Today a super rare pair of 12" full range speakers were listed on a local classified site. These Marsland Canadian 1200 speakers.
I did a Google search on Marsland speakers and the only vintage ones that populate are the Imperial 1200 speakers,with a bell dome cover on the magnet.
Without a doubt, these Marsland speakers that were made in Waterloo Ontario, same place as some of my vintage Electrohome gear, are built to a quality standard that is rarely seen.
These have a huge cast basket with what I think is an Alnico magnet behind the magnet cover, I say this because if it was a ferrite magnet it would not sport the cover. The cover for the magnet seems machine made and precisely fitted.
I managed a small audition just propped up against the Audio Nirvana Baffles and was blown away by how great they sound. I feel these are best suited to a Single Ended Tube amp, as my push/pull sound flat with them.
I do not know much about Marsland and these speakers in particular as there is not much information out there on them. If you come across this post and have some knowledge, shoot me a message.
I will have to make special baffles for these as the basket profile does not fit the test baffles I have.
my 70 yr old friend said his father used to work at marsland in waterloo ontario. I saw a pair of speakers on a shelf not hooked up to anything and i asked if they were anything good and he told me what they were. I never even met his father so that would have been many decades ago. I believe he ended his working years as an architect so we're probably talking way back in the 60-70's .
ReplyDeleteMarsland was indeed in Waterloo. I bought a pair of 1200s about a three years ago that had one mid blown. I found an original replacement in the local Marketplace, replaced it and voilá...original sound. These speakers sound very, very clean. I mostly own Tannoy (12 pairs of different eras and sizes) and the Marslands are comparable in clarity if not in efficiency. Another interesting note is that the mids are sealed at the back with a metal cover, I believe to prevent interference from the woofer energy.
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