i just picked up some vintage quadraflex bookshelf speakers. they sound pretty damn good, i was wondering if anyone new the history on these babies. I paid 30 bucks for them and think i made out pretty well. amazing bass responce for such an old speaker. hight:16 width:12 depth:8 can't see either of the cones due to type of construction
from what ive read i think it may be partly my amp i have a panny sa-xr55k
Quadraflex was the, eh-hem, better house brand line from Pacific Stereo back in the 1970's. The junk brand was TransAudio. There were the Quadraflex 11, 15, 17 and 19. All were sealed box speakers as was the general custom of the time. The 15 was designed to "compete" with the small Advent and the AR 18's which Pacific also sold. The competition was not too strong against those two brands. But it was the best sounding of the bunch since it was, like the two major brand speakers, a simple two way with a very simple Xo. The 15 was a fairly easy sell at $89 retail. The 11 was rather poor and the 17 and 19 went up into three way designs and varying levels of atrocity. The Quadraflex line was always placed in the corners of the demo room to give extra boom and the larger speakers could deliver that with ease. At the time CBS owned Pacific and also owned the speaker company which assembled the Quadraflex speakers. Being the house brand, they were the "go to" speaker for any salesperson looking to make high profit and large spiffs or show heavy discounts and still make some profit. Either way, the Quadraflex speakers, when paired with a Quadraflex receiver, got the salesperson a quick $10 to $25 in their pocket. The mark up was substantial with the 19 selling at retail for what I remember to be $219 @. The "book cost" was never more than $89 and that was inflated to make CBS a few extra bucks. The 19 could be discounted by 50% and the store still made money.
It is amazing any pair of these are still working! Now, if you stumble across a Concept 5.5 receiver, a Quadraflex cassette deck and a Pioneer PL-12 turntable with an Audio Technica AT-96ax cartridge, you've just entered the Twilight Zone.
I had a similar surprise finding a pair of mint KLH Model 24 speakers in a friends attic. They sound great having a sparkling high end. A little bass boost balances them out quite nicely. Certainly keepers.
vigne, thanks for the update, that is very interesting, I must have the 11's, but its still better than listening to music thru satalites. i just saw a picture of the original quadraflex speaker, they are worth 3-5 thousand dollars, i kinda wish i found one of those. its like a crazy lookin speaker on a stool swivel
"Now, if you stumble across a Concept 5.5 receiver, a Quadraflex cassette deck and a Pioneer PL-12 turntable with an Audio Technica AT-96ax cartridge, you've just entered the Twilight Zone" i dont think im going any further back in time than i already have.