Mystery? Fulton FMI-220 Speakers.

coolerthan

New Member
I've got a pair of speakers that I purchased in a lot of vintage stuff about a year ago. I pushed them into a corner of my warehouse and hadn't thought of them again until yesterday. The Fulton labels are FMI-120's, but the "120" has been inked over with a marker and "220" has been stamped below it. It's difficult to find much info on Fulton's anyway, but I can't find anything pertaining to a Fulton 220. Could these be prototypes?

I'll try to dig them out enough this afternoon to get some good pics. Also included in the lot are some FMI-80's. On a side note, I also have a pair of Rohrer Acoustic Design 2902-R Monitors that I can't find any info on. Anyone ever heard of them? They were out of San Francisco.

Thanks for any and all replies.

Brian
 
I am sending this post to one of Mr. Fulton's key employees, his assistant of yesteryear, and if he cares to respond, he will.

I was a Fulton REP, 1979-1988 and never heard of a 220, but the people I know from the Factory in Minneapolis, are truly the ones to respond.

IF ( a big word) the tweeters on the FMI 80s are not all dried out, they are lovely bookshelves, particularly on a good tube amp, IF such a thing exists.

Jeff Medwin
 
Thanks Jeff!

I had assumed that they were both marked the same, but it turns out that the 2nd one is marked 288-E (while also having the original model # inked over). These, my FMI-80s, and my Rohrer's all have had heavy duty terminals added, so maybe these were all just owner modded as opposed to Fulton's work. Here's a few pics.

 
WOW, That is a cool-to-see eyeful.

I recognize many era-correct parts, maybe 90% of it, and some "odd" ones too, such as the binding posts, never FMI used.

ITS A PROTOTYPE, ROBERT WAS VERY INVENTIVE !!

I will send this to several of my FMI user-friends, from that era, Jack, Bob, Tom, and Brian, and lets have them give it a look.

Jeff
 
(Thanks Jeff for referring me to this) I wasn't a Fulton employee, but let me go out on a limb and guess on these. They could be prototypes for what later became the E-woofer. The Es were smaller "sub" woofers than the J Modular, but intended to work with the 80s on top (or the 60s) in a similar manner to the Js. The fact that you also got a pair of 80s in the mix further indicates that these are early Es with their companion 80s. I can't quite reverse engineer the crossovers from the images but the crossover would probably have comprised a high-pass (low-cut) filter for the 80s. The 80s probably connect to the upper terminals and the amp goes into the lower terminals. As Jeff said, the blue/black wiring and terminals must have been later mods made by a user.

If you will measure the cabinet dimensions I will compare those to the E woofer specs.
 
The 2409 is a 12-inch Alnico driver made by RTR. It was used in the E Woofer and in the larger J Modular in its slot-loaded, downward, firing position. Good driver.

I will check the E Woofer dimension specs later when I get home.
 
Here is the E system and E subwoofer brochure page. The dimensions are pretty close. I'd say you have a very early E or prototype E. The 80 should rest on its side on top of the woofer.
 

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Brian has started a FMI ( Fulton Musical Industries ) website. He has not had the time to finish it, and its unknown if he will. Thats OK.

But , if you want to learn a bit about what Robert Fulton, ( a man that those of us who knew him - greatly respected, on many levels ), and what we were doing with audio, in the late 70's and 1980s, have FUN - take a look:

http://fultonmusicalindustries.com/biography.html

http://fultonmusicalindustries.com/

ENJOY !!

On that above crossover internal photograph, it casually looks to "me" like Mr. Fulton used three electrolytics ( upper right ) for the woofer's capacitor / "C", and a SLEW of paralleled film caps ( upper left ), as the main "C" to roll in the upper ( midrange and high frequency ) speaker, for its 82 HZ on up crossover. The four large brown / black coils ( car starter coils ) are about 1.5 mHY each as I recall, and he likely has the four in series.

Jeff
 
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No "137" on the baskets as far as I can see, Copper Wizard.

Thanks Brian for the brochure page, and Jeff for the link to Brian's website. Mr. Fulton was certainly an amazing man.

I have a small business seeking out interesting items to resell, so will be listing these speakers soon. I would guess that the modifications of the terminals may have lowered the collector value of these a little. Any thoughts on what would be a fair price for the "probably" E's and the FMI-80's? (one of the 80's is missing it's grill).

I still haven't been able to come up with any info on the Rohrer Acoustic Design 2902-R Monitors. I'm going to try and find time this weekend to dig them out, clean them up and give them a listen. I like the fact that they seem to be rare, but that may also mean that the company didn't build them well enough to stay in business long. We shall see.
 
E woofers are so uncommon that their isn't an established market price. The 80s aren't really common either but you do see them go for $150 to $280 a pair, depending on condition, of course. A nice looking pair went for $260 on eBay recently and there were no pictures of the guts. Factors for buyers: How are the cabinets? Do all four tweeters work? Are the tweeters' center domes dented in? Are the cloth woofer surrounds very dried out and stiff, or still tacky? One missing grill will ding the value somewhat.

On the Rohrers, I'm reminded of a saying: "Rare" doesn't necessarily mean "valuable".
 
Coolerthan,

I happened to see your listing for these on eBay. I note, just for interest, that your FMI-80s' tweeters are NOT the original Peerless Alnico MT-225s. If you had a chance to audition these, then I'm afraid to say that you're not hearing the magic that came from the original Alnico MT-225s, which, alas, are fragile. Someone probably drove an amp into clipping into your 80's and the resulting spray of harmonics roasted the tweeters. The replacements appear to be later Peerless CT62 units, which might be OK, but they're not MT-225s. When the Alnico supply dried up in the 80s due to cobalt shortages, Peerless did make a ceramic version of the MT-225 tweeter, and Fulton was forced to use these in the Premiers and other later speakers. But the CT62 was even later still. Sadly MT-225s are all but unobtainable in decent condition

Peerless CT62.jpg .
 
I note that an eBay seller in Switzerland has two NOS pairs listed, at $200 for each pair. This might be the same outfit as suggested by "Fitero". I think a cheaper strategy might be to buy complete speakers having these drivers and harvest them. I have bought 80s before in the $150-a-pair range with four good tweeters. RTR, KLH, McIntosh, Sonab and a few others used the MT-225. I bought RTRs for dirt cheap having the same driver complement as the 80 - but in a notably different configuration and not nearly as good sounding.
 
PS: One of the two pairs listed on eBay (in the brown boxes) appears to actually be the larger MT-250, and it is mislabeled. Buyer beware!
 
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