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Help identifying speakers and such?

B

BlueRaven

New Member
Hello All.

I have a small collection of speakers that I don't have much info about. Can anyone help me with identifying the Zenith speakers of what I have? Would they be considered high, low or medium range quality etc? I can add more details as needed.
 

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All I can offer is interpretation of some date codes.

The woofers were made by Chicago Telephone Supply (CTS) in June of 1968. 49-1045 is most likely Zenith's part number for these.

The Foster horn tweeters were made in April of 1968. They too appear to bear a Zenith part number, 49-1042.

If the twin midrange units have any writing on back, it could offer a clue to their manufacturer.

Have no idea how they rank in relative quality. Were these pulled from a Zenith console?

( And welcome to AK! :) )
 
Last edited:
Looks like they were pulled from a console.

CTS were used in all sorts of speakers - they can sound very good.

These in the right sized box may sound very good.
 
The Foster horns have a following and can stand up even today in the right design, so I've heard anyway.

The other ones do not look like much to write home about. If you did want to do a speaker project with these, it would be a great learning experience, but don't expect earth shattering bass.

Actually I'm surprised the woofers have a whizzer cone when there is also a midrange driver. But they did all kinds of things back then.
 
Oh, one more thing. Some people like open baffles for these old console drivers. If the original cabinet was open or perforated with a lot of holes, chances are the drivers will work well in that scenario. Also very easy to build.

The crossovers however are virtually nonexistent so you'd need something new there.
 
Stuart Pedaso, yes they have writing on the back but the picture was blurry so I didn't include it. Once I get back to the office where they are stored I will upload a photo of them. Yes it was an old console that I tore apart several years ago. I still have the record player and other odds and ends that I can't identify either. For a later post. Thank you for the welcome. I'd like to expand my knowledge where I can.

SiliconTi, okay thank you.

toxcrusadr, okay noted about horns, speaker project building, and crossovers.
 
The 49-1045s are full range and sound good in open baffles. They actually dig pretty deep bass wise. In this type of setup the horns are the mids and the little 3" are the tweeters. As was said before the horns are decent if you like horns. IRRC the tweeters are like 42 ohm and only rated to single digit power handling, not really worth messing with.Any modern $5 tweet will sound better.
 
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