Reluctantly listing for sale a beautiful pair of hand-built floorstanding speakers, Condor Acoustic Design SC-3.
These speakers were acquired from the original owner, who purchased them sometime in the 90's for $10K for the pair. I originally thought, "Come on, $5K apiece? Maybe $5K for the pair, but not apiece." More on that later... When I received them, the ribbon tweeter were ripped in half and did not work, and the woofers were in need of a refoam job. I took a gamble and bought them, not knowing if the ribbon tweeters were salvageable, or if a suitable replacement was available.
Well, I lugged them home and got them inside and listened to them for a while quietly (didn't want to damage the woofers). I started pulling the drivers to see what they were made of. They consist of an Audax 12" woofer, high-end Focal mid-range, and probably the sweetest part, a Raven R1 ribbon tweeter (Tweeter - Raven R1, Midrange - Focal 7V313,
Woofer - Audax PR330M0). In case you don't know, Raven produces arguably the best high-frequency transducers in the world, and has won numerous awards. Their ribbons use extremely strong and large neodymium magnets and pure aluminum ribbons (no aluminum etched onto mylar here). They are also used in TOTL speakers from Aerial Acoustics (20T) and Verity Audio (Sarastros).
The crossovers are equally as impressive, featuring Solen inductors, Aeon caps and resistors, and are quite beefy. The low and mid/high frequency crossovers are separate, and are both mounted on plexiglass bases, isolated from the speaker cabinets. The speakers have dual-binding posts for biamping or biwiring. The cabinets are constructed extremely well, and are very "dead." I estimate each speaker weighs somewhere in the realm of 150 pounds.
I began to believe that these speakers did, in fact, cost $10K for the pair when new. I found that Condor Acoustics was a small operation in Georgia that had a small product line of extremely high-quality, hand-built speakers. They used cutting-edge components (ie - Raven ribbon tweeters), combined with well-designed crossovers and cabinets, to produce some truly fantastic speakers.
So after all that exploring, I decided they were worth restoring. I brought the woofers to Midwest Speaker Repair to let them work their magic. I also cut/installed new ribbons to exact Raven specifications (OEM replacements are available for $50). I decided that the greasy-looking polyurethane finish just wouldn't do, so set into the task of refinishing the cabinets. To make a long story short, I have about 100 hours of work into refinishing the speakers, between stripping the polyurethane, removing the stain, prepping the veneer and applying many coats of tung oil. The finished product is something I am quite proud of, and I think the pictures speak for themselves.
The finished product not only looks better than before, but sounds fantastic. They must be heard to understand. Why am I selling? My Sony SS-M9ED's fit better into my living room, and I simply have not the funds nor the space to keep every speaker that I love. Local sale only, I do not want to deal with shipping these behemoths. Speakers are located in the Twin Cities, MN.
Asking price is $2500.
