Vintage Mono Speaker - 1958?

[dubwicht]

This is my first post here several years. I was distracted from speaker building for a about three years but am back in with a vengence!

I found an old Carlson Stomberg mono tube amplifier (Circa 1958) and I would like to build a vintage style mono cabinet/single speaker and was wondering if anyone had a plan for one. I would like to build something with reasonable sound that looks old. I am having a hard time finding anything like this on the net.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Doug

[WithTarragon]

Sounds like a great project. The choice would in part be determined by your woodworking skill, space constraints, whether certain components could be updated (for improved performance or lack of availability).

Electrovoice: Patrician. There are a couple of different versions, the low frequency driver may require a substitution, which could require some re-design). Plans are freely available on the net.

Klipsch: Klipschorn. Parts are easily available and affordable. If deviations are allowed, then the mid-range can be upgraded for a better sound. The build requires some double angle cuts, so it could be a slow build.

JBL: Hartsfeld. Parts are available on eBay, although some may take a while to find. The cabinet has an interesting look about it.

All these cabinets were well-thought of in their day and are still well-regarded today. All of them sound good. They are appropriate for 1958 (or almost) vintage. They all have plans available on the web (careful on some of the Klipsch plans and avoid the Speaker lab versions). They all have a vintage look, however they all tend to be large.

Good luck and keep us posted!

[dubwicht]

Thank you for the great ideas. I have built several sets of speakers including single drivers (not a big fan any more) two way and 2.5 way with a variety of finishes. I like the idea of creating a retro system using the old integrated tube amp. I will have to use a stereo to mono converter to feed the amp. Antique Electronic Supply has retro cabinet materials including grill cloth. Cheers, Doug

[dubwicht]

I like the Belle Klipsch - they area a little smaller and should fit in my listening environment. Any thoughts on those? What drivers could be used in a cabinet like that? Cheers, Doug

[Glowbug]

Karlsons, too...The Karlson Homepage

[WithTarragon]

Originally Posted by dubwicht

I like the Belle Klipsch - they area a little smaller and should fit in my listening environment. Any thoughts on those? What drivers could be used in a cabinet like that? Cheers, Doug

The Belle Klipsch certainly has a long history, but it does not go back as far as 1958. However, I am not one to nit pick, especially since the cabinet has a nice retro look about. In many ways it is a very dignified looking cabinet.

The cabinet is fully horn loaded and three-way. There are probably plans floating around the Klipsch forums (helpful & knowlegable folks there).

The high frequency section is a K-77 and is readily available. A substitution/upgrade would be a unit from Bob Crites. The original K77 is good but not great.

The woofer is a single 15 inch - a K-33. These are also available. A substitution is also available from Bob Crites, although the stock woofer is fine and certainly not the weak link in the system. Beware of other substitutions. This is a horn loaded bass so the driver (T/S parameters) and back volume and throat size must be designed for one another. Many recommendations will ignore this requirement, so be careful who you listen to if you do substitute a different woofer.

Now it gets tricky with the mid-range. The horn itself is a K-500 and these are no longer made and difficult to find. The horn and driver (the K-55) are perhaps the weak link of the system if you have a need to tweak (we all do ....). Some will substitute a horn with a tractrix expansion for the original exponentially expanding horn. Others will also move up to a 1 inch throat driver. There is a cottage industry for the tractrix horns. The measurements provided are scarce (usually just on-axis FR and no real measure of dispersion or polars, or distortion). Another popular mod/upgrade is to shoehorn a Altec 511 or 811 horn inside the cabinet. Ultimately the problem is that the cabinet is not very deep and the woofer/bass horn does not have much HF extension. So the choice of horn/driver/crossover frequency requires some homework ahead of time.

I encourage you to ask these questions over at the Klipsch forum. But please be aware that a number of folks there are selling their own products or have a fanatical following of true-beleivers (customers).

[d to the g]

The Wharfedale sand filled open baffle would be a nice choice.

[dubwicht]

Has anyone had luck with the Pi speakers? I remember looking at them a while back but never did purchase a set. Their corner horns look interesting. Cheers, Doug

[dubwicht]

Great link to the Bob Crites site. I am interested in the CS-1 project. It is reasonably priced and not too big! Thanks, Doug

[Charles Darwin]

How about a Tannoy 15" in a GRF corner horn?
Or, if that is too much trouble a York ported corner cab with the same driver ie a Monitor Red or Monitor Gold driver.