Richard Allen speakers. help ident usefulness.

[treserious]

Hi there, I just picked up a pair of cabinets that house a 3 way speaker system with a boxed crossover.

all the components are 15 ohm Richard Allen Yorkshire England.

12" - "golden twelve" woofer
8" - "golden eight" mid?
model 410T tweeter
model c.n 1284 crossover

both the 12, and 8 are suffering from foam surround rot.

the magnets appear to be suffering what looks to be a yellowish oxide, so I am reluctant to do anything with these, as it could be cadmium oxide....

how can I handle them safely?

is it worth restoring these?

whats the terminology on them mean "total flux 182,000 lines" etc.?

 

[treserious]

ok, so 56 views later, and not a peep.

I guess they're not desirable.

 

[Redboy]

ok, so 56 views later, and not a peep.

I guess they're not desirable.

Or no one knows anything about them. I desire them, but I know nothing.

Those look like high quality components, Ture. I'm not sure where else to ask your question, but someone out there surely knows something about them!

Don't chuck them in the bin just yet...

 

[Redboy]

I'd guess you already contacted the Richard Allan company?

http://www.richardsradios.co.uk/rallan.html - toward the bottom of the page...

 

[merrylander]

Only just now saw this. I had a pair of Richard Allen 10" wide range speakers that I built into bass reflex enclosures. I would vacuum off as much of the yellow stuff as possible then give the magnets a coat of spray lacquer. IMHO they are certainly worth re foaming.

 

[Dan ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ]

Only just now saw this. I had a pair of Richard Allen 10" wide range speakers that I built into bass reflex enclosures. I would vacuum off as much of the yellow stuff as possible then give the magnets a coat of spray lacquer. IMHO they are certainly worth re foaming.

Agreed, but wear a mask when you do. You never know when that stuff may be carcinogenic (as in cadnium).

 

[Rolf Zetterberg]

What you have is probably some version of the Richard Allan "Pavane".

http://www.coolcat.dk/bjoern/Richard_Allen.jpg

http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Maxwell.htm

 

[treserious]

the foams on these are weird.

It's flat, no roll.... do replacements exist for that?

I did find a different model 12" on ebay, and the guy is asking 300$ for it.

If it is cadmium - do it with a clean vacuum cleaner bag and a brush - wear goggles, dust mask, and gloves - cadmium is very toxic.

eesh.

usually I avoid anything that has that much "hazmat" requirement.

I wear gloves while soldering, and keep my solder in a bag, and take it out with hemostat clips, and hold it with them....lead is best avoided.

 

[hifi_nut]

In the 70´s Richard Allen became famous with his metal coned 5 cms ( 2" ) drivers.

Plenty of DIY designs based around those in the UK then.

However, I had never even heard of the speakers shown here untill now.

 

[Plitron]

Hi there, I just picked up a pair of cabinets that house a 3 way speaker system with a boxed crossover.

all the components are 15 ohm Richard Allen Yorkshire England.

12" - "golden twelve" woofer
8" - "golden eight" mid?
model 410T tweeter
model c.n 1284 crossover

both the 12, and 8 are suffering from foam surround rot.

the magnets appear to be suffering what looks to be a yellowish oxide, so I am reluctant to do anything with these, as it could be cadmium oxide....

how can I handle them safely?

is it worth restoring these?

whats the terminology on them mean "total flux 182,000 lines" etc.?

Those speakers are awesome, I'll take them off your hands. lol:yes:

SEE LINKS:



http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread/t-33249.html

http://www.richardsradios.co.uk/rallan.html

 

[karlo]

the yellow crud is likely sulphur from corrosion (oxide) of zinc plating on the steel .
i wouldn't eat the stuff , but i wouldn't break out the hazmat suits and
respirator ,either. i've removed it from many a speaker with steel wool
and wd-40 .

whats the terminology on them mean "total flux 182,000 lines" etc.?"

i believe that's the strength of the magnet (gauss)

 

[treserious]

the yellow crud is likely sulphur from corrosion (oxide) of zinc plating on the steel .
i wouldn't eat the stuff , but i wouldn't break out the hazmat suits and
respirator ,either. i've removed it from many a speaker with steel wool
and wd-40 .

whats the terminology on them mean "total flux 182,000 lines" etc.?"

i believe that's the strength of the magnet (gauss)

sulfur deposits part of the zinc oxide?

I don't know very much about metal plating, so I have no clue what, if anything sulfur has to do with zinc plating

 

[Chazb11]

You should try calling Cleckheaton 2442 for more info.

They certainly look worthy of a restoration. :yes:

 

[ArtD]

The big Richard Allan drivers (12" and over) are generally extremely efficient, well over 100db at 1watt/1meter. If you tried on an English classic audio site you would probably have a lot more responses. Here in New Zealand they were regarded as a quality products.

 

[Nat]

Warfedale who pioneered foam surrounds used flat isocyanate, which was very flexible and well behaved, but unfortunately over time decomposed like nobody's business. RA may have used similar foam. Just replace the surrounds with standard curved foam, and see how they sound. Probably pretty good -- RA was (and still is, I think) a capable company, just less well known than some others.
That yellow stuff is on a huge number of old drivers, and if it were toxic, AK wouldn't exist -- we'd all be goners.

 

[Borbus]

I had a set of these, recently sold them because I had no use for them. Mine has the "Super 12" instead of "Golden". The drivers were fitted to a home made cabinet with what looked like a home made crossover. I've attached some pictures for anyone interested.

 

[Arkay]

The larger Richard Allen drivers generally go for about $50 a pair or more here on the audio dealer's/wholesale night market, and sell pretty fast when they appear. They would sell for more in stores. They are not as sought-after as, say, Fostex, but still well-enough respected for what they are. Pretty clean-sounding, in a "British" way. In complete speakers with multiple drivers like you have there, I'd expect a pretty good sound, well worth keeping. :yes: :thmbsp: