Found a new vintage store here in town and need input

[BigMac]

I found a store that just opened up that has TONS of vintage equipment and is the only store like it in Richmond (some gear was in great condition and some in crap condition). This guy had stuff stacked to the ceiling in almost every square foot of space available. I spent about an hour looking through what I could see but I still have a few more hours of looking to get through the rest. I looked around online for info. on these items but was wondering if any of you have experience with these or owned them? Here is what I had space to write down on the back of his business card to research.

-Luxman amp M-113
-Onkyo amp A-8190
-Marantz 1060 and a receiver I think that was Model 24
-Sansui receiver 8080DB
-Sherwood amp S-6040
-DCM TimeFrame 350
-JSE Infinite Slope speakers (from what I gathered looking them up I believe they are the .6. Was a 2 way speaker, had no model # anywhere on the speaker.

[thuffman03]

I have a friend that has the same type of buisness. He has tons of amps and preamps. Lots of Carver, Adcom, Sansui, and a lot of other's. Every time I go to his shop I get an itch to make a change to my systems.

I have gotten most of my equipment from him and it has cost me a lot less than trying to get it off of eBay and he will works with his customers to make sure everything is working. I bet your guy will be likewise.

[BigMac]

Well, I guess nobody had the pieces I mentioned in my first post so I will just have to audition them myself when I have the time if they are still available.

I hope someone has heard these and offers an opinion. I am looking to upgrade everything in my system over the next few months but I will do it slowly 1 piece at a time and research the heck out of everything. Here is a pair of speakers that just came available on my local CL and I remember hearing a pair before and liking them (I think.....was a long time ago,lol). Anyone ever have these or hear them and can offer an opinion on them? How would they compare to the monitor 10b? Are they worth $425.00 a pair?

Allison model 9 speakers.
http://666kb.com/i/b5fup9jydjtwuqmsw.jpg
http://666kb.com/i/b5fupk6vfsu088els.jpg

[lakesailor]

The Allison CD series was a nice line of speakers from the legend himself; Roy Allison. Build quality was very good for the era; and the had a very innovative design (downfiring woofer on the CD9) with a very advanced (albeit ugly looking) tweeters

The cabinets alone are real oak and they are definitely a nice speaker. $ 425 is getting up there in price…make certain the woofers were re-foamed recently for that kind of money (and yes the CD series did use foam surrounds)

If the woofers are not re-foamed I would $ 350 tops. It’s a different sound to the Polks of that era; but fairly dynamic and enjoyable. Not quite as much low end as most of the Polks; but very impressive in the mids-highs and also a very good imaging speaker.

[BigMac]

Hi. Thank you very much for your reply. Very informative and to the point which is nice. Here is what the owner has to say in his CL post.....
I've got 2 pairs of these - 2 in Oak finish and 2 in Walnut. I recently replaced the subwoofer foam in all 4 speakers. The oak finished speakers have hardly any wear and tear, but the Walnut ones have some wear on the edges and on the top (some stains). They can all be fixed if you know what you're doing. These are the nicest loudspeakers you'll probably ever hear. Retailed for $4500 per pair in the mid 80s. They were handed down to me by original owner. They come in the original boxes with original grills. All grills are good enough to still be used. A few have some cracks, but they are hardly noticeable at all.



Still waiting for a reply as I want to listen to these. I did read a lengthy article about Roy Allison's thoughts on speakers. Here is the part of the article that struck me the most.


I had emphasized dispersion in order to re-create as best I could the performance-hall ambience. I don't want to put up with a sweet spot, and I'd rather have less dramatically precise imaging but a close simulation of what you hear in a concert hall in terms of envelopment. For that, you need reverberant energy broadcast at very wide angles from the loudspeakers, so the bulk of the energy has a chance to do multiple reflections before it reaches your ear. I think pinpoint imaging has to do with synthetically generated music, not acoustic music—except perhaps for a solo instrument or a solo voice, where you might want fairly sharp localization. For envelopment, you need widespread energy generation.



I'm looking forward to listening to these after reading what made him tick. Going to take some music I know VERY well and listen for a bit. Who knows, I may hate the sound but then again from what I remember from my past is that I liked the sound. Of course, I liked the sound of crappy boom boxes back then as well. Only time will tell.

[lakesailor]

Hi. Thank you very much for your reply. Very informative and to the point which is nice. Here is what the owner has to say in his CL post.....

Still waiting for a reply as I want to listen to these. I did read a lengthy article about Roy Allison's thoughts on speakers. Here is the part of the article that struck me the most.



I'm looking forward to listening to these after reading what made him tick. Going to take some music I know VERY well and listen for a bit. Who knows, I may hate the sound but then again from what I remember from my past is that I liked the sound. Of course, I liked the sound of crappy boom boxes back then as well. Only time will tell.


Roy Allison was a fairly innovative thinker. He was one of the first to realize that speakers in your home would sound dramatically different than they would in the sound room. He took a fair amount of time to research the effects of standing waves on furniture and other room contents. Ultimately he claimed that the various absorptions and reflections from room acoustics (i.e. contents) could really alter the sound; especially with lower frequencies.

The reason why Allison used either down firing (in the case of the CD9) and up firing (in the case of the CD 6, CD 7 and CD8) was because he reasoned that the projected sound area in between these woofers and the floor/ceiling would have the best odds of equally undisturbed projection area (i.e. less odds of one front firing woofer being obstructed by having a couch placed in front of it) and the tweeters/mids would placed front firing for maximum dispersion and imaging.

In addition Allison speakers were portless so much like the Polk’s of that era; the bass remained very tight; although Allison did not use passive radiators like Polk did; hence why they had less bass response overall than the Polks of that era did. Many disagree with me on this point; however my personal opinion is that the Polk SDA/RTA and Monitor series of that era had some of the most accurate; tightest bass around. Very under-rated in my view. The upside for the Allsion’s is that the design approach if not anything else made the Allsion’s a far more forgiving speaker with respect to proper placement. This was great for difficult rooms.

I also think that the tweeters were very advanced as well; as I recall they were nipple shaped copper clad aluminum and used barium magnets. They were very effective and great at imaging.

Also keep in mind that Allison designed these speakers in the mid 80’s specifically for the new “digital” era – i.e. for CD’s; hence why they were called the CD series. For whatever reason they were not a very enjoyable speaker to listen t0o on analog material; but awesome on digital. I think Allison gave up on them because they were costing 2x as much to build as his competitors products. Good to hear the one’s you are looking at have been re-foamed; they will be worth playing with and I say go for it. P.S. The Walnut versions were very rare.

[BigMac]

I just got back from listening to them for about 1 1/2 hours with all different types of music. Everything from classical to heavy metal was played. When I first started listening I felt something was missing, then I started playing with the switches on the back for the mids and highs. It made a difference for sure but I still felt like something was missing. While listening to songs I know very well there were parts of songs that were missing all together. I thought that maybe I was not in the sweet spot (habit) but then I remembered these speakers do not have a sweet spot. So I moved the speakers closer together and then further apart and closer to the wall then further away. No matter what I did they sounded pretty much the same.

The highs were clear but were missing that overall detail I am use to. Especially with cymbals and the decay of sound. It was like the music was there one second and gone the next. No subtle decay at all. The mids sounded pretty good but always seemed to be kinda muddy (and yes they had proper amplification-150 wpc). Almost to much of a laid back sound imo. The bass was controlled and punchy to a point but then it became really boomy at louder listening levels. I could not hear the subtle differences on drum parts that I am use to. Hard to put into words really as I am no audiophile with fancy descriptive words, but needless to say I wanted more. I can see where you could have long listening sessions without fatigue and have an overall pleasant experience but for some like myself I was left wanting more sound to come from these speakers.

I guess the best way to sum up my experience is that they sounded only average to me. Nothing special and nothing really stood out for me to reconsider buying them for even half the price. I really wanted to like the sound they put out more, but no matter what song I was listening to it always seemed like it was in mono vs stereo.....if that analogy makes any sense. I kept wanting them to open up more and present a more involving soundstage. Was fun while I was there and the guy was very nice but I had to pass this time around.

[Dennis Gardner]

I would wait for a pair of Allison One or Twos with dual 10s or 8s. Great vintage tower models that really exhibit the best RA had to offer in full range models.

[lightman1]

Hey BigMac, where in Richmond is this store? PM me with the address. Might come up check it out next weekend?

Thanks and sorry for the derail..carry on.
Russ

[GV#27]

Roy Allison was a fairly innovative thinker. He certainly was, he took into consideration how the speaker interfaced with the room.Most of his designs where meant to be placed against the back wall.Alternatively he placed the woofers close to the floor thus eliminating a notch in the upper bass /lower midrange caused by foor/wall reflections that plauged most other speakers.(It is aptly named the Allison effect)

I also think that the tweeters were very advanced as well; as I recall they were nipple shaped copper clad aluminum and used barium magnets. They were very effective and great at imaging.Yes their uniquely shaped dome gave them very good off axis dispersion capabilities.IIRC the domes were made of textile material.

[BigMac]

Hey BigMac, where in Richmond is this store? PM me with the address. Might come up check it out next weekend?

Thanks and sorry for the derail..carry on.
Russ

Hi lightman. I'll just post it here for all to see so if any other Polkies are in the area they can stop by as well. No problem going off topic, I could care less. The more people that chime in about equipment,speakers,accessories the better.....I learn more that way,lol. If you do come up let me know and maybe we can meet up. Just a heads up for ya though, it's in a very ummm, well, not so good an area. I was surprised for sure. There is so much vintage equipment I felt like a kid in a candy store. Would be cool to meet another Polkie here in Richmond since it seems like this town is all about chain stores and not the good stuff. There are only 2 other higher end stores in town as well but they are within 10-15 minutes of each other. Get back to me and let me know if ya want to meet up.

Here is the store info.

Stereo Pit
2617 Midlothian Turnpike
Richmond,Va. 23224

[BigMac]

Yes their uniquely shaped dome gave them very good off axis dispersion capabilities.IIRC the domes were made of textile material.

Very cool speakers to take a peek at and listen to. Only thing I did not like visually was the grey metal looking stand that kept them upright. Very odd to look at since the rest of the speaker was wood. The grill for the tweeter and midrange reminded of a 6x9 speaker,lol. I can say one thing though, they are heavier than they look for a speaker of that small size. They were about as tall as the monitor 10s but only 2/3 as wide. Very well built btw.

[GV#27]

Very odd to look at since the rest of the speaker was wood. Yeah Im not fussy on their looks either.
The grill for the tweeter and midrange reminded of a 6x9 speaker,lol. I thought the same when seeing them in print ads back in the day.