Sony A9 Master Series KE48A9 OLED winging its way to Marco Towers!

[Gazjam]

[Marco]

Tele will be getting hung on Friday - way hey!

Means I can get the centre speaker off the floor and onto the cabinet where it was before, and press it into action for even better results with movies!

Have to say though, since I had these Celestion 15s fully recapped (original electrolytics not just bypassed now, but replaced with quality polys of the same value), and rewired them with Jantzen cable, ripping out the horrid 'bell wire' inside (plus fitted Cardas solid copper binding posts, as the originals were simply shocking), they really sound stunning, once again showing that mixing the BEST of old and new worlds, in this case a 1968 speaker design with today's cables and components, can be a match made in heaven...

Seems to work rather nicely, that's for sure. I'd certainly put these up against anything of a similar size from the likes of Spendor or Harbeth, costing rather more than I've paid, even factoring in the cost of the mods, and expect them to ably hold their own!

Marco.

[Pharos]

Spendor and Harbeth are perhaps highly regarded, and I'm sure that Alan Shaw would be horrified, even by your comparison.

Are your 15s, the biggest of the range that used a passive, I remember them fondly from in the early 70s.

[Gazjam]

Tele will be getting hung on Friday - way hey!

Means I can get the centre speaker off the floor and onto the cabinet where it was before, and press it into action for even better results with movies!

Have to say though, since I had these Celestion 15s fully recapped (original electrolytics not just bypassed now, but replaced with quality polys of the same value), and rewired them with Jantzen cable, ripping out the horrid 'bell wire' inside (plus fitted Cardas solid copper binding posts, as the originals were simply shocking), they really sound stunning, once again showing that mixing the BEST of old and new worlds, in this case a 1968 speaker design with today's cables and components, can be a match made in heaven...

Seems to work rather nicely, that's for sure. I'd certainly put these up against anything of a similar size from the likes of Spendor or Harbeth, costing rather more than I've paid, even factoring in the cost of the mods, and expect them to ably hold their own!

Marco.

[Marco]

Spendor and Harbeth are perhaps highly regarded, and I'm sure that Alan Shaw would be horrified, even by your comparison.

Are your 15s, the biggest of the range that used a passive, I remember them fondly from in the early 70s.

Lol - I'm sure he would be horrified! But, I suspect more 'horrified' at how good they sounded, considering their age

Here they are, Dennis, in situ in my lounge (old pics before I got the new TV), and in pretty good condition for 53-year old speakers:









With grilles off (not very pretty lol, but purposeful):



As you can see, they use the well-regarded HF1300 tweeters, found in many of Spendor's classic standmount designs, and share a similar 'BBC studio monitor' sound, but done REALLY well, and with the ABRs, have a bit more 'heft' in the bass than Spendor (or Harbeth's) similar sized models.

The Jupiter Copper-Foil, Paper and Wax caps that have been fitted raised the bar significantly though (see link below), and showed what the excellent drive units were capable of, by really opening things up and releasing their latent sonic potential.

Jupiter capacitors: https://www.hificollective.co.uk/com...il_in_wax.html

The 15s cost me £80 on Ebay, and I've spent around £300 modding them (as outlined), so for under £400 I've got a pair of speakers that I'd happily compare with anything similar today, up to around £2k. Plus, augmented by the twin Yamaha 10-inch active subs (hidden out of view), combine to give palpable weight and gravitas to low-frequency movie sound effects.

Here's my view of how they compared with the later 15XRs (which I also had, and modded, one of which, as you'll notice from the pics above, I now use as a centre speaker): https://theartofsound.net/forum/show...15#post1225315

Once again demonstrating that things don't always get better, the newer they are!

Marco.

[Marco]

Haha - aye, defo!

Marco.

[Marco]

No thoughts, Dennis, on my earlier post (and pics)?

Marco.

[Pharos]

No thoughts, Dennis, on my earlier post (and pics)?

Marco.

Yes, and of the same heritage I guess, the ones I had in mind were the 66s, which very much impressed me, but I think they do not use the 1300. I loved that 1300, derived I think from some sort of comms speaker in a tank.

[Marco]

What's a comms speaker in a tank?

But yes, the 66s were the big boys. Had those too, and indeed demonstrated them as part of an AoS system at a show in Scalford Hall hotel in 2011:



Thomas Dolby's 'Dissidents' is the music playing.

Most of the electronics were mine, modded Technics turntable (further modified since), Croft preamp and Copper valve amp. The system received rave reviews!

And no, the 66s didn't use the HF-1300, but instead a super-tweeter in conjunction with the equally well-regarded MF500 mid/top unit. They sounded sublime, but in the end I didn't have enough room to house two huge sets of speakers, so kept my Tannoys, as ultimately I preferred those.

Marco.

[walpurgis]

I loved that 1300, derived I think from some sort of comms speaker in a tank.

I know what you're getting at. There was some such story about the origins of the HF1300, can't remember the details though and I'm too lazy to spend ages googling .