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Sometimes one really does get surprised.

mhardy6647

mhardy6647

Lunatic Member
Long story short. I may have finally found an adoptive home for the Scott S-15 three-ways that have been camping out in my basement for -- a while.
Figured I'd better give them a check-out before sending them on their way. Having never hooked them to a 'good' hi-fi, I carried them upstairs & hooked them up to the HF-81. Sat 'em on a couple of milk crates to decouple them from the floor. Put a CD in the CDP and had a seat.

Well, I'd said previously that these were surprisingly good sounding. They're better than that. They are good sounding. Period. No need for qualification. Bass is kind of round and undistinguished, but MR and HF are extemely sweet. These are cone drivers, brothers & sisters. Cheap CTS cone drivers. Cymbals sounded like they were really made of brass. Nice detal. Cone drivers. These are about the most generic looking speakers you'll see.

I guess the take home lesson is: if you stumble on a pair of these, give a listen. Alternative lesson, don't think you can always judge the book by its cover.

scotts-15drivers.jpg
 
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Are those 12" woofs Mark? I found some Scotts at a thrifty a few years back. Cabinets must've sat in water because they were all separating and stuff. Mids and tweets did not work and were perforated in places. But the 12" woofs were just fine. I took them out and curbsided everything else. Still waiting for some thrifties that need 12" woofs so that I can put these to use.
 
I agree Mark, I had a very nice pair a while back that only flaw was that one of them had its lower edge moulding broken off. I didnt know what I had when I found them but hooked them up in my main system and found they sounded very nice. Like you are saying, much better than just listenable I thought.

RC
 
These are 10" CTS woofers. I never pulled one, but most of the CTS's I've seen like this (with the coated cloth surround) have AlNiCo magnets.

"much better than just listenable" is right!

Cabinet quality is quite good; reminds me of 1960's era AR, with real veneer. Back is plywood. There's a three-position HF attenuator toggle switch rather than a pot -- built for the ages.
 
mhardy6647 said:
These are about the most generic looking speakers you'll see.

Alternative lesson, don't think you can always judge the book by its cover.
Click to expand...


I couldn't agree more. Here in the Peg the more popular brands (eg AR, KLH, JBL Advent etc) are extremely rare in thrifts, garage sales and pawns. Also rare are local bay sales - as you all know shipping speakers can make a buy not worthwhile. What you do see are lots of the like of JIL etc and very low end Japanese branded models like toshiba, zenith, sanyo, sony (not to say that these manufacturers didn't make some decent gear). Since this is such a desert (speaker wise) my eye has turned to speakers that look like something you would find in your parent's basement that was purchased in the late 60's/early 70's that was rarely used then and has not been used in years. I was pleasantly surprised by these http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=71671&highlight=double+diamond (see post #10 for the pics). The woofers are also AlNICO and as an experiment I swapped in some HPM-60 woofers that are currently homeless - the original woofers sounded much better.

I also recently missed a pair of Studiotone that had a similar look. I figure if you buy partially based on cabinet weight and build quality and can get it for a low, low price, you can find some unknown gems.
 
mhardy6647 said:
Alternative lesson, don't think you can always judge the book by its cover.
Click to expand...

You bring up an excellent point!

If we bought solely on what our ears told us was good and eliminated all possible visual biases, we would all be surprised by what we found to be good.
 
Thanks mhardy

I may have passed on these speakers until I found this thread doing a search for info. on the web. I know you (mhardy) think I paid a bit too much @35 for the S-15s, but I needed something quick & decent, and the guy said I could bring 'em back if I didn't like them.

Thanks to your (or another AKer's) instructions, I was able to remove the covers w/relative ease, and do an inspection. Other than a little bit of felt dust, and some particle dust, they were very clean inside. I didn't pull any of the speakers to see inside the cabinet - just mostly wanted to inspect the foam and look for any glaring damage. The surrounds on the woofers looked brand new, so they may have been replaced at some point.

I'm a noob to this, so I have what may be a silly question. But take a look at the speaker in mhardys picture. There is a line in the midrange speaker at about 4:00. ONE of mine was the same way, and initially I thought it had been cut & reglued or something. Uh-oh... I hadn't listened to them yet, and was afraid that the midrange was going to give some probs. But I hooked them up anyway, and could not tell if it was damaged. It sounded fine, both standing in the middle of the room, and if I put my ear right up to it.

Could use a little more punch to the bass, and w/mine I did not experience the highs as being quite as crisp as mhardy described, even when I flipped the switches on the back to the up/highest position. But overall, w/a little tweaking to the tone controls on my receiver, I got a very satisfactory sound out of them.

Just wondering if anyone could say what that line is on the midrange, and whether it is something to be concerned about.
 
soundmotor said:
You bring up an excellent point!

If we bought solely on what our ears told us was good and eliminated all possible visual biases, we would all be surprised by what we found to be good.
Click to expand...


You don't mean to suggest we might actually LIKE THESE, do you? :D
 

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That line is a paper edge. The cone was formed by curling a piece of paper and gluing. That sounds kind of half assed, but the results are what matter.
 
Arkay said:
You don't mean to suggest we might actually LIKE THESE, do you? :D
Click to expand...

Oh no not the JVC Giga-tube! That's not fightin' fair. Truce Truce!

I had a pair of Aztecs with the little paper cone tweeter. It did simple, acoustic folk music in a very surprisingly musical manner. Got lost on more complex music, but if I only listened to folk I'd have never complained.
 
It's a seamed cone; a piece of paper twisted and glued along the seam (like making a paper funnel). Common on old paper cone speakers (not as common by the time the S-15s came out, though).
 
Thanks for the answers guys. Can't wait to get some more time to mess around w/these.

Oh, and Arkay, those speakers look like something Optimus Prime would listen to. :)
 
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