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Sony apm?

N

nissan guy

Super Member
How can you tell which models of sony apm's are the better versions with rubber surrounds? All the seller has is a small pic which is hard to see exactly which model they are.

Are their any easily recognizable features by looking at the grills color, badges?
 
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The ES line are uniformly very good. Most have rounded edges on the front baffle. Very heavy cabinets, very inert. I had a pair of the 22 ES. 7.5 in. woofers with 1 in. flat-piston aluminum tweeters. Orange logos. Excellent speakers. I believe the surrounds were rubberized fabric. The single digit APMs are the top-of-the-line series. Very large, very heavy, very expensive. There is a series made in England that have rubber surrounds and aluminum dome tweeters. Conventional, black ash cabinets. Good speakers as well, but not on par with the others previously mentioned.
 
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Here are the pics.
sonyapm.jpg

sonyapm1.jpg
 
They are about the right size and shape for the 33ES, which is a nice speaker. Too bad the grilles weren't removed.
 
I know. Its quite a drive for me to find out. But for a few mcdonalds meals they could be mine + gas money of course.
 
Those are definitely APM-33's, circa early-mid 80's. Very solid, cast aluminum baskets, thick cabinets. Only downside is the woofer surrounds are probably rotted away by now. Very laborous to replace since no one manufactures replacement surrounds for the square drivers.
 
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Of the few models I've seen - the APM's!

Only the APM 22ES have rubber surrounds - The rest including my APM 33w's use foam.

The foam degrades and cracks with age - it gradualy starts at the curved corners and one day the bass just disappears, and you know you're surrounds have dis-integrated into little flaky pieces of dry foam............................

It's a sad feeling!! specially when you open up the front panel to find out why? and see daylight streaming through openings that were once covered by foam.
 
Only the later APM-22ES and APM-66ES have butyl rubber surrounds. The earlier APM-4, 6, 8, 33, 55, and 77's all used foam rubber surrounds. Some of the later and lower, less expensive and cheaply constructed models such as APM-690 and 790 which were sold with rack systems used cloth-impregnated surrounds.

My 5-channel system uses APM-77W's for the mains, APM-22ES's for the center channel, and APM-66ES's for the rears.

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cool pic!

Someday I will open one of these threads to find out that the foams have been remade for my 55s.....

A fella can dream can't he?
 
I just chucked the parts from a set of 33's. I still continue to seek out some mids and tweets from the 55's.
 
Apm

ARRAY....a recent search on ebay has a set of 33 tweeters selling for 100 bucks!!!

FWIW, the surrounds on these can be made using a mold and liquid latex. I've had a pair of 33 reparied using this method and sonically they are very close to a set of rubber 22s.

What you do is use pipe or wooden dowling in the size and shape of the surround roll. Cover it with gauze and then apply numerous layers of liquid latex until you get the desired thickness. It works even though it is not the prettiest.
 
Hi Krimney, I've seen whole intact 33 pairs sell for $50. I'd paid about that for mine in the hopes that the tweeters were the same as the 55 model, but unfortunately weren't. They're nice but I couldn't be bothered fixing them up - too many other things to do. You're still looking for some 55 mids / tweets on my behalf I hope!
 
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always looking...

I'm always on the lookout for APM stuff. I don't think I've ever seen a 55 though. Have seen 66 and have owned 22/33/77 but the 55 must be rare. guys probably either didn't have alot to spend so bought the smaller ones, or if they had the $ they went with the larger ones.
 
I bought my 55s in the BX in the England. I never saw any other models besides the 22es which I also bought, with the stands.

I think the 77s went over the size limitations to get to the outlying BXs or in the service man's hold luggage shipments. That's my guess anyway.
 
DCinDC said:
cool pic!

Someday I will open one of these threads to find out that the foams have been remade for my 55s.....

A fella can dream can't he?
Click to expand...


they have, or rather a chap in France is making them but from fabric - look and behave near identical. he spent a fortune on the plates to make them so they are expensive, i will try and find contact info
 
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The SGD said:
they have, or rather a chap in France is making them but from fabric - look and behave near identical. he spent a fortune on the plates to make them so they are expensive, i will try and find contact info
Click to expand...

Aha! Power to him - I was at one point going to mill up several different sizes from cloth and make a market offering but then (thankfully) returned to my senses. Here's hoping he lives to 100 to recoup expenses. I think sales for that guy are going to be slow and painful, much like the fellow in Australia who currently offers one size APM cloth. Most vintage audio hobbyists will not pay any kind of money for that type of product and only owners of models 77 & up would give it hard consideration.
 
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