Scandyna / Dynaco (ScanSpeak) restore

[TroelsM]

Hi Folks.

I got into this very bad habit of buying old cheap speakers...

Well, the other day I stopped by a charity-sale (is that a proper English word) and bought 2 sets of speakers for a grand total of ~ 4 US$...

One pair of "Scandyna a10X" and a pair of "Beovox 3000".... the latter are a pair of big boxes with a 10" and a 1½ dome. Nothing special but ind working order and with some nice woodwork

The Scandyna is (as far as I can tell), the same as the ones sold in the US under the Dynaco-name. Although mine are closed boxes. The units are ScanSpeak, although the tweeter is also labelled "ITT". Size is 380 by 210 by 190mm. Bass is 6" and dome is 1½ inch. Bass is running full-range and the tweeter is coupled with a single 16uF cap ("Jensen" BTW..).

The bass is so very very SS-like. )Looks like the grandfather of my newer 6" SS.). Paper-cone, cast chassis and some sort of cone-damping.

The sound is nice! Much better than expected for the 2$ and imaging and voices sound so very natural. I can hear "room" and details than my other speaker just don't reveal.

Yes, I'm probably just surprised and no the a probably not the 8'th wonder of the world, but there's just something about them.

The cabinets have been sanded and treated with oil. I'll ad some terminals on the back and probably play a little with the "cross-over".

I'll add some pics for fun.

Regards TroelsM

[TroelsM]

Pic1:

[TroelsM]

Pic 2:

[TroelsM]

Pic 3:

[Iain McNeill]

You lucky %#@(*!

I regularly troll the flea-markets and thrift stores for gems like those. My best find was an old pair of AR3b's that I got for $20 (yeah I overpaid but the guy looked so desperate) and a heavy Sansui A60 for $10 that has given exemplary service for over 10years now.

This says much about Scan Speak driver quality/reliability; that they sound so good after all that time. How old do you estimate these speakers are? I've been thinking about using Scan Speak on my next project.

[Zen Mod]

http://tiny.pl/1j6z

[Inductor]

Troels, Congratulations, you got yourself an antique. Can I see in them the old black (auto) mastic "that never dries" from Dynaco?!

[TroelsM]

Hi all.

Thanks for the replies.

Zen Mod: Those units in your link looks very much like mine. That big 1½" dome must have been widely used. It's almost similar to the one that's used in the Beovox3000 i found.

McNeil: I would guess that they are 30 years old. The bass-suspension seems to be some sort of coated fabric. Fantastic that this stuff is soft and strong after 30 years.

Inductor: I'm not sure what you mean? Are you referring to the black stuff that's used to make the airtight seal between the basket and the case? If so, no, that stuff apparently doesn't dry.

Any guesses on the state of the 16uF Jensen cap? Should i change it to some new film-cap? I'm thinking of adding a coil in series with bass, but on the other hand it is rather good already.

Regards TroelsM

[Inductor]

Originally posted by TroelsM

Any guesses on the state of the 16uF Jensen cap? Should i change it to some new film-cap? I'm thinking of adding a coil in series with bass, but on the other hand it is rather good already.

You can measure both caps to see of it's efficiency into their limits, after so much time (decades).
The woofer probably doesn't need inductor, as later models of dynaco. They had a very (xover) natural decay and maybe high inductance (Le). They must be very "fast"/performant speakers.

[TroelsM]

Hi Inductor

Nope I don't know if the "need" a inductor, but my thinking is that it should only get better if the bass is "relieved" from the high-freq. notes.

I'm not sure what you mean by "fast" but they definitely do something different.

I was listening to Jamie Cullum and his voice is so clear on these old speakers. Every breath is heard and the voice "floats" in the room, eg. it exist in the room, not in the speaker-box. The vocals sounds natural.

Another thing i noticed, is that there seems to be a lot of "room"/space with these speakers. I can't say if it's artificially or not, but some of George Michael's live-recordings seems to be a lot more "live"...

I wish I had more experience describing sound. Does my ramblings make any sense?

Regards TroelsM