Anyone know anything about Allison Acoustics?

[Jimmy C]

I grew up in the 80s with a pair of Allison Acoustics bookshelf speakers, that I only got rid of a few years ago. I would imagine they are these (or equivalent to these):

http://www.allisonacoustics.com/pb8-2.html

but I don't really remember. I do remember that the speakers were damaged when I tried to sell them and the consignment store opened up the grill to see how they were blown. Though they still worked, I had decided to get rid of them and that my bose wave radio actually sounded better than those speakers and my onkyo receiver.

So my question is this...were those good speakers? Is Allison Acoustics a good company? Does it make sense that my bose wave radio sounded better than those two damaged speakers? (I don't remember hearing any distortion because of the damage...just that the bose sounded better.)

Now that I'm starting to be more discriminating, I'm curious about those speakers....

...I "know" anything about them, but I remember Allison was one of the higher-end brands in a local store, ca. 1980. The Bose better? Roy's speakers MUST have been damaged :^)

I can recall these being easy to listen to, along with other good brands from that era - Snell, Boston, A/D/S, KEF, and a few others. The woodwork was better than most... then again, they were on the upper end of the pricing scale of the brands I mentioned.

A local record store has a pair of Allison 6s for sale (sort of). Actually, the place has a bunch of cool (semi) vintage gear - Linn turntable, Mac tubes, lots of BIG receivers from the 60s and 70s, VPI record cleaners, etc. Fun to look at. Anyway, I wanted to try out the 6s, but they are not hooked up, and I could never get a price - not sure what's goin' on.

At any rate, I would look into them as an alternative to much of what is on the market today... they are an interesting design.

Check out those IC-20 on ebay now... hhmmmmm...

[N. Abstentia]

Yeah there was something definitely wrong with them if a Bose radio sounded better. It don't get much worse than a Bose radio!

The current Allisons are nice as well, Stanford Acoustics bought them back in the 90's and I got to know those guys really well back when I had my car audio shop and we became one of the first dealers for their Volcano line of car subwoofers. We naturally picked up Allison for our small home audio side of the store and we quit selling Polk at that time because of that. I had a few sets of those Allisons, wish I still had them. They wouldn't replace my Active Paradigms by any means, but they would be great for a secondary system.

[2bluechris]

have a look at :- http://www.classicspeakerpages.net . You will find various things about the original designer - Roy Allison - and his Company . There is also a discussion forum on the site where you may find threads already posted about Allison -{I remember reading something about Roy Allison there-in} , or post your own specific query . The original Allison speakers were good , but I have not heard any of the later models , how-ever the photo in the link you posted seems to show the original Allison designed tweeter , which was good and still compares well with many tweeters made now . best wishes , Chris .

[Worf101]

I got them used off the Bay. Wonderful speaker. Too big for a Bookshelf perse, but not a floorstander either. Another "answer" to the Bose 901's of the day. I love my Allison 4's but blew a driver in one of 'em and have to send to Allison to get a replacement. Good stuff... you could do worse...

Da Worfster