Open Baffle Epiphany!

[bigaltx24]

My amp has been on for about 20 minutes, tubes should be warmed up. Time to go spend an hour or two in Zenith heaven.

 

[valvenator]

I'm completely and totally baffled now.

I have a quad receiver and have constructed 4 small open baffle speakers with 8" Heppner speakers removed from some vintage electric organs. Space constraints limit the room I have. I use a Polk subwoofer to provide bass for my system.

I have A/B'd these speakers with some production speakers and these sound better to me.

Thanks to all posters who have introduced me to open baffle speakers.

Below are some pics... one showing the rear speakers behind my listening chair, and the other showing the fronts.
View attachment 957798 View attachment 957799 View attachment 957800

Those look very similar to Heppner (correction: ROLA) speakers I've been using in my small guitar amps, also pulled from organs.
They were used for the reverb section of the organs. Got a pic of the magnet assembly?
If it's the same driver then I understand why they've just about disappeared from theBay.
I like them so much I buy one every chance I get. Guess the cat's out of the bag, eh?
edit: errr, nevermind, I went back a few pages and found the ones you bought, similar, but a bit different from mine, which are ROLA's BTW and not Heppners.

BTW, I'm not sure if there are certain qualification and criteria to be met, but from all the hits it gets and the info posted I'm kinda' surprised this thread isn't a sticky.

 

[jelly_bean]

Those look very similar to Heppner speakers I've been using in my small guitar amps, also pulled from organs.
They were used for the reverb section of the organs. Got a pic of the magnet assembly?
If it's the same driver then I understand why they've just about disappeared from theBay.
I like them so much I buy one every chance I get. Guess the cat's out of the bag, eh

Yeah, they look very similar. Do you know if they are able to pull full range duty? I'll be running it with a sub, but would be nice to not really need a tweeter except for the high end shimmer. I'm just really curious to see if these drivers are really all that different from each other.

Heres the magnet and rear end

 

[hnash53]

Yeah, they look very similar. Do you know if they are able to pull full range duty? I'll be running it with a sub, but would be nice to not really need a tweeter except for the high end shimmer. I'm just really curious to see if these drivers are really all that different from each other.

Heres the magnet and rear end

View attachment 957926

The number on my Heppners is 24398.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/62-VINTAGE-...386606?hash=item4b18d876ee:g:uX4AAOSwGJlZMJzl

The smaller speaker for sale in the above listing are the ones I have. I have a spare pair... though one of those was damaged by yours truly in a careless moment.

All mine were sold to me as "full range." Indeed, they may not be. But I don't detect any loss of audio quality when I A/B these against other speakers. I thoroughly enjoy them on a daily basis.

The magnet assembly is alnico.

And yeah,... the view is killer.

 

[hnash53]

And just a further comment, I found that if I turn off the subwoofer, and then turn on the LOUDNESS, that the bass is pretty decent until I turn it up too loud. And by loud I'm talking 85 dB or so. But at lower levels and with the loudness ON, the sound is really pretty good.

But my sub adds so much. Still, sometimes I switch off the sub just to hear the OBs.

 

[valvenator]

The backs of those 8" Heppner's and my 8" Rola's look different but the cones are identical.
Makes me wonder if they used the same supplier or if they were both under the same owner.
8" Heppener VS 8" Rola

 

[valvenator]

All mine were sold to me as "full range." Indeed, they may not be. But I don't detect any loss of audio quality when I A/B these against other speakers.

They are " full range" for their intended purpose. Most electric instrument speakers don't go much above 5K since the frequencies above that range can be harsh, even grating.
As for the low end, guitar speakers drop off at around 80hz, organ speakers probably lower, though those 8" speakers were mostly used for reverb so they most likely do't go much lower than that.

 

[jelly_bean]

The backs of those 8" Heppner's and my 8" Rola's look different but the cones are identical.
Makes me wonder if they used the same supplier or if they were both under the same owner.
8" Heppener View attachment 957953 View attachment 957954 VS 8" Rola View attachment 957956

I could be wrong, but I think Cleveland, Rola, Magnavox, etc all made the a version of the same speaker design specs that were required by the organ manufacturer. I think there was an earlier post (on this thread I think) that gave correct info about deciphering the codes on the cone and also had something to do with the date they were built.

But who cares? As long as they sound good right?
(I kinda care, I like learning about the old stuff that people forget about. It all has it's place in audio history)

 

[valvenator]

I could be wrong, but I think Cleveland, Rola, Magnavox, etc all made the a version of the same speaker design specs that were required by the organ manufacturer. I think there was an earlier post (on this thread I think) that gave correct info about deciphering the codes on the cone and also had something to do with the date they were built.

But who cares? As long as they sound good right?
(I kinda care, I like learning about the old stuff that people forget about. It all has it's place in audio history)

Doesn't hurt to know. There are plenty of guitar players chasing down old alnico Jensen's for instance.
But there are many Rola's of the same build and quality they overlook because of name (un)recognition.
As in the case of the Zenith's there are many great sleepers out there.

 

[jelly_bean]

People pass on the Rola, and pay double or triple for the one that says Jensen on it... They don't bother to look and see it's the same thing.

I guess people bought the name back then, just like they do today...
Of course not to diminish the fact that Jensen made stellar stuff back in the day.

 

[valvenator]

I was told (though never verified) that for a while both Jensen's and Rola's were built by the same manufacturer.
Possibly to the same specs too since both were used by the same company, Hammond in this case.

 

[Poultrygeist]

I'm completely and totally baffled now.

I have a quad receiver and have constructed 4 small open baffle speakers with 8" Heppner speakers removed from some vintage electric organs. Space constraints limit the room I have. I use a Polk subwoofer to provide bass for my system.

I have A/B'd these speakers with some production speakers and these sound better to me.

Thanks to all posters who have introduced me to open baffle speakers.

Below are some pics... one showing the rear speakers behind my listening chair, and the other showing the fronts.
View attachment 957798 View attachment 957799 View attachment 957800

Very nice. With that great porch I'd build some outdoor OB's with aluminum cone drivers.

 

[Poultrygeist]

Celestion, a British company has been making speakers for over 90 years. You see tons of them on the bay and they're very popular as guitar speakers and their price reflects it.

 

[hnash53]

Very nice. With that great porch I'd build some outdoor OB's with aluminum cone drivers.

Thanks. I have a Pioneer quad unit that drives 4 speakers on the deck outside. Two of the speakers are outdoor Yamahas, and the other two are some regular Sony speakers I refoamed and couldn't get sold, so I use them outside.

I live on the Oregon coast, and no ****.. we got 14 feet of rain from Oct 1, 2016 to April 30, 2017 this year. The Yamahas take the brunt of this onslaught, but the Sonys are well under cover and have held up pretty well. If/When any of these go, perhaps I'll do something like what you suggested.

 

[Poultrygeist]

Thanks. I have a Pioneer quad unit that drives 4 speakers on the deck outside. Two of the speakers are outdoor Yamahas, and the other two are some regular Sony speakers I refoamed and couldn't get sold, so I use them outside.

I live on the Oregon coast, and no ****.. we got 14 feet of rain from Oct 1, 2016 to April 30, 2017 this year. The Yamahas take the brunt of this onslaught, but the Sonys are well under cover and have held up pretty well. If/When any of these go, perhaps I'll do something like what you suggested.

Holy cow. I bet you never water your grass.

 

[ABSOLUTT]

ESS AMT5, Sonido 175, RFT 3702. 1000/8000 Hertz.

 

[essNeff]

Nice "Tombstone" look.

 

[Poultrygeist]

Love the decoupage. Several years ago I bought a jar and had planned to do some baffles in old sheet music but instead I went with wall covering. Works better than trying to paint MDF.

 

[valvenator]

Love the decoupage. Several years ago I bought a jar and had planned to do some baffles in old sheet music but instead I went with wall covering. Works better than trying to paint MDF.

Yeah, that does look pretty cool. At first glance I wasn't sure what I was looking at.
I think ebony/piano black would have been a better matching stain for the bases though.
I think the mahogany red (my favorite color) actually looks out of place here.

Just my personal opinion, and hell no I ain't no fashion designer

 

[ABSOLUTT]

Hi! Really I did different speaker systems, generally in classical option of dressing. Here I decided to try a decoupage. It is necessary to tell that the decision interesting... It was necessary to paint acoustics with a varnish. A classical look of course good option and more neutral, but it became boring for me from usual decisions.
I recommend to untie loudspeakers from a board and to suspend them for the center of weight. You are surprised, ANY loudspeakers will sound how more purely!