The AM Forum

got these at a virginia flea mart. wanted to post em here to see if anyone could tell me who made them
or any other info good to know.

each one is 40+ lbs of good sound. These are not Kraco's,  they sound really good. Like scary good.

I never buy stereo speakers at a hamfest any more, even at ridiculously low prices.  I must have bought a half dozen  pairs over the past 20 years, and every damn one has been either totally crapped out, or had a serious problem such a buzzies with the bass notes, dead tweeter, cone blown out, severely distorted audio, crapped out  crossover network, etc.  Maybe you had better luck at a non-radio flea market.

I got lucky, my experience is typically more along your lines.  :P

Now I need a good hi fi rx.  ::)

A lot of speakers that were well rated in the past crap out when the foam rubber supporting the woofer rots out and turns to dust.   Sometimes the bass fuzzies can be fixed up by using duct tape to support the woofer cone.   I had a pair that I fixed temporarily before replacing them with new ones.   Sometimes the cabinets are worth having, rebuilding them with new woofers and adding piezo tweeters.

You can get re-foam kits for a lot of the speaker surrounds and they are pretty easy to replace, I have done several with good results. 

I have a well written article from Radio and Television News that covers driver repair including realignment to take care of voice coil rubbing.  It was written to help technicians keep sets going during the parts shortages of WWII and Korea.  I will try to dig it out and post it to the tech section in the near future.

Be very careful with the 70's and 80's Sansui "big box" speakers if you cannot test before purchasing.  When over driven, the voice coil insulation melts freezing the coil in the gap and repair would not be fun (nor practical unless your other hobby is building large ships in small bottles).  One check before buying is to push carefully near the center and feel for any rubbing.

Rodger WQ9E

Looks like you walked away with a good deal Derb. At the very least, the cabinets have that nice warm "vintage" look. When I grab speakers at a flea market, I always assume the drivers are toast and pay what I think is a fair price (cough cough) for the cabinets. About half the time I've ended up with speakers that actually worked fine without any repairs. If the grilles can be removed I use Rodger's "excursion" test to check for misalignment and have found it to be a pretty good indicator of physical failures.

I noticed a few months back that my living room system started sounding like a big kazoo. When I pulled the grilles off, I found that the 10" Speaker Lab woofers that I used when I built them back in the 80's had rotted to dust. That was the first time I had ever heard of woofer rot! I've been looking at some of the 10" woofers at Parts Express, which has been mentioned in this forum by a few members, and will probably grab some replacements there.

http://www.parts-express.com/wizards/searchResults.cfm?srchExt=CAT&srchCat=483

Depending upon the quality of your original drivers, you might find it better to just repair what you have.  It really only takes a few minutes to replace the foam surround.

There are a lot of places selling the replacement surrounds and one place I have used is Speaker Works:  http://www.speakerworks.com/speaker_repair_kits_s/65.htm

That's exactly what happened to my Lafayette Criterion 2001's. Parts Express had exactly the woofer that would fit into the existing hole. Both woofers and shipping cost me about $75. Wasn't worth my time to screw around trying to fix/replace the old speaker surround foam.

But I have some early cone speakers from the late 20's and many from the 30's, and they sound just as good as the day they were made.  The only problem is that even brand new many of them sucked by to-day's standards.

Foam rot is supposedly the reason many Collins mechanical filters crap out.

there cant be anything wrong with the woofies on these, they sound way too good. My bass test is usually playing Green Onions by Booker T/MG's LOUD and listen for when Booker T doubles the bass line on his Hammond.

if there's anything wrong, you'll know it. That hammond goes down to about 15 hz.

The grilles on these look like a PITA to get off. I have one hooked to the Yaesu and was listening to Tron and QIX this morning. That RX audio mod works pretty well.   8)

It is usually something like Booker T's Hammond B3 that breaks up the speaker foam.   If it survives that for a few times, they will last a while.   Try some Jimmy Smith on them too.

Exactly......I wanna know if it's crapping out. I test it using music I know is gonna reveal any weakness.

the way speakers should be judged ->  if you like their sound, then they are good.

FWIW I use Permatex #82 automotive weatherstrip adhesive for speaker foam repairs. It stays flexable after it dries and with several applications, it can fill large gaps.

the 50 cal
in
county Joe and the Fish
Feel like im fixing to die

Yes the B-3 test is an excellent one.

Try one in each speaker.

Is that you Paul on the Hammond?

Yes !

I had two of them in the apartment the other day.


Glorious noise they made. Neighbors unpleased.