no evolution here, just a start:
for many years, an Onkyo 7.1 HT set, never woke up to the possibilities
now: Magnepan 1.7 with ML Motif Center and FX Surrounds, SVS PB 12 NSD
Where to begin? Over the years I have had many speakers. Such as Celestion, Maurdant Short, [email protected], Magneplaner,John Bower Active,Electrovoice and others. Now I run large standmount homebrew speakers using Scanspeak (8545k) drivers . Together with active xover to subwoofers, this is the best sounding speaker system I have owned.
I don't remember model #'s but roughly in chronological order:
1. Technics
2. Cerwin Vega
3. Pioneer
4. JBL (very good speakers and had for years)
5. Klipsch Reference series (my favorite for HT)
If only I could remember all of the speakers that have come and gone under my watch, I think my head would explode.
That's not to say that many of them were much to talk about.
Some of them I have owned:
Fisher
EV
Bose
JBL
McIntosh
Advent
Lafayette
Klipsch
Energy
Sony
various others.
Currently running a set of Klipsch mains with a pair of JBL 2245 subs in an IB set-up for listening to music.
Most of the surround speakers I am running are Energy brand.
A generic brand back in about, 1975-1976
BIC Venturi Formula 3, around 1976-1977
Altec Lansing model 9, around 1977-1978
Cerwin Vega A123, around 1978-1979
Cerwin Vega S1, around 1979-1980
Klipsch La Scala, around 1980-1982
Boston Acoustic A60, around 1982-1984
Celestion SL3, around 1984-1989
Martin Logan Sequel II, around 1989-1003
Paradigm Studio 80, around 2003- 2013
JBL 2360A with EV DH1A drivers, DIY QPie bass bins, Danley DTS-10s (2013-current)
I am not good with years, but this is the rough order. Some speakers/systems were overlapped in different systems at the same time, so I'm going off of date of purchase. Of what I remember:
Magnavox boombox
Magnavox 3-in-1 with detachable speakers
(both of the above were from when I was a kid, before 13 years old or so)
"Real" Speakers:
Allison DIY's (this is when I learned I shouldn't DIY )
JBL 4312A
KEF Coda somethings (short time frame, I just remember they had great mids and very little bass)
JBL L100
Energy E:XL 15, 16, 26 and E:XL-C
Energy A3+2, A2+2 and AC300 (which I bought in 1997 and just gave to my brother last month, great speakers.)
Hales Revelation 3 (I shouldn't have sold these)
AV123 RS250/RSC200/RSS300
AV123 RS450
era D5
PSB Imagine B
Def Tech Mythos STS/9 (quickly replaced with a Mythos 10)/Gem XL
Def Tech CS-8060HD (replaced the Mythos 9 with a ten, and then replaced the Ten with this)
Currently debating SVS Ultra set up or KEF R700 based system
Somewhere in that time I also had Infinity Reference Four's that I lost in a bet, Polk surrounds, something from Koss, something from Advent, and a few other speakers that I remember only by how they looked, which is never a good sign.
Assorted desktop computer speakers
Logitech "stuff"
Audioengine A2
Audyssey Lower East Side
HT Subwoofers:
DIY dual voice coil Pioneer in a 5 ft^3 sealed enclosure
DIY Polk db based sub in a 3 ft^3 enclosure (maybe I didn't really learn not to try DIY as early as I thought...)
M&K S-150 THX
Dual Energy subs: ES-18XL and Microstar 12.1
Dual SVS PB12+ (12.3)
Dual AV123 MFW-15
Dual SVS PB13-Ultra
SVS SB12-Plus (bedroom system, still have the Ultra's in my HT)
Currently debating SVS SB13-Ultra for their smaller size and set up options
Car audio (I don't remember any of the model numbers, but assorted component and subs):
Alpine
Polk
Rockford Fosgate
Rainbow
OZ Audio
JL Audio
and many others, but its been a long time.
Other:
Junk that was installed in the ceilings in my house by the builder.
Grado, Senheiser and Beyerdynamic cans of assorted types. Still love my Grado SR-60i's for rock music!
I'm using the Axiom 80V3 with the Earthquake subwoofer for my home theater.
I have the Legacy Focus SE for my 2 channel music only. I'm thinking of adding a subwoofer such as the SVS ultra-13 or rythmick HP-15. Any ideas? Should I move this to the subwoofer page?
1987-Klipsch KG4's
1988-Fuselier 3.8BS (I still have these and they still sound great)
1988-2007-The dark years
2008-Magnepan MMG's
2009-Emotiva ERM 6.2's
2010
-Magnepan 2.7's
-Dayton Audio B652's w/ Dayton audio 8" sub (office setup)
2011-Zu Audio Omen's
2012-Emotiva Pro Airmotiv 4's (office setup)
2013-Hang on for this year. I have been filling in my speaker bucket list
-Magnepan Mini System
-Emotiva Pro Stealth 6's
-Tekton Lores
-Magnepan SMGa's
-Magnepan 1.6's (still have and need to do a delamination fix and sell or Magnestand them)
-Pioneer SP-BS21's (Current office setup)
-Tekton Mini Lore Monitors, Magnepan CC3, Magnepan MMGW (Current basement 5.1 setup)
-EMPTek E5bi's/Orb Audio/Polk Audio CS2 Series II Center/EMPTek ES1010i Sub (Current play room 5.1 setup)
-Magnepan MG12's w/Def Tech Supercube 6000 (Current 2 channel setup)
I feel like I left some out...I know hard to believe.
1967 - AR4x
1972 - The Advent Loudspeaker (still in use everyday in my vintage system)
1989 - Phase Technology 730es towers
1994 - Infinity Overture 3s (still in use in living room stereo)
2000 - Infinity Interlude IL60 towers (current)
Couldn't figure out how to edit this old post, but I still wanted to update. The Phase Techs were the worst speakers I ever owned. I know the brand has a following. The OLAs are playing as I type. Remarkable bass and superb female vocal rendition. Can't believe the O3s are 20 years old, and that the IL60s still anchor my HT. Looks like I'm too old to upgrade and too old to care. Glad I bought some good stuff back when.
My first speakers were Zenith Allegros that my dad picked up for me at a yard sale because he remembered them (or something very similar) from his youth. Those speakers lasted probably a good 10 years through high school and university, and even though I was about my stuff, they still took a beating. Over the years I removed their beat up glued-on grills and built a new removable set, did what I could to fix up the peeling bits of veneer, and built some matching stands to get them up off the ground.
After university I picked up a pair of Paradigm Mini Monitors and a CC-370 to use as the front stage. Several years later I added the Monitor 7s and moved the Mini Monitors to the back. Now after building a few subs and a rear surround, that's where I am.
Oh, and I haven't been able to part with the Allegros, they're just too close to my heart. I now have them wired as the B channel in our dining room.
Note: These aren't mine, but the best pic I could find online.
I completely forgot about my first steps into audio tinkering, which involved a friend and I each adding multiple mismatched raw drivers to our boom boxes with detachable speakers. We pretty much just got a bunch of old speaker wire and daisy chained them all together around our rooms. The speakers were salvaged from old radios, tvs, or cars, and probably sounded awful, but we were thrilled with our enginuity.
Kenwood HTIB (cheap but not bad value at the time)
Cambridge Soundworks Ensemble ??? (can't recall which one)
Polk RT-5 (really liked these)
Polk RT-16 as LCR, LS-f/x as surrounds and RT-7 as surround backs.
Some DIY things that sounded nice enough but looked horrific
A Yammy DSP-3050 soundbar (decent soundbar, but a sound bar nonetheless)
Rythmik F15HP
DefTech UIW RCS II LCR, UIW RSS II Surrounds & Rears
2x SVS SB-2000 on the way
What would really be interesting is the personal speaker evolution paired on a timeline with something else people can relate to (e.g., vacations, cars, marriage, kids, age ld dude: )… although, if I did cars, I'd have to add a few predecessors to the speaker evolution (cheap headphones, boom box, toshiba all-in-one tuner/tape/record-player thingy). Of course, those were relatively in-line with my cars at the time (3rd hand 1976 Malibu Classic wagon, 3rd hand 1980 Plymouth Volare wagon w/ on-the-floor stick shift, 2nd hand 1980 Buick Regal Coupe with sagging door and headliner, bad radiator and rebuilt tranny, Dodge Colt with windows that resonated at ~72 mph and a melted-out back bumper)… come to think of it, that Toshiba was high-end compared to my cars!
This topic came up in an Audio Processing thread. This thread will be a continuation of the topic, as a sticky thread in a more appropriate forum, to cover the following:
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First of all...don't ask my wife this question!
Growing up in the 60's and mid 70's, and being a musician with exposer to live music daily in school (Concert Band / Jazz Band), it was my opinion that bigger was always better in audio-stereo speaker selection.
A good friend even built a pair of...
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