artist systems stage monitors rebuild

[stuie25]

"Artist Systems" stage monitors rebuild

I recently found these speakers in a basement i was doing some work in and asked if i could take them off their hands. I have never herd of artist systems however i have not been in the sound business that long. I have heard of apogee and i know they make nice stuff so when i saw that on the horns and woofer i was intrigued.

They cabinets say they are "artist systems" however the current 10" drivers say apogee as does the wave guide.

both low end drivers appear to be working however im missing both diaphragms for the horns.

What would be a good replacement for this, id like to use them as they were intended for more near field monitors so quality over power handling

saw these eaw drivers on PE, not sure if they would work or not.
EAW 1" Neo Compression Driver 299-190

 

[Enzo]

So whoever Artist Systems is, they bought Apogee parts to put in their boxes.

What kind of driver do you need? The one you link is a bolt-on. Does that horn need a bolt-on, or does it want a thread-on?

 

[stuie25]

looks like a 2 bolt, bolt on. If im looking at the back of that horn correctly.

 

[stuie25]

so i got some more info, thanks ebay and google. These are clones of apogee ae6b cabinets, and they look identical, only im missing the snazzy grille.

FM Systems .:. Apogee AE6B .:. Leading the Way in Sound Reinforcement

Format:
Bi-amped/Two-way/Electronically-coupled
Dispersion:
H: 90°xV:45° AE-6BNC: 60° conical
Frequency Response (1m on axis):
53 Hz to 17 kHz ± 3 dB Max. SPL (@1m):
125 dB cont./131 dB peak
PTML (peak transient mechanical limit):
144 dB
Sensitivity (1W @ 1m):
LF: 99 dB/100 Hz to 1 kHz HF: 106 dB/1 kHz to 20 kHz
Nominal Impedance:
8 ohms, each driver
Max. Power Handling:
LF: 300W cont./1200W peak HF: 150W cont./600W peak
Dimensions:
14"(356mm) W x 18.5"(470mm) H x 26.5"(673mm) D
Weight:
63 lbs (28.6 kg)

 

[indianajo]

Nice find, great price. I hope they sound as competent as the specs say they would be. +-3 db 53-17k is pretty tightly specified. I'm using horn plus woofer speakers in my living room at about 1/8 watt average, set up on poles at the end of the room. Some people claim this is not a monitor speaker design, but my living+music room is 14'w x 10' H x 30' L with my couch seat about 12' from the speakers, so the sound has the room to merge at my head. The poles put my head in the tweeter hot zone, since the SP2-XT aim the sound down about 6 deg from horiz.

 

[stuie25]

im not sure if i can stay in that range as i have no idea what the original HF driver used was, im still looking into it. I also acquired a bryston 4b for free that needs repair, im hoping to get that fixed and use it to power these.

 

[ndcraig]

Artist Systems was just a branding by Apogee Sound. I think they were trying to market their normally large-touring-company products to musicians and performers through music stores instead.
All of the ones I've used had EV cone drivers but can't remember at all what they were using for horn drivers. They weren't JBL or EV (as all their 1" were screw-on) Emilar possibly? Whatever they were they stuck their own Apogee sticker over the OEM's label.

I do also recall they had a system processor with amplifier-sensing to control the boxes. The amplifier speaker outputs would go into that box and they NL-4 connectors to feed the speakers were on it's front panel. They were what made the apogee products sound so good and put up with abuse due to their properly designed limiting. Without it you could probably use a modern DSP and it would take some trial&error to get the settings proper.