My grandparents had a set of those speakers connected to an all-in-one with an 8 track and BSR turntable - seems like it was old in the late 70's. They had a different logo. Maybe electro-set or something along those lines.
They didn't sound too great in my memory - of course they may not have been the weakest link in the system.
They didn't sound too great in my memory - of course they may not have been the weakest link in the system.
Yeah, I think we had a pair of these in the 70's. I remember the speaker. Don't remember how it sounded.
Never heard of "Morse" drivers. You should play "I Am the Walrus" thru them. 🙄
Never heard of "Morse" drivers. You should play "I Am the Walrus" thru them. 🙄
I tried some CSNY, wasn't pleasant. Wife said, yuck, maybe they need to be on the floor instead? Tried them on the floor, only good thing is that it toned down the highs a bit.
Literally, MUZAK, cheap ceiling PA, etc., i.e. designed to have good intelligibility in high ambient noise apps and why my recommendation. I use to get them from the local radio/TV repair shop to experiment with either for free or at worst, their pocket change scrap value. Quam drivers were of the same ilk.
GM
Whenever I see vintage cabinets in perfect shape, I think it would be fun to put nice drivers and XO in and tell unsuspecting people how they don't build them like they used to...
Tempting...but what to do about that plastic wave guide? And the opening for the woofer consists of a bunch of 1/2" holes. I don't think your plan would be very successful with these. It doesn't matter whether they were made last week or 30 years ago. If they are budget speakers you'll always be stuck with fiberboard cabinets.
However, it is possible to build cabinets that look vintage. I'm pretty sure you can get the black tweed material from parts express or your local fabric store. But would you put a big lip on the edges of the baffle after going through all that trouble?
That's all part of the decoy! Sure it's a lot of work for a practical joke, but afterward you'll have good speaker. I thought the cabinets looked like they were made from thick particle board? You just don't get the patina and authenticity re-creating it from new...
Medium density fiberboard, as in MDF?
How wide are those baffles?
Somebody needs some imagination here.... 🙄
Baffles are about 12x24"...still in my trunk as I forgot to stop by the dumpster on my way to work this morning. It is fiberboard, but not medium density, more like particle board, about 1/2" in thickness, covered in faux wood vinyl.
Probably the key to any successful rebuild is whether the grill can be detached cleanly for access to the front baffle. Hope fully it's not glued in.
Now that we're actually talking about this, one idea is to put in Madisound's Recession Buster ($59)? I would also like to see a design using the Vifa DQ25SC16-04 ($13 - a Zaph favorite). Unfortunately, Madisound seems to be sold out of other mid-woofer specials. Perhaps Silver Flute W14RC25-08 5.5 inch ($21) or Zaph's new 5 inch ZA14W08 ($40).
Now that we're actually talking about this, one idea is to put in Madisound's Recession Buster ($59)? I would also like to see a design using the Vifa DQ25SC16-04 ($13 - a Zaph favorite). Unfortunately, Madisound seems to be sold out of other mid-woofer specials. Perhaps Silver Flute W14RC25-08 5.5 inch ($21) or Zaph's new 5 inch ZA14W08 ($40).
The grill is part of the enclosure. The speakers are mounted from the rear and the rear panel is removable. The original driver is 7" in diameter and thus the holes in the baffle support that. It would be difficult to remove the old inset mounting screws and install new ones. The only easy option would to build a secondary baffle the size of the original driver and use a smaller driver mounted to that. It would be ugly...but that's just another reason they are heading for the dumpster.
Keeping that crap and then trying to find a way to justify it is really a sickness.
I've got all the drivers & crossovers for a set of 8" 3-way GE speakers that my parents bought 35 years ago. They're sitting in a bag above my garage. The enclosures were trashed, but I felt the need to keep the drivers & filters for some unknown reason. I think I was convinced that at some point I'd actually want to fab new cabinets for that crap. Even knowing that I'll never actually do that, I can't bring myself to chuck a bunch of perfectly functional drivers.
I've got all the drivers & crossovers for a set of 8" 3-way GE speakers that my parents bought 35 years ago. They're sitting in a bag above my garage. The enclosures were trashed, but I felt the need to keep the drivers & filters for some unknown reason. I think I was convinced that at some point I'd actually want to fab new cabinets for that crap. Even knowing that I'll never actually do that, I can't bring myself to chuck a bunch of perfectly functional drivers.
Wow, what a cool pair of speakers! 🙂
If you decide to get rid of them, at least advertise them for free in stead uf just dumping them!
I do like the wolf in sheep's (cheap's?) clothes idea though, those boxes are really so obvious cheap-retro that they are worth keeping just for the looks!
Madisound and parts-express do have some very nice drivers on sale every now and then, some of which are almost ridiculously cheap, so it needn't cost an arm and a leg either.
And since the boxes can actually be opened from behind, you can work wonders on them by adding bracing, bitumenous damping etc...
The tricky part is of course that horn thing, but who knows, perhaps it can give for some interesting results with a cheap but decent tweeter and some tweaking?
I'd say you're looking at a perfect little hobby project there! 🙂
And if you don't keep it at the end of the day, you might have some teenagers in the family that would love them as a present! 😀
If you decide to get rid of them, at least advertise them for free in stead uf just dumping them!
I do like the wolf in sheep's (cheap's?) clothes idea though, those boxes are really so obvious cheap-retro that they are worth keeping just for the looks!
Madisound and parts-express do have some very nice drivers on sale every now and then, some of which are almost ridiculously cheap, so it needn't cost an arm and a leg either.
And since the boxes can actually be opened from behind, you can work wonders on them by adding bracing, bitumenous damping etc...
The tricky part is of course that horn thing, but who knows, perhaps it can give for some interesting results with a cheap but decent tweeter and some tweaking?
I'd say you're looking at a perfect little hobby project there! 🙂
And if you don't keep it at the end of the day, you might have some teenagers in the family that would love them as a present! 😀
Thanks for the comment Elbert. I dropped them off at the dumpster this morning. i really doubt someone would be willing to pay the shipping on them and I've seen plenty of other examples of vintage-low-fi on Craigslist over the years so there isn't really anything unique about them.
I've known they were at my parents for some time and never bothered to do anything about them and I had used them off and on during my childhood...and I never thought they sounded good...they just happened to be an extra pair of speakers that i could use for rear-fill or surround sound. So if i were going to do something fun with them (short of filling them with bullet holes) I would have done so already.
Construction of similar boxes could be accomplished quite easily out of better materials (such as real wood veneer instead of paper painted to look like wood) so if I were going to give them to someone as a gift, I'd feel much better tweaking the crossover and building an enclosure to match their decor.
So in short...
1) They are low-fi
2) The speakers are most likely junk but take up less space so I'll keep them
3) The boxes, although vintage looking, will not easily support other drivers
4) The vintage look could be replicated with some twead and piping from Home Depot
5) The tweeter horn deflector is not worth replicating anyway.
6) Into the dumpster they went
But at least they were a good conversation starter. 🙂
I've known they were at my parents for some time and never bothered to do anything about them and I had used them off and on during my childhood...and I never thought they sounded good...they just happened to be an extra pair of speakers that i could use for rear-fill or surround sound. So if i were going to do something fun with them (short of filling them with bullet holes) I would have done so already.
Construction of similar boxes could be accomplished quite easily out of better materials (such as real wood veneer instead of paper painted to look like wood) so if I were going to give them to someone as a gift, I'd feel much better tweaking the crossover and building an enclosure to match their decor.
So in short...
1) They are low-fi
2) The speakers are most likely junk but take up less space so I'll keep them
3) The boxes, although vintage looking, will not easily support other drivers
4) The vintage look could be replicated with some twead and piping from Home Depot
5) The tweeter horn deflector is not worth replicating anyway.
6) Into the dumpster they went
But at least they were a good conversation starter. 🙂
Oh no..
Well, I see your point, I have accumulated enough junk my self over the years to realize that one has to make some hard and fast decisions if not to drown completely! 😀
But as you say, a great conversation-starter!
Since I'm in the process of making my High end dream system, my enthusiasm towards such obscure (could-have-been) project migh seem a bit irrational?
Sure enough, it is nice to finally do that that nice dream-project with top quality drivers etc.. but on the other hand, there is something about messing around with "junk", tweaking a bit here, experimenting a bit here, and perhaps ending up with something that is surprisingly nice to listen to! 🙂
Taking that sure-fire approach with state-of-the art components and everything feels a bit like cheating sometimes, and you will never quite experience the joy and positive surprise that comes from acheiving more with less..
Heck, Now I'll end up with some old junk next time there is a car boot sale!
Well, I see your point, I have accumulated enough junk my self over the years to realize that one has to make some hard and fast decisions if not to drown completely! 😀
But as you say, a great conversation-starter!
Since I'm in the process of making my High end dream system, my enthusiasm towards such obscure (could-have-been) project migh seem a bit irrational?
Sure enough, it is nice to finally do that that nice dream-project with top quality drivers etc.. but on the other hand, there is something about messing around with "junk", tweaking a bit here, experimenting a bit here, and perhaps ending up with something that is surprisingly nice to listen to! 🙂
Taking that sure-fire approach with state-of-the art components and everything feels a bit like cheating sometimes, and you will never quite experience the joy and positive surprise that comes from acheiving more with less..
Heck, Now I'll end up with some old junk next time there is a car boot sale!
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