Vintage Pinnacles, any experience?

billbillw

Thinking of trying out a pair of vintage Pinnacle PN-15 that are local to me. Anyone ever heard these 4-way speakers, circa 1986? Looks like they were TOTL for Pinnacle with a price somewhere around $750 at the time. Real wood veneer, dome mid, tweet and super tweet. I've read a lot of reviews on the later Pinnacle towers and bookshelf speakers, but these ones seem to be largely unknown.

I don't expect these will replace my SDAs, but I just wanted to try them out. I've attached a brochure page that Pinnacle was nice enough to email me.

cnh

Don't know anything about their towers...but you probably know about their bookshelves and the diaduct porting that was very well received in the day. I remember helping a roommate pick out a pair of bookshelves for her new apt. in NYC at J&R in the late 80s. Those babies could put out some nice bass for their size. Are they still 'around'?

cnh

billbillw

cnh wrote: »

Are they still 'around'?

cnh

Yep, www.pinnaclespeakers.com
According to the website, they are (and have always been) family owned.

I emailed Pinnacle last night around 8:30 pm asking for info on the PN-15 and received a reply within 45minutes with that brochure scan. I didn't expect to hear anything until today!

steveinaz

I owned a pair of Pinnacle Classic Gold Towers, they were very respectable speakers. I regretted selling them after the fact. Like many audio companies these days, I don't care for their new stuff.

billbillw

Well, I snagged these at lunch. They are very nice build quality with a good looking real wood finish. Similar size to the Montor 7 but a few inches taller and wider. Very good bass response and clean mids/highs, maybe a bit bright, but he was playing them on a Yamaha HT receiver. They are pretty efficient, so I will try them tonight with my NAD 3140 and see how the sound. One of the butyl rubber surrounds needs to be re-glued, but I can hardly complain for the price.

Tony M

I LOVE all the Pinnacles That I've owned and I did got the Diamonds for my living room. Awsome reproduction qualities.
A man who owns B&W big speakers Loved and bought my Pinnacle Gold References for 180.00 with no problem. He Loved their sound ALOT..!!!

comfortablycurt

I've heard several different Pinnacles, and have been pretty impressed by all of them. I've never heard those ones though.

billbillw

Spent more time that I thought repairing the one woofer surround. Did it once, messed it up, had to clean off all the residue, let it dry, and try a 2nd time with a little different technique. 2nd time worked. Doesn't look as good as I'd hoped, but still not bad for a 1st (ok, really 2nd) time gluing a surround. While I had the speaker out, I noticed one of the inductors had a wire that was free. I'm not sure if I bumped it when I was taking off the woofer or if it had been that way for awhile. Whatever, broke out the soldering iron and repaired it.

Took out the mid-range and tweeter drivers. Both are Polydax (Audax), made in France. Woofer was not labeled, but it seemed very well built. As I was working on these, I really kept admiring the quality of the veneer. It is beautiful, truly furniture grade. If I'm not mistaken, it looks like Mahogany or Walnut grain to me. Not really a wood expert. I just know it looks nice.

Anyway, I need to let the woof cure and get some sleep. Won't really listen to them until tomorrow sometime.

billbillw

Been listening to these for a few hours this morning. I pulled my Acurus gear out of the closet (RL11/A250) to give them a test run. Nice sounding speaker. Well balanced and very detailed. Definitely brighter than my 1Cs w/RDO tweets. I dunno, might be keepers. Definitely the nicest wood I've ever had on a speaker.
A few pix
(The stands are not ideal, that's for sure)

Tony M

Mahogany...
Very nice find.:eek:

I haven't heard of those either but I'm sure they sound great.;)

George Grand

Never heard a Pinnacle I didn't like. The Classic Gold Towers have found a new home, and I still have a pair of PN-5+. Giant-killers.

billbillw

Yeah, I'm enjoying these. I'm trying to decide if the right combination of electronics can make them sound like permanent fixtures in a 2-ch system. I'm even contemplating a move to tubes (gasp!).

Tony M

George Grand wrote: »

Never heard a Pinnacle I didn't like. The Classic Gold Towers have found a new home, and I still have a pair of PN-5+. Giant-killers.

If I lived closer to you George, the Gold Towers would've been in MY home without a doubt.;):D

cnh

George I know you can't see this, but if those PN5+ are still around before Polkfest, I'm going to swing by and take them off your hands and debut them at the 2010 P-Fest!

cnh