Looking for suggestions/advice

cmy330go

We're getting ready to move into a new (to us) home, and the wife would like to turn one of the rooms into a "music room". Basically it's a medium sized dining room that she would like to turn into a social sitting area to enjoy some tunes. She's expressed interest in having the system be mostly vintage. I've already got a Crown pre-amp, BGW amp, and Marantz turntable that will fit in to get us started, but I'm kinda lost on what to do for speakers. I know very little about vintage speakers, and am not really sure where to start. First of all this setup is not about sitting in the sweet spot. Most listening will be indirect off-axis. I'm most likely looking for a decent sized full-range floor-stander. I browsed briefly through the flea-market and found THESE. I think they would fit the decor, but I'm not sure due to the nature of the RTA line if they would be wasted in that kind of environment. Basically I just need about any guidance I can get.

Let me have it!

Schurkey

Non-critical listening, no sweet-spot? Fits in with "decor"? Easy-to-drive 8-ohm load?

Bose 901s hung from the ceiling or on stands. Assure that the driver surrounds are in good shape, or that you're capable of repairing them.

cmy330go

Thanks for the reply, but nothing Bose will be entering that house.

Nightfall

My biased opinion is to highly recommend RTA-12's, especially *those* RTA-12's.

stogie

How about a pair of Monitor 7's or 10's?

Sea

I think the RTA-12c are a great choice. Many think that they are the most musical,of the non-sda Polks. I have owned a pair since buying new in 1984. I also have several pairs of SDA's. These hold their ground very well.

westmassguy

How big is the room? The 12s are exceptionally good, and Bruce did a superb job on them.

tonyb

http://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/ele/4890631295.html

cmy330go

The room is a little better than 12'x16' and has large openings on two sides. One to the entry/staircase. The other to the kitchen/living room.

cmy330go

Here's a couple pics. System will likely go against the dark colored recessed portion of the wall.

cmy330go

I guess at this point I'm considering just snagging the RTA this weekend if possible. I'll be in the Chicago area anyway so maybe I'll be able to arrange something. Still open to any suggestions or comments though.

EndersShadow

Those LS50's would be nice, as would as set of Polk RTA 11T or RTA 11TL's... these are my favorite of the non SDA polks that would be considered "vintage"...

Those LS50's look to be in really nice shape though....

cmy330go

The LS50s do look pretty nice. Might try to get those too. Heck for $200 what have I got to lose.

EndersShadow

cmy330go wrote: »

The LS50s do look pretty nice. Might try to get those too. Heck for $200 what have I got to lose.

I'd see if there is some wiggle room, dont think they are worth 200, and I'm quite sure you dont care about those little speakers.... so I'd shoot for 150 if you can, 175 would still be decent IMHO, but there are others that know more about the value of these than me....

cmy330go

EndersShadow wrote: »

cmy330go wrote: »

The LS50s do look pretty nice. Might try to get those too. Heck for $200 what have I got to lose.

I'd see if there is some wiggle room, dont think they are worth 200, and I'm quite sure you dont care about those little speakers.... so I'd shoot for 150 if you can, 175 would still be decent IMHO, but there are others that know more about the value of these than me....

Thanks for the input!

mhardy6647

A pair of Allison Ones or Allison Twos would be decor friendly and oh-so-enjoyable.

The (original) Allison loudspeakers were designed to fit into real rooms; the aforementioned One and Two are meant to be put up against a wall, away from corners, but otherwise are very noncritical in location (see the brochure scan below).

They're not small -- but they can be unobtrusive (and their footprint is small).



EDIT: might as well include the Two, too.

(PS I do have a pair of Allison Ones, FWIW)



EDIT^2: another amazingly easy to live with speaker (other than not being amenable to placement against a wall) is (was) the DCM timewindow. I like the original series best of all (the timewindows were in production for a long time -- getting increasingly more Byzantine in each iteration IMO).

I am a tad biased: http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/166200/apostasy

cmy330go

mhardy6647 wrote: »

A pair of Allison Ones or Allison Twos would be decor friendly and oh-so-enjoyable.

The (original) Allison loudspeakers were designed to fit into real rooms; the aforementioned One and Two are meant to be put up against a wall, away from corners, but otherwise are very noncritical in location (see the brochure scan below).

They're not small -- but they can be unobtrusive (and their footprint is small).



EDIT: might as well include the Two, too.

(PS I do have a pair of Allison Ones, FWIW)



EDIT^2: another amazingly easy to live with speaker (other than not being amenable to placement against a wall) is (was) the DCM timewindow. I like the original series best of all (they were in production for a long time -- getting increasingly more Byzantine in each iteration IMO).

http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/166200/apostasy

Those look pretty cool! Gonna have to do a little research on those.

mhardy6647

They're more common in New England but they were widely distributed. They're very good sounding loudspeakers (IMO, of course). They have one age-related flaw -- the grilles were vacuum-formed ABS or suchlike plastic... at this late date, the grilles are typically quite brittle, but there is a pretty good restoration method:

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=262849&highlight=Allison

EDIT: PS, now that Joe Grado has passed away, Roy Allison is pretty much the absolute last of the old guard of hifi pioneers left alive. He's not quite "first generation", of course, but he and Henry Kloss both got their start with Edgar Villchur at AR way back when.
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=595723

Stereophile published a pretty nice interview with Allison and Villchur in 2005:
http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/105villchur/

Villchur died in 2011.

ken brydson

cmy330go wrote: »

The LS50s do look pretty nice. Might try to get those too. Heck for $200 what have I got to lose.

I love my LS50's and wouldn't let them go for $200. That being said I've seen them for $100-150...