Rogers Studio 1: My CL High Power Project Begins

Harpua

New Member
Of all the crap and goodies I have purchased on craigslist this year, by far the Rogers Studio 1 is the best find. And I must note that dealing with vintage audio on Dallas CL has been a treat, lots of cool people.

tl;dr - 'i nee help' bullet points
1. One cone (serial number B) is black, the other (serial number A) is white - what gives?
2. When I look online it's a friendly 100-300w recommendation, on the speaker it has a firm 300w. Is there specific things that can go wrong with Rogers when powered below 300w?
3. I don't have an amp to power these and I don't have a bankroll to hit 300wpc without vintage digging, which I love - where do I start, what do I stay away from?
4. http://www.markhennessy.co.uk/ - this site is great

We all love positive CL stories -
They were listed at $580, so I asked some questions and got a basic history of the speakers (original owners moved to Dallas from the UK) but not much else. The broker didn't know much about speakers but knew the average google price. Nice chat, not much else til a week later.

I email and ask how it's going. "Haven't sold." Ok, anyone asking? "Not really." More conversation and I end up telling him about the kind of speaker (studio monitor vs home theater stuff), how good they can sound, why they're collectible, a little bit about British sound, the Beatles of course. Another nice chat, I leave my phone number, nothing more until two days later.

I get a text, "Are you still interested, if you make an offer we can probably figure out a deal." Sure. I offered more than I could afford at the moment, what I feel was a lowball $300. I also mention I couldn't afford that at the moment, would have to be next week...ish. Five minutes later, "If you have $200 cash they are yours." Well, geeze.

Thirty minutes later I'm back home and was shocked to see one black cone and one white cone. I doubt the seller bothered to pull both grills off, the one he removed had the white cone - didn't occur to me to ask and I imagine he would have said something. All the pictures I had seen were either both black or both white. I re-check the serials, matching pair - hrmm. Black one seems "newer", white one is in excellent shape but shows a bit more dust. Interesting, if not slightly suspicious - perhaps the reason the price.

So, I plug them into a 160wpc old Crown (half recommended program power) and pop in Pink Flow Wish You Were Here and - WHOA! - Holy smokes, the potential of these is incredible! Needless to say they are great speakers, well worth my low checking account and every bit of me knows I will have these for a long time.

For now, they are going to decorate the front room. I'll need to spend some time and find an amp that will complement these sweet British ladies. I'm extremely pleased to start a high power system with these and I can't wait for the end product. I'll make sure to bump this thread whenever I get a new piece for these.

Everyone loves pictures -
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The White
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The Black
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Dalesford made the white oem polypropylene woofer for Rogers.
The black woofer could be an Audax or Seas driver.
 
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Dalesford made the white oem polypropylene woofer for Rogers.
The black woofer could be an Audax or Seas driver.

IIRC, Dalesford probably made the black bextrene driver as a private label for Rogers, key would be a stamped black painted frame. The Studio 1 was an evolutionary design based off of the Rogers LS3/6 which was an offshoot of requirements for a medium sized BBC monitor. The Spendor BC1 was very similar. The LS3/6 sounded great but was very power limited due to the early technology of voice coil and bextrene cones at the time (mid 70's) for larger woofers, 8 inches or larger. The LS3/6 morphed into the Rogers Monitor, Monitor 2, Domestic Monitor, Export Monitor, then the Studio 1. While Audax did make lots of bextrene drivers, I'm not aware any of them were used in the Studio 1. They were used in other Rogers models though.

The white cone version is likely to be a later Rogers polypropylene driver using a cast frame with Rogers name cast into the frame - that was from tooling they got from Chartwell when they took them over in bankruptcy - Chartwell was building their own polypropylene woofers working from the research done by Dudley Harwood of the BBC and subsequently Harbeth speakers. The later polypropylene Rogers driver will have a Rogers sticker on the magnet back and some cryptic serial number / model number info. Those woofers were used for the later Rogers Studio 1a which is a two way speaker. It may be the only available close match at the time if the original woofer was blown or damaged - happens.
 
Harpua - Welcome to AK, the new version!! If you have a chance, pull the woofers and shoot some pics of the backs and labels for us. Also, pop a couple of pictures of the crossovers - they use some non-polarized electrolytic capacitors which are well past their working life. Same goes for the resistors, especially if there's evidence a driver was blown or replaced. Contact Falcon Acoustics in the UK for a recap kit of new similar capacitors and replacement resistors, and then recap them - that would restore the crossover to like new working condition.

As for power - the power rating specification is the maximum music source power the speakers can handle. You can certainly run them on 60-160W power amps with no problem as long as you're not pushing the amp into high power clipping - running them at higher levels than they can give. The speakers are relatively inefficient - about 86db/watt, that's why they thrive with more power - but they can certainly sound pretty good on less. Just be sure the power is very clean, stable, and well behaved - replacement parts are somewhat rare, and not inexpensive.
 
They are certainly both a Studio 1, paired serial numbers and all. Also, the 1a is a two way I believe.

Correct, the Studio 1a is a two way using a clear polypropylene coned woofer in a similar sized 2 cu ft. vented cabinet, and a Celestion sourced tweeter, see pics below. Your speakers are definitely a Studio 1 pair. JimPA may be suggesting you have 1 Studio 1 woofer and a Studio 1a woofer. However, the poly woofer looks a little too opaque. When you get a chance to pull the woofer for pics, all will be revealed.

studio1a_1.jpg
studio1a_3.jpg
 
We'll probably never know as the OP last posted/activity on AK was about 1 month after he started this thread, so he's been gone since 2015 Oct.
 
Interesting that the ebay auction cited shows only one woofer and its polypropylene. Wonder what the other one that conveniently is not shown is - Bextrene or not? This is a UK auction, and our OP was in Dallas Texas, and of course, the serial numbers are different. But it does bring up the question as to whether Rogers supplied polypropylene replacement drivers for any original Bextrene Studio 1 drivers that failed (I believe they were made by Dalesford for the most part. I don't have any recollection of any Rogers cast frame drivers that used Bextrene).

The weird thing is that the ebay seller has for some reason inserted product information for the LS5/8 which is wholly and completely a different animal altogether.
 
Yes, I wondered why he did not show the other bass drive unit. The bass unit in the Rogers Studio Monitor (LS3/6) has a cast chassis and a Bextrene cone, I thought that was made by Richard Allan.

http://www.worksofdesign.com/rogers-ls36-bbc-studio-monitor-speakers-c-1968/

I was not aware that RA had done any outside work, but the drivers do have a resemblance. Is RA still in business? At one time I had heard they obtained a license to build LS3/5a's and a few mock ups or prototypes appeared as did an announcement but I don't recall ever seeing or hearing of any in the wild.
 
That pair of Studio 1's went fairy cheap, weren't far from me either!
My friend has a pair of 8" RA drivers that have cast chassis and Bextrenne cones, they do look very much like LS3/6 bass units. He uses them in his Export Monitors. Not sure if RA still exist. I suspect not.
 
I have two pairs of these and they have been my speaker of choice since the 1980s. I’ve tried a few newer speakers since then and these wipe the floor with them. I’m wondering if I should look into restoring the crossovers—is it a good idea? Ive heard stories about folks who replace crossover caps with new and get a totally different sound picture. Incidentally, my two amps are triode-based; both put out about 8 watts (push-pull 2A3s and single 300bs) The Studio 1s play plenty loud with getting anywhere near amplifier clipping. The whole wattage thing doesn’t really apply to music—it’s only relevant to home theater with all its loud crashes and bangs and deep synthesized bass notes.
 
I might also recommend staying away from the Studio 1Bs. The two-way design sounds nothing like the Studio 1; it’s a very weak sister. It’s actually not a bad speaker, but don’t pay much for it.
 
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