Stereo Speakers I have known. Part One

Gentle reader,

I continue to enjoy the amazing everything of the Minimus 11 speakers that I modernized with high quality drivers from PartsExpress.com and the complex crossovers from Infinity Primus 150 speakers. Detailed here:
The Robb Collections: Upgrading old diecast Realistic Minimus 11 speakers

and here:

The Robb Collections: NOW finished: Upgrading old diecast Realistic Minimus 11 speakers Part 2.5

I started my love affair with great music reproduction in 1975, in Richmond, Virginia. My family had newly arrived the previous year, but I'd returned to my old city and first real girlfriend. But that's another story not likely to be told here.

At the time, I had what was referred to as a "suitcase stereo". Largely plastic, the record player folded up into the rest of the "suitcase" between the built-in speakers. It even had a handle like a suitcase. That, children was the closest thing we had to "taking our music with us" back in the last Century before SONY took the "transistor radio" and added a cassette tape player and cheap headphones to it creating their WALKMAN. It changed the world of music forever. 

Anyway, My brother, four years younger than I, had a friend a few blocks over who had two older brothers that were into cars and one of them had a really cool (and loud) stereo.

So, he took me over there, I admired their European cars and then trooped into the house and upstairs to Phillip's room and his stereo. 

It comprised a PIONEER 60-watts-per-channel integrated amplifier, a nice turntable and a huge REVOX reel-to-reel tape recorder. But the really big things in the room were the speakers he'd made out of plywood with 18" woofers, midranges and tweeters. They had to have been five feet tall and played VERY LOUD! His poor parents and neighbors. (He and I later built some Altec-Lansing "Voice-of-the-Theater" speakers.)

We walked back home and I looked at my plastic-not-fantastic-stereo, and whimpered. As I had a good paying job, ($100-a-week, in 1975 for an 18-year-old) I vowed to build a better stereo than his. I did my research, STEREO REVIEW and AUDIO magazines and what books the local library had on the subject. I found an ad for a book, coffee-table-sized, it turns out, called, THE AUDIO ALTERNATIVE. It was billed as the alternative to the commercial magazines that were beholden to their advertisers. Children, believe it or not, there was a time when there was NO INTERNET!

I settled on buying and building a kit DYNACO PAT-5 preamplifier and a kit pair of SWTPC TIGER 01 mono 60 watt power amps. I had never soldered before, but my dad showed me how and I built the PAT-5 first. I took it to AUDIO ART, a store that is still there, where they tested it and pronounced it good. The South Western Technical Products Company (SWTPC) amps were a different story, but AUDIO ART's tech was able to correct the small mistakes I'd made and I was now in business. 

I bought a B.I.C 940 turntable and from DIXIE HiFi a pair of DYNACO A-25 speakers which were floor samples and thus $100 for the pair, half price. There's more to that story, as you will see.

Below are some pictures of some of those component, still in use, in 1992:

Above, you can see one of the speakers. Yes, even then, I was into things Asian.

No, that is not a B.I.C turntable and the tuner, two cassette decks and integrated amp, acting as a power amplifier were all thrift store buys.

Being newly liberated from my first wife, I was able to enjoy buying stuff just for me.

Now, above, it was eight years ago, almost exactly and in this very room. Still have the DYNACO A-25s and they sit atop a pair of "White Van Speakers". Google that for explanation. 

Above and below are a series of photos showing various iterations of stereo equipment setups in this room. NOTE: My original PAT-5 stopped working in one channel, but thanks to ebay, I was able to buy another and other DYNACO equipment. I even scored the vaunted STEREO 400 for less than $200! 

Every piece of equipment in these photos with the exception of the small black LED meter seen atop the FM-5 tuner below, has gone on to other people's homes.

Now, back to the subject of this blog: SPEAKERS I have known.

The woofer above and twice below was in an old speaker that I'd found in a thrift store. It was very old and I found a matching-era horn tweeter to match to make a mono speaker.

Above is a line-up of speakers that have come and gone. I believe the black ones are ADS, the black and blue are Pioneers?, the brown ones, I can't tell and the central ones I think were Coral. The only ones I still have are the BOSE 301s that my wife bought new for me.

Above and following are ACUTEX models that I bought and refurbished. They turned out great and by rotating one set of tweeter/midrange dirvers 180 degrees, I improved the sound.

Based upon the large photo above, this wasn't that long ago. Since so much of what you see, I still have in the next room. Below, compare to the first photo to see what  I mean about rotating 180 degrees.

Below are the ADS tower speakers that were a local pawn shop find posed for their ebay sale.

They were great sounding speakers, but like all others before, the siren song of new ones was too great and off they went to a new owner. NOTE: These are all being shown in alphabetical order as that's the way the pictures are in the computer.

Above are a pair of AXIOM speakers that I really enjoyed. Note their own idea as to the shape a reflex port should be. Remind you of anything?

Above and below are Bowers & Wilkins speakers I found at Salvation Army one day. It amazes me what some people donate. Note the tweeter being top mounted and that the backs are finished as well. Don't you just love black walnut wood?

Next, ones I desired for DECADES: 

Yes, the top-of-the-line B.I.C Venturi Formula 6 speakers. I restored them as well. They were very efficient. The foam grilles were long gone. I had to use the trick of piercing the middle of the woofer caps to carefully pop them back into shape. Plus the edges of the cone midranges had deteriorated, so I fixed them as well.

I still have and use the subwoofer between them in the top photo. Above, you can see the Venturi vent at the bottom of the front baffle. Next, a co-collector once told me to always buy Coral speakers when I found them. So I did.

Above, arranged as "bookshelf speakers" were wont to be, I don't remember their model numbers. Note how everything is mounted from the rear and the deep horn tweeter.

Above, in the normal way speakers (except BOSE 201, 301 and 901 models) should be mounted. Also, not the factory hole in the woofer's center cap.

And in case you wonder what the "guts" of Coral speakers look like, above and below.

Next, one of the DCM KX12 speakers I found at the same pawn shop. I featured these in comparison to the Cerwin Vega LS12s I have and still use.

Below, for some reason, they loaded back to front, are what DCM is more known for, "transmission-line" speakers. Note how narrow they are front-to-rear and tapered. Believe it or not, inside that skinny cabinet is a long set of ducts that send the rear waves from the coaxial driver to eventually join and reinforce the front waves at the EXACT second to increase the bass notes.

These are "Time Frame" units, they made larger ones called "Time Windows".

Below, are three Definitive Technology speakers. The smaller pair, I found at a thrift store and bought the larger one to use as a center speaker in the living room. Very nicely made and heavy speakers.

Next, in another Salvation Army coup, is a set of larger units from the same maker, but older and more traditional.

I sold them, as I always do in my obsessive hobby, via ebay.

Until seeing these pictures from June of last year, I was certain I'd never owned or heard ribbon tweeters. I was wrong as these attractive Philips units have them.

Note how both sets have the better three-way-binding/banana post for hooking up the wires. The Onkyo units had grilles, the Philips never did.

Dual is a renowned name in HiFi/Stereo circles. These diecast speakers are modern units that bear that great name. German? Hardly. Made for wall mounting via brackets that screwed to the top and bottoms.

FINALLY, to end this chapter on speakers, are the made-in-Denmark by SEAS, below see the woofer and tweeter from one of my Dynaco A-25 speakers. 

Why, ONE? Well, A-25 speakers from the factory had their grilles glued on. I'd had those speakers for DECADES and one day, noticed one of the woofers had a buzz. I pried off the grilles and to my HORROR, saw that one of them (the buzzer) had the original drivers replaced by generic units and the cabinet stuffed with fiberglass! So much for MY golden ears! I never noticed the difference in sound!

Go ahead, try and buy some DYNACO A-25 or any other of the classic speakers, prices have shot up! Oh, and of course, I WANT some!

Thanks for looking,

Scott