Pioneer's CS-99A

I won't bore you with a lot of specs here, and I'm not going to write some long critique giving my opinion on how these babies perform and compare to other speakers. There are plenty of others who've already done that. What I will say is that I've lusted after these vintage monsters for a long time, and I've been trying to score a set of my own for many years. Unfortunately, most of them that I've seen have been way overpriced; nice sets on eBay will fetch upwards of $500. Way out of my league needless to say, but I always hoped that one day I could find a used pair that was battle scared but working, at a much more reasonably price.

Friday I finally got lucky.

Now, I'm not ashamed to admit that I've always thought that these speakers looked good just standing still, heck, that's what grabbed my attention all those years ago when I first saw them. And yes, they do perform... quite nicely. Throw on some Black Sabbath, turn up the volume a bit, crank the bass then put your face in front of the 15 inch woofer. You'll feel the air pressure change.

This set is complete, even the delicate latticework grilles are intact and in nice shape, surprising since the cabinets have seen better days (I plan on refinishing the walnut veneer to freshen them up a bit). In a way the battle scars are a testament to how well these speakers were built, that they could take a beating for 40 years and still sound so good. But they've got a good home now, where they'll be taken care of.

CS-99A - 5way 6 speakers. Rated at 100 watts. Weight 55lbs. Made by Pioneer in the early 70s.

-=Dave