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EMI speakers

motorstereo

motorstereo

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Here's today's pick up at the local thrift. I had no idea what they were but the cabinet construction, weight, and the nice vintage look made me bring them home. Oh the price was right to. Never heard of EMI speakers before but they are very pleasant sounding and all the drivers do work. They seem to be quite efficient. I've only tested them briefly with my 10 watt t amp but that had no problem at all driving them fairly loud. There's a few firsts here for me. First pair of English speakers, first oval speaker and first time I've seen a moving blanket used for speaker stuffing. Does anyone have any experience or info on them? The model number is DLS 529.
 

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EMI has a very interesting history and were apparently the speaker of choice for college students at the time(1960's). I had a pair of EMI's with the oval woofer, but not the dual tweeter setup you have, nor were mine the quality of yours. That oval driver is very interesting, with the inner part of the cone laminated with what looks to be some kind of aluminum coating(I could be wrong about the composition). Regardless, you can see the hefty magnet on the woofer and tweeters, which is a good indicator of the quality. Looks like a very nice crossover and nice cabinets as well! The steep slope of the cone allows the inner part to act as a sort of mid-range. They need very little power to get loud and have limited power-handling, so be careful with the volume control. I'd love to have a pair of those.
 
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Ah yes, the Dangerous Loud Speaker. That is, presumably, what DLS stood for. Well made cabs, odd oval woofer and (fairly) limited response tweeters. They should render voices and strings quite well, just don't expect too much from that woofer below 50Hz or so. As I recall, the woofer was some type of composite (aluminum sandwiched, pulp fiber?) that was supposed to allow it to act as a mid as well. Cool find.

Dave
 
EMI is a british company. The DLS series were the (ahem) 'Dangerous Loud Speaker', so called because they would embarass any of the competition. Didn't seem to be an effective marketing ploy because too many buyers listen with their eyes and not ears -- they looked at that elliptical driver, and the realistic specifications, and thought car audio and went and bought something else with a round woofer and overstated specs. But the EMIs are very nice sounding -- the elliptical woofer spreads cone resonances, and the central dual layer construction damps resonances and provides pistonic motion at higher frequencies.
Probably worth replacing the capacitors in the crossover -- I think they are old electrolytics.
 
Hmmm; "Dangerous Loud Speaker" now that's a new one on me to.
Yes Nat a recap is definately on the to do list should I keep them. The highs are there but they're certainly not sparkling highs. I'm thinking my sansui 1000a should be a pretty nice match up for these guys. They have somewhat of a laid back sound to them that is very easy to get to like. Can't keep em all but these might be sticking around for a while
 
Hey Kreichenbach, pm me -- I have one that is just used as a night table and it would work fine without the tweeters.
And what is a kreichenbach, other than a word I made four errors in when I spelled it the first time?
 
Three of us in CT with EMIs (I have a pair with the coaxial tweeter) -- is this a trend?
 
I have a set of those - a neighbor has them on loan. I never recapped them, but they are remarkable speakers (to my ears) for instrumental timbre. They get it just right! Enjoy them!
 
Must've been an outlet here in Ct. for 3 of us to acquire these somewhat rare speakers.
My 2nd coat of Danish oil is almost dry now and it's almost time to find out what these guys really sound like.
 
Got around to hooking them up today to the 1000a. The bass is surprisingly good. The highs are there but it does sound like they could use a recap before I put them into service. They're not party pounders along the lines of the hpm series but they're not harsh or unpleasant at all to listen to. Another big surprise is WAF on them is quite high.
 
motorstereo said:
Got around to hooking them up today to the 1000a. The bass is surprisingly good. The highs are there but it does sound like they could use a recap before I put them into service. They're not party pounders along the lines of the hpm series but they're not harsh or unpleasant at all to listen to. Another big surprise is WAF on them is quite high.
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That blond veneer and tan grill combine for a really nice look in a quietly classy way - I like their looks too.

Very tidy wiring system inside & even the xover box looks like care was taken in its design.

How large is the woofer and the tweeters? Do the grills come off?
 
Yes the cabinets are exceptionally well made. The mesh grilles don't come off. The woofer is an 8"X13" oval and the tweeters are 2" cones I believe. I was also surprised to by how neat it is inside the cab.
 
motorstereo said:
Yes the cabinets are exceptionally well made. The mesh grilles don't come off. The woofer is an 8"X13" oval and the tweeters are 2" cones I believe. I was also surprised to by how neat it is inside the cab.
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Thanks for the info.

Last time I saw oval drivers being used was back in the late 90s, in the Boston Acoustics VR940 tower and a very large but thin 3-way center channel the VR920 (I own BAs myself, bought new).
 
IMF also uses oval drivers and they're supposed to be excellent speakers. I have no first hand experience with them but I sure would like to.
 
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