Sansui, Technics, even NEC had horn hybrid speakers in the late 1970s, smaller horn speakers with a conventional cone bass speaker were practical as bass horn speakers needed a mouth six feet square and weighed a ton!  Strange agricultural looks, efficiency -what's this?  X-100 looks started as Vitavox Bitone speakers in Cinema theaters and by the 1970s, while at home, many folks preferred 'Super Music Centers' like the SONY HMK 70.  The bad sound of many speaker/ amplifier matches is where Radioshack GOOD/ BETTER/ BEST sets really did save you trouble.  Pioneer too ought to be matched with Pioneer CS Speakers , just ignore the Guides that say Japanese electronics brands don't make good speakers, it IS garbage, just keep a vintage year Pioneer amplifier for power and never judge a Pioneer CS speaker by its looks!  May look nasty, may need new caps , but they're real value!

A Music Center had sensitive speakers to sound extra loud  

The RadioShack 'Good/ Better/ Best systems above center will leave some folks frustrated as to how good these systems were, in 1979.  First it must be understood at that time, Hi-End Audio was exclusive and at best, few people even had Music Centers.  In North American and Canadian markets, Music Centers were called AM/FM record/play systems and Stereo Music Systems, in England everybody knew them as the Music Center, so finding these sets in Ebay searches may be difficult.  A Music Center is illustrated here by the REALISTIC Clarinette 600 above right but Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba and Bang & Olufsen introduced Super Music Centers like the HMK 70 that may be Googled.  The sound of the Bang & Olufsen super music 'Beocenter' is similar to the REALISTIC Optimus X-100 and STA-2000 receiver below.  While some folks find the Beocenter 2100 etc sound 'ordinary', at least one model sounds special, wonder which one it is? 

REALISTIC OPTIMUS X-100 Cat No. 40-9157

GeneXXa CD100, REALISTIC STA-2000, harman/kardon A 402, X-100

The idea that the STA-2100 with Optimus X-200 is marked BETTER, in the Shack systems above again demands an example of just how much 'better' they are.  Like Optimus T-70, T-110 or T-300 speakers they were a significant improvement, bearing comparison to the true hi-End.  Coming from hearing hi-End the first thing you'd credit REALISTIC with was the price.  If you had already paid for hi-End you'd see the red mist in RadioShack back then and be real glad when they stopped making such equipment!  So these systems are all about value and folks who kept them just couldn't resist the whole package.  We see Texans with REALISTIC general coverage receivers, not because Trio or Panasonic weren't around, the radio tuner side of the brand was as hot as the audio quality and styling.  Compared to the Clarinette 600 a super music center had a better quality Frequency Response with more power, speaker efficiency, a higher quality tuner and cassette than the usual offering.  Super music centers remain highly sought after for their tube-like sound.  A show jumping horse ridden by England's famous Harvey Smith was named after a Sanyo Music Center, a lower cost set with amazing sound!

REALISTIC OPTIMUS X-30 speaker, Cat No. 40-9153

REALISTIC OPTIMUS X-30, 30Hz-25KHz, 90 watts USA, brass voice coil  

The STA-2000 like many Shack receivers had REALISTIC Auto-Perfect Loudness but a Wharfedale Glendale XP2 can't use the STA-2000 Loudness, giving 'fat' bass without Loudness or any tone boost, also the Glendale is best mounted away from walls or most detail gets lost.  Once upgraded the X-100 doesn't need Loudness, but the process of running-in takes a few weeks with CD.  The STA-2000 is a good stereo receiver designed and built by Foster, a real quality piece, not a Power House, it idles around one watt, but 1 watt single-ended triode tube amps may not compete!   Shack stores always used Loudness, speakers like the REALISTIC Mach Two and Mach One depend heavily on Auto-Perfect Loudness. 

With the early Mach Ones you need the old dial scale REALISTIC receiver from the STA-2000 to the STA-2300 with 20-20KHz, +/- 0.5dB, a STA-2290 receiver is all about presets, has 20-20,000Hz at +/- 5dB!  Same year STA-2080 with no presets and old dial scale tuning, does 15-25,000Hz at +/- 2db!  The X-100's STA-95 does 30-22,000Hz at +/- 1dB!  The Frequency Response has the plus or minus dB accuracy and total harmonic distortion at a given power - Check it!  The STA-2290 is 0.05% THD and the STA-2080 better at 0.03% THD.  Note in specs these figures are sometimes quoted only at half power, as there's then less heat and less distortion in the heat-sink!  It's not all power in RMS.  Why is there a smaller heat-sink to power RMS in the Sansui A60 than the same power harman/kardon A402?  A bigger heatsink could mean it's got more Hi-Fi staying power when the going gets tougher,  but a smaller heatsink on a higher power amplifier may reflect the c/w needs of the output transistors!  Look at heatsink, power in RMS, THD, Frequency Response, S/N ratio etc.

REALISTIC OPTIMUS X-100, 20Hz-25KHz, 100 watts USA, Mach One style

An OPTIMUS X-100 speaker's large MID horn feature has a 'LIVE' feel, the bullet tweeter let highs 'hang in the air with a bell like clarity' and is a tweeter likely inspired by Monacor's HTM-2, a gray color 8-ohm/ 80watt bullet tweeter found in Isophon PSL 170/30 speakers, further German influence of Grundig Audioprisma Hi-Fi boxes (see at the foot of page) being likely.  The MID horns with a STA-2000 reflect sound off corner walls with less need for CARVER SONIC HOLOGRAPHY.  'Hanging in the air with a bell-like clarity' may read today like colored Lo-Fi sound, but has an effect like huge Tannoys in Auditoriums.  Black vinylhide around the 12-inch ribbed sealed box rubber edge drivers and real oiled walnut wood veneer - a traditional feature of OPTIMUS speakers.  Original X-100 Catalog entry is copied below.  

"30cm woofer - Multicell midrange horn - Heavy duty tweeter - If you like the sound and feel of a wall-shaking bass, you'll love this speaker.  It has the response and power capacity (over 100 watts peak programme) to give you the low frequencies your entire "body" hears ... close your eyes and feel the music.  The superior transient response of the X-100 preserves the punch of modern music material -It's the speaker that makes hard rock easy!  L-C crossover for a smooth 20Hz-25,000Hz response.  Genuine walnut veneer.  Removable grille." 

These X-100 are still amazing speakers for getting the most detail out of recordings, the horns are way beyond only Soft Dome tweeters for bringing out detail, and in the late 70s there weren't too many great tweeters!  But with the 'TAD Exclusive horn', there's a 2-inch Pioneer Soft Dome Compression Driver behind that Maple wood horn throat, so between these and ATC Soft Dome only studio monitors, about the best thing with an X-100 has to be the horn appearance, not that looks would do it.

No.1 TIP TO BEST SOUND - TIGHTEN SCREWS ON REAR MIDHORN ACCESS HARDBOARD PANELS!

1983 competition for X-100 and X-200, a 13-inch woofer Goodmans Magnum

 "Handling up to 90 watts RMS of power, and designed to the same superb specification as the Mezzo, the Magnum literally brings the concert hall into your listening room.  Nearly 60 years of Goodmans' loudspeaker technology has resulted in a speaker that will enhance the sound of any worthwhile Hi-Fi system - and add an elegance that will please the eye too.  Even the drive units are manufactured by Goodmans . . . 330mm bass driver, 114mm mid-range unit and 25mm dome tweeter . . . and careful 'mirror imaging' of each pair of models gives a stereo balance that clearly locates instruments and voices.  Overall efficiency is as high as the price is low, and when you add for good measure contour controls and LED power indicators - you have a loudspeaker system that's definitely worth listening  to."

Tannoy Berkeley Dual concentric, same specs as OPTIMUS Mach Three horn hybrid!

About Musical Sound Balance of The Tannoy Berkeley See Tannoy Arden ?

Tannoy Berkeley and Arden as advertised in National Geographic magazine USA, (In European issues there's no adverts!) were published among 1970s Detroit automobiles making them like Movie Stars, Berkeley 93dB SPL doesn't compare too well with SONY SS 860's 20Hz-22KHz and 99dB SPL, 1w/1m!  The '74 Bekeley does 35-20,000Hz as a twin duct ported bass reflex aped by the 1992 Optimus Mach Three .  The Arden is a triple duct and the Mach Three far more likely inspired by Klipsch Chorus speakers at only 45Hz-20KHz +/- 3dB and 101dB SPL, 8-ohm, made 1987-90 for 100w RMS.  So does the Mach Three big Mid horn and big tweeter horn beat the Berkeley's single concentric MiD/Hi horn?  Well rumor has it the Tannoy has its big 15-inch cone as a horn throat extension and just what other horn does 500-20,000Hz in one leap?  Wonder how Dr Bruce Edgar would rate that 15-inch round cone horn?  The three have a 15-inch woofer but design differences say something about intended sound quality and price point build quality, mark you the Berkeley sound has its critics!  Even the Urei 813 wouldn't exist if Altec 604 didn't have critics! 

SONY SS-860  twin cluster HF units, now obsolete

*********************Youtube Video  See 'Electrons and observer, Heisenberg Copenhagen experiment.  The video shows waves produced by one source when a wave passes through one slit and waves produced by two sources when a wave passes through two slits.  The effects of the Realistic IMX expander processor and reflection from walls don't entirely rule out the twin cluster as useful to some.  These guys in the 1970s were experimenting with omni-directional sound like Bose.  The single source wave generator may though be seen to produce the strongest direct sound beam!

OTHER Ebay Search 1976, First Mach One year, Lifetime Guarantee REALISTIC 20Hz-20KHz speakers:-

Nova 8B 12" Woofer, Nova 7B 10" Woofer, Optimus 1B 12" Woofer Optimus 2B 10" Woofer 30Hz - 20KHz, (Mach One/Optimus X-100 20-25,000Hz)

REALISTIC OPTIMUS X-200 speaker Cat No. 40-9158

REALISTIC Optimus X-200: 18Hz-28KHz, Optimus X-100 and Optimus T-200

The above pix show the Class of '79 Optimus T-200 speaker, flagship in some parts of the USA.  Optimus X-200 and its earlier horn mid version, with eight, of then cutting edge technology American Motorola piezo horns also used by Louisianan Savard speakers, weren't available in all markets, as other Optimus models: the horn 10, 30 or X-15 and MC specials.  Slow witted customers would have been confused by all the choice, leaving the store wanting everything!  Lines were reduced ensuring a real satisfied customer at the point of sale!  Advanced Optimus X-200 copies a 1972 year HACKER L.S.1500, with its E.M.I., 19-inch by 14-inch elliptical 901 driver, E.M.I. 10-inch by 5-inch elliptical midrange and six EMI elliptical tweeters!  Such double clusters were thought later to cancel frequencies or cancel eachother out, making the Optimus X-30 MID/HI style obsolete too.  Huge drivers like the E.M.I. 901 and 21-inch bass woofer suffered narrow dispersion like the Q.U.A.D. electrostatic but these considerations don't generally reduce demand for vintage examples on Ebay, old curiosity seems to have gotten the better of us?

BEWARE - THE JUNIOR HORN HYBRID*******************************************

REALISTIC Minimus-5 :  20 watts Music Power in the 70s version and 15 watts Music Power in the 80s model, both Cat No.40-255 with 100Hz-20KHz - Lo-Fi in no uncertain measures.  Ebay traders seem to like this little speaker - real wood veneer and built to table radio standards, it's horn dispersion is w-i-d-e, but it has no bass even with Loudness, in the catalog described as being an Extension Speaker.  Was a Main Line match for the REALISTIC STA-16 stereo receiver, with caption 'The Sound, Looks and "Feel" of Expensive Stereo at a Low Price!'  With its built in Quatrovox the STA-16 allowed 4-channel effects from a stereo source - using 'Extension Speakers!'  Radioshack's Good/Better/Best line-up gave it a 'BETTER SYSTEM', 'better' than Minimus-3 speakers with no data supplied save for a 5-inch full range late 1970s driver.  The MC500 was 'Best' over the Minimus-5, its 5-inch acoustic suspension woofer with a 2-inch tweeter not of the 'cellular horn' marketing style, offered 'highly satisfying 40-20,000Hz response ... oiled walnut veneer enclosure with removable black cloth grille'.  But Minimus-5 is very watt efficient, ideal for single ended triode or milliwatt output Solid State amplifiers! 

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OTHER OPTIMUS X-100 TYPE SPEAKERS: Altec Lansing Valencia 846B Voice of the Theater, 1985 ONKYO Grand Scepter GS-1 Super High Fidelity Horn speaker system - As the X-100 has a bullet horn in the tweeter, the ONKYO GS-1 has one each of, on its two woofers!  -That's a double bass bullet horn system, with JBL K2-S9800-style mid/high horn above!).  The Optimus X-100 is 90db SPL like the Mach one 40-4024 and 40-4029 - as they're sealed boxes not ported bass reflex like the REALISTIC Mach Two and Goodmans Magnum. Pioneer CS 901A , CS-R700, GRUNDIG Hi-Fi Box 503, 4-ohm, 35/ 50w, 58 x 39 x 14cm.  38Hz-26KHz, 13.2Kg/ 29.1Ibs, wood veneer/ grey grille, upper sectional mid-range horn.  REALISTIC Mach One, Optimus 990S, Sansui SP-300, the SP-300 has the same type of cabinet brace as the X-100 and Sansui's later 1975-79 range of large horn hybrid speakers are the SP-X series!  Klipsch Heresy, TAD Exclusive 2404, JBL Everest DD66000, K2-S9800, DECCA London , 1970s Altec Lansing 19 etc., Technics SB-E100, SB E 200, SB-1000, SB-9500.  A look at these speakers will get you into the marketing thinking behind the REALISTIC OPTIMUS X-100.

Vitavox go on from Bitone to produce true folded bass horn designs like Thunderbolt and Air Scout!