good tonal balance, good imaging, magical midrange, soft and sweet treble, natural sound, unbeatable vocal reproduction

lack of deep and punchy bass, rolled off high end compared to modern speakers

I like listening to music, not speakers, and I think my system achieves that with the A-25's. Powered by a SET amp, the sound just seems to come out of thin air and these little Dyna's just disappear. These speakers were designed before the age of speaker stands, and were meant to be hung on a wall or on a bookshelf. The bass really benefits from being close to a wall. I keep mine about 5" from the wall on stands. The bass from these is a little soft and lacks punch. You really notice this on fast, complex pieces of music, but placing them near a wall makes a big difference. The extreme treble is rolled off, but detail is still good with the treble knob on the back switched to the highest position. The midrange is so full, open and natural on these speakers. Vocals sound so good, with seamless transition from woofer to tweeter.

These speakers are really easy on the ears, and ear fatigue is non-existent. The midrange is the best of any speaker I have ever heard. Vocals are natural and uncolored. Instead of hearing tweeter sizzle, you just hear music. Go get a pair!

Customer Service

Seas still makes replacement drivers for 40 year old speakers. How can you top that?

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Been said by others.

I don't find any.

I likely have 8 pairs. Only one is the A25XL. I never pass them up at a garage sale. I have paid $5 (for the mint XLs) to $15 (for a pair with one missing grill). Most sellers have no idea what they are. Often the name plate falls off and they can't recall. Not much to add to what others have already said about their strengths, they are excellent. Currently I am using the XLs with an Eico tube integrated amp, a Pioneer cd, a Systemdek TT and a Fisher tube tuner. They are on stands so the tweeter is almost at ear level. I have sold a few pairs in the $250 range. I clean up the cabinets and so far have been lucky enough to have good grills. Water stains are easily removed and scratches are easily covered.

Mostly jazz, some rock, New Age and some classical. These are lovely sounding speakers with all of them. I doubt you can get anywhere near the sound quality in anything else without a substantially larger investment. My main system has the same amp and a pair of Yamaha NS-1000X. That sounds great but these aren't far behind.

Customer Service

NA

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Large Advents, Powered Advents, Yamahas, Burhoe Blue, Ditton 25, B&W DM4 and on and on...

Aperiodic speakers, no coloration, low distortion, high effiency, tight, clean bass and crisp natural highs.

They don't manufacture them any more!

Dynaco A-25XL Loudspeakers. Purchased in 1974, these speakers have been, without doubt, the biggest audio bargain I have had the good fortune to come across. I have noticed ads for Dynaco speakers currently on ebay et al. and I would heartily recommend that your members at least check out these offers if they are interested in an inexpensive, yet highly acclaimed and articulate loudspeaker. The A-25XL's house an 8" woofer with a 1" non rigid tweeter in oiled walnut cabinet with a dampened vent ( not a reflex port ). The sonic properties of this modestly priced system are truly astounding - high efficiency, wide treble dispersion, and superior transient response in the bass range. These speakers carry a 50 watt DIN power handling specification and should be used with amps of 15 watts or more. The fact that Dynaco speakers are still functioning at their original high level capabilities many decades after their manufacture is a testament to their high quality and craftsmanship. Friends who own new speaker systems costing ten times the Dynaco's price and boasting the newest cutting-edge attributes are routinely stunned by the seamless sonics of the A-25XL's - the crisp highs and the neutral, super articulate bass. In the early '70's, Dynaco sold over a million pairs of inexpensive A-series speakers - the A-25's, A-35's, and A-50's, along with their XL successors. They were wildly popular for a reason...tremendous sonics and quality at a very affordable price. If you come across a well-cared for pair of Dynacos on the market, grab them, you will not be dissappointed.

natural sounding little listener fatigue aftermarket parts available

dont image as well as more modern designs THe high end could use improving Too small and squat to be good as floor models Need to be on stands or shelves.

I purchased the Dynaco A25 Speakers about 2 years ago at a local thrift store for $6.00. When I bought the speakers the Dynaco was not a brand that I was that familar with. The build quality of the speakers and the fact they actually came with binding posts and not spring clips. I decide to buy the speakers. The Dynaco's replaced a pair of ARL Precision PS 620 Speakers in my system which consists of a Marantz 2245 Receiver an MCS 6100 TT with a Shure M75 Cartridge and an AMC CD9 CD Player. Currently I am using Construction wire the kind you find in your Walls for Speaker wire it is solid core and for under $10.00 I purchased 30 feet of it. Therefore, for my needs it works great. Now back to the A25 first off I have my A25's on stands which puts the tweeters about 4 feet high and the front of the speakers are placed about 4 and a half feet into my room which is about 14 feet long and 12 feet wide the speakers are each about 3 feet from the side walls. I never tried the speakers against a wall or on the floor so I am not able to comment on either. I would assume that the bass response would increase if the speakers were against a wall and treble would suffer if the speakers were used as floor models. Most of my listening is done through Vinyl as I have between 2500 and 3000 LPS. My music ranges all over the place I have yet to find a genre of music that I don't appreciate. I enjoy listening to Beethoven or Chopin as much as I enjoy ACDC or the Stones or George Jones or Hank Williams or Dave Brubeck or John Coltrane or Frank Sinatra or Doris Day or Run DMC or The Fresh Prince. To enjoy such a wide variety of music requires a natural sounding speaker. The A25's are very natural sounding speakers. Instruments sound like the Instruments a tenor sax sounds like a tenor sax. An Acoustic guitar sounds like an Acoustic Guitar. These speakers are great for Acoustic music giving a convincing sense of realism to the music. Some may say they lack in the bass department and in true bass below about 50 HZ the bass does roll off fairly quickly there is still some usable bass as low as 30HZ tested with a test LP. The bass only suffers when listening to large symphonies, pipe organ music or in loud dynamic shifts in the music, which can cause some speaker discomfort. Electric guitars played through these speakers have a great crunchy sound. I was playing some old CCR and on Fortunate Son the band sounded like angry pissed off guys that just crawled out of a swamp, which is how they should sound on that song. Listening to old Rolling Stones like Beggars Banquet Mick and company sound like the hungry young wolves they were. When listening you can hear indvidual bass notes being played whether it's Bill Wyman of the Stones or Sting playing or Eugene Wright plucking or bowing the Bass in Dave Brubecks Quartet. The Dynaco's are great sounding speakers and unless you live on a diet of loud orchestra music or Heavy Metal or have a very large space. The Dynacos suffer when it comes to imaging toeing the speakers in helps in this respect. Vocals sound natural through them Listening to Doris Day sing with the Andre Previn trio on Duet is simply beautiful. The A25's allow the character of the vocalist voice to come through. You hear the vocal nuances in Lefty Frizzels voice as he uses the microphone as a musical instrument in much the same manner as a sax player uses the reed to create subtle shifts in notes. You can listen to these speakers for hours with no listener fatigue. I would not call the A25 better than modern day speakers I would say though to build a speaker of similar dimensions using similar materials and build quality you would not be talking a bargain basement speaker. Considering the fact that most stand mount or bookshelf speakers of any reasonable quality start at about $250 for a pair of mini monitors like PSB Alpha's if you can get a hold of a set of A25's for under $150 that is a pretty good deal. I have never felt the need to upgrade the A25's since putting them in my system at some point I might get a set of the Morel tweeters and new Caps.

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ARL Prescision PS620 smaller stand mount speakers BOSE 301 series I grew up with these the A25 are a much better speaker in my opinion

Strong, smooth bass, nice mids and smooth highs. No listener fatigue.

Inefficent, large by todays standards for a bookshelf speaker.

I purchased my Dynaco A-25’s just as they were being placed on the floor of my local thrift store about 5 months ago. When I asked the manager if the $15.00 price tag was for each speaker, he stated “No, it’s for the pair. We usually price our better speakers separately.” His “better” speakers consisted of a pair of newer Fisher tower speakers at $30 a piece, and a pair of Pioneer towers at $25 each. Astonished, but showing no sign of surprise, I told the manager that I would take them right away. He stated “Sure, but these things are pretty old, so if they don’t work, you can not bring them back.” I told him that it was okay and I brought the speakers home. Once home, I hooked up the Dynaco’s to an old Nikko amplifier that I have and was astonished at what I was hearing. Tight, smooth bass, smooth, clear highs and absolutely no listener fatigue at all. What a find that I had stumbled upon! The Dynaco’s impart a nice “warm” sound that is lacking from many of today’s speakers. The low end is very smooth and extends very low for a speaker of its size. The mids and highs are very detailed lack edginess. I can listen to these speakers for hours on end. Male voices come across with clarity and with no false bottoming so common on many “high end” speakers. These speakers sound excellent with jazz and classical! The Dynaco A-25’s sound very similar to my much larger Boston Acoustics a150 loudspeakers. Doing an A-B test reveals that the Dynaco’s produce similar imaging, but with slightly less soundstage (by upgrading to Morel MD-20 tweeters the soundstage was about the same). The Dynaco’s have a smoother top end, but the a150’s sound a bit more detailed (again cured by the Morel tweeter upgrade). Bass response is very smooth and detailed and will be loved by all classical and jazz lovers – these speakers sound nice and open due to the low end being so smooth – rock also sounds nice, but sometimes they will sound not as “boomy” as some more modern vented designs will produce. One “tweak” that I would recommend is to replace the old capacitors with newer polypropylene caps. I used 6uf Solen Fast Caps, and am very, very happy with the upgrade. The cost is only a couple of dollars, but will clean up the high end of these speakers very nicely. In fact, when I replaced the capacitors, voices and percussion began to “jump out” and display more presence than with the older capacitors. Another “tweak” that I performed was in upgrading the tweeters to Morel MD-20’s for about $25 apiece. The Morel’s are direct “drop-in” replacement to the originals and a worthwhile upgrade. Replacing the tweeters gives these speakers a whole new dimension in detail and soundstage – even when I compared them to my beloved Klipsh Heresy’s! In effect, you retain all the easy-to-listen-to quality of the speakers with much more detail and presence. Overall, I am very happy with the find. If you run across a pair of these, grab them! You will not be sorry, they are a classic!

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natural, neutral sound - remarkably free of colorations. Mid and upper bass especially good. Non-fatiguing.

Relatively narrow soundstage, inefficiency, large size compared to most modern bookshelf speakers.

I had left these guys up in my attic for a few years (didn't have the heart to sell them when I "upgraded") and pulled them out again. I was shocked that the butyl rubber surrounds were still good and I was further shocked by how good they still sounded. The bass end doesn't thud or thump, so rappers won't like these. In fact, many might think them bass-shy. But when an orchestral bass drum makes its entrance, the foundation is definitely there, coming up from the floor at you. Bowed cello and string bass are remarkably realistic, without the typical upper bass colorations. Male singing voices also sound remarkably lifelike. Midrange and highs lack the "surfacey" emphasis that many mistake for "detail." Tweeter dispersion is not the best, so optimum listening area for best soundstage is a bit narrow. Best placement is on a wall - either on a shelf or hard mounted - away from the corners and about eye level. Compared to modern speakers of similar performance the A-25's are a little large and very inefficient. I would not use any solid-state amp with less than 80 honest watts per channel. Their impedance curve is extremely flat (between 7 and 8 ohms over the whole audio range) so they also sound great with tube amps - old Dyna Mark III's would be wonderful if you can find them. They are surprisingly robust. I have driven the hell out of them with as much as 200 watts per channel without mishap. Over all, the A-25 lacks the transient "snap" of most modern designs. But on classical music, they also lack their artificial-sounding clinical quality. Violins have the warmth one expects in a good concert hall while out in the seats, not the "resiny" sound one often hears through stereo gear. As I said, rappers and rockers probably won't like them because they lack the low-end thud and midrange punch they typically expect. People who listen to classical music or acoustic jazz will be amazed, though. Amazingly, the SEAS drivers can still be obtained! Due to the unusual aperiodic enclosure design, the woofer's response has a very smooth natural rolloff. The tweeter needs only a simple high-pass capacitor, protecting it from bass frequencies, so no conventional crossover is necessary. No chokes or coils to add coloration or reactance. Very simple, very elegant, very effective design. A classic to be sure.

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Small size but big sound.

Speaker connections fall apart with age (some solder can fix this for the most part)

I love these speakers, they are old as I am (27) and still sound great, rare to find an old speaker that the surrounds haven't rotted out of. My mom and dad got these right around when I was born, so I've had them to listen to all these years. Great bass for their size, and pretty good highs considering their age. excellent bedroom speakers.

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Friend of Family had the A-50's they ROCKED he also had the whole dynaco setup FM Tuner, Preamp, and Amp... I wish I could get my hands on that stuff now!

great deep bass (10" driver, not 8" like this site says), sound much bigger than they are... smooth

lack sufficient midrange to run alone with high-quality recordings...

These dynaco A25's were purchased by my father, since he is sentimental about old audio equipment.... MY GOD.. they blow the set of new yamaha NS-6390s that i run them with off the planet as far as smoothness and the incredibly deep bass that these have with the proper amplifier. I drive them with an old marantz 2216, which has plenty of punch for almost any home speakers.. I compared these A25s to a set of the famously great floorstanding klipsch klf-10's that my father has... THEY SOUND ALMOST AS BIG when elevated, and the audio quality is there..

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klipsch klf-10, vintage advent loudspeaker

Small, light, well built, excellent veneer's surprising bass.

For it's size, foot print and vintage you couldn't ask for better sub 100 dollar speaker. I'd been intrigued by these speakers for years, I finally got a used pair. I love them. They're sweet, compact, true bookshelves that compare favorably against all others of a similar vintage and kick a lot of modern speakers in the ass today. You can't go wrong if you can get a pair used or cheap.

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A smaller speaker say 8 inches, would cover the mids better. Difficult to get wires into the back of the posts.

Smooth sound, non-boomy bass

Lacks detail in midrange & highs

Owned a pair of A25's from early 70's to early 80's. Recently had a chance to hear two more pairs.

The A25 was a very good budget speaker in its day. Easy to listen to, no serious flaws. Easy to drive.

However as compared to modern speakers, it lacks detail and openness. The 10" driver has to cover too much of the midrange and the result is a boxier, more compressed sound that what is available from today's 2-way designs, which usually use 5-6.5" drivers. Violins lack adequate "bite", voices are more laidback, the overall presentation is more two-dimensional.

If one is looking for a very smooth, laid-back sound, then you'll probably like them. But I find several current $180-$250/pr speakers to be much more neutral and of higher quality.

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