any vintage Allison Acoustics owners?

[SPL db]

How do you like the sound "as is" so far?

Scott

 

[Bigyank]

I have a pair of ones I got for free off of CL that my wife has latched onto. I just swapped out a Yamaha CA-2010 with an SAE 2401/Marantz 3300 and man what a difference! If you get the chance use some "real" watts with them.

Mine will not be leaving any time soon, due to an extremely high WAF......

The grills are fragile and I have plans of making grills for mine and cloth them with some Zilch Blue cloth long term.

Yank

 

[that70sguy]

How do you like the sound "as is" so far?

Scott

As is, they sound very good, even not placing the in the corner yet. I imagine the low end will come out better when placed there, but there's very adequate bass. They're a tad bright, especially when A-B'ing them with my Infinity Quantum 2s. I'm sure it's because of the tweeter. The hunt for original tweeters continues, these are definitely worth restoring.

 

[ehoove]

Allison Driver Specs

I thought this might help!
Regards,
Jim

 

[Bigyank]

As is, they sound very good, even not placing the in the corner yet. I imagine the low end will come out better when placed there, but there's very adequate bass. They're a tad bright, especially when A-B'ing them with my Infinity Quantum 2s. I'm sure it's because of the tweeter. The hunt for original tweeters continues, these are definitely worth restoring.

You will be rewarded if you find the original tweeters. Very smooth sound and some of the best off axis measured responses ever for tweeters.

Yank

 

[sealy]

Well I've a set of vintage Allison 4's that I've had for quite sometime that I truly love. Using them as mains in my computer room system for a while. Amazing reproduction considering it's up-firing woofer and 901 like design.

Worf

The 4's are indeed a great little speaker. I've tried desperately for years to acquire a pair. Please don't mention the 901's. I've just had lunch.
Kha Plah!

 

[Horn Head]

Yep, Tweeters are replacements. Note that the VC leads don't extend to the outer terminals....(like on in the mids). Again, you can find suitible replacements but must be 'dialed-in'.

 

[SWilco]

Greetings! I'm new to the forum and VERY late to this thread but figured I could comment a bit to help others doing research in the future.

I have a set of these Allison Threes and love them. They're going up for sale very soon though as I need to cull the herd a bit.

Bit of trivia. Each speaker (this may be true of all Allisons) came with its own envelope of full documentation, each with a label on the front with the associated speaker's serial number on it. Maybe not so unusual but I've not seen this before or since and was impressed.....so maybe I'm easily impressed, eh?

As to these grille comments ...

They're missing the grills though. If someone has some close-ups of the grills, especially near the top between the mid and tweeter, I'd like to see them. I want to try to fabricate a pair of grills, but want to stay as close to the original design as possible.

The grills are fragile and I have plans of making grills for mine and cloth them with some Zilch Blue cloth long term.

... here's a bit of text from the original documentation:

The perforated grille material used on Allison loudspeaker systems is a formed plastic with high internal damping. We have found that this is the only grille format which can provide cover protection for the speakers mounted in the cabinet, yet does not attenuate high-frequency radiation at wide angles from the tweeter axes. This is an essential requirement for the Allison Tweeters which are omnidirectional in the front hemisphere.

The grilles will crack or break if they are deformed substantially. If you wish to paint them another color, however, they can be bent sufficiently to be removed from and reinserted in the cabinet. They simply snap into place in the recesses formed by the edges of the cabinet's vertical mounting panels.

... and a snip from the Maintenance and Repairs section:

It must be handled gently because it will break if bent too severely. If you do break a grille a replacement is available at $5.00 per panel.

I love that last line -- I WISH this was still true! Of course these documents were printed in 1976...

They really are fragile; mine are both cracked in a few places. I don't even use my grilles as I'm afraid of damaging them further.

FWIW, I'm not suggesting that building your own replacements with cloth, etc, is a bad idea. Obviously building new, as original, molded plastic grilles is a non-starter. I just thought a little info about Allison's intent and expectations for them might help explain any potential disappointment from building more conventional replacement grilles.

cheers - steve

 

[Tower Boss]

They're missing the grills though. If someone has some close-ups of the grills, especially near the top between the mid and tweeter, I'd like to see them. I want to try to fabricate a pair of grills, but want to stay as close to the original design as possible.

Great speakers! They definitely know how to work a corner!

The grills are going to be tough to replicate, but I would get the tweets back on them.

Enjoy.

Regards,
Mike

 

[Copa1934]

CD7's. Very nice. I'm still kicking around the idea of making grills. The main issue is finding a plastic mesh that comes close enough and can be vacuum formed (requires heating first). It's not too complicated, just need vacuum forms and your more than halfway there.

 

[Bigyank]

The grills on my Allison One's are deteriorating and are truly fragile. :sigh:

I was thinking of trying to replicate the "spirit" of the original grills but making a frame out of Hickory and cover them with grill fabric.

Yank

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I've got a set of those and several other Allison speakers. Love them. Mine have the grills. If you are ever on this side of the state you can stop by and see them.

 

[Bigyank]

I've got a set of those and several other Allison speakers. Love them. Mine have the grills. If you are ever on this side of the state you can stop by and see them.

Was that invitation to me? I am in Raleigh about every 6 weeks or so for work.

 

[tubed]

Not quite as brittle as a potato chip, I still hesitate pulling the covers from the cabinet to show off the drivers.

 

[michiganpat]

the tweets in the OP's speakers look like the Jamo/phillips tweets PE had on closeout last year for $6 ea, I picked up a pair for a project....

I'd say your best bet on the grilles is to build a wood frame and stretch fabric over it....I plan on doing the same to replace the chamfered open cell foam grilles on my AR18's...

 

[Bostown]

These may not exactly qualify as classics but they are designed by Roy Allison.

RDL Acoustics S-1 - as someone pointed out in another thread these are the evolutionary kin to the Allison 6 and CD 6. These were the "OH SNAP, I can't believe someone gave these up photos". I Plugged them in after inspecting them for damage and fired them up. everything was A-OK. They're all cleaned up now and they sound frickin sweet. I have never seen a pair before and haven't seen a pair since.

Well, there was that one pair of larger RDL F-1's that I purchased out of state from CL, but a day after the deal was done, the seller fed me a lame excuse " my roommate sold them while I was out" and refunded me - so I'm guessing that someone local to the guy waved some extra $$ in his face and he took it) - Ok which one of you AKer's has them? fess up and post some photos of them , actually I think I still have some from the original listing somewhere on my drive

 

[audiovideogu]

Allison One and Three speakers

I know this is an old post. I owned, and sold both my personal One's and Three's. I liked the 3's more, at least for my listening room. I have owned expensive, audiophile speakers and still do. The best word I can use, which isn't really an audiophile term is "smooth", Easy to listen to. My audiophile friends were also impressed with them here. Nice sound comes from the mids and tweeters I assure you. But I sold them both. My bad. They were both the early models. Gave them away for $500 for all 4.
I feel they are a very good investment. The wires feeding the tweeters are fragile. Pay attention the upper drivers if purchasing. Woofer refoams are no brainers, so that shouldn't be a deciding factor getting these. You'll enjoy your purchase I assure you. I have, saved on my computer an actual schematic of the One's if anyone needs it. And remember, time listening to music is not deducted from ones life.

 

[mhbmusic]

My tweeters just stopped working in my Allison Fours. Super bummed and on the hunt for a good repair guy in the Maryland/DC area to make sure they are both bad. Seems strange both would go at same time but maybe not. Any ideas?

 

[Bigyank]

If you have one available, get out your digital multimeter and check continuity across the terminals. 0 means dead and these are not repairable so you might have to turn to that auction site for assistance if nobody here can help.

Good luck as these are definitely worth the investment to repair.

 

[gregv]

I wouldn't mind a listen to Allison 3's again. I absolutely loved my sister's Allison 4's. I had Allison 3's in 1978 and ran them with a db systems db-6 40 watt ss stereo amp and db-1 pre for the next decade. I still have the db systems components and love 'em, but the Allison's had to go after under powering them blew both tweeters, twice (that amp also blew tweeters n my Spica TC-50's). They didn't like that ss amp going into the red. One day, I took them out of the corners, put tiptoes on 'em, and set them up like traditional speakers along the long wall a foot or so from the back wall and well away from the corners. They imaged like bandits and, dammit, I preferred that sound, so much so that I called and spoke to Roy Allison himself to tell him. Uh, I actually got yelled at... honest. Shortly after, I picked up another db-6 amp for $200, had the amps bridged to mono, yielding 140 watts each, and, with that new pair of Spica TC-50's, I was truly in heaven. If I were to get any of my older speakers again, I'd get those Spica TC-50's in a heartbeat. Thankfully, I still have my TC-60's in the basement rig.