5 replies to this topic

[Horswispr]

Does anyone out there have any experience with the early American Dynaco A-25s? These are the ones that are made with real walnut veneer, have five-position switches and banana hook ups just like the Danish ones, and have a driver configuration similar to the originals. But they have woofers similar but not identical to the "roundie" SEAS woofers and tweeters with 3 screws like the earlier Scanspeak tweeters. On eBay I notice that they command less respect than Danish A-25s. I just refinished a pair and hooked them up for the first time this evening. To me they sound very similar to Danish A-25s, but the bass was notably tight and the trebles were quite extended. At first my friend (also an audio nut) and I thought they sounded a bit bright, but once we (and the speakers) settled in, we thought they sounded quite good overall. We were surprised by how dynamic they sounded. Anyone else have experience with this version of the A-25?

[dynaco_dan]

Does anyone out there have any experience with the early American Dynaco A-25s? These are the ones that are made with real walnut veneer, have five-position switches and banana hook ups just like the Danish ones, and have a driver configuration similar to the originals. But they have woofers similar but not identical to the "roundie" SEAS woofers and tweeters with 3 screws like the earlier Scanspeak tweeters. On eBay I notice that they command less respect than Danish A-25s. I just refinished a pair and hooked them up for the first time this evening. To me they sound very similar to Danish A-25s, but the bass was notably tight and the trebles were quite extended. At first my friend (also an audio nut) and I thought they sounded a bit bright, but once we (and the speakers) settled in, we thought they sounded quite good overall. We were surprised by how dynamic they sounded. Anyone else have experience with this version of the A-25?

Hi there

I have never physically seen or heard that model of A-25 speaker system.

On ebuy I have seen a few for sale and their drivers, which are different from the traditional and more common Seas used in the original A-25's.

You may be the first to write up on these, please continue.

As you may remember a few months ago, a new member wrote and photographed his A-25's and posted them here.

His crossover was quite different, as was the mounting means of his unusual metal mesh vent cover.

His friend also had an identical pair.

They both live in the USA.

[Horswispr]

If I had a bit more time on my hands, I'd remove a woofer, compare its mass with a regular star woofer I have handy, and also remove the foam and peek at the crossover. But I probably won't get around to it, as these belong to someone else and I don't want to do anything with them I haven't been asked to do. The wood on them IS very pretty and will refinish well. I notice that the back edges appear NOT to be veneered as they are on both SEAS and Scanspeak Danish A-25s. There must be someone out there who has poked around inside these guys. My hunch is that the magnets might be a little heavier than those on regular SEAS A-25 woofers. The speakers feel a tad heavy, but I don't have a scale here to verify. I've also noticed that Scanspeak woofers are a tad heaver than the (most of us think) later SEAS woofers, but I don't know whether that translates to greater power handling or greater bass extension. A good pair of Scanspeak Dynaco A-25s sounds pretty similar to a good pair of SEAS Dynaco A-25s to me. The Scanspeak version MAY be a bit warmer and mellower sounding, but that could be "all in my head." I AM among those who believe that re-capping Dynacos leads to a slightly smoother sound, but I'm not sure if that's only the case if the original caps have started to drift or become more resistant, or whether newer caps are just slightly better sounding than the cheap ones Dynaco used back in the day.

In general, to me, good Dynaco A-25s sound warm and easy to listen to, and they also have good clarity in the upper midrange. AR2axs and KLH 6s sound a bit warmer and more relaxing, but I'm not sure they image quite as well. These early American Dynacos sounded unusually dynamic to me, and the bass was quite pronounced yet very tight. The trebles also seemed quite extended, and quite clean through the upper mids. I had expected them to sound worse than SEAS or Scanspeak Dynaco A-25s, probably based on the fact that these were produced near the end of Dynaco's glory days, but I can't honestly say they sounded worse in any way I can quantify. My only hesitation comes from the fact that we only listened for about 45 minutes, and I can't tell if this version would be more fatguing over the long haul or not. I DO have a pair of re-capped (Dayton 5.1s) star SEAS Dynacos here, but we didn't hook them up last night. If I actually do an A-B comparison, I'll be sure to write about my impressions.

[craig]

interesting, what about the A25s with the red looking fronts instead of black anyone have a pair of those ? the tweeter was placed on the left of woofer instead of right .

[Horswispr]

I've had red front Dynacos (usually with the shiny silver screws) pass through here as well as the black front (usually with black screws) Dynacos. I think they're functionally th same, though it may be a red front pair that had 4.7 mfd capacitors on the way to the tweeter insted of the 5.0s or 5.1s (I forget which) I'd grown used to. I've also seen Dynacos with the tweeters on the left, and other pairs with tweeters on the right. I don't think it "co-varies" with the color. Sometimes I see Dynacos on eBay presented as "rare mirror imaged" Dynacos but I think it's just random, or maybe a couple of orphans put together into a pair.

[Mark Korda]

Hi Horswispr,I'm refinishing a pair of American Dynaco A-25's Mark2's.They came out in 1977 with the A-30XL,and the A-20XL.I don't have the originals,but found a pair on e-bay.They sound superb and had a beautiful finish when I first had a new pair.The 5 position switch is gone,instead a 8 ohm L-pad which works flawlessly.An 8.2 cap and a coil in the cross over.The tweeter SeasH-86 is the same as the A-25XL,but positioned above and in line with the woofer.They had pop off grills with a plastic male female connectors and brown grill cloth.They were made in blackwood N.J.I've owned all the Dynas and the A-40XL comes in second and the A-25 Mark2 the best.The manual says with normal room augmentation there is usefull output down to 30 hertz with no doubling,other wise I think,the manual is tattered,in the chamber(anechoic) their down 5db at 50 hz.I'll have pictures soon......Mark Korda