Brunt
Active Member
I just picked up a pair of speakers from someone's garage that have been sitting for about 20 years according to the story.
He told me that his old room mate, a soon-to-be electrical engineer in college at the time, didn't have the dough to get a nice pair of speakers for himself so he made some with whatever money he had at the time and used them right up until he had enough to get some real hifi gear for himself almost 10 years later.
Judging by the quality of the cabinet (at least 3/4" MDF with thick veneer), the driver compliment (including what looks to be a Heil AMT tweeter from one of the studio monitor variants maybe?), and the crossover layout, he did a pretty good job.
I know they need a refoam, but I couldn't resist plugging them in after I figured out what wires go where and giving them a listen. I'm impressed, after 30 years that AMT on top still sings. The midrange surprised me with its detail, no anything to write home about compared to modern drivers but much better than I had assumed a 30 year old paper cone with the whizzer would do.
The bass is pretty bad but I'm going to chalk it up to the horrendous condition of the foam.
A brief rundown of the thing top to bottom:
The AMT is screwed securely via thick MDF struts to a sealed box in which the midrange driver resides. The midrange and tweeter assembly is actually completely separate from the main woofer body and can be moved or placed separated from the woofer. The box that the midrange is in is filled with some kind of insulating material whether its polyfil to increase the perceived volume of the container or something else to absorb the backwave I'm not sure but it's very cleanly and carefully placed to fill right up to the back of the driver in neat sheets the exact height and width of the box. The woofer appears to be a 12 inch polypropylene cone loaded with a 2ish inch forward firing port a ways above it, I haven't see what is inside the woofer portion yet, I don't want to disturb the foam surrounds until I'm ready to dive into these and I have another project in front of them in the line.
What do you all think of this random find of mine? I'm intrigued by them but I'm sure they won't be replacing any of my main system or even secondary. Any thoughts on what I should do with them? I was thinking of just making new grilles, cleaning them up, refoaming the woofers and giving them to a friend in need.
He told me that his old room mate, a soon-to-be electrical engineer in college at the time, didn't have the dough to get a nice pair of speakers for himself so he made some with whatever money he had at the time and used them right up until he had enough to get some real hifi gear for himself almost 10 years later.
Judging by the quality of the cabinet (at least 3/4" MDF with thick veneer), the driver compliment (including what looks to be a Heil AMT tweeter from one of the studio monitor variants maybe?), and the crossover layout, he did a pretty good job.
I know they need a refoam, but I couldn't resist plugging them in after I figured out what wires go where and giving them a listen. I'm impressed, after 30 years that AMT on top still sings. The midrange surprised me with its detail, no anything to write home about compared to modern drivers but much better than I had assumed a 30 year old paper cone with the whizzer would do.
The bass is pretty bad but I'm going to chalk it up to the horrendous condition of the foam.
A brief rundown of the thing top to bottom:
The AMT is screwed securely via thick MDF struts to a sealed box in which the midrange driver resides. The midrange and tweeter assembly is actually completely separate from the main woofer body and can be moved or placed separated from the woofer. The box that the midrange is in is filled with some kind of insulating material whether its polyfil to increase the perceived volume of the container or something else to absorb the backwave I'm not sure but it's very cleanly and carefully placed to fill right up to the back of the driver in neat sheets the exact height and width of the box. The woofer appears to be a 12 inch polypropylene cone loaded with a 2ish inch forward firing port a ways above it, I haven't see what is inside the woofer portion yet, I don't want to disturb the foam surrounds until I'm ready to dive into these and I have another project in front of them in the line.
What do you all think of this random find of mine? I'm intrigued by them but I'm sure they won't be replacing any of my main system or even secondary. Any thoughts on what I should do with them? I was thinking of just making new grilles, cleaning them up, refoaming the woofers and giving them to a friend in need.
