The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I don’t know if this is the right forum for my question, but you never know.

In addition to playing my 78’s on contemporary equipment I also have a more modern audio system. But with the exception of my Esoteric Sound turntable, Tascam cd player/recorder and KAB Souvenir VSP (Vintage Signal Processor), it’s pretty cheap stuff. (Lo-end Sony receiver and speakers). So now I want to buy something a little more sophisticated.

I have already auditioned a number of speakers and amplifiers, but while they sound great with modern music, they didn’t seem to handle my vintage recordings very well.

So perhaps someone over here has advice for me. There are some limitations with regards to space and budget. I have $ 1500 to spend on speakers and an integrated amplifier or receiver. I live in a 2-room appartment, so the speakers need to be bookshelf speakers, and the bassreflex port has to be at the front, so I can put the speakers close to the wall without the sound getting boomy or annoying the next door neighbours.

I hope you can help me out. Thanks in advance!

I think I would try to seek out any of the horn-loaded speakers made over the years by Klipsch, Altec, ElectroVoice, etc. Horn loading seems to be very synergetic with playback of 78's. Even a small Klipsch Heresy is a fine speaker. By diligently searching you could come up with a pair of these for well under $1500. The Heresy could be put in a bookshelf (largeish bookshelf) and have Horn loaded midrange and tweeter with a 12" direct firing woofer in a sealed enclosure, no port to worry about.

To my opinion there hasn't been much improvements going on with speakers, mostly it's down to design and economization. Therefore I got myself a set of the old Castle Warwick series speakers, made in 1989, bookshelf size. Although I mostly listen to more contemporary recordings, I find them excellent for antique content.

They have an excellent mid-range and very dry bass, which I prefer over muddy bass overload, such as my previous Sony cheapo's. Bass reflex is also at the front.

The best speakers are pre-2007 before the Chinese IAG acquired Castle Acoustics. If you don't mind to buy a used set, you will have an excellent value for your money. These sell nowadays for usually around 200-350 Euros, sometimes even much lower that. No need to mention the original retail was several times that price.

Thanks for the advices. Both the Klipsch and the Castle are a little hard to get over here. I saw some Klipsches on Ebay, but then of course you have to factor in the S&H, you can't audition them beforehand, and there's no warranty.

So today I went to visit a local dealer, and took with me a cd-r with raw transfers of several records in my collection. I listened to several speakers, and I'm now considering the KEF R300. It's a very big bookshelf. Unfortunately the bass reflex port is at the back, and I had to stretch my budget a little, but it sounded a lot better than the other bookshelfs. Modern day recordings sounded great on all speakers I listened to, but with 1920's/30's music I found the midrange to be lacking. Most speakers sounded a little muffled, but the R300 had a very clear midrange, but without sounding overly bright. The 78's surface noise was a little more pronounced, but I can live with that.



I'm hesitating between the rosewood finish (picture) and the walnut.

I'd probably go for Rosewood, but anyway only if I was 100% satisfied with the sound. What you could also consider would be a 2nd hand hi-fi store where you can also listen to what you would like to buy.

As I already said, I am not convinced, that there have been any real improvements made within the last one or two decades and the price/performance ratio is much better with used speakers. So you'll get more for your money. Nevertheless, the R300 looks great indeed.