The Tragic Death of Iconic Hifi is Sad. What Went Wrong
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.พ. 2025
- Iconic Speaker companies like ADS, Advent, Infinity, and Boston Acoustics are loved. Why did they go away?
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Years ago my lovely neighbour Rita was forced to moved to a retirement home and could not take her large Boston A100,s she and her late husband bought new when they were young. She asked if we could trade because I had some Boston bookshelf speakers she liked. I’m proud to say I still have them today and play them all the time. I reconed them a dozen years ago with a kit I bought online and they hold up well. I power them with my NAD 2155 power amp I bought in 1984 overseas. I love the old equipment and all the sources I run through them, including instruments. I’ll keep them forever. Love and miss you Rita. Thanks for keeping this channel alive.
NAD and aDs also go well together. I have the massive NAD 208thx power amp gassing up a pair of large standmount aDs 910s.
I wish I could hear some of the BA loudspeakers, including the A100.
@@brucelindsay652 that is why they all went bankrupt
A nice story: Thank you.
I picked up a beautiful pair of 1st gen A100 around 7 years ago at a Goodwill for $15. Awesome speakers for what they are. Last year I got another pair of 2nd gens for another $15. Both were already re-foamed too. I'd never replace my Kappa's with them, but I'll always be on the lookout for a deal on A150's or 200's. Not to mention I can never pass up a cheap pair of the smaller A series. I fave a few. I also have a sickness, I guess.
What went wrong? People buying cheap audio, man.
oh, snap. Ouch!
@@MrLaserpowered in this day and age you can spend a lot less and still get awesome sound ......
I see what you did there
Soundbars
Look around friends who are married, who has downsized?
Can we ring those brands back and get rid of Bose
I'm 62 and I live in Massachusetts all those years and grew up in a town very near all these manufacturers. I've always been a huge audio fan and remember when ADS,Boston Acoustics,Snell,EPI,HH Scott,KLH,Advent and Bose were all built very close.
I miss my ADS L1290's from the mid 1980s
A😢_[] 2:43
I worked at Avid Corporation in 1978. Another East Coast player in audio. They got out of the home audio business in 1981. Eaten up by the competition who designed ported loudspeakers over sealed acoustic suspension designs. Deep bass was desired over fidelity.
And of course, Genesis. Look up Human Speakers, he makes modern EPI/Genesis speakers
@@rancosteel I moved into a house and I was cleaning out the garage and found a pair of avid. I used to use them with my pioneer sx 650.
New England produced a number of brands. So did the west coast. They were great speakers that focused on different sound characteristics and buyers. I've owned several models of Genesis Physics over the past 45 years and still have the 66's I bought when the company folded in mid-late 80s. They were blood relatives of EPI and a few other brands from the region.
Great episode!
I was going to school in upstate NY in 1979. we took a greyhound bus to NYC and bought stereo gear at a HiFi shop in the CIty. I bought a Sansui G6000 for 360 bucks, a JVC KD85 tape deck for 360 bucks and some 3 way 12 inch woofer EGO branded speakers for 350 bucks . I played that stuff to death for 25 years. I still have all of it. we brought all the stereo gear back to campus in the bottom of the greyhound bus. a buddy of mine bought a complete system that was above mine at the same time. what a trip.
@@bigd835 sounds like crazy eddy or battling Barry’s
Early on I was a big fan of bright boomy sound. 12" or more bass speakers and horns to get a lot of sound from lower powered equipment. Made many speakers and used them for my sound company. After hearing the smoothness and clarity of ADS speakers I bought my first pair and have been hooked ever since. My final pair are ADS L-710's along with a SW-4 subwoofer. Most of the time I just use the 710's alone. Speaking of car audio, I had Infinity Kappa series speakers with Emit ribbon tweeters for my mains and Cerwin Vega subs in my 86 Mustang using Alpine electronics. I have strayed to B&W, Klipsch, Celestion, Yamaha, Cerwin Vega, Sony SSCS5 (your recommendation, My daughter loves them) and others. Have always come back to my ADS. Big expensive component stereos with large speakers are dinosaurs now. The 710's seem big to most people who see them. Young people just use a Bluetooth speaker if not using ear buds. Modern tech and Amazon have changed audio. As an older guy, I can see just like the smaller niche brands and independent stereo stores, Audiophiles will continue to fade away...
I remember when all these companies were independent . Once they were bought, they were ruined. I started buying stereo gear in the mid-seventies when I got my first job.
Nakamichi used to be an elite brand. In more recent years, I've seen their cheap products along the supermarket checkout lines. Same goes for Polaroid, Kodak, Koss, etc.
Nakamichi is in name only. Not the same company. They try to ride on the coattails of the real Nakamichi.
@bobk3840 A Lame Chinese company owns them now. PASS but fantastic audio equipment back in 80s and 90s .
Man.. I work at a car audio store and during covid with the supply chain issues and the DAC factory fires we had major issues getting head units. We brought in some Nakamichi stuff from another dealer just to have something to offer. I'm an installer and omg.. its just complete trash. I'm old and coming from the brand in the 80s and early 90s both home and car it's just sad.
Even their late 90s products starting to be overpriced junk
I've been collecting ADS speakers for 5 or 6 years. Currently I own l570, l710, l780, l880, l1590 and l1230. Without question my favorite speakers. Neutral but never dull. Still on the hunt for l980 and l1530...
Ah I miss my old Sansui with the 15 inch Speakers. My friends could tell 2 blocks away when I was having a party!
After Harmon acquired Infinity in the late 80’s , they ran it, year after year, further into the ground. They sold consumer level, poorly constructed, junk by the mid 90’s. By the time the dolts destroyed the legendary brand, they decided to do car audio. Only us old guys remember how great they were. Still have my RSIIIb ‘s from 1985, woofers refoamed and crossovers recapped. Sound fabulous.
I have a pair of Prelude MTS circa 2000 and they're among the best speakers I've ever heard. However, you're right most of their stuff turned into mass market crap.
Infinity was one of the most advanced and greatest brands there ever was, prior to being sold to Harman.
The Kappa series (200, 400, 600) from around 2005 were decent good looking speakers.
I put a pair of Infinity 693.9i 6x9 3 way speakers in my dearly missed Tacoma back in the 90s. They were awesome sounding coaxial speakers, by car speaker standards at least, that rocked that old truck (combined with some “super tweeters” located roughly head height behind the driver for reasons known only to Toyota..).
@@36karpatoruski infinity car audio has been a thing since the 80s and use to be one of the kings of that segment, they pretty much just became rebadged JBL by 2012
Re: Boston Acoustics car stereo, In 2002, I replaced all speakers in my Mini Cooper S with Boston Acoustics Speakers. Easily the best car audio system I’ve ever heard. 22 years later, still the best I’ve ever experienced and heard. Laugh all you want, the speakers are just amazing.
Yes, at that time BA and MB Quart were the bomb, I've heard some amazing BA-based car systems at IASCA shows and the like. I will say, however, that car audio equipment from that time period was overpriced and under-quality compared to what is available now (I was a mobile audio installer in the 90's). For instance, Alpine R-Series is an affordable line of modern speakers that destroys the old guard, and the quality only goes up as you move into focal, hertz, etc...
Not laughing, honestly kinda jelly.
My company distributed Boston in the UK (when DNM bought Boston out their CEO became our CEO) and I drove their Cooper S demo car from time to time - the best part of the system in that car was the HF tweeters that went at the top of the windscreen, not much output and only for the really high stuff but lifted the image out of the dashboard to your eyeline, was a great set-up. I wasn't so keen on the neons flanking the underside of the car mind you, a little too unsubtle for my tastes. :D
I still have a of pro series 6.5 separates and four pro series 10 inch subs ; along with two pairs of JBL carbon fiber 6×9 speakers in my Scout ll. Old school pioneer super tuner lll, alpine 9 band EQ, and soundstream amps still bangs.
Randy I have a long background in audio starting in the 70s. I have probably sold more home audio than anyone on the planet, indirectly of course. The old brands are worthless. Soundbars and Sonos is the death of real hi fi listening. Imagine trying critical listening on an Alexa speaker. And these hideous single party speakers with lights? Garbage. The problem is rock and roll died in 2012 according to Rick Beato and he is right. People just don’t sit and listen to good music anymore. I have shown my nieces and nephews real hi fi and while they are blown away they don’t want to clutter up their homes with decent speakers that take up too much space. Look at Ricks latest with Luke to understand how we used to listen to music.
Yep these kids don't appreciate the stuff
Ironically enough, 3 of the biggest American rock bands, Van Halen, KISS, and Aerosmith, all released their final albums in 2012
@@justanaverageguytoday Rock died before 2012.
Rock is far from dead. There is more amazingly good, rock, hard rock and metal being released all the time (from all over the world) than I can keep up with.
The last old school hi fi store in my city closed recently. They had trouble selling speakers/amps/receivers...etc the last few years. Sound bars, and cheap TVs don't pay the bills.
R.I.P. Cambridge SoundWorks
Have been using one of their "Soundworks" satellite speaker systems on my desktop for many years now .....
@@72vespa I have the Ensemble II's...
Had some of the Tower II's, wish I'd never sold them. But I have the Model 88 radio, bought in 1998 or 99, that fills the living room with great sound at low volumes. A Wiim "hockey puck" feeds it.
I am surprised you did not mention Dynaco. The wildly popular A-25 with a 10-inch woofer and soft dome tweeter were the speaker to get not only because they sounded great but they were very affordable. Dynaco also produced excellent amplifiers and preamplifiers, which were available in kit form for a reduced cost to the consumer.
The Dyna A-35 was the one to have! plenty of experience with it, and the A-25) the A-50 sucked, the A-10 was one of the first "cute little speakers) All worked on an "Aperiodic" (meaning they never hung up in resonant cabinet mode.
One classic speaker manufacturer that came back is Cerwin Vega. Would be nice if your reviewed some of their new speakers, Randy. (hint hint, they are affordable!)
Randy, maybe a mention should be given to Acoustic Research and their legendary AR3a model, the forerunner of sealed box air-suspension design.
And how he and Henry Kloss built the first air suspension speaker - the AR1. Kloss then set up KLH, then Advent, Kloss Video & Cambridge Sound Works. Andy Petite (later Kosatos) and Frank Reed both left Advent to found Boston Acoustics. Tom Holman known later for THX with Lucas films, started his audio career at Advent, the same week I started work there under Frank Reed.
ADS are my favorite speakers and they sound excellent hooked up to my Marantz 2238B, I have the 2- way L570/2 and the 3-way L780/2 bookshelf speakers, both have a single 8" woofer and metal screen grilles.
I have 710s and 780s. They are fantastic.
The problem many of these companies is that once they're acquired, the company's focus on innovation and passion is lost. Instead, lead by bean counting and cost savings to drive profits. Once the company is used up, it is then killed off as waste. Now, all that is left is the name once, remembered for something special.
you are spot on
And this is when a company in the industry acquires them, private equity buying out a company is way worse.
sounds like what happens to gaming companies
has pioneer maintained quality now that denon owns them? denon is still a decent name. i have a pioneer AVR from 2005 and it still cranks decently, atleast for a modern AVR. that was produced before they sold
Look what happened to Polk and Bowers Wilkins and dozens of other brands. Made in China and inflated prices.
I used to sell Boston Acoustics speakers in the early 1980's and actually met founder Andy Kotsatos (known as Andy Petite), great guy. The early 80's were the golden age of high fidelity and Boston Acoustics didn't disappoint. Their speaker line at the time were the A-150, A-100, A-70 (my favorite!), A-60 and the A-40. Match them up with a Thorens turntable with a Grado phono cartridge and a Harmon Kardon receiver ...... sonic bliss! You couldn't keep them in stock. A great speaker line. RIP.
Tons of stores back then.
Even Macys sold decent stuff
Dual 1229 was great, but the Thoren's TD160 (or was it the 124?) with the SME 3009 piece de resistance. Nothing beat the Transcriptor Hydraulic Reference (the Clockwork Orange Movie) for looks!. Later became JA Michelle (and then there was the "Oracle" TT
I owned a pair of ADS L910s in the 70s. I bought them on consignment as I worked in a hi-fi store. There were three plug-in cards you could choose from to make the crossover full passive, bi-amp or tri-amp with an external active crossover. I had a tri-amped set-up. Also had a set of ADS car-fi speakers. I also had a APT-Holman preamp. Tomlinson Holman worked for Advent Corporation before going solo. He designed an Advent receiver that was intended to drive the Advent Larger speakers. It had a very good FM tuner built in. But one of the features was that you could decouple the pre-amp from the built-in 30 Watt per channel RMS amp. The preamp section was so good because it had a built-in low-frequency filter that blocked subsonic vibrations from the turntable and effectively improving the ability of an amplifier to never waste power attempting to reproduce frequencies lower than 15 Hz. Many people bought the receiver to use it as a pre-amp with many people comparing the sound to a high-end tube pre-amp. Holman left Advent to form APT- Holman. Their first product was a pre-amp designed as an advancement of the Advent pre-amp section. I met Thomas Holman at the hi-fi store where I worked and purchased one of the first-gen APT-Holman pre-amps. I was not disappointed. Interesting fact: Tomlinson Holman who was an MIT-educated engineer sold APT to Phase Linear who came out with a pre-amp that incorporated Holman's technology along with Phase Linear's "auto-correlation plus peak unlimiter and downward expansion" that they had marketed separately as an addon for noise reduction. It used harmonic gates that opened upon the circuit detecting an associated fundamental tone. Everything that was not in the fundamental or harmonic windows was suppressed to near zero. The only white noise that passed through was whatever appeared within the opened windows. Effectively the tech suppressed about 70 to 80% of the white noise introduced from the surface noise of a record. The downward expansion and peak unlimiter elements reversed the compression curve that RIAA standards required to diminish the surface area that lower frequencies would take up on records. This allowed LPs to contain more music (up to 23 or so minutes per side) despite having a decent amount of bass. Holman took his money from the sale of APT and started the sonic engineering company called THX, licensing its tech first to Lucas Films.
3:55:
Car audio was limited to 12-13.8 volts or below. The DC to DC switching power source (Now we call it DC to DC converter) provided a way to jack up the voltage which provides more flexibility powering amplifiers and enabled driving higher impedance speakers or more speakers in series.
Randy in Germany Braun makes everything and I’ve noticed that everything is made extremely well. They are the main electrical company for anything in Germany from washing machines to music and most of their stuff last forever..
@@terryhu57 When did you see that. Today Braun makes products for personal care, like the famous shavers. All the other products that are named Braun are made by other companies that are licensed to use the Braun name. B.t.w. Braun nowadays is owned by Proctor & Gamble. The former development and production of hifi equipment was made by Braun Electronics, that was founded by the Braun company. Braun Electronics does no longer exists. A shame, they made some great products that had a wonderful design.
@ I guess things change. I lived in Darmstadt in the eighties
I liked Carver amplifiers until the board kicked out the founder and cheapened the products
I believe that on line buying is a lot to blame. This may be well and fine for well established listeners, but without stores that offer listening demonstrations to new young music lovers there can be very little growth.
I remember when Advent chose to go the car audio route. Their products were featured in a couple Crutchfield magazines, and I even saw their demo vehicle at a car audio show, but they were the little fish in a big pond, and their whole car audio line quickly faded away.
I found a pair of ADS L810 speakers in my living room! They have been there since the early 1980's with the original stands. A friend had a pair of L910's in the '80's, they were amazing. Back in the day I even had the ADS time delay system.
Braun the razor company was the same as the razor company. They also made TVs and kitchen appliances
Advent invented the first large-screen projection television in 1970. It was called The Advent VideoBeam. It retailed for $3,000.00 equivalent to $24,402.45 in 2025. My uncle had one. I watched Steve McQuuen's last film from 1980 on it called The Hunter.
Great video. I am still rocking the Baby Advents I got in the late 1980s. They've lasted through college parties and live on with my vintage setup. To me, they still sound great.
Great piece. I’d do a video just on Henry Kloss. Had a pair of A70s for years. Great speakers and for a while BA really was great with parts support. Pitched em two years ago when they shorted out. 😊
Double Advents! Pure heaven.
IRS Infinity Reference Sysyem.
Arnie went to start Genises with Paul McGowan after Paul left his company PS Auduo. Arnie passed away and Paul bought back PS Audio. I follow him on YT.
All audio started as a cottage industry and still exists with other companies. Some sell to corporations and others get bought out by vulture capitalists where they trade on their name for a profit until they ruin the brand.
Marantz went down that road until Philips bought them and made it their premium brand. They are much better than they were, but not nearly the same as when Saul owned it.
ADS 810's are iconic large bookshelf speakers. Some of the tightest bass along with the dome midrange and tweeters provide clear, crisp and full-range sound. Their L1090, L1290 and L1590 are excellent. On top of those the 910's are suburb studio monitors. If you've never heard them you owe it do yourself to do so. The fact that the woofers used butyl rubber surrounds makes them outlast most vintage speakers if properly taken care of. Classics and one of the best. Factoring in price, probably outperform even current speakers costing 4x the current used prices. Highly recommended.
Cambridge Soundworks (another great brand of speakers founded by Henry Kloss) was bought by Creative Labs and they slowly became extinct. KLH (yet another Henry Kloss company, the "K" is a reference to his name) also died into obscurity after becoming synonymous with ultra-cheap audio but made a glorious return to its original audiophile form under new ownership.
It sounds like Henry starts companies for shits and giggles then forgets about them when he gets bored. As for Cambridge Soundworks, I remember them for their computer speakers. We had a set for our pc back in the 90's.
@@Slane583 He was a "start up" type person.
New idea / new design = new company.
Once established and successful he wanted to begin again.
AR -> KLH -> Advent
@ It looks like his strategy didn't work if all three of those companies are now defunct. Except for maybe KLH.
@@Slane583 All were extremely successful companies in their prime. Cambridge Soundworks was also one of the first (if not THE first) to have a direct-to-consumer website to order their products.
Great history lesson. I loved it.
Speaking of iconic, independent manufacturers, I would love to see you review a pair of the Ohm Walsh Tall series. Ohm is the only manufacturer besides McIntosh that maintains their legacy products and will answer the phone to talk through a purchase or issue. I think that this company deserves some support and a review.
Ohm speakers were/are amazing.
When they first came out I drove to NYC to listen and buy! unfortunately they wouldn’t fit in my Camaro. Went with Double Advents and a Dynaco pre and 400 power amp (actually the 410).
Hey Randy, great video man love the history of the various company. I did have a chance to experience some of the various companies products you listed. Had experience with many infinity home and car audio , Advent, and some early 80s ADSL 1290 speakers few years ago. They were very nice demanded power but nevertheless it was very nice sounding. Also had a chance to own and experience some of the old ADS power plate car amplifiers and ADS car component systems were very nice and hard to find. Always enjoy your video, keep up the great work being encouraged
Modern standards of quality in general and "quality sound" standards in particular are very low. Most of the people are ok with "Hi-Fi" sound coming out of their phones and BT speakers and those who really want nice audio equipment can not afford it.
Still have an old pair of Boston Acoustics A150s in my storage unit. They still have a certain big wooly sound that is very enjoyable.
I’m still rockin Boston 😎👍
No matter what other speakers I bring in (e.g. WD Super Lintons, Chartwell LS3/5, ZU DW, etc) I just always go back to me ADS L8/10s as my favorite speakers to listen to for long sessions.
ADS to this day are hard to beat in overall sound quality. They're detailed and airy sounding. Cymbals sound fantastic etc...
That why they go bankruptcy all😅
In the 1970's I installed high end car stereo and ADS was the best. We put sound dampening in the doors, trunk, etc and with many speakers+specialty amps, in the car we created audiophile for the day. (you got an AM radio or factory upgraded to Stereo!)
- Also In the 1970's the NASA Saturn program ended and thousands of engineers were unemployed. In high school, I worked summer in a pet shop owned by a guy that had worked on the moon lander.
- ESS Towers were huge and amazing in the 1970's
Thanks for this videos Randy. I have Boston A40 bookshelves.
I use them for rear speakers in my living room home theater set up.
This makes me want to set them up in my 2.1 stereo setup. Cheers!
root cause is the hi fi market shrunk. Lots of brands, not enough consumers wanting home HiFi sized equipment . Perhaps it was a generational thing that peaked in the 1980's. those of us old enough to remember mourn its passing.
Good video, thanks. I loved my Large Advent loudspeakers that I had when they were introduced. Very good frequency range, including deep base at an affordable price and they were efficient and easy to drive.
Before Henry Kloss founded Advent he was the "K" in KLH, a speaker company. Also, the phono section of the Advent receiver was a giant killer back in the day. It was designed by the famous Tomlinson Holman. Many people (me included) would pair it with a power amp and use it as a tuner/preamp.
Spot on! I have an Advent 300 I was just using last night, I also have the Apt Holman he went to create next which also has a killer phono stage.
Yup, facts!! I'll add, the L in KLH was James B Lansing and the H was Sidney Harman. But I'm sure John knew that.... I'll ask John a question, Advent really did not have an end game of making speakers, it was only to fund something else, can you tell the folks what that was?
@@sounddoctor5decadesYah, the Advent projection TV. My local "High End" store had one on display. Foe the time it was pretty impressive.
@@johntracy9398 Excellent!! I was a dealer at the time, thanks for remembering!! Also for most the stuff discussed in this clip....
@ At the time I had a Rabco ST-7 (?) turntable, Ortofon MC cat., Marshall Leach designed MC head amp as featured in Audio magazine, Advent 300, Quatre power amp and DCM Timewindow speakers.
In the seventies I bought BES speakers. Bertagni Electroacoustic Speakers, from Italy. Sound came from the back as well, but in one corner hidden in foam, there was a tweeter hidden, and that give only sound in one direction, not backwards. It looked like a surface of black foam held together by aluminium side panels. It's size was about 50 cm by 75 cm and it was approximately 12 cm thick. In the beginning I was really glad with them. I could hang attach them on the ceiling, leaving about 40 cm of space at the back. I guess I was 19 years old when I bought them, that is 48 years ago now. I still lived at my parents home. After a few years, when I moved to a house which we were able to buy, I sold them. I never heard of the brand ever after.
I just added a pair of ADS L520's to my living room system. Amazing speakers!
I had the ADS L710 version 2 in around 1984. I loved them! They were so good in fact, that one Saturday, when I was off working on our new church building, someone smashed my front door in and stole my whole stereo system and my TV.
Dude...condolences!
I purchased a pair of ADS L-810 series 2 in 1978. passed them down to my little brother about 7 to 8 years ago. He is still using them today.
I bought my large Advents from Tweeter Etc. on Comm Ave in Boston in 1979. They are in my living room now and still (after some refoaming and some new foam cabinet packing) sound wonderful. The crossover and tweeters have never been touched. I feed them the same vinyl that I played back in college via the same 1978 Kenwood KR 4070 receiver and a new Fluance 85. Vinyl bliss.
@@jemsmay2167 TWEETER ETC.. Now THERE'S a Name i haven't heard in a LONG LONG Time !!!!
I used to work in the Framingham store WAAAAYYYY back in the late 80s !!!! HOW I MISS THAT ERA OF
HI FI ☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️
Those of us who are old enough just KNOW How GREAT it was !!!!😁
I loved this and thank you for doing it. Here are a few others you might look into. Snell is one of them. Snell was a great brand and highly respected. Also NHT (Now Hear This). I had a few of their subwoofers. Another brand would be Bozak. My friends father worked for them. I remember going to his house in the mid 70's (I was around 16 at the time) and there in the living room was stand-alone wood cabinet with a speaker inside. That is my first memory of a subwoofer, I had never seen one or even knew of their existence. I also remember being so confused as to the benefit of having a supplemental speaker to ones you already own. I'm unsure if the subwoofer ever went into production, he was testing it out for evaluation from what I remember. Bozak also made mixers and other electronics.
Great video, what about Acoustic Research?
Henry Kloss started KLH and Cambridge SoundWorks as well as Advent.
I had my ADS car speakers stolen. I bet there's some methhead out there somewhere blasting Kid Rock through them.
I still use my Advent Jade towers, Baby Advent, Advent Marbl, Klipsch RW-12D subs, Cambridge Soundworks New Ensemble II, Cambridge Soundworks CenterStage Center Channel Speaker, they all sound great still today.
Harman Killed a lot of stunnishing brands like Infinity, AKG
I happily used a pair of ads l1230 speakers for over 40 years. A couple of years back one finally broke down and I was unable to repair it. Though I did valiantly attempt to do so swapping out woofers and calling local repair shops. Sadly, I threw in the towel and I'm now using a pair of over 20-year-old Bowers and Wilkins 705 original bookshelf speakers
@@lsaideOK what did you end up doing with your 1230’s?
@customconsult3045 I sold them on Facebook marketplace. Broke my heart but I really like the smaller footprint of the bookshelf speakers. I put an order in for the Buchardt e50s which I should be receiving in the next month.
You can say the same with British Hi-fi, they either were wound up, bought up by a large conglomerate and now built in China (Wharfedale, Tannoy, Audiolab etc etc), bought by a company that totally destroys the brand by putting the name on cheap low quality items (Goodmans) and then it ends up being finished. Or still has their independence intact with a hands-off approach to ownership (Cyrus). On the flip side you have new companies that have started up with former engineers from previous companies, such as Fyne speakers (all ex-Tannoy), Fluance, and Hi-Fi stores investing in new Co's such as Fell Audio. It is bad that our beloved brands have been hit, but at least, certainly in the UK, there are new companies that are appearing. Sadly though, I don't think we will ever get back to the hey-day of the late 70's-90's with the plethora of options in the low to mid-range equipment. The High End is just it's own beast with a never ending amount of companies wanting you to spend tens of thousands on equipment.
Very very interesting mate. Great video. Love the history of it all. I know AI researched that stuff for you but i think at the end of the day someone wrote that stuff. Be interesting to know who wrote it. There must of been some sort of audio magazine getting around back in the day for AI to find im thinking. One day id love to make my own speakers 🙏🏻
HUGE ADS fan !!! 2 of the employees started a company called Aerial Acoustics which i think deserves a lot more attention in the audio world
I still have my ADS 1230s, purchased in 1983. I've heard a ton of speaker systems since then but none that wowed me enough to part with my 1230s. They can compete with many speaker systems today. Lately, I've heard the British-made ATC model 20, a speaker of incredible resolution, better than my 1230s, which is saying something because my 1230s have excellent resolution. not to mention great imaging. I knew that Kevin of Skylab picked the ADS 810 as one of his top vintage speakers, a speaker I owned before I bought the 1230s.
ADS had highly known satellite / sub system for the home. I bought the L-400’s and wrought iron stands. These speakers were excellent! Great imaging. Tweeters could not withstand dropping of needles in college dorm. Replaced the tweeters several times. Still amazing sound!
Cambridge Soundworks by Henry Kloss Had some incredible sounding affordable speakers.
Towers, bookshelf, portable and surround sound setups. I think they got bought by Creative.
Nice review of audio history.
I still own a pair of ADS L-710’s I bought in the early 1980’s. I had paired them with a then new Panasonic receiver and a first generation Magnavox CD player. I was updating from a pair of large Advent speakers, a Dynaco solid state integrated amp, and a turntable. I found the new system to be unlistenable, and put the large Advents back. Years later, when I had upgraded my electronics, I tried hooking up the ADS L-710’s again, and my jaw dropped. They sounded fantastic! Only then did I realize the problem back then was the speakers had revealed the poor quality of the electronics. My daughter now has my ADS L-710’s and enjoys them still! It was a great speaker and I wish they were still in business today.
Owning a set of ADS L810 speakers myself.I never have a need to upgrade as they sound fantastic. I'd have to spend $3k+ on a modern speaker such as Focal to get a similar sound.
What killed many of these USA made speaker companies was during the late 1990's when the USA opened the doors to the Chinese factories.
Great video. Im 62 and just received a pair of large Advent Bullnose speakers today . and these things look brand new . came in original boxes and the works. i cant find a scratch or stain on them. i have shopped for a pair for a few years now. and here they are. and they sound very good. there replacing my Yamaha NS 1000 m I've had for years. Sory but the Advents just sound better.
Back in the early 90s I had an ADS two channel car amplifier. It was 45 W times two and it rocked my Kenwood 6 x 9 speakers
My dad bought a pair of Large Advents in the early 70's, only got rid of them when he moved to a smaller DCM speaker. I bought a pair of ADS L710 II's, a Yamaha CR-2020 and Bang & Olefson turntable in 1978. Gave the receiver to my daughter, donated the TT and speakers to a local hospice. Wish I still had them. I also had a pair of ADS mini car speakers in a '78 Ford Fiesta. ADS also collaborated with Nakamichi in the late 70's.
My experience with A/D/S Speakers is that they sound absolutely FANTASTIC. But, except for the Towers, the wide baffle limits the Imaging, just like Warfdales. Even at very low volumes, they sound incredible. Goes toe-to-toe with MANY modern brands.
My first high quality stereo gear was a Smaller Advent Loudspeaker. I bought it on payments and never missed one. Listening to those speakers are some if my favorite memories! I later met and befriended Henry Kloss (he always pronounced it "close"). He claimed he was proudest of that speaker model because it provided similar performance to the Larger model at less cost. Good memories!
DCM Loudspeakers and VSP labs were great products that succumbed to the greed of Wallstreet.
DCM "Timewindows"
I bought ADS L710s in 1979. They were the most balanced speakers I ever heard at the time. I have many diff speakers but my L710s are still my favorites.
Bought a pair of AR11 in ‘76. Best crystal clear sound ever! Rocked my AC/DC 💪🏽
I have a set of Infinity SM 65 bookshelf speakers from 1994 for 150.00 and they are still working just fine to this day. I've been thinking of upgrading but I also have a Sony AVR from the same year as well. They seem to work well together so I'll just go with what I got for now. The only things Infinity makes seems to be car speakers today. Some auto makers had and may still have an Infinity system as a top end audio system. 80's and 90's Chryslers products were known for the infinity systems.
Great Video! Question for you may a video; What is the best way toe remove the oxidation on RCA Phono connectors? Contact cleaner and a Magic eraser? I love the Realistic and JBL speakers.
Yes, the Braun Brand was responsible for Hifi, razors, pocket, calculators, clocks -- you name it. They made their name as a dedicated design driven company, heavily influencing the designers of Apple. The history of the company is kind of crazy. The razor business was first sold to Gilette in the 1960ies. The remaining electronics company stopped producing Hifi-gear in 1990. The products have cult status in Germany and sell for quite a lot of money one second hand- and used-market. Greetings :)
A pair of large Advents was the peak of stereo heaven back in my college days (circa 1975)... Cheers!
FWIW, in 1972 my Dad got a Volvo 164e, had Blaupunkt stereo and 4 speakers, no one on the block had ever heard of, or heard such a thing. Neighbor up the street, who had Klipsch horns, said “it sounds like wearing headphones”.
Prior to this, cars had one dash speaker, a few had one in the rear deck.
Here at home, my Breffus Room system has Genesis 100’s, my living room system large Advents.
My father also had a Volvo 1977 anniversary special edition that had a Blaupunkt system! What an awesome sound going to school in the early eighties! ❤
My dad had a series of 3 Mercedes Diesels back in the 1960s and 1970s. The last 2 had Blaupunkt radios in them. His 1968 220D actually had a shortwave band on it, which was kind of cool for a young teenage nerd to discover.
My entire surround sound system still rocks Boston Acoustics Lynnfield models. My daughter's stereo system in her room also consist of Boston Acoustics. I love the sound of them.
- Dual turntables - Dual was top tier back in the day for turntables.
- BIC Speakers - I recently found that they are still in business. Made in U.S.A.
- Dynaco preamps. - They made a few things that worked well.
- Fisher Speakers - Fisher also made a few things well. I have some of their speakers hooked up now. They are kinda 'party' speakers.
I still have all my dad's hifi stuff from the 80s and 90s. I hope to restore a set of infinite slope speakers soon.
My first Speakers were a set of Infinity RS2000s, not great down low, but crystal clear in the Mids and Highs. I replaced them with a pair of Acoustic Research M4.5s, which I still miss, they were an amazing Speaker.
I have the Boston Acoustics E Series (Look it up) E70 as the center in my HT set up and E60 as surrounds. Picked it up like new when the local audio store was closing down. This was about 14 years ago. Boy oh boy, they way they are built, the sound, just beyond anything that you will be able to buy without steeping up in the high 0000s or 10K and above,
Infinity was located in Chatsworth in the San Fernando Valley CA in the 1980’s. You could go into their lobby, check out the IRS monsters, and pick up some literature. Those EMIT tweeters and EMIM midrange drivers were incredibly innovative. When Harman bought them out, they moved everything to the JBL plant a few miles away in Northridge.
All of those brands, I've had the privilege of either owning or having a friend that owned a pair of their speakers. They're still highly sought after by the vintage audio heads. Great video, thanks for sharing!
Hey Randy. I can’t speak to their home audio loudspeakers. I had ADS in my car in the early 90’s. 320 I’s and 300I’s. Mids and tweets. Plus I had an ADS 4 channel amp and electronics crossover. Absolutely loved that gear.
Yeah, when I think of ADS my memories go back to the 80's & 90's when I would buy all of the car audio mags and it wasn't uncommon to see their speakers in award-winning vehicles. This is incredibly sad. I have Aura Mobile Reference 6.1 comps in DIY fiberglass/MDF kick panel pods in my '98 CRV to this day....Aura MR62's in the rear.
ADS made the best sounding car audio. Not the loudest , but the best sounding , I'd wager the same with ADS home audio.
I have a set of ADS L570s (garage sale, $75) that I power with an acoustic research P-10 amp (eBay $75) and SMSL C100 DAC ($110 - Amazon). Absolutely phenomenal sounding setup -- shockingly clean bass, incredible voices and unbelievably accurate mids. With this setup Spotify's 'highest quality' sounds like a low bitrate MP3 compared to Flac sources. Having tried many different speakers from DefTech,Cambridge, Polk, M&K over the years these are absolutely by favorite.
I have a pair of ADS L810 that I adore. It’s getting more and more difficult to find parts for them and when I can’t keep them going any longer, I’m going to be heartbroken. They truly sound phenomenal.
I have multiple sets of ADS speakers (L810) and I'm getting more (probably a character flaw - sue me). They are as good as advertised.
Randy, you mentioned Braun, as a company that produced hifi products. This German brand indeed did that and they were instantly classics because of their typical and modern designs. Some speaker types and tape decks, as well as their tape decks even can be found in some museums. Nowadays in Holland they are still selling a lot of coffee machines. Plain coffee making very reliable things. And Braun is found in millions of homes because they produce very good electric tooth brushes. My teeth are greatful.
Had an ADS PB-1500 sub-woofer two 10” woofs and two 100 watt amps, with an external crossover. Dahlquist DQ-10s,and a Tandberg 2080 receiver. Very nice set up that I didn’t upgrade for 25 years.
Boston Acoustics is what got me into this hobby. I still have my original A40s and recently got a pair of the A150s. Both are some of my favorite speakers to this day.
Great video Randy, How about Sansui . Had one of these big rack systems back in the 80's.
I feel nostalgia for the gear of my young adulthood, too, but let's get real: for every "iconic" brand that has fallen by the wayside, ten great new ones have sprung up. This is the Golden Age of audio, today.
My first speakers were KLH and I sold both Advent and a/d/s at a high end retail shop. Large Advents were hard to beat - good balance and incredible bass response for the price. a/d/s were more refined but also more expensive. Beautiful real wood veneer cabinets and nicely engineered drivers derived from Braun. They also made a very high-end (for the time) speaker called the L 910 that had a stand (more like a cradle) that tilted the huge cabinet to time align the drivers. It also had a 'pocket' to hold the amplifier that never was delivered. This was a very good speaker with big dynamics and beautiful detail. Two 9" bass drivers in a big sealed cabinet with the 3" midrange dome and 1" tweeter dome.
In the 1960s I was (and still am) an Acoustic Research loyalist. I had a pair of their AR-6 speakers, their turntable, and their amplifier. All were lauded by the hi-fi magazines of the time-- especially the turntable for its' simplicity and iconic design. Never mentioned was that the turntable suffered from garbage manufacture. The prestige Ann Arbor audio store distributor stopped carrying them, fed up with returns. I and my two high school friends wound up buying them from a literal back alley warehouse-- which was now the official distributor for the turntable. All of our turntables proved defective for one reason or another. I still have the neat stylus pressure gauge included with the turntable.
Great speakers, though: especially for their "sealed" (acoustic suspension) design. I've never trusted ported speakers because I envision mice building nests inside them.
Expecting a typical CAM video, you knock it out of the park!! Loved my Smaller Advents. Currently have a pair of Baby Advent 2's and Advent 300 receiver bot completely rebuilt. Great little system. Henry Kloss qas a genius at AR, Advent and KLH at the level of Paul Klipsch. Keep the great videos coming
I had Smaller Advents too! They were part of my first system. Nikko STA-4030 and some kind of a Garrard TT. I also had the 300 that I used as a preamp for 20 years.
@@stevezeidman7224me too! Loved my baby advents - used them as rears and had two big Advents up front.... That was about 92' or 93'
Long gone now
Phil Jones who designed Boston Acoustics' Lynnfield Series, founded Phil Jones Bass PJB in the early 2000s. They make highend Bass Guitar Amplifiers and Bass Speaker Cabinets, with their own 5" and 7" drivers, which are unique sizes for Bass Guitar speakers
The Jamo speaker company was sold last year for 3 million, not much more than the price of my house. The audio industry is partially to blame by avoiding direct speaker comparisons and avoiding standards. Instead, they spout the mantra "whatever suits your ears and your preference". The other issue is there are very few locations anymore where you can conduct speaker listening before purchase. Most sane people will not spend 10k on a product sight unseen (or unheard). The other issue is many companies do not make woofers or tweeters in house. Instead, they are purchased from manufacturers and the speaker company is merely a bundler of components. Sure, where do I sign up to buy your bundled speaker? Lastly, Chinese factories have become proficient at producing low-cost speaker components. Many Chinese components are present in most Hifi components. This lowers prices and makes it very easy for off brands to compete. Is your speaker or amp better, prove it in a blind listening test. These issues have allowed low fi companies to evolve and do an end around the traditional archetype companies. D class amps coming to getcha!. Maybe the younger generation is not as stupid as we would like to believe.