Gentle reader,
Thanks once again for taking the time to look at my humble blog. Your comments are so kind and so make it worth the effort.
I found a nice pair of compact bookshelf speakers at the Salvation Army last Wednesday. First electronics in quite a while that caught my eye.
They are Acutex MTS/3 models. Made from 1979 to 1984 and they were the top of the Acutex line retailing for $300 which is almost $1000 in today's dollars.
Very good shape for their age and they work fine. Almost no info Acutex speakers on the Internet.
Above, you are seeing the bottom of one on the left. Ideally, when buying speakers with real wood veneer, walnut (my favorite!) in this case, one hopes for somewhat matching grain. No such luck, but for the price.....can't complain.
It looks like they are 3-way speakers, but in fact, the larger domed unit is "4CM Acutex Dome Carbonized Reflexer" What it does is act like a tiny passive radiator. The crossover point is a very high 5000 Hertz which is asking a lot of any woofer, even a 6 1/2" one. Also, note the tweeter protector is partially missing on the left unit. I'll have to see what I can do about that.
Above and below are the stickers that were applied up to 35 years ago. Serial numbers have faded away. Nice that they explained the characteristics of their speaker. I like, "We believe you will find its (sic) overall musical performance as convincing as that of any loudspeaker regardless of price, size, or design." Modest, weren't they. Easy to tell a Japanese with ESL skills wrote the document. Still, their English is WAY better than my ANY foreign language skill!
The holes in the factory spring terminals are too small for banana plugs or the size of the speaker wires that I use. I plan to replace them with three-way banana jacks.
While I cannot comment as to whether they sound better than any speakers made in the late '70's to mid 80's, they do sound very nice. I plan to restore them and perhaps make tiny improvements.
I just can't help it! I'm that way about many things. A perfectionist? Hardly, a neat-freak? Perhaps, but I have made parts of my environment a mess from time to time. But I digress. I'll update you with the finished product. I already bought new Tung oil!
Thanks for looking,
Scott
i have these speaker too and a 70"s aiwa mini stereo system.
ReplyDeleteu know how much it cost??
That is the craziest passive radiator I have ever seen.I speak fluent Polk, and they loved PR designs. In the 10M for example, the drivers are a pair of 6.5 inch woofers, and a large 12 PR (with added cone mass to lower its resonant frequency) supplements the bottom octave.How a tiny dome can do that...well.... it cant. What MUST be going on is the 2 way crossover had a big dip right at the xover point, and this little stiff goober must resonate at that freq., adding a boost in output that smooths out the dip. Either very clever or very foolish. How do they sound ?
ReplyDeleteThey sounded better after I swapped the tweeter/midrange left-to-right on one. Sold them.
DeleteLOL That Acutex mid-tweet that you flipped around? That mid-dome is a FAKE mid-dome! When you flip it over there is no magnet or anything. I had a pair. I even tried to blow through it, and no air would pass. It does absolutely nothing! REALLY nice little boxes though.
DeleteGreat page here. I hope you don’t mind if I share that pic of them. I’ll give you full credit.
What 2-channel system are you listening to now?
Re: above post. My name is Dave Smith BTW. I'll share this whole page instead of just the pic if you don't mind.
DeleteHere I am on FB. For about 47 years I have LOVED audio!
https://www.facebook.com/dave.smith.7505
Hi, Thanks for your comments. It's been so long since I had those speakers, I don't recall what was on the back. Sheesh! Fake midrange. Who knew?
Delete
ReplyDeleteNice post! Thanks a lot for the kind of perfect topic.I like your post.
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