Building a Center Channel

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Hello,
I have these speakers with vintage Philips drivers. Each speaker has 4 tweeters, 4 mids, and a woofer. I would like to build a center channel with the same drivers (I don't want to take out any drivers out of these speakers, I would rather buy them online), but I'm just worrying about the design. If I were to build a MTM design, should I put it as 4 mids, 4 tweeters, and 4 mids, respectfully? And where would be the best place for me to get these drivers?

Thanks!
 

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Thanks for the quick response!

Yeah they are line-source. Here's a full picture of one of the whole speakers in the attachment:

I'm looking around and the only thing I found were a pair of tweeters that were very similar, and they were going for $35. Considering that each speaker has 9 drivers that could be valuable, would I be better off selling them to a vintage collector (these speakers are far from worthless) and using the money to build a new set of LCR's?
 

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You'd be surprised, they aren't anything incredible but I definitely consider them to be better than my AR-4x's. Only thing that seems to be odd is that they sound best when they've been on for an hour or two.

I got these speakers used, and the driver layout does seem very odd, aren't the woofer(s) supposed to be on the bottom, mids in the middle, and tweeters on the top? If it's possible, I certainly wouldn't mind building a new cabinet to put the drivers in proper placement.

As for the baskets, I'm looking at all of the openings on the speakers, and as you can see in the picture, it's sealed with glue or something. I can probably break through it without any problems, but is it okay to break through that sealing?
 
That design is from like the 1970 to 1980 time frame. Certainly not the best design but all in the growth and development of of audio research. The mid may be Phillips and may have like AR-*** I can't remember what the rest is as the other day I did some research on the ones I have that are currently in use. Those seem to be the model before the ones I have. The mids and tweeter were purchased in the '80s by my dad for a Phillips design that had the woofer ad tweeters in the same configuration as yours but the mids were in a line below the woofer and tweeters down the center. After searching the interweb a bit I read that the mids were not the best but by no means were they the best. The tweeters were in for some praise though. If you are able to get the model numbers Google them up and you would get info on them but no T/S parameters. One can say enjoy what you have now if it is pleasing to you. But if you chose to go the route of a L/C/R it would be better to timbre match your drivers. This would serve you well and save you trouble of troubleshooting and headaches due to mismatched drivers.
 
If you break the sealing you can also get the opportunity to do a; how to put it; "Cleaner" job resealing with Silicone sealant. Also due to the age and the possibility of getting the drivers; I think I saw them on ebay; the availability of the T/S parameters required to build a proper Xover for these drivers is like a needle in a hay stack.

Timbre matching drivers for and L/C/R takes in to the consideration the T/S parameters to baffles step compensation. This determines the success of many speaker projects. So when it all comes down to it's not just about building an enclosure and slapping some drivers in there and letting her rip.

Maybe you can reseal all the drivers in to make it cleaner but consider this though. Newer drivers perform much better than these. Read around a bit and take a swing at it and maybe even leave these alone for a second garage system if you are pleased with how they sound.

Keep us posted ok.
 
Sounds like a new LCR set should be built, huh? I suppose I'll do that when I have the money together for 3 speakers instead of one and I'll try out one of the designs posted here. I'll post back later with the driver models and everything once I get my hands on some Silicone sealant.

Thanks a bunch for all of your responses and advice!
 
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