CHANGSTAR: Audiophile Headphone Reviews and Early 90s Style BBS
Lobby => Speakers => Topic started by: Donald North on April 20, 2015, 02:44:15 AM
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While in high school in 1989 I started my hunt for my first pair of high end speakers. Originally I was leaning towards the Celestion DL-8 sold at The Guys Guys in the Bay Area. I was a pretty good 8 inch two way at a reasonable price, I think around $500 for the pair. While reviewing all of the speakers they had on display I migrated first towards the SL6Si, a higher end 6.5" two-way. They sounded even better to me and then I heard their SL12Si, which added a second 6.5" woofer in a 2.5-way configuration. These were significantly more than the DL-8, around $1600 for the pair.
I continued auditioning speakers and remember a visit to The Audible Difference in Palo Alto, which at the time, was a true high end store including on display the giant Infinity IRS Vs. While at The Audible Difference they brought in for audition some B&W Matrix monitors which sounded awful - I remember my mom commented that she thought they sounded like a tin can. I also tried and disliked the Vandersteen 2C. Then they brought the Spendor SP1, which were very close to the Celestion SL12Si in sound quality, especially in the midrange and treble. I grew up playing the clarinet in the school band and knew how acoustic instruments should sound and used this as an internal reference. I didn't like its ported bass as much as the sealed bass from the Celestions, even though the Spendors had more bass extension.
Using all the money I had earned with my newspaper route, I chose and bought the SL12Sis and enjoyed them for a few years until I upgraded to their model 700 Special Editions. I then sold the SL12Si to a classmate in college. Years later once I began designing and building my own speakers, I regretted this decision and have been trying to find a replacement pair. It appears not many were sold and they rarely are available on the used market. Those which do usually have dented tweeters and/or cracked woofer surrounds.
Last week a pair became available in what looked to be good condition and most importantly no damage to the drivers. I just received them yesterday and look forward to trying them this week and compare to the Sequences. No doubt the speakers aged some, as have I, and tastes change/evolve.
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Size comparison photo attached
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I remember the Celestion SL series back in the day. I still have the boxes to my first speakers, an 6 1/2" Infinity. Got them at Pacific Stereo near Rainbow Records in San Jose. Those kinds of places don't exist anymore.
(http://fusionanomaly.net/boogienightstk421fourmorequads.jpg)
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Yeah, there was many good stereo stores in the Bay Area then including DB Audio in Berkeley and Western Audio in Mountain View/Palo Alto on El Camino.
I love that scene in Boogie Nights: the TK421 modification which adds a few quads per channel :)p13
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Thank you for sharing, Donald. I didn't know you lived around here in the 80s :). I remember asking my dad to take me into those stores as a kid and him replying "we can't afford anything in there."
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I started my adventure with a pair of Mission 770s. These days Mission is mostly a mediocre Brit-Fi budget brand, but they did some interesting stuff for awhile. Their moonshot was a speaker called the Pilastro, which was a 340lb, $35,000 beast.
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZwW3v574zuw/UXFuzgIsy7I/AAAAAAAAA4U/miSI2yTG2FM/s400/mission+770+freedom+side.JPG)