by erichayes » Tue Jul 19, 2005 10:55 pm
Hi All,
This is going against my own best interests, as this is the speaker Bud Wyatt and I have chosen for one of our reference systems, but the Dynaco A-25 is still one of the finest speaker systems ever made. I have a pair of Seas/D'Appolito Thors, and I consider them to be excellent reproducers. The A-25s (which also use Seas drivers) kicked the Thors' asses on everything except pipe organ, where the Thors' transmission line coupling gave that lower half octave of bass response.
The A-25s usually go for around $120~175 a pair, but MAKE SURE they are the original series. These can be identified in several ways. First, the terminal board will be stamped "Made in Denmark". Second, the grill, if it hasn't already been removed, is held on with some of the nastiest, possessive black adhesive I've ever encountered--it's still sticky after 35 years. If you slowly and patiently worry the grill off the cabinet, you should see a woofer held in with 6 screws and a 1.5" soft dome tweeter held in with 4 screws. The tweeter should be NNW of the woofer, not due north.
If you find any deviations from the above, don't buy them. This obviously makes buying on eBay risky (ask me how I know all this stuff...) but there were over 600,000 pairs sold in their time, and you can probably find a decent pair shopping locally, especially on the east coast and in the midwest.
The only mods Bud and I have made to them is to replace the 4.7µF electrolytic crossover cap (wear gloves!) with a Solen polyprop., and the woofer leads with 18 ga silver plated wire. Leaving the grill off and removing the lip in front of the baffle board will also reduce diffraction, but the latter shouldn't be tried unles you're a skilled woodworker.
Trust me; you will be rewarded with excellent sound if your amp is performing properly.
Eric in the Jefferson State