Chicago Telephone Supply CTS Speakers
- Thread starter Wigwam Jones
- Start date
Oh yeahhhh! Those are monstrous. 
They are typically in a sealed enclosure, at least the ones I know. Be careful if running them open baffle, till you find out what you have. Mine are a bit later with different magnets but the cones look the same. If you are going to make enclosures, unless you have the dimensions on the originals, you may want to get the woofers tested so you can arrive at the best design.
They are typically in a sealed enclosure, at least the ones I know. Be careful if running them open baffle, till you find out what you have. Mine are a bit later with different magnets but the cones look the same. If you are going to make enclosures, unless you have the dimensions on the originals, you may want to get the woofers tested so you can arrive at the best design.
I have a good friend who is a bit more informative on everything audio, I love going up to see him, he happens to own some Altec 604's with a couple McIntosh tube amps running each 
he will be testing everything and helping me with capacitor ordering and replacement... I know these are not the flea market find of the century but it's a cool project to keep me busy thanks again to all for the input.
he will be testing everything and helping me with capacitor ordering and replacement... I know these are not the flea market find of the century but it's a cool project to keep me busy thanks again to all for the input.
Awesome. Let us know what you find out.
Gary Mettus
Member
Honestly, I couldn't be more happy with my CTS 15" alnico woofers. They are in a 1969 Westinghouse console I got from my late father. It's the biggest, heaviest console I've ever seen. They sounded ok with the original amp, a little clippy, probably only 30wpc, but I killed the amp with AC/DC's Thunderstruck and it was the best thing that could have happened :-D I found a very clean 1990 Optimus receiver with 100wpc for $15 and hooked it up. Wow, these speakers really came to life. They are loud, clear and there is no need for a sub. No clipping, slapping or distortion. They are paired simply with Oxford horn tweeters (I like these as well) and a 10uf capacitor as a high pass filter. I'm waiting on the mail for new capacitors. From what I've seen the CTS 15" were used a lot in guitar/bass amps and organs due to their full range capabilities and volume.
Don Lubin
Active Member
Back in the 70s, a friend of mine and I decided to build some counterfeit Bose 901s (I already had a real pair of Series 1). I bought a couple of cases (enough for 3 pair) of 4" Bose drivers from CTS in Paducah, KY. My friend built two pair, and being an architect, decided to make some rather elaborate cases using solid birch tops and bottoms. They still look and sound great. I never got around to building my pair but years later my friend's Marantz 250 amp decided to apply full DC supply voltage to one of the channels and smoked it. I donated my unused set of drivers for the repair.
mhardy6647
Lunatic Member
That is, quite literally, how Matthew Polk & company (Polk Audio) got started.
Bose didn't like the homage -- and Polk's "Bozo" loudspeakers were transmorphed into the Polk Audio Monitor Series Model Nine.
modelnine by Mark Hardy, on FlickrThe 4" CTS "fullrange" drivers were, and still are, very nice drivers indeed.
Lavane
Lunatic Member
Ya, those earlier Marantz power amps weren't the most stable. I've had a few. As long as you follow all the service bulletin updates it does go a long ways to making them more reliable though. CTS did make a lot of drivers for various brands. I still have a few pairs of speakers using all CTS drivers.
Don Lubin
Active Member
He gave me the bad 250. It turned out to be the Darlington had a leaky collector-base junction that drove the output stage to the rails. My 250 was an earlier model that did not use Darlingtons. Right now, I've got both 250s but each one has a bad channel. Fixing them is on my to-do list.
Gents i'm in a process of converting a pair of LWE Model 1 speakers, in order not to use LWE feedback. this will probably will require a change in the enclosure size and of-course a new crossover. AFAIC the woofer in this set-up is CTS 15" model 5805026. Where may i find the woofers parameters / specs?
thanks much!
thanks much!
mitchalee
Active Member
My experience is that large magnets are a mixed blessing, the often indicate a loud speaker that can move a lot of air. But they do not always sound good. Several great speakers gave small magnets. Dynaco A25, Design Acoustic PS-10, Morel drivers, many many many others. And many great speakers have huge magnets such as Empire, Electro-Voice, and Pioneer. Other good makes such as Sansui, and Bozak almost always have middle sized magnets.
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If you aren't using the LWE feedback circuit, you can send it to me!