What tweeters were used in GALE GS401A Loudspeakers

[Berks]

I am resurrecting my GALE GS401A loudspeakers ( classic UK speaker from the 70s). One of the tweeters is measuring 4ohms and the other 8 ohms. I think the tweeters may be Peerless, however there are no markings on them to give me a clue what they are.

The manual stated the X/over frequencies were 450Hz and 7.5Khz.

Thanks Berks

[stevehs]

Haven't seen anyone respond to your question so thought I would. From my investigations I have come to the conclusion that the original tweeters used in the 401s were a modified Celestion HF2000. Mod. appears mainly down to mounting, as the standard Celestion tweeter had external clamps to hold in place, whilst the Gale unit had 3 holes in face plate. Unfortunately they are no longer made and I have not had any luck locating spare diaphragms or complete devices.
I have been advised that a good replacement would be the Vifa D27TG. Magnet size is a little bigger so inner cut out would need to be enlarged to allow fitting and it has 4 mounting holes.
You mentioned xover frequencies of 450Hz % 7.5kHz whereas the info I have states 750Hz & 5kHz. Maybe there were different versions!!

[dnsey]

Interesting, my 1974 Hi-fi Yearbook gives crossover points as 400 and 5kHz, so they obviously played around with crossovers a bit.
Have you tried contacting Celestion regarding the tweeters? They have an excellent after sales service, and may well be able to rebuild them for you.

[stevehs]

Certainly did try Celestion, but model appears to be before current service staff and they don't have any records! I must say I wasn't impressed. You would think that some enterpricing speaker person would come up with a replacement diaphragm for what must be numerours potential drivers, or at least find one that will fit the 19mm gap in spite of its rather quirky location format. On the other hand there is more money in a complete replacement driver or a new speaker system! The search continues.

[stera66]

First I can tell in my defence that I didn't know.
I own choped GALE GS 401, witout boxes.Few years ago I was working in London where I found this speakers.They where in poor condition woofers where 'repaired' and membranes are in poor condition.I never heared for GALE but I recognized that that was worthy in the past , but because boxes but because previous owner made some 'improvments to them I took only drivers and crossovers.
Beeing handy man I thought to build my own boxes.However without parameters it shoud be very bad job.
Now woofers are with cevlar membranes (new), I still need to recone mid, and I NEED DIMENSIONS OF ORIGINAL BOXES, so I could build it out of MDF.
Can someone please measure everything.Dimensions of box and where are speakers situated on the frond side of the speaker.
It would save one pair of GALE's GS 401.
On my crossover there is no a or b mark just 401.What is a diference beatven models

THANKS

[sreten]

Hi Stera66,

as the original 401's were sealed boxes cabinet dimensions are
not critical, so just make some boxes that look the right size and
you will be very near.

Also note the hieght and depth of the originals are identical
to allow the use of the square chrome end caps.

The speakers are laid out woofer mid woofer with the tweeter
above the mid, basically a forerunner of centre channel speakers.

/sreten.

[sreten]

Hi,

BTW if you search here for HF2000 you should find details
of suitable drop-in replacements, 19mm Vifa or Seas I think.

/sreten.

[Chris Daly]

Having owned from new a set of 401a's, I will probably
never sell them, they are simply awesome playing
all types of music but particularly dynamic rock material.

I also own Quad ESL57's which offer lower distortion but
the Gale is a favourite. ESL's are a better speaker
offering the best midrange I have yet to hear.

Sadly the Quads wont play to really high levels- but they nevertheless
can reproduce pretty good levels. About 15 years ago I set about
getting a still better sound from the Gales. I carefully rebuilt
the crossover networks using rodestein MKC caps, I also
increased the wattage of resistors about 5x. (Heat in the
original 3w resistors caused resistance to change), and biwired the crossover.

I replaced the Celestion tweeter with a Polk tweeter which
was the transparent silver wire model. This Polk tweeter
is far better than the Celestion when used in the Gale
speaker. Peerless midrange and Gale bass drivers remain
as original.

The 401a is a great speaker for high level music reproduction
and although not offering the imaging or midrange of a Quad 57
is a very accurate speaker indeed.
Cheers

[elecon]

Chris,

Since you have rebuilt your crossovers by yourself and also replaced the tweeters by some from the Polk company, why don't you consider mapping out the crossover diagram including all parts types and values, and also post the exact type of Polk driver (is this still availlable)?

I used to own a pair of the GS 401b version in wood (not the chrome version) and I have very fond memories. I also used to own the Quad ESL-57 (and later the 63 including the modified Crosby Quad version which was actually developed by Richard Lees).

I find your comments regarding the ESL 57 and the Gale GS 401 very interesting and can understand well. If I could find a pair of GS 401 and bring them up to the level you seem to be experiencing, I would be very interested indeed.

Thanks for your nice contribution. I hope you will follow up further!

[Chris Daly]

It might be some time before I can comfortably do this
The speakers are in storage , although I recall I did make
a schematic. The recipe was where Gale had a 6uf cap
I used 6 parallel Rodestein caps , where Gale used a
4w 15 ohm resistor I made up a 20w 15 ohm device.

The Polk tweeter had a transparent dome I cannot
recall the model number ,although if I have the Gales
apart again I will let you know. I also installed the same
tweeter in a set of Meridian Active's replacing an
Audax device , the difference was immediate.

The best ampI found was the Quad 405.2 although front end
mods that DC Daylight suggest would no doubt improve further
driven with a passive preamp like a Creek OBH22 or Audio
Synthesis Passion and a decent CD player it was heaven.
Regards / Chris