Older style stereo speakers -- do they sound better?i

In My Humble Opinion
1

I own a bunch of 20 to 30 year old speakers–unfortunately most are blown now and having a hard time finding replacement speakers. Used to be able to buy them (100 watters) at Radio Shack (exact replacement) for maybe $30 a pair.

Radio Shack doesn’t sell speakers anymore. And replacement speakers seem to cost an arm and a leg at other locations---- plus probably not a 5 minute change-out like in olden times.

The thing is I really like the sound of those old massive speakers. I am amazed at how well modern day, relatively teeny thingie speakers can sound-----but it is not the same sound that I get from my super old massive speakers. There is a noticeable difference in depth and quality.

At least I can tell that and my son in law, who has the latest of the latest in modern day speaker systems, is always impressed by the sound of my ancient speakers.

The last of my old speakers is a pair of Magnavox --from the mid 60’s. still working very well and not blown in any way. The sound coming out of those ancient Magnavox speakers still to my ears puts to shame anything made today.

So---- is there any reason for that? Do modern day speakers really lack some quality that the old super large speakers had?

2

Speakers are better at any given price point today. They’re better overall and especially in the high frequencies. There is a trend toward smaller speakers that may not have a lot of bass, but those can be combined in a home-theater system with a subwoofer.

If you look at the prices of some of the big old classic speakers, the good ones at least, and adjust them for inflation, the usually end up being very expensive. I did that once with the price of the Advent Loudspeaker, for instance, and it ended up being over $1,000 a pair. For that much you can some good-sized tower speakers that will beat it in the bass and in overall sound.

3

Check out B&W speakers, if you can afford them. Or JBL. They come in a range of prices, but the big mothers can be expensive.

4

There just hasn’t been a lot of innovation in speaker design. A speaker that sounded good 40 years ago will sound good today, materials permitting. Taste may also play a part - better specs don’t necessarily sound better. There are microphones from the 50s (another field where time has almost stood still) that are worth more than their weight in gold - if they have been treated well.

5

Old story from many years ago.

I had a Radio Shack (2600 I think). I have heard that it was the most powerful receiver ever made for its time. And way underrated at 100 watts.

Anyway I hooked up 8 pairs of 100 watt speakers (old style and massive) through speaker switches. In each room in my house. Never had a bit of distortion when turned up pretty loud.

One day I decided to see what that sucker could do turned up REAL loud (like a little above half way on the output scale meter)

I was amazed. It was loud. Very loud. But absolutely no distortion. And not particularly uncomfortable to listen to.

If I remember right I was playing a CCR CD…maybe “Heard it through the grapevine” no longer remember what I was playing but it was better the louder you played it kind
of song.

Anyways…I decided to see how loud I could go without distortion…So I kept turning the volume up…up to maybe 3/4 on the output scale. It became very loud but still no distortion and did not hurt my ears in any way.

About that time a cop knocked on my door. He told me I needed to turn my stereo down. The police station was getting complaints from 1/2 mile away about loud music

I asked him if it seemed overly loud to him and he said “no”. But please turn it down anyway. So I did. And he left.

After he left I started thinking about it and I thought “no way could anyone hear this from a 1/2 mile away enough to complain about it”

So like the dumb younger fool that I was at the time, I cranked that sucker up to 3/4 again and went outside the house (windows were closed). It sounded just the same as it did inside the house. I went down to the corner. Maybe 1/4 mile away and it sounded exactly the same…same volume no distortion. I went a little farther …same thing.

I started to believe that it was possible people 1/2 mile away were hearing the same thing I was.

I ran back to my house and turned that sucker down. …way down.

I read somewhere later on that it is possible, with a powerful enough receiver and BIG powerful speakers…to turn your whole house into one giant speaker.

I guess that is what happened.

Could the teeny speakers of today do that?

6

P=iv.

Dc.

7

The main reason that large box speakers are likely to suffer comparison with the small modern counterpart is likely to be problems with the electrolytic capacitors in the crossover network. Once those are replaced, they will give those a really run for the money.

There is one other issue, active speakers have the amplifiers built into the cabinets, but they are not single channel amplifiers, they are often dedicated to one speaker element, and this will outperform a passive crossover network.

Time passes faster than one thinks, those electronic crossover speakers have been with us for nearly 30 years.

8

I have difficulty accepting even one word of your story.

9

So do I.

If it hadn’t happened to me, I wouldn’t believe it either.

Never tried it again. And no longer have 16 working high powered speakers or that Radio Shack 2600. It smoked a few years ago at 25 years old.

So I can’t duplicate the effect if i wanted to.

But it really did happen.

10

Mandatory link when discussing speaker size. - YouTube

11

the multiple problems I have with your story:

  1. I can’t see how- unless you were using speakers with an insanely high impedance- you could connect “8 pairs” of them and still turn it up just as high without it overheating or shutting down

  2. your claim that it was “just as loud 1/4 of a mile away” is absurd just in a physical sense.

  3. as is your claim that it sounded “exactly the same outside of the house” especially with no open windows or doors. in the general sense obstacles act as low-pass filters so simply being outside would have attenuated the high (and much of the mid) frequencies.

  4. I live just over 1/4 mile away from one of my city’s tornado sirens. I can tell you that bastard is a hell of a lot louder close up than it is 1/4 mile away.

you’re telling a fish story.

12

Not a fish story.

Was a long time ago, but as I remember right I hooked the A speaker outlet on the receiver to a speaker splitter to power 4 sets of speakers and the B to a second splitter to power 4 more sets. I assume there was some sort of designed power distribution in both of those splitters.

Not all of the speakers were rated for 100 watts. (Maybe 3 sets were). There were 80 watters and 60 watters and a couple sets of 30 watters.

The wattage rating on all the speakers were just what they were capable of, not what they received after going through all that splitting. I don’t think there was any real danger of blowing my receiver. At least as high as I ever turned it up, the output scale was never over 3/4 of the way up to maximum. And that receiver lasted another 20 years, so I guess I didn’t really hurt anything.
I had one pair ceiling mounted in the garage and one pair ceiling mounted in an overhang in a back yard patio. Both of those would transmit sound into the attic and
outside through the gable vents and the set in the back yard of course could sound directly outside also. As I recall both of those sets of speakers were 30 watters. All the real big speakers were inside the house with windows closed

I doubt I walked 1/4 mile on retrospect, but I did walk a very very long way away from the house. The farther away I got and hearing what sounded like the volume never seeming to diminish and the cop saying the police station was inundated with complaints about loud music from 1/2 mile away really started to worry me.

I said to myself “there is something to what that cop was talking about”. I ran home hoping in my mind to beat the cop who I was sure was going to come back there, and who I was sure was going to throw my ass in jail.

It puzzled me for years. It puzzled the cop too when he was there. It really didn’t sound THAT loud. It just carried for a very very long distance sounding about the same volume.

The only explanation that made sense a few years later was that with enough speakers in a house and enough power the whole house can turn into one giant speaker.

13

I run 4 pairs currently, and have run 7 pairs using impedance-matching speaker selectors. (Had to add a set of ceramic 8 ohm resisters to simulate an 8th pair to maintain the correct impedance) All the speakers are old, including a pair of JBL studio monitors from the 60’s. I can crank out some serious volume. I’m pretty sure I’m only running about 70 watts from a Denon amp.

I used to work for an audiophile speaker manufacturer that made line-source planar transducers that carried sound much farther than point-source speakers. I was on the “'business side” and don’t know all that much about the science behind it, but I’ll tell ya, hearing clear, loud sound from a 1/4 mile is easily possible, even using more or less normal household amps.

The guys in the “secret R&D” department (it was actually a whole different company in the same building at the time) made this system, and I shit you not, that was described to me as “a sonic laser” that you could set up, point at a location up to a half-mile or so (maybe more, I don’t know) and it sounded like that was the source of the sound, even when you stood pretty much next to the speakers. It was freaky! They had them set up in the parking lot and aimed at a building down the street, and you would swear that’s where the sound was coming from. They were building stuff for the military. Go figure.

As for old stuff, I think the material used in the crossover networks were higher quality and beefier. I’ve never tested them, so I don’t know if the frequency response is on-par with new stuff, but they sound good to me and I like them.

14

I remember reading about speakers like that. They transmitted ultrasonic soundwaves, which would allow them to be more directional (shorter wavelength). I presume that audio is used to amplitude modulate the ultrasound, like AM radio. Found links here and here. The second one has a YouTube video from a TV story, but it’s kind of annoying to watch.

In those links, they talk about standing in the sound beam to hear the sound. What I recall is that you could also shine it on a wall, and sound would come from that spot. That fits in with what Gatopescado wrote.

15

yeah, I’ve heard of this too (described as an ultrasonic carrier.) I’ve no direct experience but the theory passes the smell test.

16

ombre12, you can probably get replacement drivers at a reasonable price from parts-express.com.

17

Thanks. I checked out that site and the replacement speakers do seem reasonable.

18

If you replace drivers with random ones from some catalog, the speakers won’t sound the same. The odds that they’ll sound better by throwing random drivers without doing any acoustical measurements and having some knowledge of speaker design are low. Before you do that, I would look on eBay to see if anyone is selling parts from your exact model of speakers.

19

I do miss the days when I could walk into a Radio Shack and buy exact replacement speakers. Everything fit perfectly, mounting and terminals…5 minute job and I was back in business. A lot of my best, now blown, speakers were Radio Shack Optimus, some made in Korea, some made in Japan. The very best were made in Japan.

Shows how long ago that was. No Chinese.

I still don’t understand how my still unblown Magnavox set of speakers, made in the USA back in the mid 60’s, are still going strong. No wattage rating on them, but my teenage daughter back in the 70’s used to shake the house with them.

Relooking at that site I can see this is going to be a bit difficult. Do like the prices though.

20

I feel like I’ve wandered into an alternate dimension. Tandy has never, ever made or even stocked decent audio equipment, especially speakers. They stock many good small components, adapters, cables (if you ignore their attempts at making Monster Cables), etc. Small, handy electrical things. But not actual macro-sized receivers or speakers. Any speaker found in a Radio Shack since ever was very likely crap.