Realistic Americana Open Baffle Speakers

Another idea planted in the depths of November is to start making open baffle speakers using vintage Utah, Realistic, Electro Voice, Knight and Lafayette full range, co axial and tri axial speakers.

The first one I  built was with a full range 8 inch Realistic Americana. I used a nice 3/4 inch plywood with a light mahogany veneer. These are drivers from the late 1960's into the early 70's. Made by Utah and re branded as Realistic. The frequency range is 45-18000hz with pretty high sensitivity.

The legs are from a pair of children chairs that I found at a thrift store.

I got a chance to sit back and listen last night and I liked what I heard. I had to bump the bass and treble for my taste. I found that they worked best around 2 feet from the back wall. I have read that it is best to do an open baffle with full range speakers, simplicity is the key with no crossover phase shift, or in other words coherent.

More to come later on my sound impressions, so far I prefer it to boxed speakers.

KLH Model 17 update

I managed to recap the Model 17 with some Solen metal polyester 5% caps which really help open up these speakers. I also have managed to get the majority of the cabinets back to their walnut veneer glory. Pictures of the cabinets when the job is done.

I really like these speakers and I can see the evolution from these speakers to the New Large Advents that were developed after Henry Kloss left KLH.

The bass is really full and melts into a very smooth mid range. Perfect with a single ended tube amp. I really like these speakers and can see why the Model 6 and the Model 17 have garnered internet attention.

Mid range is nice and forward which is what I like. Bass nice and solid and super tight being in a acoustic suspension box. Over time I tend to prefer acoustic suspension versus a bass reflex system. The bass may not be as low but it sure is tighter.

Update #2

The cabinets are done.

From this....

To this....

KLH Model 17 Speakers

Henry Kloss KLH Model 17's were found today, I have yet to try the KLH models.

This pair will need a bit of work as the nice walnut veneer was painted flat black.

I started to elbow grease some of the paint off, more of that later.

I did add a really thin layer of silicon around the cloth surround, to re dope them and keep the acoustic suspension intact.

More on these speakers at a later.

Vandersteen Model 1 Speakers

Another set of speakers I have been sitting on is this fantastic pair of Vandersteen Model 1 speakers.

Vandersteen speakers are well respected and still in production today.

These Model 1's use the best Vifa drivers that were in production at the time. These speakers use a 8 inch woofer to a 1 inch dome tweeter.  

 

There is a permanent sock around the speaker which hides the driver configuration, luckily this pair came with the original brochure so you can see the speaker without the sock and the specs.

The sound from the Model 1 is very polite and accurate. The bass loading gives nice solid bass for an 8 inch woofer that is clear and clean. The mid range and highs are polite without ever being harsh. Imaging is deep and wide.

These speakers remind me a lot of the Paradigm Control Monitors that I had at one time but more efficient. 

the crossover is not as complicated and therefore allows more efficient signal path to both drivers.

Given Vandersteens reputation in the Hifi world it is a pleasure to come across a set of his speakers.

Ohm Model E Speakers

This little pair of Ohm Model E arrived this week, these are the early versions of this speaker. The early ones used CTS Phenolic Ring tweeters along with a doped surround on the woofer. These are entry level Ohm speakers from the early 70's and would have cost around $150.00 in the day.

The cabinets are real wood veneer and in excellent condition.

The rear terminal plate rattled pretty good when hooked up so I opted to open these up and apply screws to better secure the plates. Since I was there a quick 8uf cap replacement was easy to do. Much to my surprise was the real lack of dampening material in the box, about a t-shirts worth.

Nice and simple first order crossover to the tweeter at 1800hz indicates that the woofer rolls off around the crossover point.

The changes to the internals made a big difference with these speakers, I like the CTS tweeter and the new cap really helps open it up, The boxy boomy sound was eliminated with the addition of ample dampening material.  The back plate rattle was also gone with this the acoustic suspension properties of the system was re established.

How do they sound: Pretty good for a simple speaker system, bass is tight but not super deep with decent output to 50hz, where these shine is the mid range and highs are really nice especially with the single ended tube amp. I am a fan of the original CTS Phenolic ring tweeter it was one of the smoothest paper cone tweeter available and widely used in the early 70's.

DCM Time Windows Delivered

These speakers went back to my friend today and he was pretty stoked on how they turned out from their original state.

The DCM Time Windows were a joy to have for the past month and they really do image well and that is what they are designed to do. One day it would be nice to try a pair of the Time Frame speakers.

ADS L300C Speakers

I picked up this pair of ADS L300C a few months back and had to wait until the right tweeter was listed on eBay to fix these wonderful little speakers.

These are built with Braun drivers and sound very similar to other Braun, Visonik, Heco and Canton speakers, in fact these are Realistic Minimus 7 and 11 killers.Super heavy for their size due to a very larg magnet in the woofer and cast aluminum enclosures.

There seems to be a bit of an internet following with these little speakers and they seem to fetch a pretty good price on eBay.

Of course the bass is pretty limited with a 5 1/4 inch woofer but the midrange and highs sparkle just as they should with Braun driver.

This pair had already been re foamed but the job could have used a but more careful attention, not the cleanest job I have seen.