Opinions on Goodmans Speakers

[bm_mode]

I've spotted some Goodmans RB20 speakers for about US$40 in a junk shop. They're standmount size and seem in reasonable condition, with bass reflex woofers and coaxial mid/tweeters (I think). I'm guessing they'd be from the early '70s. Are they worth the dollars? I know Goodmans made some high end stuff in their time, but did they make much crap as well??

(I've googled them and can't find any info on the net)

I can't take them home to listen to them properly and as an impoverished student I don't want to take a punt on them. So I'd appreciate any input from the DiyAudio think-tank and you older wiser chaps who'd know much more about Goodmans than I ever will!

Cheers,
Joseph.

[Nuuk]

I don't think that they are in the same class as the Axioms and other classic Goodmans units from the 1960's.

[Nappylady]

If you can afford to drop the money for them, go for it! In the very worst case you've spent that much money to have a very little fun, but I suspect you will be rewarded more than you expect, perhaps!

Get 'em, measure the T/S parameters, design and build a new box for them, and see how they sound. Fun project, probably great results.

[qwad]

BY ALL MEANS FOR THAT KIND OF MONEY, YOU CAN'T GO WRONG IT'll give you something to listen to and play with untill you find the sound you likeidea:
cheers
tjb
(PS
also i agree with the previous posters, goodmans had a deserved reputation in the late 60's, but in the mid to late 70's made some rather pedestrian speakers down to a price using
OEM drivers as well as their own

[Demidemon]

I know that this is an ancient thread but there's a dearth of info on the web about these speakers. I too found a pair in a junk shop but the woofers surrounds had completely disintegrated. I had a pair of old Akai SW-T1 acoustic-suspension floor-standers that had a rudimentary x-over and blown tweeters but nice (10") woofers with inverted doped-cloth surrounds. I braced the cabinets as best I could, through the woofer hole, two-piece braces screwed together and lengths of timber simply glued and screwed against the large panels, screwed through the sides/back, against the panels to reduce resonance as the panels are only 16mm thick.

I enlarged the tweeter hole and transplanted the RB 20 x-over, midrange (and the mids plastic 'chamber' to isolate it from the woofer's suspension) and (1" soft dome) tweeters into them. Both the tweeters and mids are made by Goodmans but there were absolutely zero markings on the (pressed-steel basket, foam surround) woofers. As the label says "RB 20 by Goodmans" I'm inclined to think that these may not have been part of Goodmans range, rather built for someone else? (Hence the "by" Goodmans.) That could explain the 'cheap' woofer if they were built to a price-point.

After filling the cabinets with dacron and fitting carpet spikes I crossed my fingers and hooked them up to my amplifier. Wow! Awesome speakers, excellent for female vocals, jazz and classical, great imaging, crystal highs.... Rickie Lee Jones (first album) hasn't sounded so good for a long time! I doubt you'd find better sounding speakers for under a grand. They get a little overwhelmed with compressed hard rock but then most decent speakers do. Bass extends down to about 60Hz, then rolls off. (I'm now running them with a home-made 10" sub powered by a scavenged AR plate amp with the low-pass set to 50Hz, the lowest setting, and with the volume about half but it's not essential. It just helps the kick drum.)

Not bad for a total cost of about NZ$50, a genuine case of a happy marriage with the Akai woofer and the x-over - Friends are blown away when they hear these funky looking speakers, made from a couple pairs of $10 junk shop purchases, a bit of 2x4 and some extra dacron.

Bottom line: If nothing else the RB 20s were well worth getting for the amazing tweeters and sweet (alnico) midrange drivers. Also the x-over is fairly complex and well-made. If I were to it again I'm not sure I'd do much different. I still have the RB 20 boxes and woofers and may replace the surrounds one day but my Goodmans / Akai hybrids sound just too good for me to re-create the RB 20s - They might not be as good and certainly wouldn't have the same bass response as the hybrids.

I may replace the electrolytic capacitors in the Goodmans x-over with some good foil caps one day if a couple hundred bucks come my way (that's how good they are, worth spending extra on) but for now they sound mighty fine even running ~40 year old electros in the x-over.

I hope that this helps someone. If you see a pair of RB 20s grab them quickly. At the very least the tweeters are well worth having but also those little mids sound fine. I think that these speakers were made between the times Goodmans were great and when they were starting to build to a price-point. (Why else have foam surrounded woofers?) I can't speak for what they sound like in their own cabinets, with their own woofers, but for a DIY speaker builder they give you a good basis for a project.

[sreten]

Hi,

For those old enough the Goodmans RB20 was the equivalent of
their rivals Wharfedale Linton 3XP, both 8" bass sealed 3 ways.



They were not mirror imaged, L+R the same layout.

OK and a bit more honest than the 3XP's, but not great I recall.

Replace the electro's with modern cheap ones, that will make
more difference than flashy capacitors over modern electro's.

rgds, sreten.

Edit : I don't think the bass unit above is original,



They might not be either, but look more likely to be, the surrounds are going .....

[Demidemon]

Originally Posted by sreten

Hi,

For those old enough the Goodmans RB20 was the equivalent of
their rivals Wharfedale Linton 3XP, both 8" bass sealed 3 ways.



They were not mirror imaged, L+R the same layout.

OK and a bit more honest than the 3XP's, but not great I recall.

Replace the electro's with modern cheap ones, that will make
more difference than flashy capacitors over modern electro's.

rgds, sreten.

Edit : don't think the bass unit above is original,



this might not be either.

Hi sreten,

You could well be right about them not sounding awesome in their original cabinets, I never did hear mine as the woofers were shot. However the top end and mid range has a lot of potential. (This *is* DIY audio right? ) They are hardly "a pile of crap", as the OP said, in fact far from it. That's what prompted me to post, in case members were passing up good deals based on that.

Thanks for the tip about trying some cheap new electros, when I feel like opening them up next I might try that. Oh, the mids either appear to be missing in your pic or not original. The ones I have are grey cone in a brown chassis, square like the things in the pic (and have alnico magnets and Goodmans stickers on them).

Cheers,
Shaun.

[sreten]

Hi,

Your mid covers may have been removed, they look right to me.

rgds, sreten.

[planet10]

Originally Posted by sreten

Reorganizing a bit the other day i came across one of those tweeters and likely the mid.

dave

[Demidemon]

Originally Posted by sreten

Hi,

Your mid covers may have been removed, they look right to me.

rgds, sreten.

Ok. Mid-covers? I didn't know they had them and don't understand why they would. The big soft-dome tweeter has no protection (other than the main cloth grille) and it's way more fragile than the paper-cone midrange. Can you please tell me more about these mid covers? I can't see on mine how they would fit on. To me it looks more like the drivers been removed in that pic and a blanking-plate fitted...

The pair I bought had been in storage for years (20?) and were in immaculate condition. When I removed the cloth grille all of the woofer surround was at the bottom of the grille and fell onto the floor, I can't imagine that any other covers would be missing. :shrug: It was a woman selling her late father's much loved audio gear.

Cheers,
Shaun.