Hi all, I've recently acquired a set of Philips SM800F speakers. These are 3 way speakers made in Canada for Philips Canada during the 1970s. On some songs they sound incredible, most notably acoustic songs. Just wondering if anyone knew anything about them as there seems to be little I can find online. Thanks!
Question about Philips SM800F speakers
- Thread starter Cslumkos
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I’m really just wondering if anyone has heard of these and had any thoughts about them. I bought them largely for the looks (my wife likes the JBL look but not the price). The grills were redone by the person I got them from. I had a local tech add some binding posts and redo a couple of caps.
swechsler
Frog Whisperer
I've never heard of them. Based on the driver complement (specifically that large cone tweeter), I wouldn't expect much in the extended high range. Otherwise they look like pretty generic speakers from the era, probably manufactured by the same sort of company that made "house" speakers for the larger audio chains. These manufacturers typically didn't sell anything under their own brand name. It's telling that it's made for Philips, since Philips was making their own speakers as well back then, and it's possible that they were looking for an "economy" series that they felt they couldn't produce profitably themselves.
Some other tells: the midrange cone has a glued join rather than a fully formed cone (although this wasn't uncommon at the time, particularly for lower priced speakers), and the woofer has a pretty small voice coil.
Having said that, you said that you like the looks and sound of them, which is obviously a positive. Do you have any other speakers to compare them to? If so, see how things like snare drums and cymbal crashes sound.
Some other tells: the midrange cone has a glued join rather than a fully formed cone (although this wasn't uncommon at the time, particularly for lower priced speakers), and the woofer has a pretty small voice coil.
Having said that, you said that you like the looks and sound of them, which is obviously a positive. Do you have any other speakers to compare them to? If so, see how things like snare drums and cymbal crashes sound.
Thanks for the feedback folks. On songs that they sound good on, they sound very good. Other songs though they seem to be a bit flat. My previous speakers were so,e Monitor Audio Monitor 100s, which are two ways with a 6.5 inch woofer. They sound really good, but I need to push them in order for that to happen. I was looking for something that would sound better at lower volume as well. I figure I might have overspent on them - $200 - but I also figure I was paying for the aesthetics as well. My wife says she likes the sound of these better than the previous ones though. That said, she does have partial hearing loss (not saying this as a joke) so there are certain frequencies that she cannot hear so the sound signature of these might be more up her wheelhouse.