice sparkling highs. I always opt to run these units without the loudness switch on as it gives a proper indication of how robust the power supply is.

(The difference with tubes vs. transistor amps is tubes give you a full sound stage at low volumes where as transistors usually sound best when they have some power coursing through them, Tubes sound amazing from the 1st. watt all the way through to they peak out. Transistors usually do not give you that fullness until 5-10 watts per channel.)

This unit was in exception condition, super clean on the inside, the wood case was immaculate, only one bulb needed replacing although the stereo indicator bulb will not work even though I soldered in a new bulb. The silver brushed face plate is blemish free. Once apart I cleaned all the pots and switches.

Noresco is probably a brand that gets ignored in the used market which is good for anyone wanting a fantastic Rotel receiver that was built with quality first. Unlike those who clamor over the same era Pioneer, Marantz, Sansui and Kenwood should find incredible value in either the Noresco line or Rotel's of this era.

Clements 300si Speakers

A friend of the blog was kind enough to stop by one evening with his pair of Clements 300si speakers. He was originally interested in the NAD Model 30's and felt that the Clements infinite baffle design had just as much bass as the NAD's. The Clements had pretty solid bass right down to the 40hz level from a 61/2 inch woofer, pretty impressive for its' size. The Clement's gave the NAD"s a run for the money in the bottom end.

We ran the speakers through the Creek 4040s2 which did not match well with these speakers. We switched up to the Yamaha CR-400 and the sound was night and day. The Yamaha opened up these speakers, the detail in sound with the Clements and Yamaha was a better pairing..

We finally switched to the tube amp and these sounded good at first with the speakers near the wall I knew they could sound better if we brought them in to within 4 feet.

Now we were enveloped with sound, Clements are not the most efficient at 88db's so we had to push the tube amp a little herder.

All I can say is WoW! for such a small speaker these had an incredible smoothness, from solid clear bass into the luscious mid range and sparkling highs that were never harsh or shrill.

Up close the speakers enveloped you into their sound stage, left right, front and back it was like being in the room with the musicians. We listened to about 4 hours worth of music and my friend has just reached out for some tube amp advice, he was taken aback with the silky sound of the tubes, they paired very well with the Clements although they do not go earth shaking  loud, which is perfect when kepping other happy.

This speaker reminds me of the sound of the Paradigm Control Monitors I had at one time, incredibly polite, smooth, a very nice speaker and worth seeking out when they come up for sale.