Another score at the thrift store

[Cal Weldon]

These little beauties came from a Monarch speaker.

The sound is incredible. I crossed them over at 1kHz and did some comparisons. I must say they are impressive little drivers. In fact they sound as good as the little Foster drivers I found last month and had planet10 dave do the alterations and phase plugs for. See those ones here

Today's trip to the second hand store

Am I hearing these things right? How come they sound so good?

[Cal Weldon]

front

[Cal Weldon]

'nother:

[planet10]

Coral's deluxe version of the FE103A style speaker... these are good (i have 4 -- same source). These are 16 ohms & have the big round bezel.

dave

[jdybnis]

Dave,

What's the deal with these vintage drivers? Is it all in the magnet? I mean Fostex is selling a 103 that looks about the same. Can't they just duplicate the old design with a neo magnet and get the same sound?

[planet10]

Originally posted by jdybnis
What's the deal with these vintage drivers? Is it all in the magnet? I mean Fostex is selling a 103 that looks about the same. Can't they just duplicate the old design with a neo magnet and get the same sound?

These were built at the height of the knowlege bass for full-range speakers, and this niche in particular was quite competitive (i've seen at least a dozen variations and i'd guess that is just scratching the surface.

As Fostex market grows (introduction to the american market has been a boom to them) they are doing limited runs of more exotic drivers. But they tend to be pricey. I'd expect a modern set of Neo or alnico FE108As (why bother if you don't use the tick surround & cone of the 108) would probably be in the $400-500/pr range (that would be a magnificent driver thou -- maybe we'll even see a come back of field-coils). Even buying a set of these alnicos on eBay is only going to set you back $100 or so max. And if you luck into them at a thrift store you have a frugal-phile's (tm) score of great magnitude.

dave

[Cal Weldon]

Had some time this afternoon to peruse the local Sally Ann and found these:

Pair of Zenith Allegro 3000 in great shape for $10. Sorry for the lousy pic. 10" with pleated surround and a nice little bullet tweeter.

[dzzmiller]

Originally posted by jdybnis
Dave,

What's the deal with these vintage drivers? Is it all in the magnet? I mean Fostex is selling a 103 that looks about the same. Can't they just duplicate the old design with a neo magnet and get the same sound?

The best drivers are probably better. It's about money. I think it's remarkable that a $50 retail driver performs as well as it does. Realistically, the typical fostex FR fall at the upper part of the low end.
I believe it's the first consumer solid state amps were successful due to the relative weakness of speakers. If speakers had been like today, adoption of audio SS might have been much slower.
I vaguely remember my Dad taking tubes to Walgreen (a pharmacy) to test. People swithced to SS for convience.
Speaking of that, we need pharmacies to once again have a tube tester and tubes!

[PeteMcK]

Re'' the little Foster drivers I found last month''
- I scavenged a pair of more recent 4" Fosters & Tweeters from the side of the road recently, ceramic magnets & pp cone, they perform very well, nearly FR - drop off a bit at the top end but still acceptible by themselves.
currently have them in sealed box ~2 L paired with another 4" BR 4L - as computer speaker very good especially for the price

Haven't tried the tweeters yet but they have a fairly flat FR

[planet10]

Originally posted by Cal Weldon
Had some time this afternoon to peruse the local Sally Ann and found these:

Pair of Zenith Allegro 3000 in great shape for $10. Sorry for the lousy pic. 10" with pleated surround and a nice little bullet tweeter.

Those are the newer ones... woofer should be Japanese, and they have a newer ceramic magnet Foster Horn. Good Score.

dave