Criterion speakers- heard of them?

[thedelihaus]

Seen some pics of Criterion speakers, big 3-way units. Anyone have info on these? I can't decide if they are hi-end or hokey.

 

[Don C]

Sold by Laffayette Radio. Most are hokey.

 

[Toasted Almond]

Yup, Lafayette's house brand. For some reason, the woofs are always okay. Expect the tweeter and mid level controllers to be inop. Can't handle a lot of power. They are okay for the garage.

 

[Mr Natural]

Yeah, Cecil sold alot of those!! :

 

[wineslob]

Dident these use Herald (sp) drivers?

 

[emaidel]

Having worked for Lafayette for 14 years, I'm certainly familiar with the Criterion lineup of speakers. Most are not particularly good, but many were good for the money. Where else could anyone get a speaker that actually sounded good for only $29.95?

The initial post says "big" 3-way speakers. How big is "big?"

Up until the mid 70's, all Criterion speakers were made in Japan. Then, for a couple of years, they were made in America and had CTS drivers, foam grilles that usually fell off, and horribly finished cabinetry. This lineup was designated with each model number yielding three numbers: the 333, 555, 666 and so on. The 666 and 777 were actually pretty good speakers., at $79.95 and $99.95 each.

Then, around '75, the 2001 was introduced, and was made by Utah. It was designed to sound more like BIC speakers than the previous, triple-digit lineup, and actually received a "Best buy" rating in Consumer Reports. Utah couldn't keep up with the demand, so its successor, the 2001+, was sourced again from Japan.

ESS made a number of Criterion speakers too, but they were all 2-way systems. Most ESS-sourced Criterion speakers were petty good values, and sounded fairly decent.

 

[thedelihaus]

The Criterion speakers I mentioned were advertised with little info. By "big" i mean big to me for box speakers which is 12" woofers, or what appear to be 12" woofers, and cabinets that most 3 way units with 12" woofers are sized to. The woofers had text spelling out CRITERION around the woofer cone. Sans-serif font somewhat modern-looking.

thanks AK members for all the neat info you supplied on these.

 

[emaidel]

For whatever it's worth, those are amongst the newer Criterion models. Likely American-made, and with little attention to sounding accurate, but instead, with the characteristic bumps and valleys many consumers liked at the time. Stay away fromo them.

 

[gonzothegreat]

I found a pair of Criterion four ways at GW today. The cabs had wood veneer and the 12" woofer had what looked to be a milled aluminum basket with cork damping around the dustcap.

Unfortunately, I hadn't read this thread so I bought them
Fortunately the store has a 7 day return policy

The woofer looks like a take on the AR3 woofer with the damping around the dustcover and the aluminum basket. Too bad the 2" voicecoil only has a tiny alnico magnet to play with. I've seen bigger magnets on some cheap 6.5" drivers I pulled out of my Heil Fortura 8s.

At the top of the baffle is a cheap looking cone midrange. On top? Baffling...

The tweeters are where this box goes kabuki. Four, count 'em FOUR tweeters surrounding the woofer. Two are generic cones but the others are some weird silver tweets that I can't tell if they are domes or just cones with a cosmetic grille. This speaker must have been designed by somebody whose ears were down by their ankles. The first speaker for crickets?

Cab is fairly standard - light, no internal bracing, fiberglass filling. Cheap push terminals on the back.

I usually try to give speakers a chance to perform but in this case I'll make an exception - they are JUNK. Don't waste your money. They wouldn't be worth half the $30 I paid for them.

 

[Mike Stehr]

Find the Criterion 100B model bookshelf speaker, pull out the ten inch woofers and throw the rest away.

Put the Criterion 100B 10" woofers in about a 4 foot cabinet, tune it to around 35-36Hz. Throw in a bit of polyfil.

I never listened to any of the other Lafayette/Criterion brand crap that is out there, but these little 10" woofers with the stiff cone dig right on down.

They can be run full-range, but do need a helper tweeter. The midrange is a little on the dry side and a bit agressive. Which makes some music sound good, some other recordings not so good.

I paid 10 bucks for the first pair of woofers, and then won a listing for a pair of the 100B bookshelf speakers for 40 bucks.

Cheap enough to find for the DIY'er of a real limited budget.

The bass is the strong suit, in the larger cabinet. They can mosy right along with a 12" or 15" with regards to lower bass.

Mike

 

[gearhound]

I have a pair of 10" Criterion Alnico woofers.
I put them in a large AS enclosure, with 6 1/2" E-V Alnico mids, and Foster horn-loaded tweeters.
Came out quite good actually.

Steve

 

[zenith2134]

I have a pair of Criterion 30 ' s which only take 30 watts of 'music power', which translates to peak of course. They have a great sound, due to their boxes construction, but work best with low powered tube amps, Guess thats what they were originally intended for . . .

 

[wineslob]

Thinking back, my father owned a pair of the 8" woofer models (2-way). Muddy bass and rotten top end (paper cone tweet) Surprisingly, the cabinets were well built.

 

[Jace]

I owned a pair of Criterion VI's in the 70's. They were 6 way.
I thought they rocked back then, but what did I know I kept them until the early 90's.
I think I paid about $150 for the pair.
That's an old Fisher 1000 amp, Noresco tuner and a Dual 1214 TT.

 

[Jcricket]

I picked up a super, dinky, tiny pair of criterions, model 20a. They are really cool looking bookshelfs. So far the best sound I get out of them is when they are turned off. uke:

Mark

 

[ponderbear]

I bought a quad of Criterions that were about the size of AR-4xs (I think the model Wineslob mentioned) because I couldn't resist the sparkly grill cloth. But they sucked, badly. Insufficient bass, unremarkable highs.

But now that I've read the dope on Minimus 2s, I wonder if the woofers were just too old and stiff to extend properly.

 

[zenith2134]

Darn, those are some complicated 6-ways! Cool pic though.

Since this thread I found another pair of 30s in the trash but they sound awful. One woofer is rattling, but the surround is fine. IMO, the best part of the Criterions are the cabinets.

 

[jgmacv]

I picked up a super, dinky, tiny pair of criterions, model 20a. They are really cool looking bookshelfs. So far the best sound I get out of them is when they are turned off. uke:

Mark

:lmao: I have a pair of Criterion 60s that I feel the same way about.

 

[foredavid]

I bought a pair of Criterion 2001A speakers and compared them to a set of Bose 301 series II. The Crits sounded much better but they don't compare to my Cerwin Vega D5-E. I would say they are the 40 bucks I have invested.

 

[cyro]

I scored a nice pair of Criterion 100A's with the killer 10" alnico woofers. Got them home & found that only one tweeter worked, but someone had added an extra vintage Pioneer bullet tweeter to each. The sound was unbalanced, with only one bullet tweeter in one & a bullet & the original in the other. I set them aside. A week later, I was fortunate to receive for free, a vintage pair of JBL Decade 36's. Both woofers were rotten & blown. I remembered the Criterions, pulled the 10's & installed them in the JBL's. WOW!!! Now you JBL freaks may knash your teeth & pull out your hair & mount a lynch mob to my house, but the Criterion woofers are excellent!
FYI: This same woofer worked great in my Fender Super Champ XD.