Mission 700 speakers finished

Finally got to the finish line today with this my second pair of original Mission 700 speakers.

I opted to re foam not in the inverted method as original as the foam angle did not match the original. No harm done just a different aesthetic . I noticed that one of the original tweeters had been replaced with another Vifa T-D19.

The cabinets are pretty mint on this pair and I love the look of the white baffle with the Mission logo.

These sound pretty sweet on the tube amp with great imaging side to side and front to back. the bass is not as deep as others in the collection right now but the mid range and highs are sweet and luscious.

Here is a link to how these arrived.

With solid state amps I always found the Vifa T-D19 to be shrill and fatiguing, with the tube amp it is way smoother, what a joy.

Carver Model 6250 Receiver

A recent trip out of town yielded a Carver 6250 receiver that runs at 125WPC so I would put it up there in the Monster receiver category, Carver did a similar receiver, the MXR-2000 at 200WPC.

When I was growing up in the midst of the Golden Age of audio I always held the Carver stuff as the top of the line in my opinion, it was esoteric and beyond reach for most budgets.

This unit will match up well with my Carver SD/A 390T CD player that has a tube output.

Now I am off to audition this unit.

Cerwin Vega D3 Speakers

Another summer project getting finished today is this pair of Cerwin Vega D3 speakers. These needed a re foam job and I picked them up as they have an efficiency rating of 93db, I figured this would be good for the tube amp.

I sourced the proper red foams and was surprised to see a decent cast basket for the woofer.

The internals had very little sound dampening material in them which would make one think there would be a pretty good back wave in the bass department, I added some more dampening material into the box.

The finished product turned out as follows.

Sitting on the pedestals I found the bass very mussy and boomy, I opted to get them about 9 inches off the floor and it cleaned up the bass significantly. There is still some muddiness there and perhaps a bit more filling is required to dampen the bass.

Where these speakers really shine is the forward mid range and the high end from the horn tweeter. Being forward in the mids envelopes you into the sound, there is a very realistic 3D image presented.

A fun speaker well suited to a tube amp, I have not tried it on solid state but from what I hear these are meant to be rockers, although they do a wonderful job on jazz and acoustic music. 

Update:

Although these speakers have now moved on to another audiophile along with the Altec Lansing Model 9 I really liked the forward mid range with these speakers that gave them incredible front to back depth. I often thought these were the closest to being in the room with the musicians as I could get live.

I ended up adding even more dampening material into the cabinet and it really cleaned up the bass. I would have liked to hear these on a push pull tube amp before their departure.

I will keep my eyes open for this project again.

New Large Advent Speakers

A friend of the blog contacted me and offered me this wonderful pair of Advent A4 speakers also referred as the New Large Advent.

This pair is pre Jensen and has the fried egg tweeter and the non masonite basket woofer.

They have a wonderful walnut veneer with the famous blunt nose curved cabinet.

Lucky for me this pair has been re foamed already.

These speakers are extremely neutral with the lower bass octaves covered really well. Imaging front to back is excellent. They sound very similar to the Advent 5012W that I had in the past.

The cabinets will need a bit of a re finish to make them really shine.

Stereophile has a great review of these speakers form their archives in 1971 that can be read here. 

 

New Speakerholic Image

Unveiling the new sticker labels for all my projects.

Cool...

Advance Speaker The Advance A2

Another summer project finally finished is the Reynold Advance A speakers, very similar to the Genesis Model 22 that I had a few years back.

From Huw Powell's Human Speaker site these speakers were another spin off of the famous EPI, Epicure, Genesis line only these speakers used Peerless dome tweeters instead of the inverted domes.

These are a very nice sounding speaker and my first pair with the peerless tweeter, I must say the 8" woofer matched to the 10" passive creates very real and substantive  bass response. Imaging is open and wide with very good back to front depth.

This pair needed the passive's to be re foamed and someone along the line replaced the woofer with a very respectable replacement. New grill cloth was also added.

The brochure image is pretty much spot on with what you get in these speakers.

Sony STR-V5 Receiver

Another mid monster receiver happened my way, this 85WPC Sony STR-V5, this one from the end of the golden era in Hifi, 1978.

Weighing in at 41 pounds there is a massive torroidal transformer matched to two 10,000uf filter caps. The build quality is pretty impressive, it is a Sony of course. As the Vintage Knob refers to these as "built like tanks", something you do not see anymore in modern electronics.

Two models rested above the STR-V5 the STR-V6 (115WPC) and the STR-V7 (150WPC).

This receiver is in line but not as powerful as the Kenwood KR-9400 that graced my presence and much smaller that the Rotel RX-1603 Monster that I had.

Big and powerful the Sony is a really nice piece for a Solid State unit.