Western Electric 728 B loud Speaker ... how to test ?

gorfulator

gorfulator

New Member
Ok perma noob question: Whats a good way to test this loud speaker? This might sound sacrilegious, but I have my handy dandy pyle pro 2x40 watt mini amplifier.(for my pc speakers)

It's either that or my beastly old JVC 4 channel (4vr 5456x)

Is this thing 8 ohm?

This was another score at that San Jose estate sale. Definitely the most important one too! This one was in a box!
Thanks AK community!!
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OMFG! You do understand what this is right? This is the Holy Grail of drivers. Please do not hook this to Pyle anything. Test with a digital ohm meter. Only mid range freqs should be fed into it, at less than a watt.

Angels should appear once music is flowing out of it.:D
 
Yeah I wasn't going to do anything until I knew exactly what to do! OK time to text my EE buddy..... FRED!!!
 
Son-of-Vere said:
OMFG! You do understand what this is right? This is the Holy Grail of drivers. Please do not hook this to Pyle anything. Test with a digital ohm meter. Only mid range freqs should be fed into it, at less than a watt.

Angels should appear once music is flowing out of it.:D
Click to expand...

Can you tell me (from pic 1 ) which one is the positive terminal 2 or 1
 
Terminal 1 = +. A pocket FM Radio with an earphone > alligator clips is the safest way to test it aside from a DVM. Congrats on that gem!
 
setup1 said:
I’m pretty sure 1=+, I am a long time Altec 755A user. Anyway, for testing with a DVM/multimeter, polarity isn’t that important.
Click to expand...
OK ...yeah I see another one where 1 is +...
What about the pocket fm radio trick ... is there a video of this?
 
Excellent speaker! Listening to my pair as I type.

728B is a 4 ohm speaker. Almost certainly is working fine.

That is a beefy 20W speaker and can take a lot of juice and play really loud. Just don't blow it up.with a cranked cheap transistor amp and it will last 75 more years.
 
Just noticed, I don't see any marks around the mounting holes, and the frame looks pristine as well. Possible this is NOS?

ETA: OK, I see there's solder on the terminals, so probably not NOS. Still in amazing shape, though.
 
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The gods shined down on you that day.

OH, and be careful with it, apparently it is not packed for final shipment. ;)
 
I've always admired WE machine shop quality, and their r&d.
However, there are few secrets with loudspeaker driver design, being based primarily on materials choice and "recipe" formulation to desired parameters.
 
Drugolf said:
They might be expensive, but why?
Click to expand...

Well, they don't fetch these kinds of prices based on their looks. It's supply and demand. They have to be fairly spectacular to command that kind of money. They are mid-range drivers and apparently they're real good at it, I've heard they're good with vocals.
I believe these tend to migrate over to Asia, and this may be a factor in their cost. Either way, it's a function of how bad do you want them, and apparently there's somebody out there with a fat wallet saying; "Real badly!"
 
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