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1965 Empire Royal Grenadier 9000s

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I bought a pair of those about a year ago for ~$150, and literally gave them away to a friend in need of some decent speakers. They're cool and sound alright, but $1200 is an INSANE price.
 
We used to sell Empire back when I was the 70salesguy. Turntables, cartridges and speakers. I believe that the model we used to sell was a 6000. They weren't terribly expensive at the time.

They had a high WAF, and I believe that was their #1 selling point. Most of the guys that bought them were probably striking a balance between furniture and speakers in order to maintain domestic tranquility.

I don't recall the exact model number, seems like it used to be 6000M, but we always referred to them at the PW6000s, just between ourselves. You can figure out why. ;)
 
I've laid hands on a pair of these within the last year....:thumbsdn:
interesting data...



Frequency response: 20-20000 Hz
Crossovers: 450 Hz / 5000 Hz
Controls: 3-step treble response switch
Sound dispersion: 360° below 450Hz / 140° up to 20Khz
Minimum input: 20W
Maximum output: 100W, undistorted
Impedance: 8 Ohm
Dimensions: 22" Diameter x 29" High
Weight: 87 lbs each
Finish:
 
I was shown a set of those when I visited the house of a guy on CL who sold me an old R2R tape deck and my Wharfedale W70D speakers. Frankly, I think they're as ugly as homemade soap, and I love E-V speakers. I did not take them at $50, left 'em there. So there you go.
 
Wigwam Jones said:
I was shown a set of those when I visited the house of a guy on CL who sold me an old R2R tape deck and my Wharfedale W70D speakers. Frankly, I think they're as ugly as homemade soap, and I love E-V speakers. I did not take them at $50, left 'em there. So there you go.
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:scratch2:...those are no relation to EV...no way,no how.
EV may have had a cabinet or speaker called an Empire,but those ain't it.....:no:

Listing text :.............. "3-way mid-century speakers made by Empire Scientific of New York."
 
Stephen J said:
:scratch2:...those are no relation to EV...no way,no how.
EV may have had a cabinet or speaker called an Empire,but those ain't it.....:no:

Listing text :.............. "3-way mid-century speakers made by Empire Scientific of New York."
Click to expand...

My bad. Still didn't like em.
 
Stephen J said:
No biggie...I misidentified some drivers in another thread today myself.
But, those Empires I have seen,all the weight is in the marble like tops.
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I've owned them. Maybe 10% of the weight is the tops (they really are marble btw). The cabs are solid wood oriented in vertical slats to create that column shape, internally braced, practically double walled due to the port design, and all the drivers are extremely robust. The woofers alone probably weigh 20lbs. I may still have some pics of the internals. I'll look for them when I get home tonight.

The huge problem with them from an audio quality perspective is that the hf drivers are never at ear height and are super shrill to compensate. They are way more "party speakers" than audiophile speakers. That said, the bass response is incredible.
 
Empire speakers

I knew I had this somewhere.

Check the lower right corner of these pages.

DixieHi-Fispeakerpages.jpg
 
I had a pair once. They sound nice but nothing special. They are, however, very well made and are very high quality. Usually they go for $400 - $600.
 
These things seem to show up around here quite often for some reason. IMO they don't sound all that great in spite of the impressive looking downfiring woofer. Empire made some great turntables and cartridges in their day, but speakers - meh.
 
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