Saturday, March 17, 2012

Just arrived. Three pairs of speakers.

Yesterday, when I wrote:
Lots of speaker madness coming soon, especially if you like Mission, I was expecting the ones I have, and another pair, that arrived with dead tweeters and went immediately back the way they came. I wasn't expecting the other new arrivals so soon, and I'm very excited.

I have a pair of Mission 707s, for the first time in 3 years. They're made in England, 2 way 8 inch systems. The new pair are black, were refoamed last year by Frank at The Speaker Shop, and sound great. This is one of my favorite Missions, and I'll have more to say soon.
I've wanted to a pair of Celestion SL-6s into my space for a very long time, and it's happened! This is an original pair, with copper tweeters and black stained veneer cabinets. The SL6 has drivers developed with Celestions laser-based vibration analysis measurement system, revolutionary when they were introduced in 1981. Here's a recent reassessment from HiFI News. I'm excited to check them out, and am expecting the Marantz 1152DC to drive them with authority.
I also have a pair of Bose 800s, pro speaker systems built into old school rock and roll tour roadcases. Remove the tops and you're faced with 8 of the same cloth surround 5 inch, full range drivers as in the 901s I had last year. In fact they look just like that, but there isn't a single driver on the other side. I know all 16 drivers are working, and expect they'll need an equalizer, or to have equalization applied. I have to solder some cables for them, because they only accept 1/4 inck mono jacks, but I think they're going to be fun.

2 comments:

Dave said...

I just re-foamed a friends mission 707's exactly as the the ones pictured. Alone they sound good but side by side by the 770 freedom 5's the vifa td 19 tweeter is very fatiguing. The two together with a Rotel RA 840bx amp at half volume created a very loud sound stage that almost concussed the body cavity. Both speakers have a very high SPL but the 707's tweeters sounded very harsh at high volumes.

Neil Hallworth said...

The SL6s will sound very detailed, particularly for their time, but don't partner them with anything remotely bright sounding further up the chain...