I was given console speakers from the 1960's, are they usable ?

[SpyStyle]

Hello from Maine

I was given some console speakers from the 1960's along with a record player and reel to reel. But the console's amp was long gone.

I looked on eBay and I guess the record player and reel to reel are not worth much money.

I wonder if the speaker drivers are usable ?

Apparently they are 1 watt. The drivers are marked V.C. 8 ohm 1w

The record player is marked Elac Miracord model PW 04 H

The reel to reel is marked RS-766US

What do you think ?

















Cheers!
Craig

[sbrads]

The speakers look like junk to be honest.

The record deck looks to be an idler wheel, zero suspension type as it appears to be flush with the wooden plinth, so it will be horribly microphonic if used in a system with good bass response and be very prone to feedback. Check though if there are springs underneath that aren't visible in the photo, there may be release catches that have been locked into a safe transport position. Idler wheel decks tend to have a lot of rumble and motor noise blurring the sound. The arm looks a bit heavy as well and may not work with good cartridges. 60's record players were mostly junk I'm afraid. Turntables weren't taken seriously until the mid 70's with mainly the Linn Sondek showing they could make a huge difference to vinyl sound quality if engineered properly.

The tape deck is a possible good'un. There were decent tape decks in the 60's so there's a chance there if it's in good order. Good ones tended to have 7.5 and 15 inches/sec speed settings available, low quality domestic ones had 3.75 ips max speed.

[SpyStyle]

Thanks for the reply

It's too bad about the speakers, I thought they looked cool LOL

Have fun!
Craig

[BudP]

Actually, the speakers appear to be Alnico magnet paper surround types. Since you are not going to get much from them without "help", perhaps you should try a simple EnABL process. They will sound great, can be run from a flea power amp and might even provide some satisfactory sound from what is probably a reasonably pretty cabinet.

Bud

[sreten]

Hi,

The speakers are AlNiCo, as is the tweeter and will appeal to someone.

They look like 10"ers and a low power retro guitarist would probably bite
your arm off to use them in a 4x10" guitar cabinet. I don't think the 1W
(IW?) means 1 watt, they are too big for that to be true, estimate ~ 10W.

The deck is a good one for 78 fans, as a second turntable for that purpose.

Tape deck depends on heads and general condition, should still
appeal to musicians though, all things analogue and that.

rgds, sreten.

[aardvarkash10]

Originally Posted by sbrads

The speakers look like junk to be honest.

The record deck looks to be an idler wheel.... 60's record players were mostly junk I'm afraid. Turntables weren't taken seriously until the mid 70's with mainly the Linn Sondek showing they could make a huge difference to vinyl sound quality if engineered properly.

The tape deck is a possible good'un. There were decent tape decks in the 60's so there's a chance there if it's in good order. Good ones tended to have 7.5 and 15 inches/sec speed settings available, low quality domestic ones had 3.75 ips max speed.

Well, coming from a resident of the country that gave us the Garrard 301 and 401 in the 50's and 60's and then descended into the dispair of Garrard/BSR offerings of the 70's, thats a VERY odd set of statements ;-)

IMHO, tHe tape deck is actually likely to be a piece of crap and the turntable, while not aufiophile-ish, should be an ok-fun unit. The tape deck will without doubt be suffering from decayed rollers and drive belts, most if not all of which will be unobtainium. The heads are likely degraded as well following years of abuse, dust and minimal maintenance. You might be able to get it working, but to what purpose? Its not archival quality (probably never was), the format is obsolete, and ongoing maintenance will haunt you.

This I know from bitter experience. Looks great polished and sitting strategically in your music listening room though!

The ELAC turntable is similar in concept to the many domestic grade offerings of the mid-century but with the advantage of being built like a tank in true Germanic engineering style. Its no Thorens, or even Lenco, but by comparison with the tape deck it will be relatively cheap and easy to get into good working order, and you have to love that socialist industrial styling!

Lots of ELAC info including the manual for this model at www.vinylengine.com

THe speakers look like crap, on that we agree.

[SpyStyle]

Thanks for the replies fellas

Maybe I'll try to drive the speakers with one of these $10 amps for fun



They are on eBay from China :

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from...+Motobike+Boat

[sreten]

Hi,

The speaker appears to be mono, move it on to a guitarist, waste of space for hiifi.

rgds, sreten.

[Moondog55]

Actually if VC 0.8 is the diameter then 1 watts sounds about right and a modern guitar amp will probably need a woofer with hese high passed somewhere above 500, that said my daughter likes that sort of speaker with her guitars so Sretens right; pass them on

[SpyStyle]

Oh I forgot to mention, there is an array of speakers as pictured on the left side and the right side of the big wooden console. Sorry I forgot to mention it. The wooden boards are actually marked in pencil, "L" and "R".

So I guess the console was "stereo" with a turntable and reel to reel. I wonder if the original amp was a cool looking tube amp ? My father claims the amp died so he gave it to a pal for parts. Then my parents used the console as a TV stand for years, then it went into storage for years.

I think tube amps look so cool

OK, thanks all for chiming in and have fun!
Craig