Audio yard sale doldrums ended

capecodder

Been taking a break from this forum given the summer season since it gets a tad busier on the Cape this time of year. But....after a slow summer of yard sales from the audio equipment perspective, I kinda stumbled on a cache of speaks that I couldn't pass today.

Local Church rummage sale... often a good outlet for very cheap items.

Polk Model 7C with the beefier oak cabinets (Series2?)- $7 for the pr
Polk Model 7C with veneer cabinets (non-peerless tweet)- $7 for the pair
ADS L470/2 speakers- $15 for the pair (jeez, are they twice as good??)

So for $39 got 3 pairs of quality speakers that I have no use for, again. This just happened today so I haven't even tried them to see if they work but they look (drivers) in excellent condition. Will know more this weekend.

I have read all the superlative statements about the model 7 speakers here on the forum so I am anxious to try them out. Will probably keep 1 pair as my garage set to replace my vintage Marantz 2-ways. I will be interested to put them against the Marantzs (forget the Marantz model right now but they are a either a model 4 or model 7 I think). I have tried various other vintage speakers that I thought should be better than the Marantz (AR, Dynaco, Advent) but for what ever the reason the Marantz always wins, to my ears at least.

I haven't heard ADS speakers for probably 25-30 years. Anybody have any experience with this (L470/2) model? Visually they are in excellent condition. My recollection is that they (ADS line in general) were considered a bright and detailed speaker.

Also, if anyone is coming out this way (Cape Cod) and wants to take home a set of speakers or two or three or...., let me know.

SKsolutions

Post September, I may be. Good rescue.

capecodder

C'mon down. I live in East Orleans.

JimBRICK

Why cant I find sales like that. My town isnt really a stereo city. all junk I find. The only good deals I've found is my nakamichi cd player and the mirage and ohm speakers I got for 30 bucks a pair .

Spacedeckman

I have only found one good thing at a garage sale. Never good speakers though. And if they were decent at one time, the surrounds are gone and the cabinets are peeling.

Did score a pair of vintage Stax at a church sale for $5 once, with the driver box. They are wonderful. Got the pre-amp/headphone driver out of a dealer's used shelf for $50.

Mark

mhardy6647

Dunno if you'll like the 7C's as much as I like my 7A's with the Peerless silk domes. That said, your price was right!

All of the ads/Braun speakers were mighty fine... quite a bit pricier than the Polks back in the 1970's.

I recently found a very nice pair of ads L710's on the swap pile at our town dump. They sound really, really good. I was surprised at their efficiency, too. My EICO HF-81 (all of 14 wpc or so) drives them quite nicely.

avguytx

It's amazing something that cool looking would end up at a dump! Nice rescue!

mhardy6647

Chance favors the prepared mind.

More to the point, it's a wonder what people who are (or consider themselves to be) moderately affluent will discard!

George Grand

Hey Mark, if you found those ADS' on the swap pile, what did you have to swap for them?

schwarcw

capecodder wrote: »

Also, if anyone is coming out this way (Cape Cod) and wants to take home a set of speakers or two or three or...., let me know.

Regrettably, I don't think I'll make it back to Harwich this Summer Ted. I sure do miss the Cape.

Nice finds!

mhardy6647

Nothing, George. I did leave my wife's well-traveled large LL Bean "suitcase" bag as an offering to the dump gods last Saturday, though.

The L710's were a somewhat better find than the Allison Ones I picked up there a few years ago. The Ones needed the woofers refoamed (and one new woofer), and the cosmetics were only so-so.

I love the dump... but that's a topic for another thread, another time.

capecodder

Well observation/conclusions based on very little play time with all these new speakers.

1) They all work very well, no blown anythings.

2) I thought I had seen that the veneered pair of Model 7s were 7c's. They are not. Simply says model 7. Since they don't have the peerless tweeter that makes them what version?

3) I have now replaced my garage Marantz (they are Imperial 6 G, still a nice speaker and a very beefy cabinet construction) with the veneered pair of Model 7s. The Polks sounded better, frankly as I expected. Need to find nice new home for these cool old Marantz speakers.

4) Second pair of model 7s, which do say 7C (larger oak cabinet) are, for now, hooked to my primary basement rig where I test and play with various audio purchases. I put them on stands that are very similar (height and angle) to original stands. These sound really nice. I was using my old pair of Allison Fours in this capacity (speakers which I have had for almost 30 years and love). Am still interested what the difference, if any, between the oak cabinet model 7Cs and standard 7Cs. Any help?

5) ADS L470 don't have quite the full presence of the Model 7 Polks but they also are very nice. Have put them into use in the basement as part of the basement's other 2-channel/video set-up. Being run by my Scott 222C tube amp. Haven't really played much on this setup yet. Replaced a vintage pair of JBL Monitor 216 bookshelf speakers that i picked up a few years ago which weren't bad sounding either but are not as nice as the ADS.

I really didn't spend a lot of time with any of these speakers so nothing definitive to conclude other than agreeing that, for the money on the used market, Polk Model 7s are probably hard to beat. I have no plans to "upgrade" to peerless tweeters (unless they fell in the proverbial lap). So for the ghastly sum of $7/pair for the Polks, looks like I did pretty damn well.

capecodder

schwarcw wrote: »

Regrettably, I don't think I'll make it back to Harwich this Summer Ted. I sure do miss the Cape.

Nice finds!

Sorry about no Cape visit. Maybe next year. Unlike rest of the country we have been unseasonably cool this past week or so. Take care.