John Bowers Active 1 speakers

[karma1967]

A pair have come up for sale local to me,has anyone heard them? how do they fair compared to yamaha ns1000's?
cheers.

[walpurgis]

I just had to Google those Jamie, I'd never heard of them. They look interesting, but not something I'd be likely to splash out too much money on I think.

[Macca]

supposed to be very good. I'd get them if the price isn't silly.

[walpurgis]

The tweeter looks like a variant of the Vifa D25. It works well enough, but maybe not the last word in refinement. Best have a listen to them if possible.

[Macca]

There's a review and measurement of them in an old issue of an American magazine, I think it was 'Audio Review', I was reading it a couple of months back. I'll see if I can find it again.

From memory they were exceptionally good in pretty much every respect.

[struth]

had a good rep. have a active box that sits beside em for xover. 150mm drivers

[karma1967]

cheers ,i have probably read all the internet has to offer,the big question for me is how they compare to ns1000's,i have spoken to a guy on the wam who has both and says the JB! go lower as opposed to the more tighter bass of the yamaha's so it may be a sideways step,the fragility of the active 1 is somewhat of a concern though plus id have to source a decent pre amp.

[Macca]

Fragility?

[karma1967]

yeah as in the amps inside.more than a few posts on the net regarding faults

[Macca]

right, well I suppose they are getting on for forty years old so problems wouldn't be that surprising, I doubt the amps are inherently any more fragile than any other amplifier though.

If you can get them for a couple of hundred then do it and do your own comparison with the Yams. What anyone else thought is of little value - different room, different partnering equipment, different music, different preferences in presentation etc.

[karma1967]

cheers macca,yep agree if they were £200 id have bought them by now,trouble is they're not :)
just trying to hedge my bets.

[Macca]

cheers macca,yep agree if they were £200 id have bought them by now,trouble is they're not :)
just trying to hedge my bets.

I get it. I think I'd take a punt up to maybe £350, assuming full working order. If he wants more than that he's probably being unrealistic. No doubt they would cost several thousand if made today but I'd be very surprised if there is any demand for them like there is for the LS3/5a for example.

[Lawrence001]

Didn't B&W move into amps a while ago, were they Aura or something? Presume these predate those though. Might have been OEM boards by a well known firm.

[Macca]

Didn't B&W move into amps a while ago, were they Aura or something? Presume these predate those though. Might have been OEM boards by a well known firm.

'Aura Evolution' - must be 20 or more years ago. I think they were made in Taiwan or Japan by an OEM and distributed by B&W.

Had a demo of one (with the mirror finish) against a Cambridge P70, I bought the Cambridge.