1960s vintage Utah 3-Way Acoustic Suspension Speakers, Need some info on them

[captainclock]

Hello Everyone a couple of years ago I had found at the local Salvation Army for $3 and some change a set of 1960s vintage Utah 3-way Acoustic Suspension Speakers, which when I went to look them up online I couldn't find any info about them (like a model number or an exact year of manufacture or reviews) and I was wondering if anyone on here has some information about these speakers as I'm interested in possibly selling them to my pastor for him to use with his stereo system, but I would like to know more about them first so I know how much to sell them for and so I can tell my pastor a little bit about the speakers and what they're capable of and their history. Pictures of speakers in question are posted below.

 

[ra.ra]

The only way to find out more about these speakers is to remove the back panel and look inside.

If selling them to your pastor, I think a top asking price would be $3 and some change. And at that price range, an even better solution might be to donate them for free and absorb the good karma that results.

 

[captainclock]

The only way to find out more about these speakers is to remove the back panel and look inside.

If selling them to your pastor, I think a top asking price would be $3 and some change. And at that price range, an even better solution might be to donate them for free and absorb the good karma that results.

OK, well that's about what I have into them currently, so I guess I could just give them to him and just be done with it. Its got a 12" woofer inside the cabinet and a fairly decent crossover and its got a 5" midrange and a 3" tweeter (all of which have treated cloth surrounds), the crossovers have been redone with capacitors from Radio Shack (Nichicons), and the cadmium corrosion cleaned off of the speaker hookup terminals and RCA Jack on the back of the speakers, also the cabinets are solid Walnut Veneers on top of 3/4" MDF.

 

[ra.ra]

All sounds like possibly decent quality - - I was only trying to make the point that getting an ID on them from this forum would be easier with additional pics of the drivers and innards.

Saw Elkhart in the news last night, and it always reminds this former Hoosier that I should own a Crown amplifier.

 

[captainclock]

All sounds like possibly decent quality - - I was only trying to make the point that getting an ID on them from this forum would be easier with additional pics of the drivers and innards.

Saw Elkhart in the news last night, and it always reminds this former Hoosier that I should own a Crown amplifier.

Ah yes, so what part of the great Hoosier State are you from originally? Just wondering. And I would post a picture of the inside of the speakers but they are hard to disassemble (they have about 10 screws holding the back cover into place and then to pull the back off is a little tricky because the speakers were water damaged slightly and it expanded the MDF slightly which makes the back harder to remove. I can see what I can do though about getting some "nudies" of these speakers.

 

[Bdbras84]

I have the model # as-2 's and love them! Probably the little brother to yours with a 8" woofer an 3 1/2" tweeter. Great little speakers an very nice quality. If I were sell mine would probably be 50 to 60 $ range an this thread maybe more suited for the dollar and sense forum, just saying before it gets locked. But mine are pretty pristine but as for your situation I would probably donate them to as a good gesture an if he insists on paying you either put it in the basket or get lunch with it. Bad picture I know, it's the only one I have on me , they are the ones on top.

 

[captainclock]

I have the model # as-2 's and love them! Probably the little brother to yours with a 8" woofer an 3 1/2" tweeter. Great little speakers an very nice quality. If I were sell mine would probably be 50 to 60 $ range an this thread maybe more suited for the dollar and sense forum, just saying before it gets locked. But mine are pretty pristine but as for your situation I would probably donate them to as a good gesture an if he insists on paying you either put it in the basket or get lunch with it. Bad picture I know, it's the only one I have on me , they are the ones on top.

OK Thanks for the info, and the reason why I posted this here was because I wasn't sure if I should post this in the Dollars n Sense Forum or here (because I was more looking for general information about these speakers originally) the value part kind of gets inferred from the fact that I said I was going to possibly sell them, but I never actually ask for a value specifically which is probably the reason why it hasn't been shut down yet.

 

[Bdbras84]

OK Thanks for the info, and the reason why I posted this here was because I wasn't sure if I should post this in the Dollars n Sense Forum or here (because I was more looking for general information about these speakers originally) the value part kind of gets inferred from the fact that I said I was going to possibly sell them, but I never actually ask for a value specifically which is probably the reason why it hasn't been shut down yet.

Oh ok I do apologize, anyways I do know that mine as with most Utah speakers I believe we're made and manufactured in Indiana. Also my models I believe we're sold under the Allied knight radio Corp. name and from what I gather were introduced in the early 70's , 73/74 I think. Hope it helps!

 

[captainclock]

Oh ok I do apologize, anyways I do know that mine as with most Utah speakers I believe we're made and manufactured in Indiana. Also my models I believe we're sold under the Allied knight radio Corp. name and from what I gather were introduced in the early 70's , 73/74 I think. Hope it helps!

Its ok, so anyways I believe that the Utah Speakers were made in Huntington, Indiana which is about an hour and fifteen minutes southeast of where I live. Anyways I have no idea as to whether or not mine where made by Utah Themselve for sale as Utahs or if they were like yours made to be sold by Allied/Knight Radio Company, as mine doesn't seem to have the Utah Badge on the front like most Utahs do.

 

[Bdbras84]

Well that's the thing mine do not have the badges either, and I've seen some that do. They could possibly have been the model as-2a which some believe is the same but it is not. As far as my research got all of the Utah speakers were made in Huntington an many were outsourced to several sellers an dealers. I think it's pretty cool to have a speaker with history from your own state. I live in Louisville so the closest I have is manufacturers in Lexington

 

[captainclock]

Well that's the thing mine do not have the badges either, and I've seen some that do. They could possibly have been the model as-2a which some believe is the same but it is not. As far as my research got all of the Utah speakers were made in Huntington an many were outsourced to several sellers an dealers. I think it's pretty cool to have a speaker with history from your own state. I live in Louisville so the closest I have is manufacturers in Lexington

Yeah, I thought so too, as far as having some speakers with some local history, but I had found a pretty nice set of Fisher (Sanyo) Speakers from the late 1980s, early 1990s at Goodwill which I only paid about $6 for the 2 and I'm pretty impressed with how they sound (they make my music sound as if Its right there in the room with me) and I can only have have so many sets of speakers in my place being that I rent a place with a house mate and I've already got lots more stuff than I should have in my place (I have a set of Sanyo SS-900 120 Watt 3-way speakers hooked up to my LCD Projector's Audio System, as well as a set of Onkyo Radian IIIs, and, then I have a set of Magnavox speakers that went with a Magnavox Solid State Receiver that I have (which I need to sell) and then I have these Utah's so something has to go. Anyways, I hope my pastor apreciates these speakers as much as I did.

 

[Bdbras84]

I know he will, they are very very nice speakers with a nice warm sound to them imho. Plus someone has already done the work for you by recapping them. I know what you mean by having a lot of stuff lol, trying to thin the herd alittle now but fortunately my wife is very lenient with my hobby an endeavors . It's awesome you have a set that sound amazing to you especially for the price you paid, that's what its all about!!

 

[captainclock]

I know he will, they are very very nice speakers with a nice warm sound to them imho. Plus someone has already done the work for you by recapping them. I know what you mean by having a lot of stuff lol, trying to thin the herd alittle now but fortunately my wife is very lenient with my hobby an endeavors . It's awesome you have a set that sound amazing to you especially for the price you paid, that's what its all about!!

Well actually I was the one who recapped the speakers, I bought the capacitors it needed over at the local radio shack and they happened to stock Nichicon crossover caps. so I was happy because they'll last a good long while. I have a question though, how would these Utah Speakers compare to a set of Bose Interaudio Model 2000 Speakers on a SE 6BQ5 Tube Amp? I'm asking because I have a really nice Sears Silvertone Stereo Receiver from 1962 that has a SE 6BQ5 amplifier built into the unit and I currently have a set of 1970s Vintage Bose Interaudio Model 2000 Speakers hooked up to the receiver and with that setup it sounds pretty good but I wonder if it would sound any better with the Utah speakers hooked up to it?

 

[Bdbras84]

It's hard to say I think they would make an excellent match with tubes. Both just have "that" sound to them. Unfortunately I don't have any experience with that model of Bose speaker so it's hard to say until you try it out.

 

[LesE]

Not sure if this is what you have but here's a description of the Utah AS-5:

Utah AS-5 Three-Way Speaker System

Three-Way acoustic suspension system with 10" woofer, 6" midrange, 3-1/4" tweeter ; electrical crossovers at 2500 & 5000 Hz; response 40 - 18,000 Hz; will handle 25 W program, 50 W peak ; 8 ohms impedance ; sealed enclosure with fiberglass damping. Deep walnut finish, dark tweed grill cloth. 12-1/2" x 22" x 9" .... $69.95

Les

 

[captainclock]

Not sure if this is what you have but here's a description of the Utah AS-5:

Utah AS-5 Three-Way Speaker System

Three-Way acoustic suspension system with 10" woofer, 6" midrange, 3-1/4" tweeter ; electrical crossovers at 2500 & 5000 Hz; response 40 - 18,000 Hz; will handle 25 W program, 50 W peak ; 8 ohms impedance ; sealed enclosure with fiberglass damping. Deep walnut finish, dark tweed grill cloth. 12-1/2" x 22" x 9" .... $69.95

Les

That sounds almost like mine except mine has a 12" woofer instead of a 10" woofer. Is there any old catalogs or something out there that I could look through to find my speakers in and maybe a general description of them as well as an original retail price?

 

[captainclock]

It's hard to say I think they would make an excellent match with tubes. Both just have "that" sound to them. Unfortunately I don't have any experience with that model of Bose speaker so it's hard to say until you try it out.

My Silvertone Stereo Receiver is currently hooked up to the Bose speakers right now and from what I've been able to tell they sound pretty good with the Bose speakers (being that the Bose speakers are extremely efficient speakers which I've heard mate up well with Single-Ended 6BQ5 tube amps), but as for the Utah's being that they were made when tube audio was king yet, they may sound just as good as the Bose speakers do with my Silvertone Tube Stereo Receiver, but not sure until I get them hooked up.

 

[LesE]

That sounds almost like mine except mine has a 12" woofer instead of a 10" woofer. Is there any old catalogs or something out there that I could look through to find my speakers in and maybe a general description of them as well as an original retail price?

I found this in an old Stereo Review buyers guide from 1974. They also list the the AS-7 which is a three-way system with 12" woofer but they describe it as a tuned port system rather than AS. They are 14" x 23" x 10". $89.95

I suppose you could check out the old Allied Radio catalogs to see if they happen to appear there.

http://www.alliedcatalogs.com/

Les.

 

[captainclock]

I found this in an old Stereo Review buyers guide from 1974. They also list the the AS-7 which is a three-way system with 12" woofer but they describe it as a tuned port system rather than AS. They are 14" x 23" x 10". $89.95

I suppose you could check out the old Allied Radio catalogs to see if they happen to appear there.

http://www.alliedcatalogs.com/

Les.

Well I figured out from doing a GIS that the speakers I have are MK-17s and apparently they are from the early 1970s and not the 1960s like I thought they were... Although what confuses me is that the paper label on the back of mine says nothing like the paper label that was on the back of the Utah MK-17s that I saw a picture of on Google mine is just a simple paper label that says nothing about Utah on it, if you look at the picture of the label on the back of the speaker in question that I found on GIS you'll see it more detailed than the paper label on the back of mine, but you'll see that the hookups and the tweeter adjustment knob is exactly the same as mine.

As you can see from the pictures above the MK-17 that is in these pictures are exactly like mine, and the pictures of the drivers that are posted here, is exactly what mine looks like inside.

So I wonder what makes mine different than the ones that I found elsewhere on the internet that mine doesn't have a Utah label on it...

 

[toxcrusadr]

May be they just changed the label at some point during production. All kinds of weird things happen.

I would have pegged that woofer as Utah in a heartbeat. Same as the HS1-C's I had.

Nice that you recapped and cleaned them up. I would not feel bad about selling them to a friend/pastor/etc. for my original cost plus parts. But sometimes I'd just donate something like that too.

In the general market, they are not worth a ton, which is why you found them the way you did. I had a pair of walnut Realistics that I put some caps in and could hardly get $20 to cover my costs. Just a tough market to break even, harder yet to come out ahead.