A pal of mine gave me the gutts and the speakers from an old Zenith HiFi. I do not know the model or date it was made. Unfortunatly no info is on the parts I have. The speakers are marked however. They consist of a 10" paper cone driver with 49-1221 on the back. There is also a horn tweeter marked 'foster' 49-1166. I think this just like the Foster/Fostex 40-1166.
The question is: What do I do with these things? I have no info on them exept what I can measure with my DMM. The 10's are 16ohm and the tweeter....uh...I forgot what the tweetet measured.
The crossover was just a cap and resistor on the tweet with the 10 run fullrange.
They are in GREAT condition. The thing had a TT and an 8-track, so it is old. The speakers though, look brand new exept for a few little rust spots on the basket of the 10".
I will post pics as soon as I can get a hold of a digicam.
Any help would be cool.
The question is: What do I do with these things? I have no info on them exept what I can measure with my DMM. The 10's are 16ohm and the tweeter....uh...I forgot what the tweetet measured.
The crossover was just a cap and resistor on the tweet with the 10 run fullrange.They are in GREAT condition. The thing had a TT and an 8-track, so it is old. The speakers though, look brand new exept for a few little rust spots on the basket of the 10".
I will post pics as soon as I can get a hold of a digicam.
Any help would be cool.
Hehe, I get tons of these old console units, often the ones from just when transistors came out. The speakers are always like new because they never made amplifiers big enough to even barely drive them. I find that these speakers are usualy very nice and sound good for their age especially.
Has anybody else had experience with old speakers from radios and consoles?
I also found it that often 10" drivers were used in these consoles. What's up with that? Why never 8" or 12"?
Has anybody else had experience with old speakers from radios and consoles?
I also found it that often 10" drivers were used in these consoles. What's up with that? Why never 8" or 12"?
swirv said:
16 ohm... are they alnico. Are they anything like these 49-1240. There may also be a number on them that gives away the manufacturer. The pictured ones are Rolas (and are quite lovely).
The Foster horn is also quite nice. The 1166 is one of the shorter ones -- were they mounted with a blue styrofoam spacer? There are some of these and relatives on my BD-Pipes page.
dave
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Duo said:
Some of those consoles have "gold" in them... please don't chuck em without salvaging the guts -- particularily the tube ones. You still in Alberni?
dave
Yes, I understand what you mean by "gold." Every one of these units I see going to the dump I try and take home. The drivers and guts out of them are often very nice. I have made some impressive speakers out of these units.
The tube consoles I usually try to keep working in original condition though. For example, I have a very very sweet Grundig floor console radio in perfect condition. The sound this radio produces is phenominal, full class A and those weird European speakers that are like 14" by 8" or something like that. I keep the unit in top condition and polish the cabinet frequently to keep any dust or foreign matter from settling on it.
So far, I've salvaged the guts out of every unit I have ever gotten before tossing the case. Some of the recievers in them turn into nice component size units when built into individual boxes. The speakers I remove and build into new enclosures. I can make a very nice system out of the guts of a console!
The tube consoles I usually try to keep working in original condition though. For example, I have a very very sweet Grundig floor console radio in perfect condition. The sound this radio produces is phenominal, full class A and those weird European speakers that are like 14" by 8" or something like that. I keep the unit in top condition and polish the cabinet frequently to keep any dust or foreign matter from settling on it.
So far, I've salvaged the guts out of every unit I have ever gotten before tossing the case. Some of the recievers in them turn into nice component size units when built into individual boxes. The speakers I remove and build into new enclosures. I can make a very nice system out of the guts of a console!
Dave,
The 10" speakers have what appears to be the same basket as the ones in your picture however, mine have a ceramic magnet and no dust cap. They have a fabric dust 'screen' over the pole piece.
Do you have any sugestions for these drivers? Dipoles? Horns? TL?
Any sugestions as to a direction to take would help. I have little experiance with drivers like these, and I see that you have played with quite a few.
thanks
Chris
The 10" speakers have what appears to be the same basket as the ones in your picture however, mine have a ceramic magnet and no dust cap. They have a fabric dust 'screen' over the pole piece.
Do you have any sugestions for these drivers? Dipoles? Horns? TL?
Any sugestions as to a direction to take would help. I have little experiance with drivers like these, and I see that you have played with quite a few.
thanks
Chris
swirv said:
All the ceramic magnet ones i have seen have been 8 ohms, so i'm guessing yours are 1st gen ceramic then (as you get newer the drivers in this series seem to get less robust). Still a very sweet driver.
The ones i've seen all came in Zenith Allegro cabinats and with the sucky BR box they dont sound all too great. Take the back off and they open right up.
I plan on putting mine in some sort of quarterwave enclosure -- which one depends on how the T/S turn out. They also aren't too bad in an open baffle (as above).
Any numbers beside the 49-1221?
dave
Attachments
Yes there are more numbers... they are as follows:
Zenith
49-1221
27179
2857425
Aranged on the back of the driver.
Zenith
49-1221
27179
2857425
Aranged on the back of the driver.
49-1221 -- Zenith part number
27179 -- Rola part number
285 -- Rola
7425 -- made in the 25th week of 1974
dave
27179 -- Rola part number
285 -- Rola
7425 -- made in the 25th week of 1974
dave
Also the guts of the Hifi all work as far as I can tell--I dont have any 8-track tapes to test the tape player. The TT sounded like crap so the stylus has been abused.
The amp section doesnt sound nearly as good as the amp I got out of the GE console TV (TDA 2040 based amp) The imaging is cloudy and it is soft on the top end even with the tone controls adjusted. It may also have been abused or just have a few worn out parts. I could care less though ... it will probably do service as a crude suround amp for my PC games.
Its the speakers Im intrested in. The midrange is very pronounced from the 10's and more defined than my LX5's(modified of course) but the upper mid reaching into the lower treble starts to break up..(the LX5's really shine there thanks to the Linaeum dipole tweeter) Maybe with some cone and basket treatments I can fix this. Granted they are in very crude test boxes.
I have access to pretty much an unlimited supply of Dynamat scraps to use on the basket. I also though of putting felt on the inside of the basket facing the cone to reduce reflections. The speakers are very thin and probably let alot of reflected sound back through.
Chris
The amp section doesnt sound nearly as good as the amp I got out of the GE console TV (TDA 2040 based amp) The imaging is cloudy and it is soft on the top end even with the tone controls adjusted. It may also have been abused or just have a few worn out parts. I could care less though ... it will probably do service as a crude suround amp for my PC games.
Its the speakers Im intrested in. The midrange is very pronounced from the 10's and more defined than my LX5's(modified of course) but the upper mid reaching into the lower treble starts to break up..(the LX5's really shine there thanks to the Linaeum dipole tweeter) Maybe with some cone and basket treatments I can fix this. Granted they are in very crude test boxes.
I have access to pretty much an unlimited supply of Dynamat scraps to use on the basket. I also though of putting felt on the inside of the basket facing the cone to reduce reflections. The speakers are very thin and probably let alot of reflected sound back through.
Chris
wow that was quick Dave. these things are fairly older than I figured.
I haven't heard of Rola, so I'll do some research.
I haven't heard of Rola, so I'll do some research.
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