Some rare vintage speakers....that I never heard of, PART TWO

Gentle reader,

I completed my restoration of the Acutex speakers. I made some minor improvements as well.

As you can see above and in the two photos immediately below, that I reversed one of the "4CM Acutex Dome Carbonized Reflexer" and tweeter panels so that the speakers are mirror images. There is belief that doing so improves the "Sound stage". I chose not to try and repair the broken tweeter protector cage below. I would not be able to do so and match the original.

I also chose not to touch up the chipped black paint on the front panels. Again, I felt that matching the original paint would be difficult to do.

Other things that I DID do are, I rubberized the woofer's foam surrounds, but only on the back side. I wanted to preserve the originality of these uber-rare speakers, yet tweak the sound. I replaced factory fiberglass inside with polyfil which is said to perform better. 

As you can see, I removed the cheap plastic spring terminals with 3/4" spaced 3-way terminals that accept banana plugs, spade lugs or bare wires, larger of the latter that the spring terminals would accept.

Just check out the glow and shine of the happily Tung oiled black walnut veneer and solid pieces in the following photos!

These are the bottoms which of course were the worst. The wood sucked up the Tung oil "and there was much rejoicing". Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Compare these photos to the original condition on The Robb Collections: Some rare vintage speakers....that I never heard of.

Thanks for looking,

Scott  

Some rare vintage speakers....that I never heard of.

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