Vintage Mind Blower speakers???

[big_ol_meat 10+ year member]

lol @ people looking for speakers made before I was even born.

 

[skylineTT 10+ year member]

People joined the forum specifically to post in this thread, then never posted again. lolz

 

[jdawg 5,000+ posts]

Pyramid actually had some decent budget sounds I remember in the 90s, some of it was poop, depends on what line you got. I had some pyramids super blues and some legacy 1295s with the pink surround (I remember the model cause it was 12" 95oz magnet), they blew away the pioneer impp and pyle 'driver' series (chrome basket with like purple surround or some ****) for alot less

 

[MANTI5 10+ year member]

I wish modern subs were a little more stylish, color cones or surrounds other than black would be nice.

 

[icunjl]

Yes. They were out in the early 70's. You have to remember, this was the day when "CRAIG" ruled the roost with the "Powerplay" high power 8 track decks. Speakers for cars sounded like crap due to general lack of power. High power amps were not the norm. It was generally the power from the reciever that pushed those speakers. Generally 20-50 watts was all they could muster! Then came the "Power Plus" Mind Blowers. A 6x9 powered speaker that actually kicked *** pretty well. They both shared a "Bass Boost" feature that was controlled by a shared wired remote. These things were the best sounding of any speaker setup of the day! They worked! They had emense clarity and would make Dark Side Of The Moon from Pink Floyd litterally blow your mind. One issue was the heat from the amps in the speakers would get pretty hot! The build quality was excellent. Soon came copies from Kraco that were pure useless junk. I do believe that the Mind Blowers claimed to push 200 watts! If mated to a decent head unit, the setup was superb for the time...I can hear the Isleys "The Heat Is On" rumblin in my '68 Mustang California Special right now! They were the best! Dan

 

[icunjl]

AMEN! the young guys on here have no clue to how clean the Mind Blowers were! I too, would buy them TODAY! I am suprised amplified speakers did not continue. Honest to gawd...these speakers were no joke. Pure audiophile heaven. Dan ( Class of 1973)

 

[Bob Uecker]

Hiyas all! I'm just another retired veteran installer who joined this forum just so I could add my 2 cents to this thread. Here's the deal: there were two separate Pyramid companies. Run by 2 brothers,Ziggy and Nachtman (sp?) who didn't get along with each other. Nachtman was Pyramid-Tenna-Phase3 and Ziggy was the more familiar Pyramid. Ziggy's office mgr was Jake Glass,who is now Cadence. Now,I'm going to take a nap...

 

[Ignatowski 5,000+ posts]

this thread is 2 years old ********

 

[Bob Uecker]

Ignoramus,while it is true that this thread was started over two years ago,it is still active.

Get a life.

 

[Skyone2]

Wow ! This brings back fond memories.. My 68 Roadrunner with my mindblower speakers. I think i bought them at k - mart for 30 bucks. I loved those speakers. Catchin a buzz , flippin the switch and bam. Boston poundin the back of your head ! They were the best ! I wish i had a pair for the saddle bags on my bike. I've been looking for a pair. Of coarse my bike is loud. Like everything i've ever owned . Old school Doug here !

 

[shackles 10+ year member]

I had a friend who had those in his car and other than being loud they sounded like a cheap pair of speakers being overdriven when compared to today's set ups with separate components, high power subs and amps with lots of dynamic headroom.

I had some of the "loud" types of car audio equipment in the day including Craig Powerplay with the booster amps, etc.

And while this equipment sounded good in the day and played "loud", it's a far cry from the high quality sound possible today. And those surface mount speaker setups sounded especially bad.

If you want strictly a vintage look and sound then you can go with that stuff, if you can find it, but for great sound use modern equipment. JMHO.

 

[BrownVanMan 10+ year member]

Pyramid actually had some decent budget sounds I remember in the 90s, some of it was poop, depends on what line you got. I had some pyramids super blues and some legacy 1295s with the pink surround (I remember the model cause it was 12" 95oz magnet), they blew away the pioneer impp and pyle 'driver' series (chrome basket with like purple surround or some ****) for alot less

i had a 10 inch super blue NIB and it sounds nice now. not bad but needs a bigger than usual to get some noise out of it

 

[Stoneman]

I had Mind-Blower Speakers. They were made by Tenna. The Bass was as thunderous as anything I've heard today only with mid-range and highs that were off the charts. If you turned up the volume, they just kept getting louder without distortion. You could scream at the driver from the passenger seat and he couldn't hear you.

We went camping in WI. Some campers brought a generator and their stereo system. We came driving in and everyone came running over to our car to see what the hell kind of system we had because it drowned out their music.

I bought them from a department store called Zayre. I wish I could have bought a skid load of them. I think they were $79.00-$125.00 range. Most awesome car speakers I've ever heard for the money. I heard a $5000.00 Demo-system built for Delco that sounded as good. But it was $5000.00!!!

 

[motorhead]

Was thinking about Mindblower speakers for some reason, did a web search and found this thread. I agree with the others who attested to the sound quality of these speakers.

One thing that I didn't see mentioned was the fact that there were two generations of Mindblowers. The first had duocone speakers, and the Mindblower II's had coax speakers. They probably upped the wattage on the amps too... I don't remember. I had a pair of the original Mindblowers, wore them out, and then upgraded to the Mindblower II's.

It's a shame that Mindblowers (or something like them) are no longer available. Tenna probably closed it's doors before a whole generation of teenagers turned young-adults could sue them for hearing loss!

BTW, I have searched high and low for a photo; this is the only thing I could find.

 

[motorhead]

PS-We all knew that those speakers sounded great, but we didn't know why. It turns out Tenna had a patent for a push-pull amplifier driving a speaker with a split voice coil, which allowed for higher output with less distortion for a given wattage. See US Patent 4130725 (forum won't allow me to provide a link)