Advice on set of rectilinears

[TomReceiver]

Hi, guys, while cruising C/L I saw this ad for this little amp and speakers. The amp I'm not interested in but the speakers are Rectilinears. Now you dudes know a bunch more than me on model and what to look for . He has not returned mail mail reply yet but ad is still up and as you we see it has a 12" driver mid and some tweeters. I already ask if the surrounds were ok these if all original must 40 something years old. Pulling the grills will help but like the EPI-110 I got month ago those were replaced drivers. I have enough sets already and do not want to rehab anything nor spend to much. Listed he will split up the set and the speakers alone for $60. If firm is not in the ad then I ask what's top dollar price. Here's the link. Can you see what model . oh I also asked if I could hear them.

http://cnj.craigslist.org/ele/5825308801.html

 

[drbiggles]

Hey TomR,

Questions regarding equipment coupled with pricing belongs in Dollars & Sense.

Those are Rectilinear III Lowboys! Grand set of speakers for 60 bux. I sold mine a few months ago. The grills are held on by velcro and should come off with some effort. The surrounds on the woofers are pleated, no rot. There are 4 tweeters, a midrange and a 12" woofer. They're a pretty durable set of speakers and I'll bet they work just fine, but it's best to find out for sure. Even for 60 bux.

I do recommend replacing the 2 capacitors in each cabinet. They may sound fine, but old capacitors can leak lower frequencies to the tweeters and cause some nasty damage. The cost can be very low to do this and they have easy access.

Biggles

 

[drbiggles]

Here is a shot of my Lowboys.

Biggles

 

[absolve2525]

Yes! Get them. I have a pair with replaced caps. Great sound! Mine have new grills, however, since all that plastic molding blocks a lot of sound.

 

[TomReceiver]

Thanks a lot Sorry about prices but since I wasn't the one selling I didn't think it mattered. I hope this dude calls back. I'm still waiting for my EPI 110s to get re foamed and I do have another slot on my Ademco GFS-6 selector.
Dr. Biggles can you tell me what kind of surround are on the woofer. I had a pair of ADC 303ax and they were 10" cloth surrounds I still have somewhere around here.

 

[drbiggles]

Hmm, specifically? No. I can say it's a pleated cloth surround with some type of goo that seals the cloth and keeps it in place, yet flexible. This is an exceptionally common surround solution on woofers. Out of the dozen pairs of speakers I've sold in the last month, only 1 pair had foam surrounds. I'm down to about a dozen more pairs of speakers, and a few singles that I won't part with at the moment. All of which have similar surrounds.

Biggles

 

[GoRNR]

Tom- if you can listen to them before purchase, ask seller to remove grilles and playback some music. Then with music playing (not too loudly!) put your ear up to EACH tweeter to make sure the are all working. I had a pair of the Lowboys a few years ago. I had more than one non-working tweeter. When I went through the troubleshooting I found out only one was actually bad- open voice coil. The way these speakers are wired - if memory serves- the tweeters are wired in series 2 and 2. So with one tweeter failed, TWO actually had no output. Fortunately a vendor helped me cross the original Peerless over to a Pioneer driver for the larger tweeter which was the one that had failed. Once I replaced the failed tweeter the other tweeter also worked. The Lowboys have a nice musical presentation and are a bit "laid-back". For me that meant non-fatiguing sound that was pleasant and without hard edges. At $60 that's a lot of quality vintage speaker if fully functional. The second pic shows the replacement tweeter in the upper left corner.