Lafayette Criterion 3X speakers

sparklow

Active Member
Considering picking up a pair of these from Craig's list. So far I have not been able to find any info online. Anyone know details of this particular Criterion model? I believe that is approx. 1970 vintage and should be in the Lafayette catalog for that year.
 
I have a pair of Criterion 4x's,orig caps and they sound awesome.Mine are from 1972,probably same time frame.
If you get them for a decent price,worth it,grab 'em.The old speakers hold up better because they either have paper,cloth,rubber surrounds no foam to rot.
good luck
 
how they look under the grills?? good price,grills look nice. These would be good with tube amp or low wattage reciever from the time era.They will give decent bass and good highs.Waiting to hear your thoughts???
 
how they look under the grills?? good price,grills look nice. These would be good with tube amp or low wattage reciever from the time era.They will give decent bass and good highs.Waiting to hear your thoughts???

These Speakers look to have led a pretty good life. Grill cloth is clean enough to use as is. Walnut veneer on the cabinets is in reasonably good shape, a few chips gone and a couple of water rings on the top of the cabinets, but no major damage. They should clean up nice. I was pleasantly surprised when I removed the grill cloth from both speakers. The drivers look to be in excellent physical shape, really impressed for nearly fifty year old speakers. As you pointed out, no foam surrounds here, treated paper cones on the woofer and squawker. The tweeter looks to be an early metal or perhaps paper dome. A heavy but original coating of black, almost tar like material, on the woofer surrounds but they are still pliable. Weight is 28 lbs. ea. and they do look to be solidly built. These drivers all match perfectly and are clearly original.

So tomorrow I will put some power to them and see what I have. I am looking forward to hearing them. They give every appearance of never having been apart so I will assume that I am going to hear the original crossovers at work. A recap may be in the near future. I also picked up a Scott 350R receiver today, forty watts/channel. If the Scott proves to run well perhaps I will use it to power these Criterion speakers.P1020785.JPG
 
They look good,and 40 watt per ch. should power those well.Some will say they are low quality,I think these Criterions are well built. I dont have a pic of my 4x's but inside is some kind of huge copper coil used in the crossover.It is about the size of a lemon?? You should also get decent bass,more than expected for their size. Good luck with those, I will never get rid of my 4x's. thanks
 
Criterions were budget speaker and, at the time they were introduced, they were very reasonable both in cost and in sound. As a high schooler, I drooled over the catalog on a regular basis. My very first system was a Lafayette 20 watt amp and a pair of 25a speakers. The speakers were similar in construction to yours, just smaller. Nice find you have there.
 
Those look fantastic! Dont be to critical at first, put some power to em and let them loosen up some.

Well they do play. All drivers are present and accounted for. Highs and mids are down from where they probably should be. I've got the pots for the mids and tweeters turned all the way up to get some highs out of them. These speakers may very well have sat unplayed for many years. They almost feel like they are "loosening up" as I play them for a few hours. A recap is in their near future!
 
I had a set of those for a couple of months on a Pioneer SX-950 and I found the low frequency response to be weak.
I recapped them, and got no improvement.

They were in heavy walnut-veneered cabinets and gave every indication of being well built.
Well finished and attractive speakers.
I hope mine were an aberration, and that you have better luck with yours.
I really wanted to like them.

Note that the veneer bondline on mine was very brittle over the entire surface.
Once a bit broke loose it wanted to peel off in sheets.
Handle them carefully, especially at the edges.
 
I had a set of those for a couple of months on a Pioneer SX-950 and I found the low frequency response to be weak.
I recapped them, and got no improvement.

They were in heavy walnut-veneered cabinets and gave every indication of being well built.
Well finished and attractive speakers.
I hope mine were an aberration, and that you have better luck with yours.
I really wanted to like them.

Note that the veneer bondline on mine was very brittle over the entire surface.
Once a bit broke loose it wanted to peel off in sheets.
Handle them carefully, especially at the edges.


Do you remember what caps you used for the recap? I'm assuming that you replaced the originals with like value replacements. Any advice for me on this recap job?
 
Hi Spark,
I am no expert.
I am just a guy willing to make mistakes and learn.
But this is what I would do.

Buy identical replacements. Nothing fancy, just basic bipolar electrolytic caps. It's an inexpensive speaker.
Parts Express is an easy place to find some of the odd-sized caps found in speakers.
Mouser will have them too.

Pull the woofer and move whatever you need to in order to access the crossover components.
Nip out the old caps one at a time with some dikes, leaving some of the lead in place.
After removing the first cap:
Bend the old lead back over itself to form a loop.
Connect the new cap in its place to the old leads thru the loop and twist/crimp things together gently.
Solder conservatively and cut away excess wire.
Done. Remove the next one. Repeat.
Should not take much more than hour.

I forget if this speaker had an L-pad.
If so, flush it out well with contact cleaner and exercise it thoroughly.

Consider making sure that the perimeters of all speakers are well sealed, especially the woofer.
 
people forget that what was available in budget bookshelf speakers back then didn't have the bass response we would expect today.

Lafayette had a large line of speakers over their lifetime as a company and stretched from very good to quite mediocre. the 3 and 4x where good for those days, comparable to the better radio shack at the time imo.
 
Hi Spark,
I am no expert.
I am just a guy willing to make mistakes and learn.
But this is what I would do.

Buy identical replacements. Nothing fancy, just basic bipolar electrolytic caps. It's an inexpensive speaker.
Parts Express is an easy place to find some of the odd-sized caps found in speakers.
Mouser will have them too.

Pull the woofer and move whatever you need to in order to access the crossover components.
Nip out the old caps one at a time with some dikes, leaving some of the lead in place.
After removing the first cap:
Bend the old lead back over itself to form a loop.
Connect the new cap in its place to the old leads thru the loop and twist/crimp things together gently.
Solder conservatively and cut away excess wire.
Done. Remove the next one. Repeat.
Should not take much more than hour.

I forget if this speaker had an L-pad.
If so, flush it out well with contact cleaner and exercise it thoroughly.

Consider making sure that the perimeters of all speakers are well sealed, especially the woofer.

Sounds like a plan. I will replace the caps like for like. I haven't pulled a woofer yet so haven't viewed the crossover. There are two pots here, one each for mids and highs, and I will be cleaning these. Currently powering these speakers with a fairly modern, and powerful, Onkyo TX-8511 receiver. I recently aquired a Scott 350R receiver, 40 watts per channel, of 70's vintage. If the cleans up well, it may be a better match and I'll probably use it to power these Criterion 3X speakers.
 
people forget that what was available in budget bookshelf speakers back then didn't have the bass response we would expect today.

Lafayette had a large line of speakers over their lifetime as a company and stretched from very good to quite mediocre. the 3 and 4x where good for those days, comparable to the better radio shack at the time imo.

I found a copy online of the 1968 Lafayette Catalog which lists the Criterion 3X. It looks like this model was one of their better, or at least more expensive models. I've been running them now for five or six hours and tweaked the settings enough so they are beginning to grow on me - they're not too bad. The build is similar I think to some of the Radio Shack offerings of the time. They were could easily have been built side by side in the same Japanese factory.
 
For their time era they are good sounding and the construction is quality,not like todays crap. Just my opinion. thanks
 
Sounds like a plan. I will replace the caps like for like. I haven't pulled a woofer yet so haven't viewed the crossover. There are two pots here, one each for mids and highs, and I will be cleaning these. Currently powering these speakers with a fairly modern, and powerful, Onkyo TX-8511 receiver. I recently aquired a Scott 350R receiver, 40 watts per channel, of 70's vintage. If the cleans up well, it may be a better match and I'll probably use it to power these Criterion 3X speakers.

Powering the Criterion 3X with my recently aquired Scott 350R which I spent the day cleaning and blowing out the pots on. Set the Scott up with the Criterions and a couple of things jump out at me. The Scott has a lot of swat for its 40 watts/channel rating, a much better tuner than my more modern receivers, and I am blown away with how fine the phono section of the Scott is, vinyl sounds excellent! Criterion 3X speakers sound better with the vintage receiver. So now I've got two keepers, the Criterions and a nice Scott 350R receiver.
 
Powering the Criterion 3X with my recently aquired Scott 350R which I spent the day cleaning and blowing out the pots on. Set the Scott up with the Criterions and a couple of things jump out at me. The Scott has a lot of swat for its 40 watts/channel rating, a much better tuner than my more modern receivers, and I am blown away with how fine the phono section of the Scott is, vinyl sounds excellent! Criterion 3X speakers sound better with the vintage receiver. So now I've got two keepers, the Criterions and a nice Scott 350R receiver.
Scott also made radios for the military in ww2: they new what the were doing and had top notch tuners. Glad you like it I love my 73 387B which was top of the line at 55wpc. It can almost keep up with my 100 wpc receiver volume wise. Then you get in to that whole mathematical formula about how much more you need to be twice as loud kind of thing. Glad you are enjoying your new gear!
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Sparklow, glad you like em.I thought you would. hey NH_MAN that is a nice reciever, i hope to find some nice ones like that.The older stuff is so much better and fixable to boot. THANK YOU
 
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