Best Of

Details on my once in a century score here:

https://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/201781/my-deal-of-the-century#latest

I frequent various online classifieds on occasion and earlier last week an ad for some free speakers caught my attention. They were from a company named Freid that I’d never heard of before and didn’t have a ton of online information. The person giving them away had gotten them from his brother, who had acquired them when he bought his house as the seller didn’t want to deal with moving them. The speakers all appeared in good condition outside a tweeter that was poked in (it’s always the tweeter) and were in working order.

The speakers themselves, named Model H (super awesome name I know) intrigued me greatly as they were a combination of small satellites paired with individual side-firing dual opposed transmission line woofers (note I didn’t say subwoofers ) contained in a single box.

Not only was that quirky enough for me to consider picking them up (knowing I had no space for them at all) but the setup utilizes an external crossover with each driver then being wired to the crossover with its own speaker wire. That drove me over the edge so I reached out and scheduled a time this week to drive out and hear them.

In the meantime I scoured the web for information on the speakers, manufacture, etc. I found a few reference documents and schematics (see reference section at bottom), which confirmed just how different these speakers were for their time.

The drive was about 3 hours one way, but I figured worse case I wasted some gas and time, best case I got some cool speakers to play with.

When I showed up they were setup in a really small area and connected to a really cool looking hybrid tube amp and streamer, neither of which I recognized, but both looked very cool and high quality.

The person giving them away had very nice setups of various B&W speakers, NAD and Marantz receivers, etc.

I sat down and for about 30 - 40 minutes went through a few of the tracks saved to my Tidal Demo playlist, and FOR THE RECORD, they don’t contain any rap, hip/hop, etc. It focuses on large swings in highs and lows and lots of layers of instruments and vocals.

I was SHOCKED at how well the speakers performed. The attack and decay in these 50+ year old speakers was astonishing. Moreover the bass was quite present when needed but not overbearing or so minimal that I would want to supplement it with an actual sub.

A few of the tracks that stood out were:

1. I See Fire (from the hobbit soundtrack) by Geoff Castellucci
2. Sound of Silence also by Geoff Castilian
3. Weightless by Mike Oldfield from Tubular Bells II
4. Shaman of Chaos by Omnia
5. Utopia by The Sidh

I was sold so I said I would take them. I was told that the hybrid amp, streamer, and the speaker stands were available too. I took the tube amp and stands, unaware of what I had, and left. That was an act in itself as the woofer unit is 200+ pounds.



On the drive home I realized I should have grabbed the streamer so I reached out and worked out having it shipped to me.

Total cost was 6 hours of my time, 1/2 tank of gas, 20 in food/drink in the trip.

Of course being on a music/gear high I reached out to @lightman to catchup and talk about this awesome score. He looked up the hybrid amp and we were shocked to discover I’d been given a Pathos Logos amp that retailed for more than I’d like to say when it came out. Additionally the streamer was a B&W Formation Audio, also quite pricey.

Upon getting home I unpacked everything and spent more time going over it all. I discover that the speakers are serial number 0013, the lowest I’ve ever owned. They use screw down terminals which I don’t particularly like but they are in good condition. As stated one tweeter is pushed in but still working. They are also missing grills (they originally used foam grills).







The crossover is quite dusty as could use a good cleaning but I’m hesitant to blow it out for fear of breaking the point to point wiring. It has some sort of adjustment on the front that I haven’t quite figured out yet so I left it where it was.












The veneer on the woofer box was pealing off in a few places but I think that can be fixed with some heat and a roller, or at least made to look slightly better. There are also some normal WAF stains from plants and whatnot but I believe those might come out with the right cleaning.







The Pathos is missing a foot in the back but otherwise is mint. There are more than enough connections in the back for whatever analog sources I’d ever need, including 2 balanced inputs. There are even preouts which I should never have a need for. Oh, and it’s got a nice simple REMOTE!!! It’s a bit quirky about working but who cares lol.








The B&W looks brand new, has 2 digital inputs, as well as an analog one, and is pretty unique looking. It supports Tidal as well as various other services but only through its own app (so no Tidal Connect).




My wife was not prepared for the size of the speakers as I may have forgotten to mention that to her, nor the extra gear, since even I didn’t know I’d be coming home with it. At this point I still had no real perfect location for them but figured I would find a way

Last night I couldn’t wait any longer so I set everything up, and you know what sucks? Terminating speaker wire. You know what sucks even more? Terminating 8 sets of speaker wire. I used what I have on hand which is a mixture of 12/2 Furez, 14/2 Furez, and Amazon Basic 14/2. The Furez (who I just learned have closed) was purchased from @helipilotdoug years ago. They were paired with various Monster and Nakamichi bananas for the crossover and amp connections, and bare wire for the speaker and woofer connections.

The powercable for the Pathos is a Cullen Cable (forget the model number) I bought from @erniejade, but I also have a PS Audio AC-3 I may try. The RCAs are MAC UltraSilver+ that I was gifted by @Indyhawg years ago.

Everything was setup in a very confined, non-optimal space but I still fell asleep to the sweet sound of the new setup. Even Storm approved of the new sound. I shocked that I was able to hear details even at 15 on the volume (out of 100).





My wife had mentioned in passing changing our dining room (which we never use) into a sitting room with some small chairs, an end table, sofa, etc. After seeing how much I was enjoying the newly acquired gear she let me know that I could set it up along the longest wall in the dining room as long as we worked together to blend it with the other items she will purchase at some point. I obviously agreed and moved things around earlier today. Here is the current state of the setup. A couple things to note:

1. It’s not in a final state so cable management is still a work in progress, as is the location of the equipment. I plan to try and get it all in a rack to the side along with the external crossover and let my wife put pictures, etc on the woofer box (but no real plants or candles, etc)
2. The table set is only there until it sells
3. The stands are only temporary until I find something styled more like the speakers
4. have already reached out to Doug about buying some 14/4 wire so reduce the total number of speaker wires from 8 down to 4
5. I have reached out to Trey about refreshing the external crossover as I believe it can be done without breaking the bank
6. I reached out to the US Distributor for Pathos and it looks like it will be 100 bucks to get a new foot as they don’t make mine anymore so I have to replace all the feet with metal versions, and the manufacture is in Italy and the dealer is in Cali. **I’d love suggestions on cheaper alternatives that still look decent**
8. I am in the market for a decent budget C7 powercable for the B&W streamer. Used preferred but open to a new one. Needs to be fairly flexible.
9. Anyone with experience getting water stains out of veneer please let me know how you did it.

Without further ado, here it is in all its glory, my the deal of the century!

Thank you for all the warm wishes!! This gal really is something else. I've been around the block at least one and half times...plus 65 thousand....there's been none like her.

My new and hopefully, last gal..


Instant couple!!

Last call here folks. I was unexpectedly called out of town for work this week, so I’ll do the drawing tomorrow morning.

Remember to read the instructions, and fashion your responses accordingly;-)

In with the winning number between 1-100. Nice Karma.

Rush Hour 2

In with 36.

In with 75
I believe Beverly Hills Cop is a buddy cop film.

from that bastion of good humor*, ASR.
___________
* Not Good Humor... that's a different matter entirely.