Rare mordaunt short sytem 442 speakers?

pianodentist

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Nov 10, 2014
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Come across these amongst my grandads endless collection of old hi fi. I know theyre rather rare and unusual speakers from the late 80s and they dont seem to come along to often. Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on them and how much i could expect to get for them. We are selling of all the contents of his house to help pay for his care

Thanks
 

matthewpiano

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They are certainly a less well known MS model. I've never come across them before, though I've always liked MS speakers.

Looking at pictures of them they look like a top end development of the very popular late-80s MS designs and I rather suspect they could be very good, but the low profile is going to make them hard to sell. I'm guessing from your forum name that you are a piano technician so I'm sure you appreciate good sound. These speakers could well be worth far more in the musical enjoyment you could get from them, than you are likely to achieve in a sale.

Just a thought!
 

grdunn123

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A quick search brought up this quote from one site;

'The Mordaunt Short System 442 speakers were and still are great sounding speakers. I remember a Hi-Fi store near me was a Mordaunt dealer in the mid to late 1980s. They had a pair of 442's in there main show room and they were about $3K. The dealer told me they could not get enough into the USA from the UK because they were in such high demand in Europe and Japan. The 442's had such a full natural sounding and smooth dynamics. Vocal midrange was accurate and precise. Scary good huge bass extensions considering they are a two way design speaker.'
 
B

BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW

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I like the look of them. A little googling found this from someone who'd just bought a used pair (though it was from 2006).

"For those of you who don't know them, they date from the early 1990's and sold for about £1000 when new. They are an unusual design that has a 6.5" woofer and a tweeter on a baffle plate on the front, and a further 6.5" woofer on another baffle plate on the back, which is out of phase with the front one and connected by a metal rod, through to the front unit. These baffle plates are fixed to a central pair of thick metal columns that go straight down to the floor and the cabinet is "hung" over this, with no direct connection to the drivers. Unusual looking, and when have you seen another speaker that has a grille on the back as well as on the front??!!

This pair have non-original tweeters but the seller supplied me with an unused set of correct new ones, plus some new baffle plates and full instructions, brochures and disassembly details, all for £31!!"

If you're only gong to get that much for such a decent pair of speakers, I agree with Matthewpiano, keep them, and enjoy them.
 

pianodentist

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If only i could keep them i would but there huge (a lot bigger than my old mission 752's) and apparently id need a lot more clout than my cyrus 6dac will deliver to drive them. Shame because i rather like them....really unusual design

Ive done a bit more digging and it seems there rather sought after as they rarely come up for sale....i found a few old wanted ads for them. I think the guy who paid £31 just got lucky with the bargain of the century. Someone mentioned a figure of about £350
 

Frank Harvey

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I'm not sure how their clarity would hold up nowadays as I was never overly keen on the HF units that the 442 used back then, but their bass was pretty powerful though! It has been almost 25 years since I've heard them though, so I really can't comment accurately on them, but they were like MS's answer to the KEF Reference 104/2. They are pretty rare though. Every now and again I search for older, interesting speakers, and this is one of them. I can't say I've ever found a pair for sale in the UK in the past 20 years.

If they're in half decent nick, I'd put them up for a couple of grand on a worldwide site, as certain countries go ape poop for high quality, and rare, British stuff. You never know... :)
 
pianodentist said:
Come across these amongst my grandads endless collection of old hi fi. I know theyre rather rare and unusual speakers from the late 80s and they dont seem to come along to often. Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on them and how much i could expect to get for them. We are selling of all the contents of his house to help pay for his care

Thanks

Hi,

Late answer , but I know them wery well. Listen to them every time I was at my local Hifi dealer. The price in Sweden at that time was about 24 000 SEK or 2500£ if I don't remember exhange rate wrong. They are not built as ordenary speakers. The have a ironbare inside that all wofers where connected to. They are Triwired, så you can drive all elements seprarly. The front wofer is connected with a metalrod to the back wofer. I really loved the sound frome them, the went much deeper in the bass then my Mordaunt Short MS 300 did. It's even so that not even Mordaunt Short today know anything about them. I think my friend sold 3-4 pair of them in Sweden , so they are rare. In good condition a keeper if You like the sound.
 

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