cone tweeters

rodman101

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I just listened to a friends Bose 201 system at length, 1st release I assume from pics I've seen. He said they were in the garage of a house he just purchased and the drivers were blown. He sourced the replacement woofer from a parts express special for $5.88 eacch and his brother gave him cone tweeters that had McIntosh stickers on the back. He said there was a coil and cap inside. There are foam corners that were gone but he is a physical therapist and he used some pads for forearm use??, blue in color but they look the part, guess... He has it hooked up to a Advent 300 receiver his dad gave him. OMG!!! what an incredibly musical system. Obviously not banging down the walls but it sounds phenomenal!! the room is probably 8' X 12', an alcove off the garage. He screwed 1 X 4" board into the plastic box and then screwed that to the interior plywood sheathing about 10" away from the corners 5' high so they clear a tool board. What gives??, the low end is how it should be albeit "smallish" but those cone tweeters are so detailed, delicate, and precise. Did we all miss something with the cones or maybe is it just physics and chance??
 
What kind of magnet structure did the tweeters have? Slim, disc-like ceramic ones or alnico ones with tall magnet structures?

There WERE some amazing cone-style tweeters back in the tube era. RCA made awesome ones, and Bozak is famous for it's aluminum-cone tweeters. Jensen made the P35-VAH, which I LOVE, and of course there's the Wharfedale Super 3 in my avatar (Not your average cone-tweeter). All have the type of sound you describe. There were some incredible cone-tweeters and cone-type drivers back in the '50's and '60's. The Super 3 was introduced in 1955, and RCA made it's best stuff around the same point in time. Lots of factors though. The Super 3 is sportin' a very-large alnico magnet (4lb magnet structure) and a heavy-duty cast-frame chassis.

Actually, using McIntosh tweeters in place of Bose ones makes a hell of a lot of sense. Both brands made speakers that used extensive external equalization. Smart if you ask me, although it sounds like he could really step things up with the right woofers (like botrytis said). But McIntosh and Bose have more in common with each other than any other brand when it comes to speakers.
 
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You don't mean the old alnico Peerless MT-225 cone-tweeters, do you? They were used in A LOT of McIntosh speakers and had McIntosh branded on them.
mc005top.jpg
mc005back.jpg


Good tweeter actually (Peerless was in Denmark). If you like that, check out the old Wharfedale Super 3 (My personal favorite).
wharfedale-super-3-hifi-tweeters-drivers-1.jpg
 
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cone tweeters can sound great and those Peerless were lovely and used in many 70's speakers.

but for better dispersion they were usually used in arrays.
 
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