Vintage Aztec speaker

My Dad bought these speakers in 1969. Aztec Loudspeakers of Denver Colorado, the model is the "Monet". I remember growing up with these speakers. My Dad was a professional musician at the time, these bad machines would play loud and clean...

...and he still uses them !... I recently gave them a listen and they still sound good. Sometime I will have to measure them with my omnimic and see what the frequency response is...

The cone tweeters have been slightly abused by grandchildren fingers...
 

Attachments

  • 20200220_165153.jpg
    20200220_165153.jpg
    749.2 KB · Views: 548
  • 20200220_165226.jpg
    20200220_165226.jpg
    666.5 KB · Views: 544
I have a pair of the Renoir III and for the life of me, can't figure out how to get the grill off without tearing it up - doesn't want to give. Back is screwed and glued. Want to redo the xovers and possibly replace the drivers - the cabinet is a tank. Any suggestions on getting inside the cabinet? Thanks!
 
Thanks GM. That's Far Out! :D

Above the speaker you can see a photo of my Dad's band, "The Intruders", circa 1966 or so...

GM - That is cool you found an old ad!!! Thanks

:up: :D

with inflation that is the equivalent of $1,960- today.

Indeed! I was 21, single and 'living large' on ~ $607/mo. net, which I know some families that spend this much just for all their electronic services. :p
 
One local shop (Cameradio) sold the Aztec Picasso in fairly high quantity. The manufacturer actually was a Ski bum who had a wood shop and produced the loudspeakers when there wasn’t enough snow to go skiing.

He had a rather neat saw that had several miter blades in parallel so that a single pass through the saw would cut all the miters at once. Thus folding the panel into a box would result in perfect seams once the saw was tweaked in.

The plywood used usually was a decent walnut or similar veneer.

As to the sound quality, good enough was the goal. These were designed to meet a price point, a decent bit below the comparable name brand loudspeakers.

No idea where the actual drivers were made. I suspect at that time CTS or Eminence.
 
One local shop (Cameradio) sold the Aztec Picasso in fairly high quantity. The manufacturer actually was a Ski bum who had a wood shop and produced the loudspeakers when there wasn’t enough snow to go skiing.

He had a rather neat saw that had several miter blades in parallel so that a single pass through the saw would cut all the miters at once. Thus folding the panel into a box would result in perfect seams once the saw was tweaked in.

The plywood used usually was a decent walnut or similar veneer.

As to the sound quality, good enough was the goal. These were designed to meet a price point, a decent bit below the comparable name brand loudspeakers.

No idea where the actual drivers were made. I suspect at that time CTS or Eminence.

Thanks for the details. I only kept mine for a year or two. I upgraded to the ESS AMT 4. I remember removing the grill of the Aztec and seeing a 10 inch woofer, a three (five?) inch midrange, and a horn loaded tweeter. They didn't sound great, but not awful either.