Boston acoustics A150 series 2

Aqs612scag

Hello Forum,
Can anybody here shed some light on these boston speakers,
Ive heard some good things about them, if any of you have had these speakers at any point in time, pls comment . Thanks

TroyD

I've had the A100's a long time ago, my first speakers, actually.

GREAT speakers you got there, a real acoustic suspension classic. Boston Acoustics was started by (forget the names) by some Henry Kloss disciples.

If memory serves, the series II replaced the original silk dome with an inferior mylar tweeter. Still a great speaker though.

Only complaint was build quality, however, just as with Kloss's products, they were value oriented with sound being much more important than vanity.

If you EVER want to part with them, PLEASE let me know. I'd love to have a pair!

BDT

RuSsMaN

Yeah, what he said.

Great sealed-box bass, and great imaging. Fairly easy to drive, but can handle a good amount of clean power too.

Troy is right, but only in regards to the tail end of the series II. A lot series II (earlier) models carried the 1" dome silk dome. Boston actually used that tweeter up until the mid-90's in some models.

Didn't we talk about this on IM?

Cheers,
Russ

TroyD

The pic looks like the same silk dome in the A100's. The mylar one had a little plastic doohickey on the front if memory serves.

Man, I'm in full on LUST now.

Gotta dig out the Large Advents and get my acoustic suspension listen on.

BDT

shack

Originally posted by TroyD
GREAT speakers you got there, a real acoustic suspension classic. Boston Acoustics was started by (forget the names) by some Henry Kloss disciples.

Andy Kotsatos and Frank Reed both went through KLH and Advent before starting Boston. Kotsatos was the tech guy. I've always thought that Boston was similar to Polk in their positioning in the market. A pretty good speaker at a decent price.

RuSsMaN

Nice info Shack-daddy.

Troy, it's a 'phase dispersion shield'. Doohickey works for me though - regardless, I always bust out the xActo blade and snip them off.

Cheers,
Rooster

TroyD

phase dispersion shield....yeah, man, how did I forget that??

Shack, I agree and that was one of the guiding principles of AR and KLH and Advent, great products at an outstanding price.

BDT

Aqs612scag

Thanks for your comments.
TroyD- I will keep you in mind if I decide to sell them.
Russman- Yes, I asked about them w/ pm, thanks for the reply.

krimney

I've read that the 100 and 150 shared the same woofer and tweeter. I picked up a set of near mint A100 a while ago that needed surrounds. I discovered that one spider had come unlued, took it in for repair and am still waiting...it's been months.

George Grand

I had a pair of those pass through here last summer. Picked them up at a yard sale for $2. Woofer surrounds were shotto so I gave them to my bud Kevin. Tall affair with a 10" woof and a not too deep cabinet. While I was waiting for the guy to get the second speaker, the lady next door who was also having a yard sale, asked me if I was interested in a "tuner" up in her attic. She thought it was a Marantz. Ended up getting a mint, SAE 90 wpc receiver for my trouble. Paid top dollar too as you would imagine.

Andy Kostatsos worked for somebody way back when. I don't think it was AR, so I think he may've worked for Kloss at KLH, or MAYBE for Kloss at Advent or for Roy Allison. Anyhow, back then his name was Andy Pettit. If I got the story right, his father or grandfather immigrated here and worked as a waiter at a French restaurant. Because he was small of stature, the rest of the staff named him Le Petit or whatever the hell French is for small guy. When it came time to cave-in to the social pressure and Americanize, he changed his name from Kostatsos, to Pettit. After he founded Boston Acoustics and was very successful with it at that, Andy Pettit changed his name back to Kostatsos.

My grandfather caved in to the same pressures. If he didn't, my name would be Kraniotakis instead of Grand. Interesting when looked at after the story of Mr Le Petit, my last name was really Kraniotis. The "akis" suffix which is so prevalent in Cretan last names, was mandated by the Turks on all last names after they conquered the island. It appears, as the ultimate **** slap, the "akis" suffix is dimunitive, and indicates or means, "The smallest, or littlest." Sure enough, all my relatives are Mouzourakis, Hatsakis, Tornesakis, and Kraniotakis. Freakin' Turks.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grands)

Itinerant

Sorry to revive an old thread, but you guys seem to know about these speakers. I too have a set of Boston A150s. I believe they are series I, though. They are different than the picture above. The mid range and tweeter are more to the top right but the woofer is about the same as the picture. I found them back in high school while the director and I were cleaning out the old closets. He asked me to take them to the dumpster, but I took them to my car instead. The fuses were blown and the woofers needed new edges, but the spiders were fine and everything worked, so I got some fuses and re-edged them myself. They sound GREAT, and the cabinets are still in good condition. Anyone know just how much power they can handle, or any other technical information? I'd like to get them up to their full potential.

snowfun

I have a pair of BA 150's, purchased in 1983. They're great. Over time the foam surrounds on the 10" woofers have deteriorated. I see 2 options: 1) buy new replacement woofers from BA at $60/ea.; 2) buy a foam surround repair kit (never done that before). Do the repair kits work well? Easy to use? Any other advice?

Thx

TroyD

The foam kits aren't too bad to deal with....the first one is sort of a pain but once you get the hang of it, it's not too bad.

Even if you opted for the new drivers from BA (which is not a bad idea)...for 120 bones you got sound that competes with speakers that cost 10 times that.

I'm jealous, the A150 and A200 are speaks that I've always wanted to own.

BDT

snowfun

Thanks!

TroyD

Let us know how everything turns out.

BDT

gwwyjjliu

BA's 1st generation speakers were great.

I have a pair of A70's which have been in storage for the past 8 years. I used them a lot in college and remember many long hours of listening enjoyment.

Recently I took them out of storage and hooked them up to my Denon AVR4802 surround receiver and fired them up. They sounded as good as I remember, and compared well with the Polk LS70's which are the main speakers in the media room. Not bad for a $140 speaker!

I also have a pair of A40II's which have been serving faithfully as the general background music speakers for over 15 years! Wife wants me to upgrade to a Bose Acoustimass system (claims these little bookshelf speakers take up too much space) but I refuse to part with them.

snowfun

Turns out BA says the woof's for the A150's are on backorder with no date in sight for delivery and some uncertainty that they will even get any more. Depends on how much demand develops before they'll order production from their supplier. So, I'm wondering if it makes sense to try and find a similar 10" woof from a sound supplier. Thoughts? Any way to know how a different speaker's sound will compare? Thanks!

TroyD

You can also look into having the woofer rebuilt....MillerSound in PA, or somesuch is supposed to be a good place for that.

BDT

RuSsMaN

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15627

The 150 has the same woofer as the 100 IIRC.

Cheers,
Russ

TroyD

Or, he could just give them to me.

The A-150/A-200 is one of the few speakers I've lusted over but never owned.

BDT

Odd I/O

I got a couple of those that needed a re-foam, and sold them later, now I wish I would have kept them.

LVD

Hey, I just did a google search on the BA 150s and this came up. I'm looking to get rid of a pair of them. TroyD, would you be interested?

I also have a pair of 2-way floorstanding Advents from the same era (not sure on the model, I'll double check)

Im in Grand Rapids, MI btw.

LVD

Hey Troy - I can't PM you cause I only have 1 post.

I don't have the original boxes, they were refoamed about a year ago - very nice shape, single owner, treated well.

I didn't have a certain number in mind, they're just too big for a small apartment. I would consider shipping them.

Otherwise I could post them up in the FS section to see if anyone else is interested.

TroyD

LVD,

I think you need 25 posts to put them on the FM.

I dunno, I've got too many speakers around here as it is and I'm getting ready to go to Korea for a year so much as I appreciate the offer, I'm going to pass...but thanks!!

BDT

heiney9

LVD wrote: »

Hey Troy - I can't PM you cause I only have 1 post.

I don't have the original boxes, they were refoamed about a year ago - very nice shape, single owner, treated well.

I didn't have a certain number in mind, they're just too big for a small apartment. I would consider shipping them.

Otherwise I could post them up in the FS section to see if anyone else is interested.

LVD,

Make sure to read the forum rules for selling items. It will save a lot of headaches. Stick around you might have some fun. I realize you just responded to Troy about your sale because he showed interest.

In general joining for the sole purpose of hocking your audio gear gets a pretty cold reception.

Welcome

H9

LVD

heiney9 wrote: »

LVD,

Make sure to read the forum rules for selling items. It will save a lot of headaches. Stick around you might have some fun. I realize you just responded to Troy about your sale because he showed interest.

In general joining for the sole purpose of hocking your audio gear gets a pretty cold reception.

Welcome

H9

Thanks

Gatorback

My grandfather was a huge audiophile. His wife, my grandmother, came into money so he could afford such equipment. He purchased unfinished KLH speakers that I ended up with. Those were really nice in the day(circa 1960) and I've not seen that level of quality in speakers today. Those KLH's came to me in the late 70's. After the woofers and tweeters deteriorated, I dropped $400 for a pair of A150 Series II around 1984.

For 25 years I've listened to 150s. Around 2000, the outer foam did go and my friend taped them with electrical tape...it worked amazingly enough and we listened to them for another year or so. Since they sounded so good, I called BA and they sold me a replacment pair of 10's woofers for I think for a buck 25. The sales person told me you'd need to drop $800 to get the same sound. That was 10 years ago.

My only complaint was that the 150's produced to much base. I talked to several people who didn't have that problem with their 150s. It must have been I was using gramps old Macintosh 240. The 240 has a frequence response from 10 to 100,000. The 150s go down to 10 Hz you know. You can't hear 10 Hz., but you sure can feel it!

RuSsMaN

The A series was a great series, but didn't really produce any base. The did make some bass, but the baseball type of base. 10Hz, dream on, not at any useable level - the 150's were 3db down at 40hz. Granted the large cabinet and acoustic suspension design avoids (in general) the typical 'waterfall' at the port tuning point, but rather fades around 6db per octave.

The good news is, you can drop about $150 for the same sound today, for a real, legit pair of A150's. I actually preferred the simplicity of the A100, fat woof (10 inch), dome tweeter - yeah, midrange gap is given, but it's listenable with the bass tradeoff.

The Dayton classic series woofers are for all intents and purposes drop in replacements for the old Boston / Advent circa 1980's if you want to avoid non-productive repairs as far as resale on the originals.

Cheers,
Russ

Gatorback

I stand corrected. I remember now they went to 38 Hz. which isn't bad at all. You don't hear much more below that.

Hypnotoad

Gatorback wrote: »

My grandfather was a huge audiophile. His wife, my grandmother, came into money so he could afford such equipment. He purchased unfinished KLH speakers that I ended up with. Those were really nice in the day(circa 1960) and I've not seen that level of quality in speakers today. Those KLH's came to me in the late 70's. After the woofers and tweeters deteriorated, I dropped $400 for a pair of A150 Series II around 1984.

For 25 years I've listened to 150s. Around 2000, the outer foam did go and my friend taped them with electrical tape...it worked amazingly enough and we listened to them for another year or so. Since they sounded so good, I called BA and they sold me a replacment pair of 10's woofers for I think for a buck 25. The sales person told me you'd need to drop $800 to get the same sound. That was 10 years ago.

My only complaint was that the 150's produced to much base. I talked to several people who didn't have that problem with their 150s. It must have been I was using gramps old Macintosh 240. The 240 has a frequence response from 10 to 100,000. The 150s go down to 10 Hz you know. You can't hear 10 Hz., but you sure can feel it!

I got a pair or A150's with the in house tweeter what ever series they are.

When I first refoamed them they had way too much bass compared to my A200's which didn't seem to have enough.

So I swapped the woofers over and everything came into balance, my A200's were very even now with the right amount of bass.

The A150's were balanced as well with the right amount of bass, go figure.

It was a win win situation.

As far as what they sound like, compared to the A200's they are more boxy sounding, not as open or detailed.

Compared to my SDA 1C's, well lets just say there is no comparison.

Gatorback

Oh I remember those things. They sure did look impressive. I never had the power for them, the Mac only puts out 40 Watts.