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RCA LC-1A 15-inch FR speaker

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This is one 1950s-vintage RCA LC-1A 15-inch full range speaker driver I recently removed from a built-in cabinet in my home. It is in very good condition, and made the appropriate sounds when connected to the speaker outputs of my receiver. (It was by this time removed from the enclosure, so I do not know how it would sound properly enclosed).

LC1ASpeaker001.jpg


If interested, please contact me. I can get you more information, photos, videos etc. if desired. I will reply to all inquiries. Please make an offer; I will also consider trade proposals (1970s-vintage Pioneer silverface equipment or the equivalent would be desirable, of course, although the kids really want a surround-sound system. Gold bullion, however, would not be turned down).

Here is a link to more photographs:
http://s264.photobucket.com/albums/ii165/idahoalex/

I also have an RCA SL12 speaker installed in another built-in which I would consider selling. This is a 12-inch full-range speaker of about the same vintage. It is installed in a clothes cabinet above, and firing directly down onto, a built-in vanity. It works fine, and sounds pretty good considering its strange installation. Pictures available on request.

Thanks,

David Alexander
Pocatello, Idaho
 
Hi David,

Did you know that this is the driver developed by Harry Olson and RCA back in the 50's?

May we have some pictures of the built in cabinets, to see if they followed the original Olson design?

Go here to see the collection of pics and drawings I have for these things. Please don't destroy those cabinets until you have had a look at my pictures.

http://picasaweb.google.com/hpurvine/HarryOlsonLoudspeaker

I cannot afford these items, but you will find that you have some very popular property, even if it is just the drivers.

Bud
 
The built-in cabinets

Hi Bud,

the built-in cabinets were definitely not Harry Olsen's design. It is simply a large media-center-style cabinet with doors. They took one of the shelves and enclosed it with a ported baffle to make a box about three feet by two feet by two feet. I'm sure it was fairly impressive as a hi-fi system in 1952, but it was not engineered to fit this speaker.

The SL-12's cabinet is even more of an afterthought. It is bolted to the bottom of a clothes cabinet, firing straight down through an 8-inch square hole onto the top of a built-in dresser in the master bedroom. There is grill cloth covering the hole, and a volume pot installed next to it. I found the wires running down to the media center, and hooked them up to the B outputs of my old Pioneer receiver, and it works. It actually sounds pretty good, all things considered, especially if you open the doors a couple of inches and take some of the sweatshirts out of the cabinet. (It seems to improve the treble dispersion.)

Thanks for the links. I have come across those pictures, and Harry Olsen's design for the corner speaker, in the last few weeks as I have researched this thing. There are also some nice RCA designs for furniture-style cabinets. I found references to a beautifully-built studio monitor which RCA marketed for use in office buildings, and sold for thousands in the 1950s. No such luck for me. But the comments I've seen about this driver suggest that it is capable of extremely high-quality sound in the proper enclosure, so it would make a great project for someone building a mono system.

As far as what they are worth, I have some idea regarding the LC-1A. Several years ago, someone advertised one at Audio Asylum for $1,000, while someone else was offering $500 for one. I don't know what they actually bought or sold for, if at all. Last December, an LC-1A driver without the "goat udder" or the butterfly -- which I understand was an earlier version -- sold for about $500 on eBay. I have not seen similar numbers on the SL-12.

David
 
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