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Bozak Symphony

Johncan

Johncan

Record collector
A while ago I bought some rough Bozak Symphony I's from a gentleman in north Georgia off a Craigslist ad. The Symphony I's were a kit and not factory made. There was no Bozak tag on the back and there is a lot of writing in pencil regarding their build on the inside of the cabinets. The cabinets were a little beat from some light water and/or humidity damage, the grill cloth was gone, one of the 16 ohm B199 woofers was torn, and the B209 mids were damaged. However, he did have some spare tweeters and an extra crossover.

After shopping locally and on Ebay, I have found all the replacement parts I needed (except the grill cloth). I am proud to say that the Symphony I's are up and running!

I replaced the damaged B209's with B209C's and the damaged B199 with a B199A. I do have 3 different versions of the B199 woofer in the pair, but they all sound similar to me so far. I do need to go back in and check to see I have everything wired in phase, but I think I did OK.

I only burned myself with the soldering iron 4 times! I really did not know how to solder until this weekend.

I still have some cosmetic repairs to make. I want to finish the grills this week as well. I will post pictures later in the week.

John
 
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Johncan said:
A while ago I bought some rough Bozak Symphony I's from a gentleman in north Georgia off a Craigslist ad. The Symphony I's were a kit and not factory made. There was no Bozak tag on the back and there is a lot of writing in pencil regarding their build on the inside of the cabinets. The cabinets were a little beat from some light water and/or humidity damage, the grill cloth was gone, one of the 16 ohm B199 woofers was torn, and the B209 mids were damaged. However, he did have some spare tweeters and an extra crossover.

After shopping locally and on Ebay, I have found all the replacement parts I needed (except the grill cloth). I am proud to say that the Symphony I's are up and running!

I replaced the damaged B209's with B209C's and the damaged B199 with a B199A. I do have 3 different versions of the B199 woofer in the pair, but they all sound similar to me so far. I do need to go back in and check to see I have everything wired in phase, but I think I did OK.

I only burned myself with the soldering iron 4 times! I really did not know how to solder until this weekend.

I still have some cosmetic repairs to make. I want to finish the grills this week as well. I will post pictures later in the week.

John
Click to expand...

Is this the model with 2 large woofers, a pretty good sized mid range and a line of several small metal dome tweeters? ( think the midrange is aluminum too) If so, I heard member Rybeams over the weekend and they are one fine sounding speaker. Kind of large, but I'm used to large speakers!:D
Congrats on bring them back to life, I'm sure you'll find they are wonderful speakers.

Russellc
 
Yes, here is the speaker array:

Two 16 ohm B-199 woofers
One 8 ohm B-209 mid
Eight 8 ohm B-200Y tweeters.

John
 
The refrig sized ones are called Concert Grands. See my signature... the Concert Grands are my main speakers. The Symphony I's are slightly smaller in height and width.

John
 
Johncan said:
The refrig sized ones are called Concert Grands. See my signature... they are my main speakers. The Symphony I's are slightly smaller in height and width.

John
Click to expand...
Officially jealous!:yes:

But my 2 pairs of 301's and a pair of 302A's are already way too much for my apartment as it is.

But when I finally get a house, I will start looking for a pair of real Bozaks.:music:
 
Hi,

Excellent speakers these are. The only way you can do better is a pair of Concert Grands. Just make sure you have lots of living room to install them in. They aren't compact! :tresbon: Nice score!
 
The CGs need a small auditorium. Congrats on bringing them back. Many have been destroyed and parted out. I've had mine for about 8 years now and they replaced a set of speakers used in my system for some 30 years. Love them! Yes, they have certain compromises but overall the positives so outweigh the negatives they are still one of the best you can find unless you want to mortgage the house.

I also have a set of 302s and in some ways these are a more practical speaker as they are easier to put into most rooms and not have visitors think you have coffins in you listening room.
 
I would like to update the crossover. One cabinet sounds a tad brighter than the other and I suspect the crossover. Does any know the values to update for a pair of Symphony's? A schematic would help as well. Is it the same as the Pat Tobin crossover mod for the B-302?

Thanks!

John
 
I am bumping this thread back up to the top, because I am trying to add 4 tweeters to my Symphonys; for some reason, they only came with 4 per side and I am trying to figure out how the crossover is loaded.
 
If you series-parallel the 4 tweeters, you would get 8 ohms per side, if they're an 8 ohm driver. Bozak made lots of weird impedance drivers.

I believe that they're series-paralleled in the CG's, but I could be wrong about that.
 
I know I can get 8 ohms with only 4 - 8 ohm drivers; I was hoping to use all 8. I may have to look at adding some resistance. I have been reading over at the Yahoo Bozak group, and the wiring was for 8 - 16 ohm drivers, series/parallel.
 
Ok, so I changed out the paper for the aluminum cone tweeters and wired up the same way. What is interesting is the nominal impedance of the aluminum cone tweeter array is approx. 14 ohms and the paper 13. I think I will be ok running these arrays in parallel, even though the speakers are rated at 8 ohms each and mathematically, this wouldn't work out, but empirically, it does.
 
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