Nestorovic and Speakerlab fans

[sc427]

For all you Nestorovic and Speakerlab fans. Mile Nestorovic worked for several of the big names back in the day. Fans have researched that he worked for McIntosh and Carver . In the late 70's he went to work for Speakerlab. After that he formed his own company Nestorovic Labs building boutique speakers taking his designs to higher and higher levels.
I just found out that he worked for or was owner of Electro Acoustical Labs in the mid 70's. He patented his woofer system in 75' so these were probably his first attempt with the system. I've seen pictures of a model that is a dead ringer for a Speakerlab 30.
He also made a model called the New Yorker. The closest to compare would be a Nestorovic Labs system 12 only in a single cabinet. Or similar to a Speakerlab 50 . The New Yorker has 2 -12" drivers , an 8" mid bass , 3" or so dome and a ribbon style tweeter. The crossover is definitely not as sophisticated or as complex as his later work.
I will get to go listen to these hopefully this coming week. My buddy Paul at The Loudspeaker Store just got them in for repair. He is pretty much the go to guy for Nestys and Speakerlab and he has only recently discovered what is probably Nestorovics first attempt using his woofer patent.
I'm curious to hear them and I'll give my impression hopefully soon. I've got Speakerlab 50's and have listened to several type 5 Nestys so I'm eager to compare.

 

[sc427]

I finally had a chance to listen to them today. First impression, they share a sound with all of the "Nestys". A previous owner had replaced the original dome tweeters with foster leafs but didn't change the crossover. Paul padded them down and got them sounding better. I did notice that the mid tweet and or mid bass drivers were very " hot". Paul agreed and was going to shoot them to confirm and then pad them down as well.
The bass.... typical Nestorovic bass , tight and deep. He was always experimenting with different driver treatments and these have a vinyl product applied probably to add mass.
The cabinets do have a slope to them but not quite as much as my Speakerlab 50's. The internal volume is a little smaller than my 50's but they have 2-12" drivers vs a 10" and a 12" of the 50's. Hard to say but they might have a little more bass than the 50's but I'd need to bring my 50's to Paul's and AB them.
It is amazing that Mile knew what he wanted a Speaker to sound like and spent his career just perfecting and fine tuning them. I'd like to own these but I think they will sell for more than I would want to pay.

 

[chowder857]

Beautiful speaker. I have always wondered how a woofer can be active and passive at the same time, because the two modes would have the opposite phase. I mean that it seems that in active mode, a paired woofer would push outward at the same time as the other woofer, but in passive mode, it would act like a passive radiator and be sucked in when the other woofer is pushed out. So how do those two things (active and passive) happen at the same time for different frequencies and power levels?

 

[Mike Newm]

Hi my name is Michael Newman, my father was Herbert Newman he was a partner of both Mile Nestorovic and Richard Modaferri in EA Labs from1973 till about1979 when Mile left NY to go to the west coast on his own. My father met them when he was a customer of McIntosh in the late 60's. At some point Mile invited him to his house where my father heard a pair a speakers, that Mile built for himself, fell in love and then went after Mile to leave Mac and start a speaker company. The speakers were a joint design of Richard and Mile, with Mile being the lead designer, They started selling them in 75 at Leonard Radio on Warren Street in NYC, and they were built in Richard's basement in Binghamton. I was the truck driver, actually it was a van. The ea patent was for the phase shift bass, once Mile left they made an agreement that both Mile and my father and Richard were both allowed to use it. So while Electro Acoustics Labs was predecessor to Mile's future endeavors, it was also the predecessor to the company my father and Richard formed Modaferri Labs. It was then that Richard developed the infinite slope crossover that was first licenced to JS Engineering then later to Joseph Audio. A good friend of mine has a pair, that he bought from my father about 25 years ago, of the Ea labs bookshelf speaker, called the Tiny Boxes.
I'm glad people remember this great product.

 

[kfa888]

Hi my name is Michael Newman, my father was Herbert Newman he was a partner of both Mile Nestorovic and Richard Modaferri in EA Labs from1973 till about1979 when Mile left NY to go to the west coast on his own. My father met them when he was a customer of McIntosh in the late 60's. At some point Mile invited him to his house where my father heard a pair a speakers, that Mile built for himself, fell in love and then went after Mile to leave Mac and start a speaker company. The speakers were a joint design of Richard and Mile, with Mile being the lead designer, They started selling them in 75 at Leonard Radio on Warren Street in NYC, and they were built in Richard's basement in Binghamton. I was the truck driver, actually it was a van. The ea patent was for the phase shift bass, once Mile left they made an agreement that both Mile and my father and Richard were both allowed to use it. So while Electro Acoustics Labs was predecessor to Mile's future endeavors, it was also the predecessor to the company my father and Richard formed Modaferri Labs. It was then that Richard developed the infinite slope crossover that was first licenced to JS Engineering then later to Joseph Audio. A good friend of mine has a pair, that he bought from my father about 25 years ago, of the Ea labs bookshelf speaker, called the Tiny Boxes.
I'm glad people remember this great product.

That is so cool, thanks for sharing.

I have some big old Speakerlab 7's with the early Nestroovic bass alignment and it does in fact make amazing bass.

 

[StimpyWan]

I've never even heard any Nestorovic designs, but for whatever reason, I've always lusted after a pair. Speakerlab or Nestorovic. There's even a 12A System at auction (not mine). They'd be nice to own, but they're listed at a too rich for me price!

Thanks for the original post too. It must be awesome to be near The Loudspeaker Store! Audio nirvana.

A question too. I was always curious as to the dome midrange that Mile used? It looked similar in most of his designs. Does anyone know the brand and part number? Just wondering.

 

[bimasta]

I don't know that midrange driver. If it helps, I use the Vifa DM75 3" dome, now made by Scanspeak. It's a classic, and Scanspeak was wise to continue it after taking over Vifa. It has a great range — 600 to 6,000 — and on the DIY speakers I just made, I let it run as high as it can go; at that point it just trails off.

The silk dome has such a low effective mass, it's indistiguishible from the tweeter in terms of detail and "air", except the tweeter of course can continue into the higher frequencies.

And subjectively, it's the most "musical" mid I've tried. String tone, from Violin down to Cello, is just "right", and female singers from Nina Simone to Julie London have enough "feeling" to bring tears.

This doesn't answer your question, sorry, just a plug for the driver I discovered recently and fell in love with.

 

[damacman]

Some great stuff here. Many of us Mc nuts consider the MI350/MC3500 to be the pinnacle of tube amplifier design - Mile's work - and the MR78 to be among the finest tuners made - Richard's work.

Only recently have I become aware of such speaker designs.

 

[StimpyWan]

Any where on line to find documentation for Mile's speaker designs?

 

[Mike Newm]

Any where on line to find documentation for Mile's speaker designs?

 

[Mike Newm]

So I contacted my friend who has the ea labs bookshelf speakers to take some pictures. He told me if he upgrades one day, I get the speakers. Hope you like the pictures.

 

[egellings]

Speakerlab and Nestorovic advertised in The Audio Amateur Magazine of long ago.