Another pair of speakers I have been looking forward to listening too that have been is storage is this pair of PSB New Avante. I always wanted a pair of these speakers when I was younger and never got a chance until now to listen to them.
Wow! these are nice open speakers. Very nice and now I can hear why these got great accolades back in the early 80's. Well worth fining a pair if they come up locally for you.
It would be super cool to have the original speaker stands with these.
Finally in the house and playing is this later pair of Sound Dynamics R85 speakers. I picked these up a while ago and have finally gotten around to hearing them.
Not the Sound Dynamics of the 80's that were loud rockers that competed with Cerwin Vega's, these are far more refined and polite.
A nice cherry nivyl veneer with an 8 inch woofer and a 3/4 dome tweeter that looks like a Vifa tweeter but has a light metal coating.
Finally getting around to some projects that have been sitting. This nice, classic pair of EPI 100V's came to me last year and I finally got around to re foaming the woofers.
I hooked them up and remembered why I like these speakers so much, very simple in design, where the crossover does get in the way, just 10uf capacitor for the tweeter. Plenty of tight bass in a sealed enclosure. I think it is one of the best 8" 2 way design speakers ever made. Pure joy to listen to them.
Another win on Ebay is this top of the line Magnavox 9302-00 push/pull EL84 tube amplifier. This unit will run around 15WPC when completed. These were units pulled from console stereo units from the mid 60's. This unit will get all the capacitors and resistors replaced along with a whole new tube set.
There is lots of support for this amplifier over on AudioKarma discussion boards with David Gillespie leading the forum.
This is my third vintage console push/pull EL84 amplifier with the first being the Electrohome Lorainne 40.
And this RCA RS-177J push/pull EL84 tube amp.
Although this is a speaker blog, I have enjoyed working and learning about tube amplifiers. Tubes are my preferred way to enjoy the music and these older tube amps are easy to work on since they are point to point wiring and really basic in their layout. Schematics are easy to find as are the parts.
The last of the good silver faced Luxman gear as the transitioned into a new company when they were bought by Alpine and left the higher end luxury market. This unit was the last of them from 1984.
70 watts per channel and seems to be highly regarded in the circle that follow Luxman. I have yet to audition this unit.
Another little project waiting in the wings is this NAD 7045 receiver, before NAD went stream line with minimal looks like this NAD 7130 receiver or this NAD 712 receiver.
This receiver still runs with the New Audio Dimension logo on the front and is reminiscent of the Silver faced receivers of the 70's, this unit is probably late 70's with a black face. 45 watts per channel with plenty of back up omph that NAD was known for.
It still needs a clean up and I look forward to pairing it up with the PSB Avante's at some point.
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This pair of PSB Avante are also waiting in the wings, the New Avante was PSB most popular speaker and acclaims it was used by the CBC, the National Arts Centre, The National Research Council and various radio stations and recording studios here in Canada. Once again I have yet to audition these and look forward to hearing them.
