Damaged Tesla Speaker

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Hello,
I have a cone damaged tesla speaker, it has been glued. I want to recone it. Do you have any suggestions? It seems the damage has no effect on the sound. Do I have any chance to find it's cone to replace, or should I just leave it like this. Any help is extremely appreciated.
It's aro 711 btw.
Thanks
 
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Well, they came and it appears the damage is not as bad as it looks from the photo.
But anyway I want to recone them both. If anyone knows where to find right cones, please let me know.
And I installed them to a fisher cabinet just to hear what they sound. They are extremely responsive. It's a three way cabinet, and one hole open, two holes open, without the cabinet, with the colths on/off, they all sound very different. But it looks to me the best sound is without the cabinets. Also seller told me to use them in a light cabinet. What material should I use in the cabinet? Fisher's are very heavy. Although I like the sound.
 
For whom might be interested, the damage has no effect on the sound for now. Or both the speakers are corrupted, because they sound same to me.
And more importantly, they sound best with open baffle kind of cabinets. Not tested with a tube amp yet.
 
hi tansu,

i have many Teslas, since they come from my country. some of them, mostly older ones, as your 711 are pretty good. as many of that period, they like open baffles, or really big sealed boxes (i'd give 711 at least 250L).

from your photo there's not much to see. but it looks like it's not that serious. if nothing is scratching and both play the same, i'd leave it as it is, you really won't find replacement cone for this..
 
Thanks for the reply @misok,
I decided with an open baffle cabinet, I will make it myself and post the photos here.
For now I use with the tv like this as you can see from the attachment. But the thing is they are better when separated. Like this side by side, I dont like the sound.
The only thing is they have different colors both chassis and the cone. But no biggie.
On the other hand my tube amp is at the service, and I heard they are better with tubes. I did not have a chance to drive them with tubes yet.
 
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well, if you want to go stereo, they surely need separate baffles, as you know.. they are not dedicated bass drivers, despite they're quite big. they are largest of the X11 family and were indeed used for bass support in small to medium rooms, but essentially their construction is that of a wide-ranger.

if you tested them separately and can't tell the difference in sound and volume and you can handle the color difference, just use them as they are. the grey one is older, they were switching colors and some details but parameters should be the same. it is possible they were both made close to each other in the early/mid 60s.

they go up to 6-7000 Hz and most of the people wouldn't let it play that high and would think of them as a bass drivers. but as a first step i'd surely try to play them full range with the tweeter (introduced around 8-10 kHz, preferably paper cone type, sens. 92-94 db/m, 1st order, with just with 2-3 uF cap). other combinations after this.

i don't know how big baffles you can afford and one alternative in smaller spaces is to use a folded baffle, or some sort of open back and/or open bottom box. i'm sure you've seen many (especially vintage) drivers used this way.

good luck and feel free to experiment, the potential of these old dinosaurs deserve it.

edit - they are surely very suitable to use with tubes, they were designed for them. their coils are 5w max or something so be careful. but in the room your ears would probably give it up sooner..
 
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Thanks again,
I dont know if we can put web links here, so I will just write down the model, how do they go with Aro 711? What do you think?
Tesla ART481

Impedance [ohm]: 0.6
Max standard input [W]: 5
Frequency Range [Hz]: 3 000 to 17 000
Sensitivity [dB]: 94
 
Those tweeters are great, but they work with small transformers...not so easy to get or wind, unless you get them together with tweeters.

Why are you trying to use something more than 30 years old? Any particular reason for tesla? I grew up with those in old socialistic czechoslovakia, I am glad that is long gone...
 
Well I am very much into old audio equipments. My main amp is a sansui sm-30 which is more than 50 years old. And it took me 2 years to buy it from the previous owner.
I got these tesla's from a guy with swaping a trio bookshelf speaker. And now I like to make them usable. After that maybe I might trade it with another vintage stuff or sell to buy new old stuff 🙂
BTW these days I am very much interested in old cinema speakers. I also have a pair of Lomo's which are surprisingly stunning. So not particularly Tesla, but any speakers like them.
I am from Turkey, Istanbul and those kind of equipments were/are very rare here and was also very much expensive. Although they are still expensive. The average stereo system in the houses were sony boom-boxes while I grow up, so now it's our turn I guess 🙂

So, in the main title of vintage audio equipment lover, First of all I am very much into Sansui, then these cinema speakers. Old Sansui's are very expensive here but people doesnt know much about the klangfilm yet. So they can be bought at reasonable prices.

I saw those transformers but not with the pair I want to buy. So without transformers there is no point getting them.
 
it's the matter of taste. i have it reversed - why would someone use new stuff, when there are so many great speakers from the past, often superior (although mabye not in measurements). and i'm not driven by nostalgia and i've never been a collector.

not all old stuff is great for sure, but they are different in general. papers, magnets, coils, they go well with low powered amps, excel in OBs etc. i really can't see the logic of not using something just because it's old.

tansu - you mean in Turkey Tesla is more sought after than Siemens ? that would be quite funny. in general, Tesla was copying german makers very often, it's quite visible on their models. some Teslas are really good, but Siemens stuff is generally superior. 'Klangfilm' nowadays looks like word to label anything german and vintage.. but anyways, it doesn't make sense of denying anything 'just because'.

ad ARTs - they are not bad, but nothing to die for. i've seen them on ebay very overpriced, but it doesn't refer to their cult-value but rather to a guy that wants to profit. if you can have them cheap and with 0.6-to-x ohm transformers, go for it. i personally prefer paper cone tweeters, the transition from mids can be very smooth since they are from same material and there's plenty to choose from. i've tried several pairs and finally landed on golden Grundigs, but many are great. and they also can be modified..
 
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tansu - you mean in Turkey Tesla is more sought after than Siemens ? that would be quite funny. in general, Tesla was copying german makers very often, it's quite visible on their models. some Teslas are really good, but Siemens stuff is generally superior. 'Klangfilm' nowadays looks like word to label anything german and vintage.. but anyways, it doesn't make sense of denying anything 'just because'.

ad ARTs - they are not bad, but nothing to die for. i've seen them on ebay very overpriced, but it doesn't refer to their cult-value but rather to a guy that wants to profit. if you can have them cheap and with 0.6-to-x ohm transformers, go for it. i personally prefer paper cone tweeters, the transition from mids can be very smooth since they are from same material and there's plenty to choose from. i've tried several pairs and finally landed on golden Grundigs, but many are great. and they also can be modified..
No I mean, here the "klangfilm" term is not known by the common hi-fi and vintage audio enthusiasts. I heard Siemens drivers are the best, but I've never seen them here. Those tesla's I have might be the only pair in Turkey 🙂 From what I see around, the most common drivers closer to term "klangfilm" are Philips fullrange drivers in here.
And I am not a collector yet, it all started with vinyl interest, but I love the old audio equipments much more than the new ones.
About the tesla tweeters, they are not cheap and also they do not have the transformers, so I will look in to some paper cone tweeters here.
thanks again
 
i'm curious about you final 'product', although there's possibly no 'final', it's all the journey. so please share then. this forum is not the strongest in terms of vintage stuff, so if you find a time, check also a german, russian, bulgarian forums (maybe through translator) as i did. in case you need som info on various old tweeters, just send me a PM, i've come through something in this area ; )

when people judge potential of particular speakers, what should be mentioned is a type of music predominantly played, since there's no universal and neutral speaker, as well as the emotional result has very little to do with measurements. from my experience ,OBs or open back boxes with certain old speakers are just unbeatable in representation of voices, acoustic instruments, chamber music, jazz etc. terms of a timbre, air and life-effect. but they can't play anything the best way as well as they are very sensitive to the room.
 
Of course there is no final product, thats the charm of it 🙂
I thought the final for me was sansui sm-30, not sm-80 which more powerful than sm-30. Because it was personally designed by a famous Sansui engineer and the last sansui which all the parts were tubes. But it appears it's not the end 🙂
First of all, when you buy or get some devices this old, there will be problems surely.
I will check those forums, but as living in Istanbul we have another problem. When you buy an electronic device from abroad, there is a huge tax on the custom. Like 30% of the bluebook price. For example you can buy something very cheap on ebay, but they check its model, and find the "true" price and tax on it. Also some devices which "they" decide are forbidden. And you never know what is forbidden or not 🙂 So another negative point, it's a gamble. Because of that, I can only buy really cheap things from abroad. So that I wont worry much if it doesn't appear here.

Speaking of universal and neutral speakers, as far as I experienced and read about, Quad ESL57 is the one. And also at a very reasonable prices in UK, but thinking of its size and look, very low possibility for us to deliver them here. And in Turkey, they are being sold like (if you can find) 3500-4000 USD, which is 7-8 times of an average one sold on ebay.
So the "opportunity" products are now klangfilms in turkey.

When I find some things I will let you know here. For now if anyone is interested, Soviet Lomo drivers are great if you find them at reasonable prices.
 
i know, in certain countries the customs are mafia-like. especially if they aim on ordinary people buying old stuff once in a while. but maybe there's a positive side to it - you can't spend too much on audio 😉
what i like about the old stuff is also the fact that from time to time someone sells it almost as a rubbish, not knowing it's value among audio maniacs. if you know how to properly use the particular component, in what topology context etc, you're the winner and you can f... the import customs. for example Tesla speakers here. as a commercial speaker boxes, they're rarely good (you know, sealed, overdamped, undersized, over-crossoverized etc) but lets say this tweeter from box A and that wideranger from old radio B mounted together on a reasonalby sized OB, fed by 1w SE tube amp and voila, completely new sound dimension. so, have your eyes open, i'm sure Istanbul hides many treasures..
 
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