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Cannon Speakers/JBL Drivers?

mmcdaniel69

mmcdaniel69

Active Member
Cannon Speakers/JL Drivers?

Picked up a pair of Cannon-TLS, Trans Linear Systems Speakers today. Are these white van speakers? They claim to be made in USA.
They have the original horns and mids, JL Audio 12's for woofers(That were added as replacements) with Kicker 12's in place of the passive radiators.
I got them from a friend who has owned them for over 20 years, and have been in storage for around 17.
The JLs are ok, foams are iffy, and may have to refoam soon, one is missing the dust cap, and I had to reconnect them to the crossover network, as my buddy had split the input and bypassed the crossover.
I'll order some passive radiators, but don't know if I can get JL dust covers.
My main question is on the JL drivers there are two sets of inputs, is this for dual voice coils, or for connecting them in series? Yeah I'm a newbie:D
Also any info on the Cannons cabs would be cool.
Thanks in advance
 
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Cannons are not white van speakers.

I believe they were a subsidiary of ESS at one time. In fact, my Cannon TLS 1232 speakers have a yellow "ESS 4" sticker on the back.
 
They were sold as having a classic West Coast sound ...

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terra1 said:
Cannons are not white van speakers.

I believe they were a subsidiary of ESS at one time. In fact, my Cannon TLS 1232 speakers have a yellow "ESS 4" sticker on the back.
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Right on the $$.
I've had a couple sets of Cannon TLS speakers over the years, and they will certainly rock your world. If I had to guess, I would say that ESS was trying to take some market share away from Cerwin-Vega with that line. The voicing, efficiency, and build are pretty similar.
 
I have a set of 1032s that I purchased new in 1979. The ticket price of the 1032 (10" 3-way) was $330 each that year ($399 MSRP) although most stores discounted them quite heavily. If I recall, I paid $350 for the pair but I bought a Technics SA-500 and SL-5350 TT at the same time (I still have this system and it is used nearly every day).

They are still great speakers although I've re-foamed them a couple of times. Extremely efficient, loud, and full. The piezo tweeters are not as nice as the domes on more modern speakers. They have adjustments for both the midrange and tweeters on the X-over which comes in handy when you can't place them optimally in the room.

The passive radiators on the back disintegrated about 20 years ago and I could not locate replacements so I just took a pair of relatively light 10 speakers, knocked the magnets off of them, and installed them. They actually sounded fantastic - the speakers without the magnets must be pretty similar in mechanics to the original flat PRs. I think Parts Express and MCM now offer the replacement PRs but I have never gotten around to replacing them again.
 
I picked up a pair of 1032`s a couple years ago cheap with no passive`s and cheap mismatched woofers . I added some Dayton woofers and Parts Express passives and covered them in black vinyl and new grill cloth . They would rock but I did not like the tweeter , too harsh . I ended up giving them to my nephew and he loves them .
 

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I replaced the foam surrounds on my 1232s front drivers and the one piece passive radiators on the back are also new. I did a search and the passive radiators were said to be good for ESS or Cannon. The new passives do seem stiffer, but I haven't really rocked them out to notice much difference. The vendor also sells on eBay.
 
terra1 said:
They were sold as having a classic West Coast sound ...

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I also had a pair of these back in the early 80's and the tweets were harsh, even the L pads couldn't completely tame them. Played Aerosmith, Zepplin and Rush 'til my ears bled and the foam rotted (about 15 years) then sold 'em on a garage sale for 50 zords with no foam. Truely abused and got my money's worth. :thmbsp:
 
mmcdaniel69 said:
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OMG, I had a pair of them that I bought new back in the day! I got them at a place called Jerry's Audio in Phx, in 1977-78 I believe.

I had gone in with the cash to buy a pair of ADS L710's and they were sold out and not expecting anymore in for several months and so I looked at other speakers in the same price range. For some reason I think the model number was Cannon TLS 1230? They had a great sound but I am not sure about the quality. I powered them with a SX-1250 and I had a Thorens TD-115 with a ADC XLM (mk2?) I was playing a new copy of Grateful Deads American Beauty on MoFi Label and had the volume cranked a little more than half way and blew one of the speakers one a note of music. I can't remember for the life of me remember if it was a low note or a high note.....:D. Those were crazy days back then....
Damn I am surprised I remember all that! Those speakers bring back some memories:D :smoke:
 
Any ideas on original power handling capabilties?
I would imagine the the JL's are around 250 RMS, but not sure about the mids/tweets.
 
I cannot remember the exact specs on the 1032s but I do know that they matched up pretty well with the Technics SA-500 which was rated at 55wpc. I had a friend who bought an SA-700 (110wpc) and ended up with the 1232s because he was strongly advised that the 1032s would not handle the power.

If I recall, I think I did mange to blow up one of the Motorola piezo tweeters once when playing them at high volume with the SA-500. Those tweeters were under $10 back in the early '80s and you could get them pretty much anywhere.
 
Yeah, I ended up having to replace one of the tweeter dirvers with a Dahlquist that I had as a spare. The pattern on the back of the horn was exactly the same. Now I'll have to do the other because the Dahlquist way outperforms the motorola, but it may be just because (the Motorola) is getting weak.
 
I really wanted to hear them with a different tweeter , a nice soft dome Morel or Vifa but I did not want to butcher the cabinets so I gave them to my nephew but I told him not to ever sell them and if he ever wanted to get rid of them for any reason to give them back to me . He was cool with that so maybe someday I`ll get them back and I`ll butcher the cabs and see what they sound like with a nice tweeter .
 
I bought the 1232's new in the late 70's.
You have the 1232 T, which has the passive in the front instead of the rear.
I think they are a fantastic rock speaker, as good as any.
Listening to Modest Mouse through them now
I had mine gone through about 10 years ago. They were around $900 a pair new.
I have the original paperwork. 175 watts max, 18 min
Frequency response 20 - 30,0000 Hz
92 db @1 watt
6 ohm impedance
2X5 piezoelectric tweeter
12 oz magnet in mid, 72 oz in woofer
Made in California
 
grillebilly said:
I bought the 1232's new in the late 70's.
You have the 1232 T, which has the passive in the front instead of the rear.
I think they are a fantastic rock speaker, as good as any.
Listening to Modest Mouse through them now
I had mine gone through about 10 years ago. They were around $900 a pair new.
I have the original paperwork. 175 watts max, 18 min
Frequency response 20 - 30,0000 Hz
92 db @1 watt
6 ohm impedance
2X5 piezoelectric tweeter
12 oz magnet in mid, 72 oz in woofer
Made in California
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Thanks for the info. These really do rock, I'm using an Onkyo ASV210, 100w/p/ch, RMS, listening to "Wooried Down With The Blues" and "Mabey I'm a Leo" off of Gov't Mules Deep End album. They're crisp as heck. :thmbsp:
 
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