Grundig Box 650B Speakers

 A rare pair of speakers to end up in Canada is this pair of Grundig Box 650B speakers. These came up locally and caught my interest. Like the A/D/S, Dual and Braun speakers that have graced my listening space in the past, these are another 3-way German speaker that has the massive mid-range dome.

 

One speaker had a small rip in the woofer cone and a pushed in dome on the mid-range. I fixed the rip and reformed the dome as best as possible.

Nice addition to the speaker experience.

August 18th update, these little beauties needed a repair to the tweeters, both were blown and these have been sitting is storage, I finally got replacement tweeters and these speakers sound phenomenal. Just like A/D/S, Braun, Visonik speakers in the pas the midrange is very open in these speakers with very good well rounded bass. These speakers are staying and match really well with a tube amplifier.

These are great speakers......

 

 

 

KLH Model 17 with Philips AD7060/M4 Full Range Drivers

 Because I can. When these KLH Model 17 speakers re-arrived in my possession I kept getting the idea to experiment with changing the drivers out.

 

 

I had scored a set of Philips AD7060 4 ohm fullrange 6 inch drivers from a thrift store a few years back and was waiting to find a home for them. I had heard great things about the Philips full range drivers and sold a similar pair of alnico versions on Ebay for a great price a while ago.

I have hooked the AD7060 to the tube amp and was impressed by the clarity and efficiency of these little 6 inch wonders, I just knew they where shy on the bass without a super large cabinet, this is where the Model 17's come in.

The Model 17's have a great tight bass from an acoustic suspension cabinet along with a fairly efficient 10" woofer that goes well into 40hz.

I opted to gut the crossover and remover the Model 17 tweeters and enlarge the hole to accommodate the AD7060 fullrange driver. I also opted not to use a crossover between the drivers as the KLH has a natural roll off around 1500hz and is a bit less efficient that the Philips. The AD7060 does not really shine until around 150-200HZ and is pretty smooth to 15,000HZ, about where the original KLH tweeter ran out of steam.

I love matching fullrange speakers with single ended tube amps, this is audio nirvana to me, you get to hear all the music. 

The changing of the tweeter to a fullrange Philips has made these speakers shine, completely opened up the sound stage, words can not convey the difference this change has made.

I know this would seem unconventional to most but I love the sound from this set up. I have been running off the four watt tube amp and wow! the sound is all there and loud enough.

 

Innovative Speaker Designs ISD Spirit 0.25 Speakers

An interesting pair of mini speakers came my way, these Innovative Speaker Designs ISD Spirit 0.25, these see to be well made, locally in Kelowna BC. 

I do not have much information on them but once I saw that they were using Vifa drivers I knew they were of pretty good quality.

The real Rosewood veneer in great shape and the speakers seem really well built with Bennic polypropylene capacitors in the crossover. 

The Vifa woofer is 4.5 inches (C11SG-05) and a Vifa D19SD tweeter.

Not exceptionally low on bass of course, these would benefit with a sub woofer crossed at 150hz. The midrange and highs is where these speakers are at.

 

 

Pretty cool little speakers and a very nice little find locally.

Electrohome Single Ended Tube Amp

 This little four watt single ended tube amp was returned to me after I donated it to a yoga studio that I trained at.

It was mostly recapped by David Yee in Vancouver and since I got it back I have done the large caps and cleaned the amp up, with a new paint job, got rid of the large capacitor can added the volume pot and on/off toggle to the top.

It really is amazing how just 4 watts can really sound! I love single ended tube amps and they seem to getting harder to find. This unit came out of an old console stereo.

I will sell this little amp so hit me up if interested.

An update:

Now complete with a nice wood case for it.

KLH Model 17 Speakers Returned

This pair of KLH Model 17 speakers made their way back to me after I donated them as part of a stereo system at a yoga studio that I trained at.

These are great vintage 10" two way speakers, I originally owned these in 2017 with the original blog postings to be found here and the recap pages found here.

Very similar the Henry Kloss Advents that I have had many experiences on this blog. 

I have them paired with an Electrohome Single Ended Tube amp that I also gave to the yoga studio.

These are a great sounding speaker and well worth searching out.

 

Marsland Canadian 1200 Full Range Speakers

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.

 

Yamaha CR-800 with Philips 22RH480 Speakers

 A kind reader wished to share his set up with me, it is a nice Yamaha CR-800 receiver matched with a pair of Philips 22RH480 speakers. A very nice set up in my opinion. I am grateful in any way that I have helped audio enthusiast pick and choose what might come available in the local used market.

Enjoy this Youtube link of his set up.