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Anyone have some info on Morel speakers?

cartop

cartop

AK Subscriber
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I saw this cl ad yesterday and because of my addiction, :D, I went and took a look and ended up buying these speakers and a Technics SL-1300 TT. The Technics is in 9 out of 10 condition and works perfectly with my Ortofon 2m red. It has a smoky colored lid and seems like a solid table. The speakers were something I know nothing about except for being told that they were custom built for someones HT. A quick look at google gave me some info on Morel speakers that sounded promising. The cabinets need to be sanded and painted but are solid and heavy, no grills. The gentleman that was selling the items also had a very nice Boston Acoustics VR-12 center speaker which I owned before and always kicked my ass for selling it. It is in 8 out of 10 shape but after giving it a detail will look and sound great back as my center Chanel for my HT. I bought the whole lot of the 3 speakers and the turntable for $180. I didn't get the best deal in the world but I thought it was decent. What do you think??? Here are some pics.

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I'm not too familiar with Morel, but I know that they are well regarded. But $180 for all 4 components? If the turntable has a good cartridge and stylus, I'd say you paid market price for it, and got the speakers for free. Nicely done.

ETA: OK, Looking back at the OP, I see you added your own cartridge. Still, the speakers were extremely cheap. The Morels were probably not custom made, but part of a custom HT installation. Morel sells custom integration models designed for pro installers to install in places where they won't be seen, thus the plain black finish. Unfortunately their website is broken right now, but if it comes back up, you should be able to get some documentation on them.

ETA2: hmm...looking at the tweeter wires and the different positions of the drivers screws on the two cabinets, I may be wrong about that - that doesn't look like something a manufacturer would do. But the cabinets look well made, and with those rounded corners, obviously by someone who knew what they were doing. But most importantly, how do they sound?
 
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Morel drivers are high quality and expensive! Those woofers, you can still get new, for about $120+. EACH. I think you did just fine. :thumbsup:
 
Thanks for the info guy's. Swechler, I only tested them. I will give them a good listen later and report back.
Toxcrusadr, That sounds great. I am going to clean them up and see what they sound like tonight hopefully.
 
May be DIY or small maker speakers. I have a set of 20 year old Madisound catalogs and can scan the page with the specs and Thiele-Small parameters on the MW166. Were $80 each at Madisound back in May 1999.

Also just found the page on the Dynaudio D-28/2. Also has parameters and response curve graphs. Were $86.35 each from a July 1997 price list at Madisound. Will scan and post pages soon.
 
I see one sold VR12 for $75 (C.L.), most on Hifi shark sold are between $100 and $200.
The Dynaudio tweeters are decent and the Morel MW 166 midwoofers are nice.
You did pretty good. ;)

I use a VR12 for mono only TV/DVD sound (also have a VR10 collecting dust). :thumbsup:
 
I need to give them a good cleaning before I give a good listen. I have a Dayton audio sub 1000 10" 100w subwoofer That I am going to try with the Morels.
 
The Technics SL-1300 came with a Shure high track m95he but has a low output on the left channel. I have another headshell with new wires so i can see if it will work and just keep it for a spare. The stylus looks good by eye so we shall see.
 
Here are the scans from the old Madisound catalog on both the woofer and the tweeter. Not sure why quality on site is inferior to the actual file. Those cabinets look similar to what Madisound and others sold back in the 80s probably into the 90s for people to build speakers with. You could get them with a couple choices of wood veneer finishes are black. Morel woofers with a Dynaudio tweeter.

With an fs of 44 Hz, would need a subwoofer to get another octave or more at the bottom end. If crossover matches up well with the drivers they should sound very good. Both drivers appeared to have reasonably flat response curves.

At one time Vifa, Audax, Peerless, Philips, and other drivers were all made in Europe. Most since bought up and production sent to China.
 

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Wow more great info. Thanks Dly66. When I get them all apart I will also take some pics of the crossovers.
 
Can download the datasheet on the Morel from Madisound, the link is on this page. They have the woofer currently priced at $124. Will be much better quality image than what apparently can be uploaded here.

https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/morel-woofers-6-7/morel-mw166-6-damped-polymer-composite-cone/

And the details on the Dynadudio tweeter can be found in this pdf at their site starting on page 10.

https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/pdf/Dynaudio Driver Catalog.pdf

Those Morel and Dynaudio drivers are a very good score.
 
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Well I hooked up the speakers to my 2 channel rig and they sounded great. I was really surprised how good they were. But after about 20 minutes of listening something sounded different so I checked and one of the tweeters let go.............%$#@@@!!......There now I feel better. I am going to call Millersound tommorrow and see if he can repair the original because they don't make diaphrams for these Dynaudio tweeters anymore. Madisound has a complete tweeter that will work for $85 apiece but I think I will just part out the Morel drivers and sell them if Bill at Millersound cant repair it. Oh well I will post back with news one way or the other.
 
swechsler said:
If those are fairly standard domes then they can be easily repaired. Even amateur AK members have done it.
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I wish, I have searched everywhere I can think of to no avail. I could not see an obvious break in the coil so if I decide to fix it I will have to go with a replacement tweet. I am going to call MillerSound today and talk to Bill to see if he can repair the old coil.
 
The coil usually breaks where it joins up with the tinsel; it's relatively rare (but not unheard of) for it to break within the windings.
 
I hope that some day it's easy and cheap to get custom diaphragms for discontinued drivers. Almost like 3D printing. I need some for a pair of '60 Jensen triaxes that sound pretty dull and they are just unobtanium.
 
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