I was given console speakers from the 1960's, are they usable ?

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SpyStyle

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#1
Hello from Maine 🙂

I was given some console speakers from the 1960's along with a record player and reel to reel. But the console's amp was long gone.

I looked on eBay and I guess the record player and reel to reel are not worth much money.

I wonder if the speaker drivers are usable ?

Apparently they are 1 watt. The drivers are marked V.C. 8 ohm 1w

The record player is marked Elac Miracord model PW 04 H

The reel to reel is marked RS-766US

What do you think ?

















Cheers!
Craig
 
#2
The speakers look like junk to be honest.

The record deck looks to be an idler wheel, zero suspension type as it appears to be flush with the wooden plinth, so it will be horribly microphonic if used in a system with good bass response and be very prone to feedback. Check though if there are springs underneath that aren't visible in the photo, there may be release catches that have been locked into a safe transport position. Idler wheel decks tend to have a lot of rumble and motor noise blurring the sound. The arm looks a bit heavy as well and may not work with good cartridges. 60's record players were mostly junk I'm afraid. Turntables weren't taken seriously until the mid 70's with mainly the Linn Sondek showing they could make a huge difference to vinyl sound quality if engineered properly.

The tape deck is a possible good'un. There were decent tape decks in the 60's so there's a chance there if it's in good order. Good ones tended to have 7.5 and 15 inches/sec speed settings available, low quality domestic ones had 3.75 ips max speed.
 
#4
Actually, the speakers appear to be Alnico magnet paper surround types. Since you are not going to get much from them without "help", perhaps you should try a simple EnABL process. They will sound great, can be run from a flea power amp and might even provide some satisfactory sound from what is probably a reasonably pretty cabinet.

Bud
 
#5
Hi,

The speakers are AlNiCo, as is the tweeter and will appeal to someone.

They look like 10"ers and a low power retro guitarist would probably bite
your arm off to use them in a 4x10" guitar cabinet. I don't think the 1W
(IW?) means 1 watt, they are too big for that to be true, estimate ~ 10W.

The deck is a good one for 78 fans, as a second turntable for that purpose.

Tape deck depends on heads and general condition, should still
appeal to musicians though, all things analogue and that.

rgds, sreten.
 
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#6
sbrads said:
The speakers look like junk to be honest.

The record deck looks to be an idler wheel.... 60's record players were mostly junk I'm afraid. Turntables weren't taken seriously until the mid 70's with mainly the Linn Sondek showing they could make a huge difference to vinyl sound quality if engineered properly.

The tape deck is a possible good'un. There were decent tape decks in the 60's so there's a chance there if it's in good order. Good ones tended to have 7.5 and 15 inches/sec speed settings available, low quality domestic ones had 3.75 ips max speed.
Click to expand...

Well, coming from a resident of the country that gave us the Garrard 301 and 401 in the 50's and 60's and then descended into the dispair of Garrard/BSR offerings of the 70's, thats a VERY odd set of statements ;-)

IMHO, tHe tape deck is actually likely to be a piece of crap and the turntable, while not aufiophile-ish, should be an ok-fun unit. The tape deck will without doubt be suffering from decayed rollers and drive belts, most if not all of which will be unobtainium. The heads are likely degraded as well following years of abuse, dust and minimal maintenance. You might be able to get it working, but to what purpose? Its not archival quality (probably never was), the format is obsolete, and ongoing maintenance will haunt you.

This I know from bitter experience. Looks great polished and sitting strategically in your music listening room though!

The ELAC turntable is similar in concept to the many domestic grade offerings of the mid-century but with the advantage of being built like a tank in true Germanic engineering style. Its no Thorens, or even Lenco, but by comparison with the tape deck it will be relatively cheap and easy to get into good working order, and you have to love that socialist industrial styling!

Lots of ELAC info including the manual for this model at www.vinylengine.com

THe speakers look like crap, on that we agree.
 
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#9
Actually if VC 0.8 is the diameter then 1 watts sounds about right and a modern guitar amp will probably need a woofer with hese high passed somewhere above 500, that said my daughter likes that sort of speaker with her guitars so Sretens right; pass them on
 
#10
Oh I forgot to mention, there is an array of speakers as pictured on the left side and the right side of the big wooden console. Sorry I forgot to mention it. The wooden boards are actually marked in pencil, "L" and "R".

So I guess the console was "stereo" with a turntable and reel to reel. I wonder if the original amp was a cool looking tube amp ? My father claims the amp died so he gave it to a pal for parts. Then my parents used the console as a TV stand for years, then it went into storage for years.

I think tube amps look so cool 🙂

OK, thanks all for chiming in and have fun!
Craig
 
#11
Those drivers look Japanese (perhaps National/Panasonic like the tape deck), have a largish magnet structure, and i would not be surprised if they sound quite decent. Can you pull one (or rip the grill cloth off) and take a pic of the front? Any numbers other than what we can see on the magnet?

That there are 4 per side, likely means these were up market. The tweeter also have significant magnet. They are likely best suited to an open baffle (are they in an enclosed space or open to the back?).

I'd be tempted to try an MTM with the other 2 drivers used in a 2.5 way arrangement. It may not end up "accurate" but could well be quite musical and enjoyable.

Another use for the TT would be as a record cleaning platform.

THe R-R says SS, must be an early one of the breed, from the vinage of the speakers, it would have been nice to see a tube R-R which would yield useful parts.

dave
 
#12
aardvarkash10 said:
Well, coming from a resident of the country that gave us the Garrard 301 and 401 in the 50's and 60's and then descended into the dispair of Garrard/BSR offerings of the 70's, thats a VERY odd set of statements ;-)

This I know from bitter experience. Looks great polished and sitting strategically in your music listening room though!

The ELAC turntable is similar in concept to the many domestic grade offerings of the mid-century but with the advantage of being built like a tank in true Germanic engineering style. Its no Thorens, or even Lenco, but by comparison with the tape deck it will be relatively cheap and easy to get into good working order, and you have to love that socialist industrial styling!
Click to expand...

It's definitely not a Garrard 301 or 401 or Thorens, so therefore it won't be much cop although it may well work fine. There really were hardly any decks of note from that era, and we know which ones were good, so anything else can't have been by default. By the way, I had a lot of exposure to a 401 around 1970 onwards, it was good but later listening to Linn and Pink Triangle decks just wiped the floor with anything the 401 ever managed.

Agreed, the tape deck is probably a lost cause even if it used to be a good one. I heard a few tape decks though around 1970 that beat a 401 for sound quality, although I was never comparing the same music so who knows.
 
#13
Thanks for the input fellas 🙂

I'll post an update when I have one 🙂

And to answer your question - the speaker board slid down into a compartment and was in an enclosed space with foam, but it was not sealed with rubber gaskets or caulking. The cloth was visible on either side of the console.

Cheers!
Craig
 
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#15
Hi,

They are smaller than I thought, still you'd be chasing your tail tryiing
to use them for hifi IMO, still make a good (low powered valve amplifier)
guitar speaker in mutiples probably, possibly good for vintage valve
radios, might work well as mids in open baffles, fairly obscure use.

rgds, sreten.
 
#16
sreten,

Having had very similar thru here, i would say 1/ they have lots of possibilities as a hifi speaker, and 2/ not suited to guitar speaker.

Hmmm... i wrote out a nice post last night, it seems it is MIA . Have to guess ID 10 T error. Let's try again.

These are indeed smaller than i thot from the 1st pic. These are quite lovely National units. It is very rare to have such a large number from the same run. That also makes the tweeters smaller. 2" big magnet. I have hoarded a few varietties of this genre. From the cap, and assumming 8 ohms, a 10k XO. Cap is long past its best by date.

These are from the time when the Japanese were at the top of their FR art and were making drivers that give quite musical performance, even with modest aeemingly modest drivers. With these drivers it would suggest that the console was towards the high end.

These drivers deserve a 2nd life, and i'd be happy to draw up some ideas.

dave
 
#17
Thanks for posting fellas 🙂

Dave - I was just about to build some simple speaker boxes for them - I could just keep them as they are and drop them into boxes. Do you think they need something unusual ?

I figure if nothing else, they can provide sound for an arcade machine's top, with a sub-woofer in the bottom.

I have a subwoofer thread with junk drivers here :

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/subw...-sonotube-subs-cheap-n00b-have-questions.html

I guess I am on a roll with junk drivers lately, but once I had real Altec parts I tell ya LOL

Have fun!
Craig
 
#19
I'll agree with Planet10 on the speakers and will also comment that the Elac changer fitted is not a particularly low end unit as changers go, and it has what appears to be a Papst Aussenlaufer motor in it - this might be the best item in the console.

The Elac/Miracord brand does not get the respect it deserves but these units are several notches better than the good Garrard units of the day.

Check it out on Vinyl Engine | The Home of the Turntable (you must be a member)

Note that these changers were also used by Fisher back when they were a respected company.
 
#20
sbrads said:
<snip>

By the way, I had a lot of exposure to a 401 around 1970 onwards, it was good but later listening to Linn and Pink Triangle decks just wiped the floor with anything the 401 ever managed.
<snip>
Click to expand...

I suspect you may not heard the 401 in a really good, heavy plinth with a good, modern arm, the machine is pretty noisy in a light plinth.. The early 401 certainly should be able to give the Linn and PT tables a good run for the money if properly maintained.
 
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