Vintage Loudspeakers Below and overview of some vintage hifi drivers and speakers, which I'll report when I need a break from modern drivers. Acquiring vintage hifi - or vintage anything for that matter - you are always left with the dilemma of keeping the goodies "as is" - or you may repair or modify to actually improve the performance of the items. Some of the drivers listed here have to my ears qualities that were not revealed in the constructions where they were used. This goes for the JBL drivers and the drivers used in the legendary Spendor BC1. The Philips 9710 full-range driver is totally nostalgia as this was one of the first quality drivers I had when I started getting interested in hifi back in the late Sixties. I hadn't heard the 9710 drivers for 3½ decades until recently, so would they live up to my expectations?
Reproduced music can be enjoyed on
many levels. I recall great moments from my car stereo
(first time I heard Renee Fleming) and many years ago I
remember a Danish violinist demonstrating the difference
of a "standard" violin and his Stradivarious -
this heard on a B&O "transistor" radio! The
difference between the two instruments was striking, even
from the 4-5" oval in-built loudspeaker!
These speakers are quite good at "making music in a
room" - if you get my meaning. Forget about
pin-point imaging and the like. Listening to the
ever-lasting Jazz at the Pawnshop, all the usual details
of people speaking and rattling glasses is pretty much
gone. Overall the sound lacks bass and the middle and
upper treble is dominant and prevents you from turning up
the volume, which again will make the sound even slimmer
as we do need a certain loudness level to energize the
room. A drummer seriously hitting his cymbals... let's be
honest about the treble coming from 5 drivers in
different locations, it just isn't good from these
speakers.
The James B. Lansing L100 Century studio-monitor became the best selling loudspeaker model of any company in the Seventies. 125,000 pairs were sold. By the end of the decade, recording studios in the US used more of JBL’s monitors than all other brands’ monitors combined. Due to the materials used, the L100 drivers are as good today as when they were produced, but the overall sound can be vastly improved by modern crossover technology. Download pdf file and read more. Go to website and read JBL-L100 Kit Details. 2008: Read about my L100 recreation in a new 65 litres aperiodic cabinet.
The LE20 is the early alnico cone tweeter from JBL followed by the LE25 having a slightly smaller membrane and ceramic magnet. The measurable performance of the JBL cone tweeters was steadily improved over the years as can be read from the articles on these three tweeters.
Why can't I stop bidding on LE26 tweeters on eBay? 1. The LE26 is quite sensitive; average
SPL/2.8V is around 94 dB. From 6-15 kHz sometimes up to
96-97 dB/2.8V. Click heading to read more. Spendor
BC1
I'm not sure which vintage speaker has the
most pages on the web, but the Spendor BC1 must be in the
top 10. I recently acquired a pair of these from Steven
Marsh, UK. Thanks Steve! This BBC monitor had been on my
wish list for a long time because it's a reference when
it comes to tonal neutrality and a smooth midrange. Does
the BC1 live up to its reputation? Goodmans
Axiom 150 mkII
In search for suitable drivers for an open
baffle 3-way, these Goodmans came up and I took my
chances and bought them. Buying vintage drivers on eBay
is gambling and in particular when we're talking drivers
some 40 years old; drivers having paper surrounds and
paper voice coil formers. Paper may over time take up
moisture and we run the risk of rubbing voice coils and
suspensions having lost compliance. TS-data may be way
off what they were back then. The drivers reported here
were so and so, but suitable for what I had in mind. Wharfedale Super 8/RS/DD, 10-15 ohms
Wharfedale Super 3 tweeters, 10-15 ohms
Wharfedale
SFB, sand filled baffle, approx.
1956
No, I do not have a pair of these
speakers, but I would like to hear from someone who has.
If any of these speakers are still around, please write
and tell me about them. My friend Darryl has provided me
with this old 1956 review. It's great fun reading this
review of a speaker considered "retro" already
at the time it was launched. 37 £ in 1956 for a pair.
This way of making speakers is far from extinct. Thorsten
Loesch has a new one here, Transparency: http://www.realhi-fi.com/products/sonic.html Download Wharfedale 1956 review, 800k pdf View some of the best images of the SFB I've been able to find. SFB pics and comments from owners More SFB pics here - from an eBay auction.
New: Go to Wharfedale 1962 brochures/handouts download page.
Kindly sent to me by Bruce Bender,
US.
Rogers LS35A, approx.
1975
I have a pair of Rogers LS3/5A for
reference, and I'm not going to report these in detail as
so much can be found on the web including all schematics.
It's even got a LS3/5A exclusive website http://www.ls35a.com/
The MG15s are a great experience. I had the good fortune to borrow four of these and two 100 liter cabs. I was told I hadn't heard the MG15s until 250 liter cabs were realised. Well, I didn't make 250 liter cabs but I did have some enjoyable weeks with these monster drivers before delivering them back. I didn't buy a pair. Click heading to read why. Tannoy
Monitor Gold IIILZ
A pair of Tannoy Monitor Gold IIILZ drivers were available on eBay and the price went too high, but I took my chances and I'm pleased with what I received. I was afraid these drivers would have a much too high Fs and not deliver any bass, but I was positively surprised when I mounted the drivers in the wide baffle cabs and finally again could hear that Tannoy sound after the 15" drivers had gone. YES, these drivers have a great midrange, they can play vocals so loud that most modern drivers are left far behind and they can make you feel the bass from a vented 90 litre cabinet - and they have that treble that make you jump in your seat when a drummer hits the snare drum hard. No, they are not aural nirvana - few speakers are - but they have qualities we just don't get these days from most modern loudspeakers. To the right the Tannoys in the wide baffle cabs. I had just routed for the new 12" bass drivers and the Tannoys just fitted in. Turning the cabinets upside down the sound wasn't bad at all! Read report on Tannoy MG IIILZ I paid 400 DKK (65 US$) for these JBL L26
speakers and the bass drivers badly needed refoaming, so
this was a good opportunity to improve my skills in this
area. I'd never done such a big driver before, and thanks
to Speakerbits in Australia I got new foam surrounds and
started playing with the 125A bass drivers. This 10"
paper cone driver has to go all the way up to 2.5-3 kHz
where the LE25 tweeter takes over. Is this possible and
could JBL really make a speaker that just wouldn't be
"tizz-and-boom"?
Philips
9710
One evening, I was writing to a friend on
old hifi stuff and I mentioned the Philips 9710
full-range drivers. I took a quick look at eBay and there
they were. And not just there, but only a 100 km from
where I live. Couldn't believe it. Thanks to Kenneth in
Aalborg! I've been looking for these drivers for years
and years. A nice pair of 9710 drivers and price OK.
Actually I got an extra driver for free, so I had one for
experiments as an untreated paper surround really does
not stand against time when we are talking 40 years or
so. These surrounds did not have any recilience left and
you could place the cone wherever you liked in the magnet
gap. After the surrounds were coated with some very
dilute coating material, they regained performance and
they play better than you would expect. These drivers are
sensitive: 93-94 dB in the midrange and 100 dB from 2 kHz
up to 10-12 kHz. No wonder they could make a lot of noise
from a 2 x 5 W solid state amp or a mushy EL84 valve amp.
One of my friends bought these old SEAS
speakers for ~100 US$ and I had them for some days to
hear how they would perform and to see if an upgrade was
worthwhile. "As is" these speakers can be fine-tuned to a performance that leaves many modern speakers behind. Giving the tweeter the right polarity plus some further attenuation, the frequency response was reasonably flat and I'm almost stunned by the performance of these speakers: Dynamic, transparent, etc. This is "an-easy-to-listen-to" speaker.
Nils-Åke/Sweden came by with these 1978 Clarion speakers. "Clarion by SEAS" the badge says. I have no idea about the financial set-up behind this speaker brand, but SEAS seems to have been involved in more than only producing the drivers. The speakers were in pretty bad shape and mid and bass drivers both had rotten foam surrounds and needed replacement. This speaker is some of the better vintage stuff - and I like it. The classic 3-way, here from a 10" bass driver (25 F-WBX/DD), the magnificient 11FM (H130) mid driver, and the so-and-so 1", H107 tweeter with polyamide dome. I had my reservations with regard to the dome, but in this application is does fine with a point of crossover above 5 kHz. To my eyes it's an elegant speaker with the sloped front panel and matching front grille. The veneer is excellent and with the narrow front fillets it makes a nice light-weight appearance; very Scandinavian and in the best tradition of some Danish furniture designs (Mogens Kock). Celestion
HF1300 tweeter
This is a strange fellow. Works well from 1.5 kHz to 13 kHz. Sounds very good but needs flush-mounting like all tweeters.The cone has a very wide suspension and it may actually be the ancestor of the modern e.g. Vifa DX25TG tweeter. But who designed the housings and who got the idea for the turbo grille in front of the diaphragm? Do you know the story behind this design, please tell me. Martin Colloms has some details on the tweeter in his book. Excerpt at the BC1 page. |
