Vintage Mind Blower speakers???

[BFI6603]

I agree...Very well put...you have caught the essence of what I was tryiing to say. Certainly, Mind Blower speakers are not audiophile quality.....but they did have a unique and powerful sound when installed in the back dash of a car that many of todays high end gear just lacks. " I miss those cheap old Mind Blower speakers" too!

 

[RAM_Designs 5,000+ posts]

Make a thread about vintage speakers, and it's like a geriatric convention in here.

 

[Falcons 5,000+ posts]

old people ITT //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

 

[BnGRacing 10+ year member]

BTW: I don't consider Tenna Mind Blowers audiophile level car gear, but they did capture a very pleasing sonic signature that was simply not found anywhere else! Man how I miss those cheap old Mind Blower speakers!

I'd think the old ADS 300i plate systems changed the game when it came to audiophile grade speakers made for car use. Not sure if you remember those but they're the 6x9" plates that had a 6" mid and 1" home audio soft-dome tweeter with dope applied on the outside. People called them 'sticky dome' or 'fly paper' tweeters.

Even by today's standards, those are still some awesome speakers. Installation would be a little interesting though...

 

[MisterDeadeye 10+ year member]

I don't suggest trying to Google "Tenna Mindblower". Speakers aren't the majority of the results...

 

[The_Grimy_One 10+ year member]

This thread is Grrrrrreat!

 

[wenn_du_weinst 10+ year member]

I understand nostalgia, but why try and track something down this hard to find, just to be worse off then an easy to find counterpart?

 

[The_Grimy_One 10+ year member]

I understand nostalgia, but why try and track something down this hard to find, just to be worse off then an easy to find counterpart?

Are you one to settle for just any vagina? If so, then I can see why you feel this way...

 

[pieper88 10+ year member]

Why do like half the people in this thread only have 1-5 posts? These people just patrolling the interwebz looking for a conversation about these speakers?

 

[MisterDeadeye 10+ year member]

Why do like half the people in this thread only have 1-5 posts? These people just patrolling the interwebz looking for a conversation about these speakers?

Probably. This topic was one of the first Google results for "Tenna mindblower" "Tenna mind blower speaker" "pyramid mind blower", and "pyramid mindblower speaker"

 

[BnGRacing 10+ year member]

I understand nostalgia, but why try and track something down this hard to find, just to be worse off then an easy to find counterpart?

Speakers today are much different than the used to be. It's as if they have a built-in loud button. I think it was MBQ that was the 1st to start really pushing high Q mids back when they took the market by storm. Today's equivalent would be Focal as they have some boom to their mids and crisp, but not harsh, tweeters.

Some of the older speakers sound pleasing to the ear despite being inferior on paper. While I don't know much about mind blowers, the ADS speakers of yore were very neutral and almost holographic in how they performed. They carried that trait until their ultimate demise. Most other speakers have a very up-front or a certain "in your face-ness" about them that most do prefer in a car environment. But the thing is, if you don't like high Q mids or upfront sounding speakers; you have a choice between finding vintage car audio speakers -or- spending who the hell knows how much trying to find a similar sound.

It's much like how the ear prefers the sound of vacuum tube amps & vinyl records over solid state devices and iPods.

 

[hometech99]

Searched for these speakers on a fleeting memory of my first system in about 1978:

1969 Chevy Impala 2 door - maroon with black top.

Sanyo biamp under dash 8-track

Front doors Jensen coaxials.

Rear deck Tenna Coaxial Mindblowers

8 track tapes: Boston, The Cars, Tom Petty **** the Torpedoes, Kansas, Van Halen II.

I worked at McD's. We would go out to my car on breaks to crank it up. The trunk would shake like nothing I had ever seen before and guys commented that even blasting there was not distortion- was hooked on car audio ever since- great memories - thanks for this thread

 

[hometech99]

Speakers today are much different than the used to be. It's as if they have a built-in loud button. I think it was MBQ that was the 1st to start really pushing high Q mids back when they took the market by storm. Today's equivalent would be Focal as they have some boom to their mids and crisp, but not harsh, tweeters.
Some of the older speakers sound pleasing to the ear despite being inferior on paper. While I don't know much about mind blowers, the ADS speakers of yore were very neutral and almost holographic in how they performed. They carried that trait until their ultimate demise. Most other speakers have a very up-front or a certain "in your face-ness" about them that most do prefer in a car environment. But the thing is, if you don't like high Q mids or upfront sounding speakers; you have a choice between finding vintage car audio speakers -or- spending who the hell knows how much trying to find a similar sound.

It's much like how the ear prefers the sound of vacuum tube amps & vinyl records over solid state devices and iPods.

Exactly- i and my friends thought the Tennas were incredible- and I still own about 5 sets of a/d/s/ 320i sitting in various boxes I've collected over the years. Someday I'll get them into a car.

 

[chillin 10+ year member]

Zoom in on page 11. Best pic your gonna get at the moment. And I agree with previous comments, that although these sounded good to you back in the 70's, it is doubtful they sound as good as speakers of a similar price point today. Keeping in mind if they were 50 dollars then inflation would make them a fairly expensive speaker these days. If they were soooo amazing, they would be reissued or would still be being made.

The Rock Hill Herald - Google News Archive Search

 

[hometech99]

Zoom in on page 11. Best pic your gonna get at the moment. And I agree with previous comments, that although these sounded good to you back in the 70's, it is doubtful they sound as good as speakers of a similar price point today. Keeping in mind if they were 50 dollars then inflation would make them a fairly expensive speaker these days. If they were soooo amazing, they would be reissued or would still be being made.
The Rock Hill Herald - Google News Archive Search

There's no sense in debating this as its not worth it- the speakers are old & gone- plus, if you didnt hear them, someone else's description won't sway someone else. Also, a longstanding principle is that when you buy a speaker, you are agreeing with the manufacturer that that's what sound should sound like- so you can't call someone else's enjoyment of sound , "wrong".

Also, manufacturers are sales driven. Many products that were better than current models (cameras, cars, whatever) are gone, as "new" sells more.

 

[brodeisel 10+ year member]

I think we found all the old people.

 

[hometech99]

Hehe- true-old, but not stubborn- if I'm not mistaken, that's a Brax Platinum in Chillin's avatar- I did an Alpine F1 system with 2 of those a few years ago- felt so guilty about all the cost, i sold the entire setup (F1, video monitor, amps) , pre-install on eBay to an engineer in Texas

 

[-01limited- 10+ year member]

They may be old but found a member from 03 and just now starting to post. whoa! ^^^

 

[ugotjeff]

I started installing in 1976, MINDBLOWERS 6x9s was one of the first amplified systems that was worth a crap. I am pretty sure Pyramid bought them out at the end of their run . I will go as far as saying the car stereo aftermarket world owes MINDBLOWERS alot for getting the amplifier ball rolling. Now as far as sound Quallity they don't come close to todays standards ! But todays standards don't come close to the sound quallity of systems around 1988 - 1993 ! Retired in 2008 from car stereo , amplifiers now don't put much emphasis on sound qaullity as much as they do sound volume. mainly because of MP3s. But I will say speakers and subs have improved and keep improving. I have Soundstream CLASS A AMPS from the late 80s, would replace if I heard something sound better. JL comes close. Everbodies UNTRAINED ear is different,so what sounds good to some, doesn't to others, for instance I couldn't listen to MP3s until 320kbps bit rate was available and I still hear a difference.

 

[itsblown 10+ year member]

would be interesting if someone found a real life pair of these sitting around. Im sure there has to be atleast a few pairs especially if everyone loved them this much