Old time sound Project?

[14G-Dutch^]

I have recently gotten a bug for old school electronics. It seems like sound was "better" back when I was 20ish, maybe just my ears were. I am 45 now. Maybe it is a good memory syndrome thing, where the memory seems better than it actually may have really been

I am looking at old time receivers and speakers from the 70's and 80's Think Pioneer silver faced 1050, 1250 etc. And for Speakers something along the lines of Jbl L300 or L65.

I worked at a record wholesaler, Campus Records in Columbus Ohio in 1985, and the owner had a set of What I believe were the L300's, all I remember for sure is the Glass lens tweeters, and how awesome the music sounded . I don't recall his amplifier or receiver, or whatever he used.

Am I remembering something real? Did it truly sound better?

Are those speakers actually better? I know they are big sellers on ebay and all that, but are they actually better, or just selling at big numbers because of nostalgia?

If it is a real phenomenon, I would like to recreate it. I am going to get clobbered for this I am sure, but I will say it anyways. If it was distortion and peaky response curves that sounded "warm", I have to say that I don't care. I miss that old sound. I can't imagine they were terribly flat?

Since I don't want to spend $3000 on a set of ~30 year old L300's, is there a design in existence that would be close or better? I know zaph did a 3 way a while back. Please share your thoughts. Tell me I am crazy if you must.

Jon

[mjf]

hello.
many "old school amps" have a loudness - function built in,often it is connected to the volume pot, e.g. dynaco pat 4,leak amps,my old beomaster 1000, and many others................
this gives a "warm sound" at lower levels...........
but volume pots with an extra tap are rare nowadays.............;
sometimes there is a loudness - switch ..........
greetings

[Keriwena]

Did they really sound better? Well, when I was selling JBL 100s for $546 a pair you could buy a BMW 2002 for $2600. So, divide the price of a 320i by 5..... that's what what a fair comparison would be. And for that price these days, you can get some really fine speakers. And while it's often said that today's speakers are way better in many respects, few of today's speakers have the quality the old JBLs had.

Granted, the L100s had a response of +\- 14 dB, and if you live for flat sound they're likely not your cup of tea, but they had efficiency. And that kept any amp they were connected to way down near the published low distortion specs (ie, @ 1 watt) whereas pretty much any other bookshelf required enough watts that distortion became an audible issue. Myself, I find my ears are much more forgiving of mechanical problems than electrical problems. The former are natural, the latter just sounds wrong.

I've always been a fan of big speakers, the JBL Olympus being my first exposure, followed by L200s and a real Paragon! I owned a pair of EV Sentry IVs for a while. Then we used those UREI 813 monitors in the studio. There's just something about that much bass and so little cone movement that raises the hairs on the back of my neck (well, when it's Twiggy short, which hasn't always been the case). A lot depends on what you listen to. Audiophile recordings don't fare so well. Live rock recordings however.... the most amazing "you are there" moment I've experienced in my own home was playing Joni's "Miles of Aisles" through the Sentry IVs. Silly me, I needed money so I sold them to a rock band for PA speakers (the guys that designed them moved to Peavey and created the SP-1s).

So anyway, while nostalgia is obviously part of it, I think there's still something to be said for surface area. Even at lower volumes, big speakers have a realistic impact that you don't get with smaller, high excursion drivers.

The trick to designing such a system is finding a tweeter that can keep up with the woofers.

[14G-Dutch^]

Well I am on my way to some extent. I got ahold of a Marantz 2230 Reciever, near mint. Sounds good, not too powerful. I was playing it through some Advent 6003's that are sold as of tomorrow. I now have it hooked up in my wonderfully responsible 13 yr old daughters room to a set of Realistic Nova 8 speakers that I was going to sell. I actually kind of like them paired with the marantz. Who would believe me when I tell them that a 30 year old 30 watt receiver, and 35 yr old speakers sound better than most $1000 set ups you can buy today? My wife asked me why I bought that "junk". I am currently in my basement experimenting with a Sansui G-8000 and a Hitachi Ht-550 turntable I picked up yesterday for $150 for both. Sounds awesome on my Audio Technica ATH-M50s Headphones. I also got a pair of Pioneer HPM-900's for $50 that need a little cone work and refoaming, I am chomping at the bit to hear those. Anyone have any experience with these receivers and speakers? They may be good enough to tide me over until I can either make or find those golden memories of sonic bliss.

[DavidL]

Originally Posted by Keriwena

Did they really sound better? Well, when I was selling JBL 100s for $546 a pair you could buy a BMW 2002 for $2600. So, divide the price of a 320i by 5..... that's what what a fair comparison would be. And for that price these days, you can get some really fine speakers. And while it's often said that today's speakers are way better in many respects, few of today's speakers have the quality the old JBLs had..

Not a fair comparison , today's cars are WAY over priced for what you get.......oh wait most speakers are too Really no reason not to build a well thought out published speaker if you have the skills and means to do so. There are lots of them online free to build for personal use.Buying from a manufacturer is just throwing away money. I am confused with your "build quality", you say JBL had that and then say they had terrible frequency response. I'd much rather have a smooth frequency response than a sensitive speaker but that's just my opinion.To each their own.

[AllenB]

I think you'll find what you're looking for in a full range assisted speaker. That is where you use a full range (say 3-4") speaker for the mids and treble, and woofers for the bass.