Recommendations for best £100 speakers old/new recommendations welcome

[vinylspinner]

Hi Andrew,

I have a mint pair of Mordaunt Short MS 500 gold speaker with stands, would let them go for £45 plus shipping, they are a nice speaker.

Nigel

[Wakefield Turntables]

Hey pretty much only listens to rock music. He's not bothered for classical, jazz, accoustic, or prog. Im hoping to get him to join the forum. Thanks so far for all the inputs lads!

[DSJR]

Loads of great used classic choices out there. try to find the 10 to 20 litre boxes rather than miniatures - Mission 700's, KEF Celeste/Concord III and IV (body-stocking models), Heybrook HB1's (Missions and HB1's may have foam rot though), Celestion DL 6 & 8, Tannoy m20 Gold (original Mercury may be too boomy?). B&W 601 and 602 SERIES 1 will have mellowed nicely now, the later series 2 and 3 having an acid treble even the NAD may not be able to fully mellow. The previous range of 500 B&W's were good too until the 'I' versions came out.

The MS20 was a milestone at the time, really setting totally new standards for this price and size when it came out - neutral balance but with insight into the mix denied in KEF Coda's of the same period. The Wharfedale 505 was another goodie which was in the MS20 shadow.

Hope this helps a bit. Some of the really funky earlier models like Mission 720's suffer foam rot and decent ones may be too pricey.

[Fi-Wi]

Hey pretty much only listens to rock music. He's not bothered for classical, jazz, accoustic, or prog. Im hoping to get him to join the forum. Thanks so far for all the inputs lads!

That cancels my Chario recommendation because they excell in classical, jazz and instrumental but grant rock to other speakers.

[Macca]

B&W 601 and 602 SERIES 1 will have mellowed nicely now, the later series 2 and 3 having an acid treble even the NAD may not be able to fully mellow. The previous range of 500 B&W's were good too until the 'I' versions came out.

.

The 601 and 602 are good recommedations as he is a rocker - if you can get some 602 for under a ton that would be a real bargain. The treble 'issues' were a bit overhyped, I had the 601 mk1 for a long time and never thought them too bright or coarse in the top and the Kevlar bass-mid is an excellent driver, it has its own sound compared to paper drivers but playing rock music you won't notice. The S2 and s3 have the fancy tweeter, I am not of the opinion that they sound sharp but they do sound a bit 'tinselly' for want of a better word, anyway, again this won't really matter with rock music.

[istari_knight]

If you can find some Neat Critique's they sound very good on a NAD 3020 playing rock... far better than I expected.

[DSJR]

IME, the 601mk1 could sound a bit sloppy in the bass and treble - all modern B&W's seem to have a dip around the crossover point - and the 680's I heard certainly continue this (with a hollow boxy mid to go with it ). Time certainly tamed and sweetened the 601's up top and if needed, extra wadding in the boxes could be a very cheap way of adding a little damping to the bass drivers. The 602's need 15 to 18" stands, but they're easy to drive and perfect for rock, as said above. Sadly, the 601 and 602V3's I heard had a razor style treble and the KEF Q series of the same period did too, the tweeter set well up on the mid in this series

[Macca]

IME, the 601mk1 could sound a bit sloppy in the bass and treble - all modern B&W's seem to have a dip around the crossover point - and the 680's I heard certainly continue this (with a hollow boxy mid to go with it ).

Strange you should think that as I found the 683 to be excellent, particularly in the mids. Especially as they can be bought discounted for about £800. Okay they do have a 'modern' balance with obvious top, but most people expect that from a proper hi-fi speaker. And I was expecting not to like them. A powerful amp is necessary though, so maybe you heard them with something a bit weedy. HFW measured them and there is no crossover suck-out. I wouldn't really expect any modern B&W to be flawed in its design, they do have both the technology and the resources to avoid that, but I can see how they would not be to everyone's taste, especially lovers of old Spendors

[struth]

got a pair of tannoy m1's if you want them....decent condition and just recently taken out of my 2nd system......super speaker.