Any info on old Seas drivers?

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I'm seeking info on a couple of vintage Seas drivers that were in a full-range coaxial sealed box speaker, marketed in Australia* under the Interdyn brand. (* Well, that's where it is now!)

There is a 30cm woofer, 8 ohm, which bears "30TV - coax" and "40-73",
and a tweeter, 8 ohm, which bears "9TV" and "36-73".

The cap & inductor cross-over bears some info, including that it crosses at 4000Hz.

Now before anyone recommends I go to the Seas site (www.seas.no), I have been there.
I found reference to a tweeter "9TV-LG". Not exactly what I have, but it seems the right size.

However there is no mention whatsoever about the woofer. Can anyone help?

And for extra brownie points, how hifi ... or lofi ... were they in their day?

Thanks Doug
 
Hi Doug, we're winding back the clock here. IIRC Alex Encel marketed Interdyn from his Richmond Vic store in the 60 - 70s.

I recall the 30TV, but not a coax variant, instead a dual cone with a pleated surround. I and a friend wrote them off as PA drivers. We were young and foolish, thus wrong.

Be warned, ZenMod will probably hate you, and offer a disposal service. Save on freight, send them here instead.

How do they sound? Could probably do with some cone treatment and plugs.

Cheers,
Geoff
 
Geoff H said:
Hi Doug, we're winding back the clock here. IIRC Alex Encel marketed Interdyn from his Richmond Vic store in the 60 - 70s.

I recall the 30TV, but not a coax variant, instead a dual cone with a pleated surround. I and a friend wrote them off as PA drivers. We were young and foolish, thus wrong.

Be warned, ZenMod will probably hate you, and offer a disposal service. Save on freight, send them here instead.

How do they sound? Could probably do with some cone treatment and plugs.

Cheers,
Geoff


Well Geoff,
On first hearing they aren't too bad. Drivers all in good condition, visually.

Before playing, I opened the boxes and soldered on better speaker cables. (The wires fitted were tiny. Horrible.) If I decide to keep them for a while I'll fit binding posts.

They aren't twin cones. (So no cigar!)
The tweeter has a closed-in back.
The woofer cone is not a straight cone, but is ?parabolic? It appears to be paper, and has a triple concetina edge.

... so anyone else with ideas? :)

Doug
 
Hi Doug,

That's known as a curvilinear cone.

Should look similar to this one, minus the whizzer cone.
 

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I'm reviving this thread, because I recently purchased a pair of speakers with these Seas coaxial drivers. I too am looking for any information on these drivers. These must be really obscure, because I can't find anything on these including the Seas Web site.

Connected to my refurbished Magnavox 93-04-20 6BQ5/EL84 P-P amp, these speakers make beautiful music. They're not quite as refined as my upgraded Klipsch Forte IIs in terms of frequency extension and transparency, but they project a three dimensional image and an incredible midrange.

Seas Coaxial Speakers.jpg Seas Coaxial Front.JPG

Seas Coaxial Rear.jpg Seas Coaxial Flange.JPG

Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
Hi Brisso57, Just in case any locals want to pursue SEAS stuff in the SE corner there is a pair of old SEAS two-ways going in "The Trading Post" on the Web. Suburb Ashmore(?) (Gold Coast) I think. At least they were still there last w/end. Photo of the cabinet with the back off. Look a little over priced to me but "horses for courses" I guess.
 
Like Doug, many thanks to all who have chimed in with help.

I emailed Seas, and they were a tremendous help. I sent them photos and information about the crossover. This is what they came back with:

Dear Richard,

With a lot of help from our senior engineer Bjørn Børja (started at SEAS in 1972) we were able to find a lot of information. J

The 30TV-Coax was constructed in (approx.) 1960, and was a combination of 30TV-E and 9TV-HF and the x-over called H-8001.

Bjørn assume that you have a 4 ohm version, that use two capacitors of 5 uF and an inductance of 0.3mH.

You can look at the attached documents for more information.

Med vennlig hilsen / Kind regards

SEAS Fabrikker AS


All I can say is "Wow!" This is fantastic customer service and demonstrates why Seas is still in business 50 years after manufacturing these coaxial speakers. Mr. Børja is exactly right in identifying what I have.

Unfortunately, the two PDF documents they sent to me are too large to attach to this post. If anyone is interested in these documents, please PM me.
 
All I can say is "Wow!" This is fantastic customer service and demonstrates why Seas is still in business 50 years after manufacturing these coaxial speakers.

Unfortunately, the two PDF documents they sent to me are too large to attach to this post. If anyone is interested in these documents, please PM me.

I can only agree about the customer service. Exemplary!

Doug
 
Excellent! As a Norwegian, it is good to see that norwegian manufacturers and goods get good responses abroad.
The only objection I have, is not against SEAS, rather their norwegian retailer Eltek, whose prices are 1.6-2 times the prices fram Partsexpress and others.
About 20-25 years ago, it was also cheaper to import Seas drivers from England, instead of buying them here in Norway!
 
Vintage Seas 30TV-Coax in JE Labs Open Baffles

Well after tinkering with the bass reflex cabinets and getting some improvements, I decided to try these out in a pair JE Labs open baffles. In this configuration, the speakers took on an entirely different sound--much better, in fact. What surprised me the most was the amount of bass these speakers generated in an open baffle. The speakers were considerably smoother with cleaner highs and a smoother midrange.

Seas Coax JE Lab OB 1.JPG Seas Coax JE Lab OB 2.JPG

In the crossovers, I used Dayton Audio 5uF film caps on the woofers and Sonicap 5.1uF film caps bypassed with 0.1uF Sprague Vitamin Q PIO caps on the tweeter/midrange drivers. I felt the Vitamin Q PIO caps smoothed out the peakiness of the upper mids/highs.

To my ears, the Seas coaxials really found their home in open baffles.
 
seas speakers

I'm seeking info on a couple of vintage Seas drivers that were in a full-range coaxial sealed box speaker, marketed in Australia* under the Interdyn brand. (* Well, that's where it is now!)

There is a 30cm woofer, 8 ohm, which bears "30TV - coax" and "40-73",
and a tweeter, 8 ohm, which bears "9TV" and "36-73".

The cap & inductor cross-over bears some info, including that it crosses at 4000Hz.

Now before anyone recommends I go to the Seas site (www.seas.no), I have been there.
I found reference to a tweeter "9TV-LG". Not exactly what I have, but it seems the right size.

However there is no mention whatsoever about the woofer. Can anyone help?

And for extra brownie points, how hifi ... or lofi ... were they in their day?

Thanks Doug

The two numbers means: production week and the year of the production. Quite simple.:)
 
Even more Interdyn / SEAS driver combos

Here is a twin-cone 10" SEAS driver (bottom cabinet). And above that, a 3-way SEAS array. Interestingly, the 3-way doesn't offer any high-end improvement over the single driver configuration (both sets sound mellow, but the single driver is smoother and more natural sounding). Both cabinets are sealed enclosures. I wonder whether the crossover in the 3-way needs attention (caps need replacing?) - as I expected these to have much better high-end detail. The tweeters work (battery test) but present a relatively dead spot to the ear.
 

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