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Goodmans speakers- help identify please

Theron D

Theron D

Active Member
Any help identifying these very old Goodmans speakers as the tags in the back are missing the model type...greatly appreciated! British made, 3 way, beautiful walnut, large bookshelves (heavy). They do work fine (previous owner played them for me.) Havent hooked up at my house yet to see how they really sound. 16 ohm so thinking of hooking up to a small tube amp. Cant really get grills off either to inspect...74949470-0D7A-40BC-AFD0-76E2E8BE44FC.jpeg 501F363C-B1B1-44F0-9253-44B4B5941367.jpeg 774E1680-A336-46A9-8B31-1A92B91878AC.jpeg D9AB6539-AEB3-4386-9FC6-E5699D97756B.jpeg BB3E834E-AD6F-482E-A736-C8DBAA28A7A3.jpeg
 
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My grills were nailed in place. It took a bit of looking and prying to get the grills off. But they came off in the end.
 
RTally said:
My grills were nailed in place. It took a bit of looking and prying to get the grills off. But they came off in the end.
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great info! thank you!

the dimensions of my unknown Goodmans is 14”x12”x24” exact dimensions 32lbs each
 
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As one of the resident Goodmans fanboys, let me say nice score.

Your units are different than the EE line which RTally and I own, a lower-cost line made in the US from CTS drivers with a Goodmans label. Your were made in England, and 16 Ω, so that rules out the EE line

The grillcloth is wrong for the later units like Magister, Minister, etc.

Given these are 16 Ω, were made in England, and have the older labels, It may be you have something nice inside.

Is this a three-way or a ported speaker? Can't tell if the circle on the upper-right is a tweeter or a port.

Cutting off the backs, as RTally above explained, is your only option. The crossover capacitors are degrading the sound. Also, some of those lines ran full-range drivers with a tweeter.
 
Retrovert said:
As one of the resident Goodmans fanboys, let me say nice score.

Your units are different than the EE line which RTally and I own, a lower-cost line made in the US from CTS drivers with a Goodmans label. Your were made in England, and 16 Ω, so that rules out the EE line

The grillcloth is wrong for the later units like Magister, Minister, etc.

Given these are 16 Ω, were made in England, and have the older labels, It may be you have something nice inside.

Is this a three-way or a ported speaker? Can't tell if the circle on the upper-right is a tweeter or a port.

Cutting off the backs, as RTally above explained, is your only option. The crossover capacitors are degrading the sound. Also, some of those lines ran full-range drivers with a tweeter.
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wow thanks for the detail...one of the labels indicated 3 way so not ported. Dont know if this thickens the plot or not?

Also the person i bought from said they spent “a lot” “hundreds” on them and Im assuming this was 60s/70s. Im in contact with this person so will see if more detail can be found to help solve this
 
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If it is a three-way, you may need to rebuild the crossover.

Some Goodmans units entirely omitted inductors from crossovers, running woofers and midranges full range, using only a capacitor to control the starting point for the midrange. Relying on mechanical limitations was not the best approach.

The Goodmans tweeters suffer from the typical limitations of cone tweeters. I'm going to someday redo mine with supertweeters, converting the units into four-ways. (Band-pass the existing tweeter like a midrange, and then add a supertweeter above that.)

The non-ported Goodmans are nice speakers. You might have something magickal inside them. The fact that it's 16 Ω, coupled with the round label, suggests it was an older speaker from the early 1960s, and not one the lower-cost lines.
 
Retrovert said:
If it is a three-way, you may need to rebuild the crossover.

Some Goodmans units entirely omitted inductors from crossovers, running woofers and midranges full range, using only a capacitor to control the starting point for the midrange. Relying on mechanical limitations was not the best approach.

The Goodmans tweeters suffer from the typical limitations of cone tweeters. I'm going to someday redo mine with supertweeters, converting the units into four-ways. (Band-pass the existing tweeter like a midrange, and then add a supertweeter above that.)

The non-ported Goodmans are nice speakers. You might have something magickal inside them. The fact that it's 16 Ω, coupled with the round label, suggests it was an older speaker from the early 1960s, and not one the lower-cost lines.
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Ill let you know what I find out! I dont want to cut into the backs but if they are as old as we all think this will have to be done ( down the road). First will listen and see how they sound. Ive got a 100w Rogue Cronus amp but need to switch output transformer from 4 ohm to 8ohm. Its somewhat of a task! Not a simple toggle switch. When I auditioned at the sellers house, they were thumping!
 
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The capacitors are degraded and ruining the sound of the midrange and tweeter.

Plus, covering the midrange will prevent cross-modulation and will clean up the sound.
 
Retrovert said:
The capacitors are degraded and ruining the sound of the midrange and tweeter.

Plus, covering the midrange will prevent cross-modulation and will clean up the sound.
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good point! will do and document!

Im surprised this model is so rare or at least nothing I can googje so far...
 
thinking out loud....drill small hole in back to use an endoscope LED camera (~$35 on amazon) see whats inside ie maybe audiom51 driver?
 
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more info from original owner...
He bought them in late ‘60s early 70s for $120. Was a trade plus the cash for the pair of Goodman’s. He said they were high end speakers and back then $120 was a lot for him. Came from one of the stereo houses that were big back then.
 
Whatever drivers are present, the degraded PIO or, worse yet, non-polar electrolytic capacitors are ruining the sound.

Cutting the backs off is likely the only option. RTally and I discussed this in the thread he posted. It's the only practical option. It is unlikely that the drivers are front-mounted, so even with the grillcloth removed no access to the crossover will be possible. Whatever sound you now hear is nothing like what these will sound like with new capacitors.

It is possible to talk oneself into anything as being "correct". Just look at all the fake art the Getty Museum purchases. But speakers with degraded capacitors always sound better with new, polypropylene ones installed.
 
Ha, I saw those on Facebook marketplace ...listed as Perry Hall location IIRC. Bargain asking price, and cryptic as the Goodman's name wasn't listed in the ad.
 
Ohighway said:
Ha, I saw those on Facebook marketplace ...listed as Perry Hall location IIRC. Bargain asking price, and cryptic as the Goodman's name wasn't listed in the ad.
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yes the gentleman that sold them is downsizing and moving to a small apt. Nice fella.
 
Ahhh, that provides something to go by. Nice work, 70's Rockfan!

From the very limited information I have — I do not have any brochures from this line, only some photos of the speaker's fronts without grills, no photos of the rear — the Perfectionist series was built with a 12-inch woofer, lacking either decoupling rings or a whizzer cone, run full-range combined with a 3-inch cone tweeter to pick up where the woofer is mechanically limited. My guess based upon what appears in other Goodmans units of the time, is that it only uses a capacitor for the tweeter. This will require replacement.

Check to make sure you don't have a port on the upper left or right side. I suspect you have a port you think is a speaker. Try shining a flashlight into both smaller regions.
 
Hooked the Goodmans up to a Musical Paradise MP301 using some Blackburn made EL34s. These speakers have got great pinpoint clarity! Two way, one of holes at top is a port.I noticed one of the tweeters is weaker than the other when using hand over front driver test.... so yes going to need to recap.

Surprised actually in my listening spot (10-11 ft away, Im not hearing any rolled off or under blanket feel. They have good bass but nothing like my Klipsch Quarters -which is not a fair comparison. So far, impressive...backs are going have to come off as they should anyway. maybe a smaller mini circuiar saw
4CFFA186-D2AF-4AB4-A6B1-42E5DA80584F.jpegAA3AFFEC-02FB-4737-9B68-8C00BA3F559B.jpeg
 
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