Hi - my name is Joe. I have been interested in audio for as long as I can remember - since I was a young child back when we had some kind of (RCA?) all in one "box" record player with tubes and a turntable and a speaker (this was in the 60's).
From there, my parents purchased a solid-state Magnavox AM/FM receiver with matching (fake wood grain about 5" tall) small, sealed speakers that utilized 4" full range drivers, along with a plastic Garrard turntable. That system got TONS of use and it sounded GREAT - good bass, full range clarity and imaging and smoothness, nice highs. Dad listened to the local "beautiful music” station "WMT 96.5 FM” (stereo) in Cedar Rapids, IA. Bob Naujoks was one of the voices that I remember. That I think was the first FM stereo station in the area, and it sounded great. This was in the early 70's. Bob Naujoks is still around and has a show on KCCK FM (Iowa’s Jazz Station) in Cedar Rapids!
I remember being enamored with other full range sealed speakers - there was a "Wollensak" reel to reel machine with built in power amp and speakers that also used 4" full range drivers in sealed sub-enclosures that sounded excellent that my Dad would bring home from the College that he worked at (Drama / Theater teacher). They used that Wollensak (see photo) to drive a pair of full range column speakers (like Bozak or something) and play sound effects through – those also were full range and sounded quite good.
Also more full range stuff – the American cars back then had nice full range drivers in the dash that sounded really good.
Dad also listened to tons of Original Cast recordings such as "Jesus Christ Superstar", "A Chorus Line", etc, etc, etc at that time and us kids had real vinyl pressings (!) of Beatles and Paul McCartney albums, Janis Joplin, Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers, Sonny and Cher, etc, etc. I was probably around 10 or so at the time...
Lots of friends when I was a kid had parents with cool systems. BIG HUGE Mono speakers being driven by tube integrated amps, AR and KLH speakers being driven by (I can't remember). Large Advents being driven by Marantz 1070's etc. All glorious – listened to things like “Ramsey Lewis – The In Crowd”, early Loggins, Joanie Mitchel, etc, etc.THEN - the mid to late 70's. Stereo stores were EVERYWHERE in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City - "The Stereo Shop" (had tons of stuff, from a back room with BIG Magnepans (MGII or III?) being driven by Audio Research power, Sony El Cassette decks, Polk Audio, a wall of speakers that I don’t remember), "Team Electronics" (tons of stuff – Bose 901’s Classic JBL cube foam grill speakers, Sansui amps and receivers, awesome cool looking wood grain Pioneer Turntables, Huge Pioneer “receiver wars” receivers (that are still around and highly coveted, etc, etc), "Photo and Stereo" carried ADS loudspeakers which were REALLY COOL and Marantz, "The Audio Room" (one room had a "moonrise" full wall wallpaper mural, a Klipsch horns with McIntosh power and turntable sitting on a stack of cinder blocks then extended through the floor in the listening room as ended on the cement basement floor, track lighting, dark woowalls, etc), another room had Dalquist DQ-10s (I have a pair of those) driven by the cool dark bronzish colored (as I remember) Yamaha power amp and preamp of the time with huge incandescent lamp back lit meters) - Paul Klipsch came to give a talk there at least one (I went to one of them), "Audio Odyssey" (Vandersteen, Boston Acoustics, Adcom etc), "Advanced Audio" (Infinity speakers (so cool), tweaky British turntables – Connoisseur, etc, etc.
In High School and college, car stereos, ran PA systems for live sound for my brothers band then ended up building and renting systems to local live music clubs with my brother – built a few big horned loaded systems (I was the speaker guy) utilizing things like JBL 2” throat compression drivers (2441s with 2445 diaphragms were my favorite), horn loaded dual 12” mids and JBL double scoops or giant arrays of multiple cheap 15” woofers in big boxes for bass, did multiple home brew speakers. I bought a pair of Dalquist DQ-10s in there somewhere. Later bought a pair on Magnepan MMGs (still have both).
Now, my MMGs bass panel wires have delaminated, they sound like a stretched piece of mylar (they ring), but sometimes they sound really good with an "arresting" quickness and realness that litterly take my breath away and brings tears to my eyes. I have been trying to figure out what to spend some $$ on next. There is sadly NOWHERE to spend money on hifi stuff around here any more… Wanting to do some kind of dipole thing with maybe a bunch of 10” woofers and JBL2414H-1 compression drivers on a JBL horn or maybe like a GRS ribbon (poor man’s Neo 3 like GR Research uses in the NX-Ottica) on a waveguide like what he does. Seems like a JBL horn/driver would be pretty interesting (this would be a offshoot of the “Econowave” – but a dipole instead. I am a bit worried that nothing will be able to do what the Magenpans do, but maybe they will do it better??
