Braun L200 Speakers

Another local score in the last month was a pair of Braun L200 speakers. As you may know I am a big fan of these German speakers and the drivers they use. They can be found in A/D/S, Visonik, Grundig, Canton, and Heco to name a few.

 

 

 

 

 This pair came in the usual, needs new foam condition and the speaker leads had failed at the solder point, which I have experienced before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I opted to get rubber surrounds instead of the foam ones for longevity. 

I have these currently set up running off my little Fosi Class D amp and they sound wonderful. These make great near field monitors with just enough bass from the 5" woofers. I do note that they are not as efficient as the Canton HC100's but they have better bass extension than the Canton's.

This is a super wonderful little speaker with a great big sound stage and silky smooth treble as with all Braun speakers. 

 

Roberts S-911 Air Stream Speakers

 I came across a cool pair of Roberts S-911 Air Stream System speakers this week for a great price. There is little information on the internet on these speakers but a lot of information on the equivalent Akai SW-30 speakers. When you Google these the only pair that come up is a pair that was for sale on Canuck Audio Mart.

These look really cheap but they are a brilliant back horn loaded design or labyrinth designed speakers with a Foster FE-103 or equivalent hi sensitivity 4" full range driver.

   

 

 

When I opened these speakers up they had a 4" Roberts clone of the Foster FE-103 speaker inside the box. They look like they have a inexpensive cabinet which they kinda do, but there in not a lot resonance from a 4 inch driver to colour the sound with the cabinets.

There is a current day following of Foster FE-104 speakers that used a Horn Loaded design to produce sufficient bass, not window shaking bass but bass you can hear down to about 50Hz.

 

 The original Akai Sw-30 speakers are the exact same as the Roberts which tells me they are from the same factories in Japan.In fact searching for Roberts speakers comes up with plenty of models that look like Akai equivalent. 

 

 

The frequency response: 50 - 17'000 Hz and the efficiency: 95 dB / W / 0.5 m which would be about 92 dB at 1 meter. these are currently hooked up to a Fosi class D amp and would also sound great on a single ended tube amp.

Bass is surprisingly good in a close monitor space, midrange is also great and the highs might not be as crisp as a speaker with dome tweeters but it good to my ears. These speakers will fill a small room with great sound but would get lost in a big room.

I was really impressed with how efficient these are and how big the sound is in a small space. 

 

 

Canton HC100 Speakers

 I have not posted for some time now and I have been collecting up a few decent speakers as of late, and this pair of Canton HC100 is a cool pair of car speakers that were meant to be on the back dash of a car.

 

 

 

These speakers are in the same lineage as Grundig, Braun and A/D/S that have the same drivers with there wonderful tweeters. This pair came to me pretty dirty and it took a bit of cleaner to make them look better, also the cabinets are a little rough around the edges. The drivers are in great working order.

They are a wedge design cabinet with a 4 inch woofer and 3/4 inch tweeter, did I mention how good they sound?

In my camper/mobile office running a little Fosi Class D Bluetooth amplifier they sound great, almost takes me back to my man cave stereo days in my earlier times.

These speakers are just fabulous for their size and the space I have them in. Simply amazing!!

 

 

 

 The above picture is how they are set up in my mobile/camper office.

Vintage Procom PR-400 Receiver

 My blog has been very quite as of late as I have not really found to much cool gear worth bringing home, most of the time it is the black plastic stuff that is everywhere on the market.

I did come across this super cool Procom PR-400 which is a Rotel SX-200 made between 1970-1972. These are made in Japan for Charles W. Pointon, most likely an OE brand under their own name. From my internet sleuthing Charles Pointon brought in Gerrard turntables into Canada.

This little monster in rated at 10WPC so nothing to upset the neighbours, and I like the low powered type amps.

It has a Sherwood/Marantz look to it and build quality, made in Japan. 

The bulbs are burnt out, the pots needed cleaning and the nice wood veneer case needs a bit of a redo with sand paper and a wood stain.

Not much information on the Procom series but lots if you Google Rotel from this era. I look forward to getting to listen to this at some point.

A/D/S B8 Monitor Speakers

Locally, this pair of A/D/S B8 Monitors was listed and the price came down to a level that I like to buy really good speakers at.

This pair is in exceptional condition, with an eight inch woofer and the famous Braun dome tweeters. These are similar to a pair of A/D/S L520's from the late 70's early 80s' only slightly smaller in the cabinet size, I would probably say they are the modern equivalent of the Braun L500. I have had a pair of the A/D/S in the past including the L420's and the smaller L300C.

 

 

These A/D/S Monitors are super smooth as expected with nice rich bass tones and very open it the mids and highs, of course I am running this on a 4 watt tube amp and the sound is fantastic. These really remind me of a pair of NAD Model 20's I had many years back, very similar sound.

I did come across a pair of A/D/S L8E Monitors many years back and one tweeter was shot so I ended up parting the other tweeter out and saving the woofers, I am happy to come across this pair of similar speakers.

These are amazing 8 inch two way speakers and I think they may be sticking around for awhile.

Speakerholic, Google Ads and Seva Canada

There has been a slight change in the looks of my blog as Google has threatened me with de-monetization of my blog without pointing out what I was doing that was in violation of their policies.

 

In reality, I use Google Ads with their preferred layout in the back end of blogspot, the crazy thing is this ad revenue amounts to about $100.00/year or $0.30/day. Somewhere, someone has decided that I am in violation of something without pointing out what this is. It is kinda like someone telling you that you broke the law and they do not cite which law it is.

All I can think is it cost Google more money to flag my blog than I will ever get paid, I guess some new intern or employee needs to meet a quota of violations and my blog just happens to be one that day.

The $100/year this blog generated went to my favourite charity Seva Canada, where they can do cataract operations in Nepal for $50.00 per eye, and over 90% of the funds are used on the ground.

 I have added a link in this post and in the column on the top right if you feel inclined to help out the less fortunate.

I thank everyone for their support of this blog and the emails I get in regards to your own personal HiFi journey's.

BTW I never really did like the Google ads on my blog and I think it looks cooler now that they are off the site, so I thank you Google for whatever your notice was about, this site is too cool for your ads.

If you do make a donation, let me know in the comment section.

 

Akai SW-7ii Speakers

 Another super cool speaker presented itself to me yesterday, the Akai SW7-ii speakers. These little gems from 1980 are super rare to find and pack a huge punch, they are great for tube amps as near field monitors.

Rated at 92db at 1 watt, they work exceptionally well with a single ended tube amp, which I am running them with. These speakers measure 9 inches high and about 5.75 inches wide and 5 inches deep with a 4.5 inch woofer and 1 inch dome tweeter, they do not do bass very deep but they are smooth throughout the mids and highs.

The white cone looks like the same as a Yamaha NS-10 where they cut a flat white paper cone curl and glue the edge together. I have had other Akai speakers that use Foster drivers, but I am not sure if these are Foster drivers.

They have a super cool look to them with the wire mesh and silver ring and they are mirror imaged, something that you do not see much in such a small speaker. I opened them up and added more insulation and the woofers have huge magnets.

 

There is little information on these on the internet and from what I see on the market the still command a decent premium and for good reason. The midrange vocals are crystal clear and they are super efficient so you get to hear everything.

Akai does not get very much acclaim in the vintage audio world and I have had a few of their products grace my blog, these speakers I think will be around for a bit in my collection, I really like what I am hearing from these Mini Speakers that pack a huge punch.

Super sweet little speakers.......

Sept, 7th.....A little update, I have been running these little speakers in a near field setting with a Single Ended tube amp and these speakers disappear, the sound stage is phenomenal, not deep on the bass but they are super smooth in the mids and highs. These are incredible little high efficiency speakers, I would love to match them with a sub woofer.