Vintage drivers for speakers

[mekr]

in my quest for lifelike sound i would like to know from visioners about vintage altecs and RCA,and also how to convert field coil drivers

 

[Rajiv]

Hi,

Nice discussion about converting Altec drivers to field coil.

Interesting field coil drivers in Germany - Lansing Heritage Forums

Contact Steve Schell(the moderator/co founder of the Lansing Heritage site) for any details he is the authority on this.He is also the person behind Cogent loudspeakrs,the guys who build modern versions of the RCA MI1428 field coil drivers.

OSWALDSMILLAUDIO - Tasting 2003

These drivers are fantastic.I have the RCA MI 1443(115 volt version of the MI1428) but I foolishly damaged the voice coil while trying to clean it.Steve has replacements for this but it is one more pending project of mine.

The RCA MI9548 pheonlic diaphagram Alnico magnet drivers 1.5 inch exit drivers are equally good.The cover the range from 300hz to 6 khz and is a very natural sounding midrange driver.
6moons audio reviews: Hornographic Pursuits I


The OSwald mills Audio AC 1 uses these drivers for the midrange.
Stereophile: Oswald Mill Audio AC1

The Altec version of the pheonolic driver is the 290.Jbl had a 2 inch exit driver it was the 2482. I have not heard both.The RCA MI9548 I have heard and it is very good.

The Altec,JBL,VITAVOX,Klangfilm,etc compression drivers are all great drivers.But I will stick to Altec or JBL as parts(diaphagrams) for these are available.For the others it is next to imposible to get parts,and if you can find them cost a fortune.

Stick with Aluminuim for the diaphagram material it is better sounding than the Titainum.Titanium is spitty in the highs.

For woofers stay with Altec or JBL.Original recone parts are still available.There is no source for recone parts for RCA,Klangfilm that I am aware of.

Living Voice is making speakers( 6moons industry features: Living Voice Vox Olympian ) with newly manufactured Vitavox drivers and Woofers they might be able to supply spares.I have not got any response from them for spare Diaphagrams for my S3 drivers.



If I had the space and money I would build something like this.

TWOGOODEARS: ... again about Goto speakers from Japan: visiting my friend Toni and listening to his system

Please check your PM.

Regards
Rajiv

 

[suri]

in my quest for lifelike sound

hi mekr, sorry to intrude, but you will waste your money in your (stated) quest -

restoring vintage drivers ( and converting them to field coils) will keep you you busy (and happy) -

but your stated quest? - zilch! - will not happen

 

[Rajiv]

hi mekr, sorry to intrude, but you will waste your money in your (stated) quest -

restoring vintage drivers ( and converting them to field coils) will keep you you busy (and happy) -

but your stated quest? - zilch! - will not happen

Hi,

Shindo,Yamamoto and the others are converting vintage Altec 288 HF drivers and 515B woofers to field coil and making some fantastic speakers.
Latour

All the reviews of the Latour say that the sound from these speakers is real and lifelike.

Even the horn and cabinet are copies/slight modifications of the WESTREX 20/80 loudspeaker.

Lansing Heritage Forums

who made this? - Lansing Heritage Forums

Sridhar(Odyssey) I believe has heard the Shindo loudspeakers.It would be great if he can post his impressions.

I guess no one told Alan Sides that vintage drivers and speaker cabintes do not sound good and lifelike.

Ocean Way monitors are proof that speakers are for listening, not looking | DVICE


This is a copy of the RCA LC9A loudspeaker from 1950's.
RCA ; LC-9A pics - Lansing Heritage Forums


GC Pro -- Guitar Center Professional Division

Alan's top of the line OWA 1615q uses RCA "Ubangi" cabinets RCA radial horns all designed in the late 1940's with vintage Alnico wofers and compression drivers..His tweeter of choice is a vintage compression driver used as a direct radiator,with Radian(?)diaphagrams .

RCA Ubangi - Lansing Heritage Forums

There is a sense of effortless music that sounds startlingly real when you listen to a well set up high efficiency system.I am not blowing my own horn but almost all people who have heard my modest set up have said that they cannot believe speakers made fifty years ago can sound so good, real and "lifelike".

Once you have tasted the beauty of the "dark side" of loudspeakers it is difficult to go back to normal loudspeakers.

Dealing with stuff like 45 SETs and horns is so problematic that it is easy to understand why nobody pursuing "perfection" would want to go that route. Just think about how much easier it is to make cones-in-a-box speakers. They have wider bandwidth, smoother response, easier time alignment, matching dispersion, and are much smaller and cheaper. When listening to these perfect speakers Nothing Is Wrong. Meaning, there exists bass, mids and treble, there is no distortion no matter how loud you wish to play (within reason) and everything seems correct. The problem is, these perfect speakers fail to convey the Emotional content of the music.

The quest for "lifelike" sound using vintage drivers is long and expensive, and one may never reach the destination but the journey is worth it.


Regards
Rajiv

 

[mekr]

Rajiv ,
thanks for your kind information,actually i checked Latour by shindo,classic audio loudspeakers and OMA also, but to buy these i will have to sell my house,pricewise they are all above USD30,000 ,classic is selling T3 normal horn,s for USD15000 ,but one field coil tweeter was nearly USD 10000,so i thought if i could source these here in india and get these restored it may work out cheaper and finally i can get these built by Bill woods of www.acoustichorns.com ,he is one of...y make normal speakers other than field coils

 

[mekr]

hi mekr, sorry to intrude, but you will waste your money in your (stated) quest -

restoring vintage drivers ( and converting them to field coils) will keep you you busy (and happy) -

but your stated quest? - zilch! - will not happen

suri you must hear this speakers,then you can say whether my quest is worthwhile or not widebander are a class apart

 

[Rajiv]

Bill woods of www.acoustichorns.com ,he is one of...h the JBL2226 woofers also. Regards Rajiv

 

[suri]

suri you must hear this speakers,then you can say whether my quest is worthwhile or not widebander are a class apart

hi mekr,

absolutely no doubt that such drivers modded by masters will give the desired result -

but such (restored) drivers will cost you plenty (as you have mentioned)

just trying to say that doing this as a first time experiment is going to be difficult and may not give the desired result.

regds