Alleged Bozak Prototypes

Oh, I would most certainly keep them. Yup, BT is the way to go. Surely there's an older B199 sitting in someone's pile. Hopefully it's local, paying for shipping blows.

Go man go!

Biggles
 
canuckaudiog said:
Does the driver disassemble at all? I'd be tempted to separate the basket from the magnet and try to move the coil inside the gap to achieve smooth movement. Not sure if you would be up to that.
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Wait, I get it.

I'll try it now.

EDIT: Holy moly! It worked!

Just loosened the 3 screws, tapped it with a small hammer, problem solved.

Brilliant!
 
As we speak.

Just started to clean them up, and I realized the finishes do not match. One looks like mahogany, the other looks like walnut.

Also, they had risers on them. The PO said he remembered them having a tapered riser, must have brought the fronts up a bit.

I can not find any pictures of an Urban with a riser and not legs - anyone have one?
 
SiliconTi said:
I'll keep writing notes on this thread for future reference.

These things like power.
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Yes, don't be afraid to give them some juice, they sound good with some watts put to 'em. As Biggs said, those are definitely not early tweets. They are the b200y aluminum tweeters and have better highs than the earlier paper cones with aluminum (shiny) dust cap. The rest looks pretty standard early generation stuff although it's unusual that the woofers don't seem to have the label on them (would expect they would have the blue and gold decal colored like the crossover one on the magnet cover). Appear to be first generation Paper Mids and Woofers. Can you make out date codes on them? They are easy to decipher. The first two digits are the year of manufacture. The mid looks like it may start with '60' the trailing numbers indicate the month. I very much doubt these are prototypes but look like factory 302as to me. They either had legs or risers attached to the bottom. I have not seen risers that have a tilt but that would actually be a great idea. Maybe the PO modified these to their tastes?
 
Thanks of the info.

I'm not sure they are prototypes, but do seem like an earlier version. I think the tweeters were upgraded - you can see where some soldering was undone, probably to remove the filter the original tweeters used that was attached to the woofer.

I'll take a look at the dates.

The woofer with the mag cap on it has the blue sticker on the side (not visible). The other does not, but does have a serial # on it. Looks to me like that one was replaced. Wiring on the walnut unit is a mess. I'll eventually pull it all out and rewire to match the mahogany unit. Probably redo the crossovers then and may upgrade to the metal mid. We'll see. They actually sound pretty good as they are.
 
OK, here are the date codes I can find:

Walnut unit:
Woofer: no code, serial # 2228
Mid: Code: 5912, serial # 1971
Tweeters: 6910 on both, no serials

Mahogany unit:
Woofer: Code: 604, serial # 7780
Mid: Code: 601, serial # 2736
Tweeters: 6910 on both, no serials

So, it look like they were built in 1960 and upgraded in 1969.
 
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Thanks Keith!

I've requested access to the Yahoo group, but have not heard back.

Did not know of the FB group - thanks!
 
I was thinking originally it might have been a mono system (1960) and the second was added later to make stereo. That could explain the different finishes. Just a thought.
 
toxcrusadr said:
I was thinking originally it might have been a mono system (1960) and the second was added later to make stereo. That could explain the different finishes. Just a thought.
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That is a good thought.

I was thinking that if they are prototypes, they did one of each finish to see what it would look like.

Waiting for an email that may shed some light on it.
 
So, Bob Betts seems to be the best person to ask about this, so I did. The original owner was an optician, hence the references to it:

"Yup, that definitely rang some bells. I can't tell you the details, but do recall some of that description concerning the optician and being a local guy. I guess I met the fellow at some point after his initial purchase...after 1963. It's quite possible that Rudy sold one of the prototypes to a hobbyist at a very reduced price. He was quite compassionate about helping people in the hobby who otherwise couldn't quite afford the speakers that they really wanted."

I suspect one was an early one, possibly a prototype, run on a mono setup. The other was acquired later. They may not match as he may have been given a good deal on a single.

All hypothetical, but still interesting.
 
On it. This thread will be printed out and put with my audio paperwork.

I'm never selling these - I love the sound of them, even bone stock and untouched. OK, one mid needs to be turned 180 degrees, but that is easy.

Eventually I'll go to the Tobin x-over mods, but I may keep the paper mids - I like them.

Still waiting for more historical info. I'll post what I find.
 
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