Lafayette 1003 speakers

[bluepine27]

Hello all,

I’m at a friend’s house and from the corner of my eye to the corner of his work bench in the jam room I saw these Lafayette speakers sitting there. Rated for 30 watts. Anyone know any details about the quality of these or what they’re worth if working?

The surround is completely wrecked and mostly torn out like they were going to put in a new surround but didn’t put one in.

also any reputable places to get surrounds? This is 8 in as noted on the back.

 

[swechsler]

Don't know them. Most Lafayette speakers were nothing to write home about. If you want to take a few minutes out, you can search the annual equipment directories of Audio Magazine (1974 onward, October; before then, September) to see if you can find their specs.

 

[peteCWA]

Hello all,

I’m at a friend’s house and from the corner of my eye to the corner of his work bench in the jam room I saw these Lafayette speakers sitting there. Rated for 30 watts. Anyone know any details about the quality of these or what they’re worth if working?

The surround is completely wrecked and mostly torn out like they were going to put in a new surround but didn’t put one in.

also any reputable places to get surrounds? This is 8 in as noted on the back.

The 1000 series of speakers came out with Lafayette's last catalog. They weren't great; at best fair, but you could use them as a chair substitute.

 

[bluepine27]

The 1000 series of speakers came out with Lafayette's last catalog. They weren't great; at best fair, but you could use them as a chair substitute.

Thanks for the update. I think these speakers should have been free and not 10 bucks but I would like to try and get them working again and cleaned up as a means of practice.

 

[bluepine27]

the capacitor being hooked up like this

Are wires soldered into these speaker clip/hook ups or just pinched in? Got new capacitors for these speakers since i was ordering some for other speakers of the same value anyways. I didn't know if i should just fly with these weird hookup as connection from the capacitor lead to the actual speaker hook up?

 

[goodolpg]

If working now, hook up in the same manner when you replace the old capacitor. Make sure the leads don't touch other wires.

 

[bluepine27]

Swapped in the new capacitors and they’re sounding better than when I first tested them out after refoaming them. I was trying to push the bass and couldn’t get much out of them with it fully cranked and I feel like I blew the one tweeter on the left speaker but not fully, just a lil more quiet than the other speaker and lil more fizzy.


I basically had to just crimp a piece of the connector piece with the wire and capacitor lead smushed together inside it. But as far as I can tell, they sound good and are sounding the same. Have them both on the left side of the A and B speaker channels so I’m getting the same content. The bass is a lil more responsive and more detailed. Still have to crank the bass a lil to get anything out of it but not full crank now. The tweeters sound better I think too? Not as crispy and sizzly on “s” sounds or in general. Less abrasive. I did jam my finger into the one tweeter cone fiddling with it and ripped it a tid bit. It doesn’t seem to effect the sound greatly or at all? I compared them back and forth and I can’t hear much of a difference at all.

Do torn tweeter cones matter? I’ll send a pic tomorrow but it doesn’t seem terrible and I also can’t really pinpoint a hard difference between the two.

also I felt like I blew the one speaker just a little bit and was surprised that changing the capacitor on both got them to sound the same as I can hear it. Same output and I think the same sound? Any testimonies on capacitors doing this? I know it’s recommended to change them out in old speakers but didn’t know what they could or couldn’t do

 

[goodolpg]

It sounds like you are asking for more bass than they can deliver.
The torn tweeter is probably not performing optimally, but then it probably wasn't all that great to begin with.

 

[bluepine27]

I listened to an old Louis Armstrong tape I have and thought it sounded ok enough to give back to my friend. I could feel the bass more across the room. It does feel like horns/brass through these speakers could get fatiguing after a long listen. Tonight's the Night by Neil Young was sounding particularly good through these speakers. I think whoever dubbed the Type II tape had some good clear, punchy bass when they recorded it and started to revive hope in the speakers bass abilities.