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Careful what you wish for!

mhardy6647

mhardy6647

Lunatic Member
I'll spare the details, but I had a school committee meeting this morning at 9. After it ended, I figured: might as well cruise through the dump and see if there's anything interesting. I then thought to myself: "It'd be nice to find a piece of stereo equipment today." It seems like I haven't found anything good for a while.

Careful what you wish for.

As I pull up to the "Yankee Swap" pile ("take it or leave it" pile), I see a pair of speakers. Big speakers. BIG speakers with dome tweeters and dome MR's. Not store brand three-ways with generic cones, so I gotta take a look, right?

It's a pair of Allison One's.

One woofer is trashed (the VC was on the macadam in front of the speaker). There are two per cabinet. Everything else's reasonably intact, although two of the four vacuum-formed grilles are missing chunks and unrescuable in my estimation. Cabinets are in very good condition.

Crap... into the Focus hatchback go these two behemoths. Home they come.

I am trying to get RID of stuff, and I really would've left them had they not been what they were. I even bypassed a pair of big-butt but rather generic-looking Infinitys (SM-120 or something like that) a couple of weeks ago -- guess I was stronger then. 'Course, I never cared much for the Infinity speakers I've actually heard.

No idea if any of the intact drivers on the Allisons are good. I do recall hearing the smaller Allisons years ago & thinking they sounded quite good.

But what the eff am I gonna do with these things? The dump DOES have a generous return policy.

Comments, suggestions, and support welcome!

Would anyone like to see photos?

Thanks for being here!
 
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I been searching for a pair of these for years. Think they all stayed on the east coast. Congrats !

Finally got to hear a new set of them at Mid West Audio Fest a couple of years ago. very sweet speaker.

Grumpy
 
*I wish for 2 pairs of servicable Altec Boleros! :D *
I'm off to the dump now!

---

Actually, we're not so fortunate in my area. While at one time you could indeed find some nice five-finger discounts at the local landfill, taking anything - even an otherwise perfect piece of electronics gear- from the dump is now strictly verboten. Signs are posted everywhere warning of high-fines and public health hazards.

So, you have to be fortunate enough to try and catch something before it makes its way to the great beyond. Fortunately, most speakers and what not are not placed directly in the dumpsters, but are instead placed beside them.
 
Passed up a pair in good working and aesthetic condition on Craigslist for $40 last year, didn't know better. Now I feel better to know that someone else here had sense enough to not let another pair slip by.

Would anyone like to see photos?
Click to expand...
Absolutely!

- JP
 
I need tweeters.

If you decide that they are only good for parts. I have a set of Allison 2 that need a pair of tweeters. I think the only difference between the 1 and 2 are the woofers.
 
I will post photos when I get a chance. Trying to paint the kitchen today, too!

I may not be as hopeless as I thought. Swung by one last time before they closed, en route to the grocery store. There was a fairly nice looking pair of Heathkit speakers there AS-1342's IIRC. Some sort of horn tweeter (Jensen or generic version thereof?) and a paper accordion surround woofer (not unlike the P8RS, come to think of it) in sealed vinyl-veneered boxes with 'sculpted'-style molded plastic grilles. Decided to leave them for someone else.

Hope they found a home.

The 'swap pile' is a cornerstone of tradition in small New England towns... I hope they don't go away!
 
there was one when I lived up in marblehead - unfortunately, where i live now got rid of the dump years ago. Its a housing development now :grumpy:
 
some info

IIRC when testing the mids and tweeters, if one is not working it will cause the other to not work as well. So you have to jump from one terminal to the other to complete the circuit, When I got mine the tweeters none of the tweeters played but it was only because there was one bad tweeter in each cab. As the terminals are outside the cabinet you can easily bypass one at a time without removing drivers.
 
taking anything - even an otherwise perfect piece of electronics gear- from the dump is now strictly verboten. Signs are posted everywhere warning of high-fines and public health hazards.
Click to expand...

It's a conspiracy by wal-mart! You must buy NEW stuff! You must buy NEW stuff!


City Hall here was trying to ban yard sales a couple of years ago. They were under pressure from the major retail stores, as PEOPLE MUST BUY NEW STUFF!

Fortunately, all the "reasons" for banning yard sales were obviously pretty lame, and there turned out to be a lot of pressure from the people (most of whom can't afford to buy new stuff very often), so the yard sales stayed.

We get the jokers running this town. The mayor tried to burn down her own bar, the cops are a joke (they finally did get a lot of publicity for letting people go when drunk driving if they're local big-shots), all we have to shop at is a wally world supershitcenter, and when the police chief involved in the Jonbonet Ramsey case took off, he came here, and is now OUR police chief.
 
i heard a pair of Allison I's once. smooth, big, wide and wonderful sound. hard to describe, but it's like being immersed in a sea of sound. you really should get these back to full operating condition. once you do you'll be very pleased, if you're not, i'll take them off your hands.
 
The Ramsey case investigation reads like the Warren Commission's report of the Kennedy assasination...LOTSA sickos involved in that one.
 
Mark:
I think it would be worth looking for a replacement woofer. As you already knew, and several have said, they do several things very well. Big full size sound, very smooth and uncolored. On the other hand, they need a lot more power and damping than I have in my main rig if they are to be dynamic and tight, and you need to be able to get some distance away from them -- since they go up against the wall you can get farther away in a small room than you can with other speakers, but I think they need a big room -- and even far away you don't get the sort of image specificity that is possible with single tweeter systems.
On the otherhand, you can always part them out -- tweeters are always needed because they get poked in, and though midranges don't get poked in as much, I suspect that more than one has had its magnet fall off (its a huge magnet and a good shock can dislodge it (the tolerances are tight enough that is possible to simply replace it and glue and have it work with no alignment, but not everyone knows this or wants to try). And the grills are unobtanium.
If you part them out, don't just chuck the boxes either. At worst I'll take them since my pair is very sad looking.
You do have amazing dump luck. Congrats.
 
INterestingly, Allison Acoustics is (back) in business and they're building this speaker (or something very like it) again. They list replacement parts but a quick perusal of the site didn't make clear whether they're for the new, the old, or both!
http://www.allisonacoustics.com/one.html
one_r2_c1.gif

(obviously those aren't the ones I just found!)

I am up to my elbows in painting paraphernalia today! My wife is birding in
Belize at the moment :-) so I undertook painting the kitchen to keep me out of trouble in her absence. I shoulda just looked for trouble!

Just grabbed some dinner and the keyboard!

cheers, Nat!

Now I just gotta find a pair of ESL-57's.
 
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There seems to be a lot of discussion over at AA over whether the new Allison has gone under -- apparently the phone isn't answered for weeks at a time etc. The speaker business is a tough one, even if you have a first rate product.
Particularly if there aren't going to be anymore Allisons, I hope you will be able to restore yours rather than part them out, even if you don't end up keeping them yourself.
 
Well, the kitchen's finished :-) Finally time to play!

Here's a really bad photo of the fully intact Allison One. The flash on this Panasonic digital is really wimpy... it has a nice long zoom lens and an image stabilizer, though, so it IS pretty good outside or in bright indoor light.

My son and his nice little Nikon digital are on a church mission trip in Applachia...

EDIT: The fully intact one works perfectly! Goodness, it sounds very goot, too ...warm; reminds me of the AR-3 but with much more 'air' around the treble. Listening to Patty Larkin as I type this. The Yamaha CA-610II seems to be doing OK with it. Indeed, it's playing a bit louder than the Polk 7A on the other channel. Is the Allison 4 ohm?

The MR's and tweeters are working fine on the other speaker. The intact woofer is NOT woofing... are the woofers connected in series, as an earlier post said that the tweeters are. (I can hope, right?)
 
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NOW it's like "The Old Man and the Sea"

So... I am listening to the 'good' Allison One (Jennifer Warnes). I have the 'bad' one turned backwards to protect it as best I can from the inquisitive cats. I am mostly worried about the (one) woofer, as the MR and tweeters are up so high. I hear a funny, pulling sound. I turn around, and Zappa the cat has grabbed one of the leads to the MR (built sort of like the old AR MR's, with exposed leads) and pulled that sucker off. NOT off its binding post (which would've been a minor problem), but pulled it off the dome! The little rivet-looking deal to which served to anhor the VC strand and connect it to the MR's input wire is no longer connected to the VC!

Crummy motherf***er! :-( Zappa the cat, that is.

Think there is any chance I can reattach the VC wire (fine as it is)?

EDIT: allisonacoustics.com (if they are still in business) lists the MR for $80, and the woofer for $128. Youch. Hope I don't need two woofers.
 
You can reattach leads (someone soldered them to begin with, so they can be resoldered), but its challenging. I have had the experience several times of the lead retreating - you clean the varnish insulation off, and get all set to solder. The joint doesn't form, so you clean a little more off, etc.
I'd try very hard to make it bond properly the first time, including a bit of extra rosin.
 
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