Woollett Electrostatic Tweeters

[316a]

Hello ,
Just picked up a pair of old electrostatic tweeters for next to nothing . Made by Woollett , 'upper register speaker' in the 1950's these use an 8"x5" curved element . Both have smart-looking veneered cabinets but have very crude looking perforated steel stators using curtain hooks to clamp the stator assembly together The EHT supply is inside an enclosed dome attached to the the stator assembly , both units are in excellent condition internally with vacuum-varnished transformers . The stator assembly appears to use cotton to provide spacing , some of the cotton has broken at the front but I don't see that posing too much of a problem . Does anyone have any advice regarding testing such panels ? So far I have only inspected the eht sections and removed excess dust . Otherwise if anyone has experience with these in the past , and the things are crap , let me know and then I'll just chuck 'em and not bother

316a

[arkitek]

These are excellent HF electrostatics, I have been using a pair since the late 1950'2 - YES 1950's and they still cannot be beaten by anything with a cone!
Woollett also made a full range speaker using the above incorporated into a Bass reflex cabinet, I also have a pair of these bought from Woollett in 1962 and in every day use.
Don't be put of by what appears to be a DIY construction they last for ever. If you like to E-mail me I will send you a picture. Unlike many electrostatics they can be driven with solid state PA's without them taking off or showing an signs of distress, the PA that is!! There is nothing to wrong except the transformer might give up on early models - however the later models, post 1962, had no transformer and the AC was applied directly to the element to charge it.

[SY]

Any chance you could size the pic appropriately and post it? I'm quite curious.

[bear]

Curved with cotton for a diaphragm support/spacer?

Sounds suspiciously similar to the Stanton Isophase ESL.

That used a wooden "aircraft wing" style construction for the curved frame, and foam for the spacers on either side of the diaphragm. It was about 3 ft wide and 2ft tall... curved horizonatally.

I own one that had decomposed foam/diaphragm. I attempted a
rebuild which was only partially sucessful (many years ago).

Iirc, the speaker is featured in Vol I of the AES Louspeaker Anthology series.

_-_-bear

[latala]

I have just picked up a dead Woollet unit does any one have any info as I would love to get it working !
It seems on initial inpection that the rectifier elements are defunct.
regards Trev

[reromag1]

After all, these are Shackman origin tweeters.

The units have been sold as OEM by Alex Shackman to a couple of speaker manufacturers in the UK and in the world.

Repair and refurbishment possible here -->
http://loudspeaker-repair-sevice.reromanus.net
http://shackman-electrostatic-loudsp...reromnanus.net
http://shackman-international.reromanus.net

Reiner

[reromag1]

I beg your pardon.
The correct writing of the addresses is:

Repair and refurbishment possible here -->
http://loudspeaker-repair-service.reromanus.net
http://shackman-electrostatic-loudsp....reromanus.net
http://shackman-international.reromanus.net


Sorry again
Reiner
http://reromanus.net

[a.wayne]

Excellent stuff, Keep it coming guys...................................

[arend-jan]

Lol, Reiner. You can't even get your own hosts correctly?

I'd say that's what you get from hostname spamming. A nasty habbit with one single purpose: to trick search engines into listing you more and higer than your competition. It's considered bad practice by every search engine.

Together with your obvious borderline-advertising spam in this thread, this put's you in the shady category in my book.

[janneman]

Ahh Mr. Reiner Roemer! Do you remember me? You bought a speaker measurement system in an Apple II computer (remember those!) from me.
I think it must have been early 80's?
Small world!

Edit: Reiner your account creation doesn't work and generates a Mail Error.

Jan Didden