Personal speaker evolution

Wow,
I'm way behind on the upgrade treadmill for speakers. For some reason, other components come and go, but speakers move through my life slowly.
Interestingly, they're the only component that I've always bought new.

1. Circa 1972: Home made cabinets for Radio Shack 12" two way speakers with some kind of a tweeter thrown in and a passive crossover and a tuned port made from a mailing tube.

2. Circa 1975: Marantz 3 ways with a 12" woofer and the foam grill covers. Pretty shitty speakers, but they were cheap!

3. Circa 1980 (?'82?) Vandersteen 2C's. Around $1100. Wonderful speakers. Still classics.

4. Circa 2004: Gallo Reference 3's with stands and the sub amp. They still amaze me with their performance, regardless of cost.

Dave

Stumbled across this thread on a search for info about Gallo A'Divas (for background music in our upcoming remodel) - didn't seem too cerebral, but stimulated some fond memories...

All purchased new, can't recall the exact prices...

1. mid-70s: 2 Kraco 6x9 auto speakers in a plywood box - 'nuff said...
2. ~'77: Advent (unnamed?) - listened to 1 "mono" for a year and a half 'til I could afford the other...
3. ~'81: KEF 303(?) - loved the space-age stands, but couldn't handle volume (important as I was in college at the time)...
4. ~'85: Klipsch La Scala - Took care of my volume concerns. Still elicits stories from buddies who recall when I set them up on the porch of their strand house in Hermosa Beach one 4th of July - loud and clear while swimming in 4' surf separated by 200+yds of beach sand!
5. ~'96: Magnepan MMG - talk about doing a 180! First time I experienced anything approaching "imaging" or "transparency"...
6. '04: Thiel 2.4 - which, along with a (costly) swapout of virtually my entire system, really exposed the acoustic limitations of my living room...

Fortunately, our impending remodel has allowed me to spec/build a "media room" that, once paid for (another 10 years!?), ought to send me off in yet another direction...

I am still intrigued by the Maggie soundstaging and may return to a larger model as a complementary alternative to the Thiels some day...

Jim

Might as well update this list as well...

Jensen who-knows-whats?
Klipsch Forte
Legacy Focus
Von Schweikert VR-4 III HSE
Merlin VSM-Milleniums
EgglestonWorks Andra IIs (have lived with these over the last year or so. Excellent in all respects!)

God there have been soooo many...the ones from the last 6 years or so are below, some shared duty while in and out of my two systems:

B&W CDM7NT's
Monitor Audio GR60's
GR Research Criterions
Totem Hawks
Von Schweikert VR4-JR
Vienna Acoustics Mahlers
Gallo Ref 3's
Dali Helicon 800's

Mahlers were impressive and I miss them more than others, but I owned them on two separate occasions and finally gave up on having a big enough room for them to really sing. Dali's are a great speaker and should keep me satisfied for a while...but as always who knows!

Here is my short list.

1990 Velodyne ULD-18 series two,18 inch subwoofer bought new.
1994 Mission 753 3-way floorstanders bought new.
1998 JBL L8 3-way floorstanders again,bought new.
2002 Bose acoustimass home theater speakers new and only for movies.
2005 Aerial Acoustics 10T bought used.
I still have them all.
George