Walking Away from Dirt Cheap Speaker Deals

When you frequent thrift stores, you'll often run into lots of good deals on old speakers.  When speakers cost you less than $50 for a pair, it can be easy to buy more than you need.  You can also end up buying stereo speakers that are wildly inappropriate for your space.

For example, a few weeks ago, I encountered a pair of pristine Sony ss-U421AV floor standing speakers.  These were beautiful floor standing speakers that could accept up to 250 watts of peak power.  They would have been thunderous.  I was really tempted to snatch them up.  But, my wife and I live in an apartment.  They would have been a completely preposterous addition to our space.  If we ever cranked the volume above 3, we would have probably generated a noise complaint.

Sony ss-U421AV Floor Stander Speakers

When we got home, I still thought about them and wondered if I had made a mistake.  I thought about showing back up at the thrift store and snatching them up as soon as they opened.  I visited the forum at audiokarma.org and enquired about those speakers.  Someone replied that they would pass because they didn't think much of Sony speakers they had previously owned.  The words of caution were just enough to restrain me from rushing out to make an ill-considered impulse buy.  I was able to walk away.

In our small space, we really don't need thunderous speakers.  We should probably stick to something small and space appropriate --


If I ended this post here, it would be a story of prudence, self-restraint, and thoughtful analysis.  Of course, that would be the safe and prudent course.  But, if you are into stereos, sometimes, you've just got to rock!  Two weeks later, we encountered a pair of Cerwin-Vega VS-100 floor standing speakers on another Goodwill run and I snatched them up for $40.  They sound great . . . even at with the volume cranked up to 1.5 in our small apartment!

My vintage Cerwin-Vega speakers have 10-inch drivers and can handle up to 125 watts.  They can also generate powerful base frequencies down to 37 hertz.  The second speaker in this pair will eventually need to have the driver refoamed, but they still sound great.  However, out of consideration for our neighbors, that prudent part of me still runs vintage 50 watt Sony SS-D201 3-way bookshelf speakers most of the time.  These speakers are about 18-inches tall and cost me only $10.91 at another Goodwill thrift store.

 

I guess you can walk away from cheap speaker deals.  But, if this story has a moral, that moral would be that sometimes you can't walk far!