Original 60's classic bookshelf design KLH Model 6s (new) for $99/pr

[Seth=L]

I will probably never buy high end audiophile speakers......

Why wouldn't you?

Here are a few higher end speakers, granted older ones, but that's not important. What's important is that these speakers are good and would be considered to be part of the collective "high end". Each one of these pair of speakers I've paid at or under 100 dollars.

California made JBL L20T (4406)

British made KEF C80

Another British made speaker, the Celestion 3 (original sealed version)

Made in Massachusetts, the Boston VR-M60, the most modern speaker system of the bunch. The MSRP was $2000 a pair, but street prices where sometimes half that.

You just have to look for the deals!

 

[Exit]

This is a long answer to a short question, but you seemed interested so I wrote it out.

By high end speakers I was thinking $1000/pair (new) and higher – never thought of shopping for pre-owned speakers. It is hard enough to find useful review information on current models – I don’t know how to identify good past models. I am guessing you have followed speaker models over the years and know which speakers sound good and when they are priced good. I don’t think I would risk buying pre-owned speakers from EBay or similar sites without being there to hear and see them in person.

I probably won’t get speakers over $1000 (high-end?) because I am at the stage of life where I am just making an average income and paying for two kids in college, which is draining our savings and consuming most “discretionary” money. After the next four or five college years, I have about 6 years to save up more money for retirement and pay off the house. I just about recovered from the stock market but there are four or five years of projected compounded gains that are now missing from my retirement projections (which still were not targeted to save enough money anyway). Also my company stopped our retirement plan a couple of years ago and I am guessing Social Security will not be there in full force at today’s level when I retire.

So it looks iffy financially for future high-end equipment purchases for me. Also I am at the age where your high frequency hearing starts to degrade, so I may not even be able to “hear” high-end-speaker benefits in a few more years.

That being said, I squeezed out about $1100 for a SVS PB12+2 subwoofer before they were all gone. This was the first speaker I bought without hearing it first, it is my first tuned-port design, and I was most impressed by an Audioholics review of the equipment. My reasoning on the sub was that I had wanted that particular subwoofer for two or three years (which was output matched for my large size/volume (8500 cu ft) open floor-plan great room), it was going out of production so it was my last chance to buy a new one, and lastly the light maple real-wood veneer that color-matched our décor and looked so nice - my wife didn’t complain about the “dog house” I put in our great room (lucky break). That was a couple of years ago and I would still be waiting to buy it now if it had not gone out of production. I don’t get to use the home audio system much right now because my kids complain when I turn it on, so I am building/maintaining it for two or three years down the road when my kids are out of the house. I use headphones at home for now and I listen to music in the car the most.

This year I am putting about $1000 into a DIY car audio system upgrade in my 2009 Corolla. The car audio project I rationalized by not buying the top-of-the line factory audio system when I bought a new car, thereby avoiding a $2500 upgrade package. Instead I decided to upgrade the audio system myself for whatever it took (i.e. about $1000 in materials). It took me about 6 months of research reading car audio forums and referenced articles before I had a rational plan and equipment system design. (Car Audio has a lot of things to learn to do it right, above and beyond home audio knowledge). I have just about everything purchased, but I only got the front component speakers removed and replaced before the winter cold. Car Audio is a challenging DIY project that has a little bit of research, system design, fabrication, modification, installation and acoustic tuning involved. You can also get into the high-end equipment in this hobby too. Anyway I am planning to keep this car for at least 10 years and if not, I have designed the electronics wire harness with factory connectors so I can easily remove all the electronics and reconnect the factory CD changer.

So I will spend good money on audio sometimes, but probably not on high-end home speakers which will end up as mains doing home theater duty 80% of the time. That is why I am trying the Model 6s for the mains. Due to layout constraints, the mains set on both sides of a 61” HDTV, so they are about 5-6 feet apart. This is just about enough to get a stereo image, and the center channel mucks things up spatially, so I run just the mains up front. I am hoping the clarity in the Model 6 vocal range will be a big improvement on movie dialog, and the bass being nice and smooth will blend smoothly into the subwoofers. Hopefully the rest of the frequency range and speaker quality is also good enough to keep the Model 6s. I am hoping they will play loud in a big room. I figure for $89 shipped, it is worth a try.

My best music system in the past had EPI 100 acoustic suspension 2-way speakers with 8” woofers and a receiver-powered 18” BIC down-firing subwoofer the size of a coffee table. I was younger and I played it loud. It shook the walls with rock and roll. I am trying to get that sound out of both the home and car audio systems right now. Even though I got to be kind of ancient by forum standards - Just like when I was a teenager - I still love rock and roll played loud through a good audio system. When you feel the concussion of the drums and low organ pedal notes set the walls pulsing, that is my favorite music volume level and audio system design goal.

 

[Seth=L]

Your teenage kids complain about "you" playing movies or music too loud? What is wrong with your kids?

It may also interest you that none of the those speakers I bought without seeing/hearing them first, and I mean those specifically. I figure at the prices I often pay, it's worth the risk of getting something that might not sound good to me, it might sound good to someone else anyway, so all is not lost. My current fave are the littlest of the bunch, the Celestion 3. They are such a sweet sounding speaker, I'm amazed at what these tiny boxes can do.

EPI made some pretty solid speakers in their time, efficient too.

 

[anamorphic96]

Seth you are the luckiest person I know. You get some of the sickest deals I have seen.

I would love to own a pair of those L20T's or Celestion 3's. Both great speakers but polar opposite in the way they sound.

The only two things I got lucky with where my Pardaigms from the garage sale and my Marantz DVD player.

 

[anamorphic96]

I should also add the Cambridge Model 6's never impressed me that much as well. But for 100.00 they are a great deal.

I was however very impressed with the M80's they produced for several years. That speaker was alot of bang for the buck.

 

[Matt34]

My Cambridge 60's shipped today. Probably going to use them as temporary surrounds for now but I'll give them a go in my makeshift 2-channel setup. I have some GR Research Neo 2x to try out in the mean time.

 

[Exit]

Your teenage kids complain about "you" playing movies or music too loud? What is wrong with your kids?

It may also interest you that none of the those speakers I bought without seeing/hearing them first, and I mean those specifically. I figure at the prices I often pay, it's worth the risk of getting something that might not sound good to me, it might sound good to someone else anyway, so all is not lost. My current fave are the littlest of the bunch, the Celestion 3. They are such a sweet sounding speaker, I'm amazed at what these tiny boxes can do.

EPI made some pretty solid speakers in their time, efficient too.

I bought the EPIs in 1968 and they had a brochure which included the production workforce. They all looked like hippies – real long hair, headbands, etc. I thought it was pretty cool. Each speaker came with its own frequency response plot on special plotting machine paper. Had them for about 20 years until the surrounds rotted out, then I sold some components and donated my whole system to charity and started over. It never occurred to me that the speakers could be repaired.

My kids (18 and 20) complain about having the audio system on at all. They usually are doing homework and studying when I am at home, so sometimes they complain and I have to turn the TV down to barely audible, or turn the sound off altogether. (I don’t want the kids doing worse in school, with lower GPAs and loosing scholarships because of me.)

Watching TV without sound is a little different. The Simpsons and the History Channel usually have something worth watching that doesn’t need the volume on. I’ve got some headphone extension cords so I may see if I can get that working. Most of the time I watch TV I am also on a wireless laptop PC in an overstuffed recliner reading forums and researching topics related to home audio, car audio, 10th generation Corollas (2009, 2010) and slickdeals.com.

As far as playing the audio system loud, I have to basically be at home alone, and that doesn’t happen much. My son commutes to college, but my daughter is going to live on campus starting this fall, so I may get more chances to listen to the audio system.

I think I will have the Model 6’s by Friday and I have the day off. (We work nine hour days and every other week we get Friday off – it is a really good system once you adjust to the longer work days.)

I plan to hook the speakers up Friday and start putting hours on them. (User comments say you have to put on some hours (50 hours maybe?) before the Model Sixes start to sound good. I think my kids might be out of the house, so I just have to deal with my wife. I can probably play the speakers at normal volume using my wife’s favorite music. (I haven’t heard the Talking Heads Live, ZZ Top and Tina Turner for a long time.)

Listening to music in the car is so much easier – that is probably going to be the case for the next two years at least- so I am investing time and putting money into car audio for now. I am putting in a good car audio system that maintains the stock look of the car interior for anti-theft reasons.
Car audio guys plaster the interior side of the outside car shell with specially formulated vibration dampening material (Dynamat Extreme and Second Skin for example) that is sticky back and clings to car panels. I wonder if it would work inside the Model Sixes better than fiberglass?

The Model Sixes are just a long shot worth trying for $90. If they don’t work out, I probably won’t buy any speakers for a few more years, unless there is another irresistible deal.