speakers i heard today

boston1450

today i was at friends house. he had old Marantz sp1250 speakers. he had them hooked to a old realistic stereo. junk i thought to myself. he turnt it on and i was quite surprised. they had tons of bass. they didnt sound too bad i thought. then the bad. the surrounds were destroyed on one of the speakers. the boxes were in ok condition. is it worth him to fix them. are surrounds easy to replace. availability of parts. i dont know much about these issues so i thought id ask youall what you thought.....thanx

boston1450

all im asking is it fairly cheap for him to fix those. and are surrounds available,being a little older. so he can do this himself. ive never had to replace one myself. i will google it later. but any info is good info....thanx

Joe08867

Surrounds should be cheap enough. 12" speaker foam surrounds go for around 30 bucks a speaker.

Never heard that particular speaker set but from the looks of them, they look like the stuff everyone was putting out in the early 80's. When it was more about size then substance. Maybe these sound better. It is very dependent upon the system powering them.

boston1450

he had it hooked to a old realistic sta85 he has for sale. it didnt sound to bad at 35watts so he said. thank you for your responce. i wasnt sure on availablility on older surrounds on marantz speakers. as ive never owned marantz's

TNHNDYMAN

^ you can search for surrounds on ebay by either speaker model specifically or most will be ok by a general size search 6.5, 8, 10, 12 ect. Usually the kits run from 20-30 bucks and include the glue. Most have very little instruction included, but it is easier to watch a few videos on youtube and then make first attempt on some average speakers such as your friend has. Don't try on a really nice set until you've done it a couple times. Much better than paying someone $75 or more to redo a set. Can also get surrounds from parts express, orange co speakers, several vendors avail. Good luck.

cnh

Some of those old Realistics are actually pretty good as vintage receivers go. Most were made by Fostex (Foster) and many are clones of Pioneer (and other) designs using pretty much the same internals, or similar.

I have a few of them. And NONE sound bad (in that '70s-early '80s period.

The most recent is a Realistic STA 2200 (about 36 lbs of clean mosfet amplification). Very pleasant to listen to. MASSIVE transformer and heat sinks for a 60 watt x 2 receiver? IMHO, this is among the very best sounding receiver Realistic ever put out and that includes the Monster STA 2100. The sound on this is so much "sweeter" and also more powerful than its 60 watt rating.

A lot of the Japan made units are quite resilient and well worth an upgrade. No they won't compete with "separates" but if you need a cheap alternative for a secondary system somewhere, the value on these is almost off- the chart. And they are under-appreciated compared to Sansui, Marantz, Pioneer, etc.

Haven't heard the STA 85 but I have an STA 95 that puts out about 45 watts x 2 (but don't tell it that it's only 45 watts) and is IMO the "best" looking vintage piece ever by the Ratshack ('78-'79).

These units are also "very" durable. Built to last, that is.

Don't know the Marantz speakers. All I know there is that Marantz speakers are a fanboy thing. If you're not a fanboy, you generally don't care for them?

cnh

boston1450

cnh. thank you for info. and yes it sounded very nice. i was surpised. especially from a radio shack. he buys n sells stuff so he gets all this stuff. i stop buy n b.s. with him. he shows me his collection. hes quite the comedian. he later took the riped speaker out of the marantz's and installed a cerwin vega....i asked him via email. did you keep the old speaker. he said NO. i guess i wont be assisting with replacing the surround,i was looking forward to doing my first replacement. maybe sometimes down the road. maybe i can hook up with someone in my area and go and watch n learn. ive always had newer speakers or didnt have the issue. NOW im kinda interested in it..thank you all for viewin post.

Geoff4rfc

Lasareath wrote: »

My first receiver when i was around 12 was a Realistic that I bought at a garage sale but I built the speakers and crossovers by hand with parts from radio shack. I wish I still hand them, they were a pretty cool 3-way design with a tweeter, 5" mid and 8" bass driver. I made the cases as well with plywood.

You've been a handy one for awhile haven't you? No wonder you did such an awesome job with those SDA's.

boston1450

update. he gave me the realistic for free. i hooked them to some jbl 2500 bookshelf speakers in our office above the desk. doesnt sound to bad. i cleaned up the inside. lubed all controls to the best i could. cleaned up the wood case. hooked it up. good to go. he still has the marantz speakers. he changed over the woofers to some odd ball speakers. not sure. but i didnt want them. looked online. im thinking 1977 era. hope to get more years of enjoyment with the reciever. not ashamed to own a realistic one bit..never thought id say that. thank you for viewing all.

JasminJoosaf

its great thanks,,,,,,,,