What to put in these Aristocrat cabs?

I just acquired a pair of perfect mahogany EV Aristocrat cabs. One came with a single SP12B and no tweet. The other came with a no-name fullrange that I think is just junk. I was going to sell the cabs as is, but thought I might try some matching drivers in them. I have no experience with loading a pair with the correct parts. The last pair I had were rough, so I sold the SP12s, T25, T35 and crossovers.
Also shown below is a front shot of a Soundcraftsmen Lancer speaker. The drivers are coaxial and a passive in a sealed cabinet. This was the first thing that occurred to be as possibly working in these cabs. I liked the sound of the drivers in the Soundcraftsmen cabinets as is. I'm sure they'll fit physically. What I'm not sure of is the physical characteristics of the woofer. I know that the parameters for sealed cabinets, ported cabinets and horn cabinets are different, and mis-loading a woofer results in poor response.
That said, I have had certain woofers in a variety of different cabinets. For example the JBL D130. I have a few of those around and I've seen them in medium sized cabs with huge ports or in large horn cabs, so there must be some 'overlap' in the allowable loading. If only a pair of those would fit - actually, looking at the parts I think I could get them in there-. I have 075 tweeters and N2400 crossovers sitting around as well. That would rock, but might be the wrong loading and would require making new baffle boards.
Anybody have personal experience with these?
One solution that occurred t ome was to hunt another SP12B, which shouldn't be too hard, and a couple of horn tweeters of the K77/T35 type and lash up a simple LC crossover.
I also have some EV Wolverine LS12 'fullranges' that could be pressed into service, byt again I think I'd want a 'real' tweeter in there. Maybe a couple of reasonably sensitive conventional cone tweeters in parallel would give adequate output with the LS12's. I dunno.
Soliciting comments.

Aristocrats are a corner horn design, apparently licensed from Klipsch.

Your Lancers are a ported cabinet, with the PR substituting for a port. They may work closed-box, depending upon their EBP, but I doubt they're suitable for horns.

From my recent experience with the smaller Baronet version of that design, D130/077 will likely work well. A horn is one way to get decent bass out of D130, extrapolating from early JBL alignments.

An unrealizd virtue of the Aristocrat may be its versatility. I'm using the Baronets closed-box right now. They could also become vented for other drivers, and used with or without corner boundary reinforcement.

Check into how easily the baffle may be replaced. You probably have a wealth of options available with those cabs.... :thmbsp:

Note: I would NOT use multiple tweeters, ever. Compression driver two-ways would be in my Aristocrats in a Detroit minute, if I had a pair (which I may, soon....)

If you use the SP12s with T35s, here's the crossover. EV factory specs:

Thanks for the benefit of your experience. That's teh response I was hoping for. I'm looking for a cost effective drivers set that's still age appropriate for these cabs. The D130/075 would work, but I have C38 and C36 JBL cabs for those and that's 'more correct' for those drivers historically. I think I'm going to end up with a SP12B in each and I don't know what yet for a tweeter horn. maybe T35s, but they're getting costly. I don't want to put more into them than they'll be worth.
The Aristo cabs are roughly the same volume as the Lancers. The PR acts as a 'damped port'. I wonder if stuffing the cabinet back outlet of teh Aristos could result in an appropriate loading for the University coax drivers from the Lancers. I might try it if the Lancer drivers fit the original Aristo baffle boards without too much modification. I don't want to waste a half a day in sweaty, dusty woodwork to try something that might be a bust.
In the meantime I just brought in an interesting 1960 pair of speakers from Kowloon with Wharfedale drivers. See that thread if you're curious.
I think I also have a pair of JBL woofers from L65s, but those are ported cabs as well.

Zilch said:

Aristocrats are a corner horn design, apparently licensed from Klipsch.

Your Lancers are a ported cabinet, with the PR substituting for a port. They may work closed-box, depending upon their EBP, but I doubt they're suitable for horns.

From my recent experience with the smaller Baronet version of that design, D130/077 will likely work well. A horn is one way to get decent bass out of D130, extrapolating from early JBL alignments.

An unrealizd virtue of the Aristocrat may be its versatility. I'm using the Baronets closed-box right now. They could also become vented for other drivers, and used with or without corner boundary reinforcement.

Check into how easily the baffle may be replaced. You probably have a wealth of options available with those cabs.... :thmbsp:

Note: I would NOT use multiple tweeters, ever. Compression driver two-ways would be in my Aristocrats in a Detroit minute, if I had a pair (which I may, soon....)

Click to expand...

Well, I did it anyway. The University coaxial more or less dropped right in. I installed the tweeter pot as well in one of the stock Aristocrat pot holes. The bass is huge in these. A little loose at first, but I 'loaded' the back slot from the outside with a couple of handfulls of speaker stuffing and moved them back against the rear boundary. They're not technically in a corner, they're up against a doorwall and an Altec 19. I ran test signals through them and I get more or less flat sounding response down to 50, falling off some at 40 and basically gone (unloaded) at 30. A proper corner to sit against would definitely boost the 40 hz response, but the corners in this room are 36 feet apart.. That's better performance than I expected. I'll listen to this one for a while before 'converting' the other one.

I can't imagine closing the back will help the situation, but it's worth a try, even with just some cardboard cut to size and taped on there temporarily to measure.... :yes:

The University driver works and goes plenty low in here, but I want a more correct original driver complement. Since I have one SP12B I think I'll buy another and go that way. For a 2-way system, wha tare the horn options? I think it would not be economically effective to hunt T35s and T25/8HB horns. The T10 wit ha 2-way crossover?

Whatever the cutouts were designed for, if you want "correct."

Others here are more familiar with vintage EV loads, and can better advise.

I don't consider T-35s expensive. Asking around, you can likely acquire a pair very reasonably.

We have different perspectives. To me, they are beautiful vintage boxes begging to be updated with contemporary drivers for optimum performance. They have replaceable baffles to facilitate that.

If I want vintage sound, I just hook up the Eico tube amp.... :yes:

These horns would work... even the EV crossover I gave, should work with them (recommend same crossover point):

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=290-532

OR:

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=290-534

IMHO, I like the second one better, but either should be able to be made to sound good...

Regards,
Gordon.

Here's my measurements on T-35B versus the Crites tweeter, which is Eminence APT-50 on a custom T-35 style horn, a pair of each:

http://audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=154794&postcount=254

Crites might be a good choice for the T-35 cutout, same dimensions. You can have the correct appearance, but with a decent tweeter. :yes:

And here's the APT-80 Gordon linked (violet):

http://audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=158994&highlight=APT-80#post158994

[PM me for more info on Crites, if interested....]

Yup. I knew this was the right place to ask. That's excellent information. Thanks very much for that.
Now, would you run the APT-80 as low as the 2khz indicated rolloff? If so, tha twould make a tidy 2-way with the original SP12B.
I don't know those parts you're referring to. I would assume they're currently available sound reinforcement parts?

Zilch said:

Here's my measurements on T35B versus the Crites tweeter, which is Eminence APT-50 on a custom T35 style horn, a pair of each:

http://audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=154794&postcount=254

Crites might be a good choice for the T35 cutout, same dimensions. You can have the correct appearance, but with a decent tweeter. :yes:

And here's the APT-80 (violet):

http://audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=158994&highlight=APT-80#post158994

Click to expand...

Bauhausler said:

Now, would you run the APT-80 as low as the 2khz indicated rolloff?

Click to expand...

Nope, Eminence minimum recommended crossover frequency is 3.5 kHz, but Gordon suggests they'll be O.K. with the original EV crossover he posted above. I'd have to build that up to see what the actual frequency is with these parts.

Regarding the parts themselves, you mentioned EV T-35. By contemporary standards, it hardly even qualifies as a tweeter, according to my measurements.

All of the others are based upon the Eminence APT-50, with different horns.

Bob Crites (BECtoo) is a member of this forum and developed what is essentially an updated T-35 using that Eminence driver on the same format horn, originally to upgrade Klipsch tweeters, I believe. It's suitable for general use as well, though, and would be a drop-in. He can tell us how low his version will play and still sound good.

Bauhausler said:

For a 2-way system, what are the horn options?

Click to expand...

What horn fits the rectangular opening at the top? It may be an option to fit that with a contemporary driver that'll play VHF and cross substantially lower than a tweeter. Link to the horn specs, if they're available, please.... :yes:

With the SP12B, to make it a 2-way you would add the T35B. Next add the T10 for a 3-way. If you had the SP12 (no B), you would add the T35 for 2-way and the T25 for 3 way. The 8HD horn works with both the T25 and the T10. There are 2 versions of the 8HD, one metal and the other fiberglass. The fiberglass is supposed to sound better, but I have never listened to the metal. The fiberglass horn also requires 2 support bars.

O.K., so it's the 8HD horn, then Is there a link to the specs somewhere? A 1" horn? What is the driver mounting?