I have a good friend that is considering replacing an old set of speakers that he has. He has owned these for 30 years and they are in wonderful condition. They are Aztec Suerat V's. He traded a pickup truck for them in 1971. They were manufactured by Aztec Sound Corportation in Denver Colorado and are huge speakers. They have very large subs and horns. Overall size is 48" tall by 28 1/2 wide by 20" deep and probably weigh 150-200 pounds each. They are in good shape but he wants to modernize and mentioned he was thinking of selling them. I found a little bit of information on these speakers on another forums very old post:
"As fate would have it, I have a bit of information on Aztec sound. In late 1968 two other guys and I (in our early to mid 20's) started a speaker company in Washington, DC: Loudspeaker Design Corporation. The speakers were a variety of horn-loaded systems named the "Ezekiel" series after the designer, Harry Ezekiel Harris. By 1969 we were in search of expanded production facilities, and came upon Aztec Sound, located about 15 minutes South and West of downtown Denver. The owner was Jerry Nichols, and the product line consisted of conventional cone speakers in enclosures ranging from small bookshelf to huge floor models. All were named after famous artists. The cabinet work was quite nice, the company had a very well developed production line, a full time in-house designer, and the speakers sounded...well, o.k... decent relative to commercial standards at that time. Later that year Loudspeaker Design, along with our friend Kan Kanzler of Atlantis Sound, did a stock trade and acquired a sustantial percentage of Aztec Sound. Part of the deal included a provision that we would redesign and improve the Aztec products using cone drivers, but would not use any horn drivers or any of our proprietary horn designs. Our speakers used horn midrange and tweeters, and front/back loaded cone drivers as woofers. The Aztec products from late 1969 reflected the Harry Harris design improvements. In late 1970 I left to pursue my real passion, Ferrari automobiles. The relationship between Loudspeaker Design and Aztec soon ended, Harry Harris developed a new range of limited production boutique speakers that did not use horns, and it appears that Aztec "borrowed" some of our secrets and began to use horns in their systems. The horns were manufactured by Herald, located, I think, in Gray's Lake, WI. If you remove one, look at the back of the driver and see if it has a foam cap. The midrange and tweeter horns were very inexpensive, but sounded quite nice. We originally started off modifying the very expensive Altecs and the famous JBL375s. Oddly enough, the Herald horns sounded more musical, and compared to the cost of the 375's were almost free. I still have 2 pairs of Ezekiels using these horns that I've been using to play rock & roll at mind-mumbing levels for over 30 years without problems. I suspect your Aztecs use the same horns. They'll probably sound their very best with low powered tube equiptment, but will also sound quite nice with a NAD 1020 or older Kenwood receiver if you're on a budget. Whenever I hear the song "American Woman" played on a classic rock station, I fondly recall that song blasting from a pair of big Aztecs at our apartment in Denver in 1969."
So, what do you guys think? I have no specifics on these speakers, but I considered taking the back cover off to look at the specific components. I can find some limited info regarding some of their other models, but absolutely nothing about the Seurat V's.
Any thought on value, I would like to buy them, but have no clue what they are worth on the open market.....
Considering the weight and shipping costs (even if that is just the price of a beer for friends to help you move them); they are worth whatever someone is willing to pay. A set of very inexpensive, 35 year old Herald drivers in an equally aged Aztec Suerat V, despite sounding better to the owner of the speaker than a more expensive JBL, probably isn't what most folks lay awake at night dreaming about. If you've heard them, and then sound good to you, set your own price. You aren't buying an antique Ferrari.
