Electro Voice Royal?

[Gavelini]

I was blessed with a free speaker yesterday. Corner type cabinet. 3 ft. tall. 2 ft wide. ~20" deep. Label on front is "Electro Voice Royal". Looks like 15" driver with horn. Electro voice crossover and adjustment knob on side. Will try to send pics. I can't find any supporting documentation, specs, manuals, etc.

I haven't tried to open it up yet.

Any comments or ideas? Possibly built from kit?

Thanks in advance!

 

[alteclipsch]

The Royal was an EV-built cabinet in blond or mahogany, designed for the EV 15" woofer and/or 2 or 3 way systems or any speaker the owner wanted to install. The Royal II was the same cabinet with EVs installed.

 

[Gavelini]

Thank you sir! What time period would we be talking about?

 

[alteclipsch]

I believe late 50s or early 60s. Before stereo was popular, hence lots of singles out there (also before ZIP codes. The attached ad has a zone in the address, so pre-1963). I had a pair of the Royal II that had the 15SP, T250, and T35, in which cats had destroyed the cones. I was going to install Altec/Heathkit AS101 guts in them but life got in the way and I had to move them along. Wish I still had them. Here's what I had envisioned.

 

[alteclipsch]

I by the way, opening them up is a little tricky. The front trim comes off by sliding it down the channel. There is a bottom piece holding it together. The guy I got mine from had pried the trim off, destroying the channel.

 

[Anti_Skate]

Looks like the Aristocrat only bigger.

 

[grindstone]

There might be a cleat under the bottom of the grille frame retaining it, or perhaps angled screws in the grille frame itself. Once removed, it should slide downwards for removal if it's factory (or faithful to it).

It's my understanding that the I's were whizzer-only single driver speakers across EV's lines then, the II's added a high frequency driver and may/not be a different woofer. In this case, if EV & whizzered (look through grille with flashlight), it's an SP-15 "Radax" (EV's word for that) aka "Super 15". If original EV and including a HF unit, it will likely be a T25 on an 8HD horn. The XO shown on the bottom + the knob appear to indicate you have the 2-way "Royal II", so the XO would likely be the X8. The woofer would then be either the SP-15 or 15W. For posterity, the "III's" would have added a T35 tweeter and an X36 XO. These are low power speakers (15W rated 35 watts max, 50 peak--when it was new) and should not be pushed hard--the drivers will not be made again and there are no "recone kits" for the woofers, etc. By current standards, they will have "no highs" (drop like a stone after about 10kHz+) even if everything works correctly. At the time, however, they were advertised as meeting the Academy of Motion Pictures specs for small theaters (and +/-5dB was a reasonably decent claim). It could be quite nice sounding given those limits.

Alteclipsch is right that the cabinet design was sold as able to enhance "any 15" driver", so likely others could have had anything in them, but what we can see from the preceding looks EV so everything from that instant will be 16 ohm parts.

Royals appeared commercially in Spring '52 when EV was still at least partially at Carroll St., but their production lifespan is unknown (appears quite short). There was an enormous amount of speaker development at EV in the early 50's and most (all?) of those people have passed so we may not find that answer anymore.

Royals are almost exactly 1.25-scaled Aristocrats. If you do open them, pics would be great. Dimensions were included in Bulletin 183, but the original prints were not scanned with the copies made by EV. Royals were not offered in "kit" form to my knowledge, but surely people DIY'd them from the plans. Your grille moldings would have me leaning that they were factory, but I can't swear to the grille cloth (alteclipsh may know). It's likely a Mellotone fabric (Mellotone "Millitone" was used in later Aristocrats) and something close would be available (if a little pricey) from the same company should you choose to copy it and make another with more current parts.

In case it's not known, these were corner cabinets where room corners were part of the design and corner placement is necessary to achieve the highest efficiency & best low frequency response. They were often called "folded corner horns" in their contemporary marketing (that was a Feature made possible by paying Klipsch a licensing fee for two patents in a cooperative driver development & manufacturing agreement whereby Klipsch could buy EV drivers and EV could sell speakers). Almost everything EV sold in the very early '50's was called that, too, because Klipsch was TheThing from late '40's for a good while.

Did you get any story or history with it?

 

[Sq1]

Go mono, good amps can be pretty cheap and sound great.

 

[Gavelini]

@grindstone

"...By current standards, they will have "no highs" (drop like a stone after about 10kHz+) even if everything works correctly..."

I played with the speaker some more today, slowly getting back around to it. Definitely see what you mean about "no highs". I am wondering if the crossover should be replaced and or the high frequency horn to something more current. The adjustment knob on the side doesn't appear to cause any change.


"...Did you get any story or history with it?..."

No, I did not get a story other than someone's husband had gotten it and never did much with it. Incidentally, this was located just 1/2 hr. from Buchanan, Michigan - its original birthplace!

Thanks for the comments!!

 

[alteclipsch]

@grindstone

"...By current standards, they will have "no highs" (drop like a stone after about 10kHz+) even if everything works correctly..."

I played with the speaker some more today, slowly getting back around to it. Definitely see what you mean about "no highs". I am wondering if the crossover should be replaced and or the high frequency horn to something more current. The adjustment knob on the side doesn't appear to cause any change.


"...Did you get any story or history with it?..."

No, I did not get a story other than someone's husband had gotten it and never did much with it. Incidentally, this was located just 1/2 hr. from Buchanan, Michigan - its original birthplace!

Thanks for the comments!!

So what do you have inside that cabinet? Crossover will definitely need work.

 

[Gavelini]

any recommendations for what to do with crossover(s)?

 

[alteclipsch]

That looks like a pretty standard EV 3-way load for those cabinets, except I think that woofer must have been reconed. My crossovers were open affairs, everything was exposed, so I don't know what's inside what you have there, mine were likely older and the woofers were SP15.

They actually should sound a bit on the bright side, at least that's the experience I've had with the T35 tweeter, to the point of being shrill. If crossed over correctly, they can be tamed. The mid horn will be nice, the woofer should be great (and go deep).

 

[grindstone]

Thank you for the pics--much-appreciated. And yes I was referring to the II with only the mid-driver and horn.



You should have more than that with your 3-way III version.

Yeah not the earliest ones but still good stuff. If you can get a clear pic of the back of the numbers on the back of the control, that should get you a date. Is that the cast horn or fiberglass? The vented cap and cone code look reasonable to me for a 15W-1 but maybe one of the pros cares to comment.

EV was among the first to be using film caps. That doesn't mean they can't be a little polite even if everything is working right but maybe it's not completely getting signal through a dirty pot. Oh no you moved the pots! (only kind of kidding) Is it any better if you get down lower (like where the highs are firing at your knees)?

Opinions will vary, but here's how I'd think of it--like an early 50's car you just hopped into. Most of us beyond a certain age would tread lightly (do no harm, etc.).

I've unpotted those XO's, but, at this point, I'd leave them alone--the world isn't making them anymore and someone will want them if you don't. Again, opinions will vary and it gets into money to scratch-make those things so I'd try to verify what's working and not and defer the decision. You can try to run some jumpers around the pot. If that gets you more HF sound, then you can clean the pot and see what you have after that. Mids will be louder/unbalanced w/o the pot, but you should be able to put a paper towel tube or something close to the tweeter to see if it that bit is better.

Sounds like you have good chances of it not being mis-treated, though.

OTOH, if you are old like some of us, maybe it works fine and you need a teenager to test it Looks like they use 17.4kHz in the UK to stop looting
https://news.yahoo.com/high-tech-anti-riot-gear-144600486.html

Thanks again for the pics. Please keep us posted.

 

[alteclipsch]

Thank you for the pics--much-appreciated. And yes I was referring to the II with only the mid-driver and horn.

View attachment 2541550

You should have more than that with your 3-way III version.

Yeah not the earliest ones but still good stuff. If you can get a clear pic of the back of the numbers on the back of the control, that should get you a date. Is that the cast horn or fiberglass? The vented cap and cone code look reasonable to me for a 15W-1 but maybe one of the pros cares to comment.

EV was among the first to be using film caps. That doesn't mean they can't be a little polite even if everything is working right but maybe it's not completely getting signal through a dirty pot. Oh no you moved the pots! (only kind of kidding) Is it any better if you get down lower (like where the highs are firing at your knees)?

Opinions will vary, but here's how I'd think of it--like an early 50's car you just hopped into. Most of us beyond a certain age would tread lightly (do no harm, etc.).

I've unpotted those XO's, but, at this point, I'd leave them alone--the world isn't making them anymore and someone will want them if you don't. Again, opinions will vary and it gets into money to scratch-make those things so I'd try to verify what's working and not and defer the decision. You can try to run some jumpers around the pot. If that gets you more HF sound, then you can clean the pot and see what you have after that. Mids will be louder/unbalanced w/o the pot, but you should be able to put a paper towel tube or something close to the tweeter to see if it that bit is better.

Sounds like you have good chances of it not being mis-treated, though.

OTOH, if you are old like some of us, maybe it works fine and you need a teenager to test it Looks like they use 17.4kHz in the UK to stop looting
https://news.yahoo.com/high-tech-anti-riot-gear-144600486.html

Thanks again for the pics. Please keep us posted.

I'm not a pro, but I've not seen a vented EV woofer among any of those I've seen over many years. Most of them have the EV logo there. Maybe the dust cap was replaced, that paper really gets brittle.