Speakers as furniture

[opimax]

Hi all,

My first post and of course it is really questions hidden in the polite background. I hope this is the correct location and all of you experts are biting at the bit to educate a newbie.

I had 2 memories of JBL speakers from the 70’s and early 80’s. At U of MD (Fear the Turtle!) was the 1st and listening rooms in the (at the time) new library listening rooms, they had a t least 4 L100s in each room. Use to think I would study but just listened to the music. The other was buying from Crutchfield the raw drivers for the same speakers (and not realizing it until years later) to install in my car. The 1st is a very pleasant memory and the 2nd didn’t work out well mainly due to the poor install which I paid through the nose (and other places) for.


A friend of mind later bought the drivers when they were removed and put the mids and tweeters in custom home speakers that I years later bought from him. I think the mids are still upstairs.


Forward 20 years to now. At 50 I am building my entertainment room in the living room (sometimes it is good to be by myself) I have purchased completely redone Dahlquist DQ-10s for my front stage. I am having 2nd thoughts. Some Heritage JBLs would look much nicer as long as I don’t loose any sound quality (it will be different I realize). I saw my first ones on EBay, Olympus and Sovereign style. Too wide, they are 40” and I have 37.5 on each side of the fireplace. I found this site and then the library. I looked in the library and the choices I see are the Verona L71, S70 Alpha, C51 Apollo, and C61 Sovereign II.


At this point I will wait for comments and will respond to them. The factors again are appearance, space and sound quality. The goals for the room are sports 1st (already sounds good enough for that), listen to music in stereo using Sony str2des and Velodyne SPL 1200R, watching concerts on DVD, and an occasional movie. My tastes are classic rock, Jam bands, Blues, new age jazz, light jazz


Thanks very much,

Mark

[Zilch]

Forget all that stuff you've listed.

You want 4430's.

[opimax]

They don't have that furniture look.That tweeter does quite the opposite drawing attention to the fact that it is a speaker . Are there others speakers other then what i listed that will fit my needs? what are the chances of finding any of these? are any of these different or extra special?Mark

[yggdrasil]

Be patient, watch eBay. They will come.

[opimax]

thanks, there is no hurry . I am looking for opinions on the different speaker lines, especially as far as sound goes. I don't expect to be able to listen before buying so any thoughts on the sound would be great. Any to stay away from? Replacement parts too hard to find? any over priced that just arn't worth it? any members have any to sell? where to look besides ebay?

Thanks
Mark

[Zilch]

O.K., then,

C51 and C61 came with a variety of options:

1) 001 - 130A, LE175DLH, N1200

2) 030 - D130, 075, N2400

3) S1 - LE14A, LE175DLH, LX10

4) S7 - LE15A, LE85, HL91, LX5

S70 Alpha has a 12" three-way with LE20-1 tweeter.

L71 Verona I know nothing about.

Start watching your local Craigslist also.

Don't be afraid to buy empty cabinets which some seller has parted out. We can make them better than any of the originals....

[toddalin]

Just sold a pair of beautiful C51 Apollo cabinets (with the optional fretwork) to someone on this forum last week. They had LE-14Cs. The Apollo cabinets are not all that big and the LE14A/LE-14C MAY be the best of the woofers for this size cabinet (about 2.9 cubic feet internal volume).

[Regis]

I don't know if these will fit the bill, but they are certainly closer to furniture than what I've got. C38's and they look, really, really nice.

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/ele/98349430.html

[Dingusboy]

Something like this:

[Dingusboy]

Or maybe this?

[Earl K]

Hi
I've always given Altec the "edge" in the "furniture department" . Specifically, those pieces from the 60's till mid seventies with "Mediterranian" inspired names.

Here's the Barcelona , which is definately furniture . The components ; 802 driver on the 511 horn and the 411 woofer are all quite good . Too bad this model is 1" too wide ( at 38.5" ) .

[toddalin]

I don't know if these will fit the bill, but they are certainly closer to furniture than what I've got. C38's and they look, really, really nice.

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/ele/98349430.html

From the picture, I don't think that that is a "potato masher" (HL-87) with an LE175 or LE85 driver. I thinks it's an LE20 tweeter which was mated to the D123 with the LX2 crossover. The D123 was also mated to the 075 tweeter with the N2400 crossover. None of my literature shows a D123 mated with either the LE175 or LE85.

["Duke" Spinner]

you need to re-order preferences

first ....performance

last .....apearance ....

hey, yer w/o wife ....Soooooo ... Enjoy It .....

[opimax]

Duke I need to get wife, not scare her off, And I don't want her to make changes once I get her . What I have ain't bad as far as sound quality, not up to real high end but certainly OK. I will not go backwards.



Todd, not quite there yet but could be in a while as far as speaker numbers, do you have any pictures of the Apollos?



Earl good choice on looks, you are right I am better off not cutting close and go w/ as a max of 35.5. I am partial JBL but if everything were right (sound quality) I could go w/a known alternative.



Dboy, 2nd one are the best look for me so far, really like the door handles, who/what are those? 1st ones look too much like speakers. generally would think 3 way but I believe a high quality 2 way could work, my current DQ 10 are 5 way , lol



Zilch do you have any opinions on the speakers you know about? The Verona is different furniture then the Alpha, just like the 51 and 61 I believe. And the best size cabinet for my application. If I go the empty cabinet route have patience, it will get done

thanks much guys!



Mark

[Tweak48]

High Wife Acceptance Factor, and they sound pretty good too. Mine are biamped with 125 watt s/s direct wired to the woofs, and 60 watts of tube on top. Really clean, really loud, great extension on top and bottom.

Zilch is right, though. If you visualy can handle the large format butt cheeks, the 4430 is nearly as good as you can get at any price.