My hybrid "Tuco" stereo speakers

[CivicProtection]

I bought a couple Zenith Allegro 3000 speakers a few years ago for $24
in a thrift store. They're from the 70's. I read how the drivers are pretty good
but the enclosures are total garbage, when they were new and they haven't improved at all with age. Each have 10" paper coned, cloth edged woofers with an alnico drive magnet, and a 2" voice coil mated to an ABS plastic Foster horn tweeter.

They sound good, but I agree that the enclosure is total crap. I am aware that I could buy a brand new set and they'd sound better blah blah blah, but I'd like to work with what I have, take an old thing and make it sound better.

Any ideas about building a cabinet? They have some lame "controls" on them
which ought to go too.

[planet10]

XO is pretty lame to.

Even taking the back off makes them sound better,

dave

[picowallspeaker]

Hi CP ,
some studies have been made in audio since the '70s
Also ,new materials and some tweaks and improvements in assembling speaker parts technology , to avoid the issues that have been encountered along the way. But that's it ,since you want to re-employ what you have
Talking about woofer-low frequency management , you can have fun in reading
and apply what's written about TL , surely you can find some retro-volume-air coupling system that will suit your driver behavior .
For the tweeter matching with the woofer ,I'd suggest to try a waveguide the same size of the woofer , since to me it seems that is the only solution to avoid the big gap between a big surface (the 10" woofer) and the little dome

[CivicProtection]

I upened up one of them, and pulled out the woofer and tweeter.
The woofer is a huge beefy thing with a large magnet on it. No wonder it sounded good.
But that knob I called "lame" has some circuitry attached to it with a capacitor or two.
I'll see if I can take a picture. Is that a cross over?

[planet10]

Do you have the 8 or 16 ohm wide ranges?

dave

[CivicProtection]

My hybrid "Tuco" stereo speakers.

Remember the 1960's western film "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"?
The "Ugly" character Tuco comes out of the desert and goes into a gun shop and made a custom revolver out of four different guns, using certain parts from each to make a special custom gun of his liking and need.

I got these two 1975 era Zenith Allegro 3000 floor model speakers I bought for $24.99 at a thrift store. They each have two beefy drivers: a 10 inch woofer, and a 3 inch tweeter with a horn. It has a good looking crossover in there with a treble knob. The drivers are big buggers with large Alanco magnets on them.

The cabinets are terrible, and they have become even nastier with shear age and water damage. Like Terminator from the first movie, they just got worse and worse and........

I totally forgot that have another set of floor model speakers which my mom gave me! They have sat in my closet for three of years up until now. They were my father's which he bought new in the 1980's. Anyways they are Audiospere brand speakers made in Taiwan.

I don't know the model number because the papers which were stapled to the back are ripped off and gone. Each has thin and junky Audiospere drivers: one 8 inch woofer, a 4 inch midrange, and a 3 inch tweeter. All the rubber is rotted and the grills that covered the midrange drivers are busted in. The Audiospere tweeters are in perfect condition though.

The Culver brand "crossover" in there is a tiny little junky thing that I'm not going to use. Anyway just looking at the drivers, all I can say is that they are really CHEAP and TRASHY with teeny weenie magnets on them.

However, The cabinet it a nice sealed box, much better than the Zenith Allegro 3000! They are sealed nicely with some kind of caulking or hot glue inside at the edges. Inside was some thin fiberglass insulation which didn't cover the inside surfaces. It was just positioned there,
no staples or glue were used!

The Allegro 3000 speakers were STUFFED with alot of batting that looked like recycled fabric stuff. It looks like good stuff all stapled in. So I will use the batting from the Allegro 3000 speakers too.

I opened them up and laid all the drivers on my coffee table for a look and comparison. I did the same for the Zenith Allegro 3000's.

I have a set of no-name white computer speakers. I got them at a thrift store for probably $5. I have no real use for them and the cabinets look ratty. But they sound really nice and really pound!
They have a 1 1/2 inch tweeter and a 4 inch woofer. On the back they say: 60-20,000Hz response".

Since the midrange drivers in my Audiospere are crappy and shot, I am thinking of using the woofers from the computer speakers and use them as midrange speakers in my new unit. I might use the original Audiospere tweeters though. Not sure.

What I will use to drive my new speakers is an 80's Yamaha Natural sound A-500 Amplifier.

Specs of new speakers:

Drivers:
1x 10" Woofer from 1975 Zenith Allegro 3000. Original rubber surrounds.
1x 4" midrange from no-name computer speakers
1x 3" Foster horn tweeter from Zenith Allegro 3000

Crossover:
modified crossover circuitry from 1975 Zenith Allegro 3000
maxed out treble and removed the knob.

Jacks:
input jacks from 1975 Zenith Allegro 3000 cabinet

Cabinet:
Unknown 1980's era Audiospere speaker cabinets.

Insolation:
Batting from 1975 Zenith Allegro 3000


I'm totally new at audio stuff, anybody have any suggestions?

[CivicProtection]

Originally Posted by planet10

Do you have the 8 or 16 ohm wide ranges?

dave

Dave, what speakers are those drivers from? I assume they are from some Alegro 300's, but mine don't look like that. The magnets are different, and the whole thing is a little beefier looking.
Maybe mine is an older model? It looks that way.

But to answer your question; I took my multimeter and checked them.
The woofer and the tweeter are 8 ohms each.

[planet10]

Originally Posted by CivicProtection

Dave, what speakers are those drivers from? I assume they are from some Alegro 300's, but mine don't look like that. The magnets are different, and the whole thing is a little beefier looking.
Maybe mine is an older model?

I've had about 10 pair of the older Alegra 3000 with Alnico 10s... all looked like what i posted. 1 pr was 8 ohms, all the rest 16.

What numbers are on yours? Can you post pictures?

dave

[planet10]

Also, while we are at it... what version of the tweeter (there are at least 3 of them)

dave

[CivicProtection]

Originally Posted by planet10

I've had about 10 pair of the older Alegra 3000 with Alnico 10s... all looked like what i posted. 1 pr was 8 ohms, all the rest 16.

What numbers are on yours? Can you post pictures?

dave

I wanted to post some shots, but my batteries are dead, so I'll go tomorrow and get some new ones.

In the mean time, I'll read off the numbers on the woofers:

49-1290

2857913