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Speaker Lab kit speakers circa 1970s -- any info, opinions?

soundweasel

soundweasel

Super Member
A good friend of mine is giving me a pair of Speaker Lab kit speakers he built up in the 70s. He built the cabinets himself (he's now a professional cabinet maker -- high-end kitchens, libraries, etc.). He bought the kit at their Seattle facility (still there, still making kits, now with pre-built cabinets) and says he bought them after comparing them to JBL L100s. Said one of them is now "making strange noises" and his wife just wants them gone. They have been replaced by Cambridge Soundsworks M-80s, a nice bookshelf speaker I also own. I'm going to pick up the Speaker Labs maybe next week but would like to know if anyone has any knowledge/experience/opinions with the 70s-era kits.

Thanks in advance.
 
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I used to go in the Seattle store in the 70"s and after for browsing and advise. I have large Altecs, and on one occasion a tweeter died and they provided the replacement. They are a good bunch of guys in a very competitive market, and their stuff was always good. These were men that built these kits up and not computers. How can you go wrong? Glenn
 
What models were they? If they were the Super 7's or 6's then you really have something!!
DC
 
I have 1s and 7s, great speakers.
Speakerlab used very good quality drivers in their kits, I think you'll be happy with them. And yes, the 6s and 7s are actually worth some $
 
I recently did a complete workover on a pair of Super 7's. Refoamed all 6 drivers with new foam, replaced the woofer area PET stuffing with FG (reduced box Fc 5 hz), upgraded the crossover and rewired it with new connectors for bi-amping.
Additional outcome was a crossover diagram I made during the xover work.
Phase angle and impedance curves where dramatically flattened vs original.
They sounded pretty darn good and tested with a pretty flat response curve.

Interesting driver clamping system unique to this brand.
 
I have a catalog from the early '80's with T/S parameters for all the various drivers, details of the models, cabinet volumes, drivers used, crossover points, etc.

When you get them let us know what model. I may have info for you.

I refoamed my Speakerlab 1008b woofers with a standard 10" kit from Parts Express.

Mine weren't a standard model, but similar to several. It was sketched by Dave Graebner, he sketched the schematic, too. I had ordered a particular combination of drivers with a 12" woofer. He wrote back (this was back in snail mail days) that the 1008b was better than that particular 12" woofer, and only a few dollars more. He said with the 1008b, and the mid and tweeter I had chosen, it was a combo that they had tested before. I think they had the same drivers with a passive radiator in their lineup. Anyway, I built them exactly as he said, and they sounded great. I used them for many years until the mids finally gave up and I was unable to get replacements.

I still use the same Speakerlab woofers and cabs, but with a higher crossover point and a CTS KSN1165a as a mid-tweeter.
 
spkrdtr said:
upgraded the crossover and rewired it with new connectors for bi-amping.
Additional outcome was a crossover diagram I made during the xover work.
Phase angle and impedance curves where dramatically flattened vs original.
They sounded pretty darn good and tested with a pretty flat response curve.
Click to expand...

Tell me more about the upgrade, I have the 7s (not the supers), and I would like to work them over eventually.
 
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I have a pair of .1s that I built in 1978 that I still use today. I paired them with the SL passive subwoofer a few years later, and I still use the combination, although I needed to rebuild the drivers after a bachelor party in 1986. Very nice speakers for the money.
 
Oh wow I used to get Speakerlab's catalogs all the time back in the early 80s! Very interesting stuff in there. But one speaker kit I remember in particular used some kind of special active woofer + "semi"-passive radiator system, I think 10" and 12" respectively. Does anyone know how that worked exactly?
 
I'm a fan

If these truly are built from 70's era kits, I think you'll like these speakers because the entire line from 1's through 7's and K's were/are really nice speakers. I nearly have the entire line of speakers in my house including a couple of pairs of Super 7's and a couple of pairs of K's. I'm a fan. :banana: :music:

I have three Speakerlab catalogs from the late 70's (I'm quoted as happy owner of 1's in the 1976 catalog!), so let me know if there's specific model / info that you're interested in. :thmbsp:

That's a picture of original speakerlab employees from the 70's including 2 or 3 of the founders in my signature.
 
As I recall the Super 7's used their pattented "Nestrovic" woofer system. I think it was the 12" woofer became selectively passive/ sonicly seperated from the 10" driver. The upper end was great with the 8HD EV mid horn and T-35 tweeter. Their home brew WA 4000 tweeter was another great inovation of the day.
Pat Snyder also sponsored some interesting compendiums on speaker therory/ building that I read with interest. I still have them somewhere.
I wished a store like that could offer some great kits again with horn drivers, etc. Speaker lab was a true pioneer of the day and got me interested in speaker building from then on.
DC
 
Great information!

I'm going to see if I can get over to his house and pick them up this week! :yes:

Keep the news and information coming! :thmbsp:

Cheers.
 
soundweasel said:
I'm going to see if I can get over to his house and pick them up this week! :yes:

Keep the news and information coming! :thmbsp:

Cheers.
Click to expand...

Have fun! :thmbsp::music:

Here's a couple of scans from Speakerlab catalogs...that's Pat Snyder in the back row with beard and glasses.

family.jpg

family2.jpg
 
This threadreally brings back fond memories. A friend of mine and I built our own cabinets and purchased several components from Speakerlab. Great people to deal with and they always delivered.Thanks for the pics also.
 
Congrats on getting a pair of Speakerlab speakers, Soundweasel. I have a pair of the S19O (I was told the "O" stands for the oak cabinet), which are a bit later model that I bought assembled in 1983.

It's cool to see those photos and I wish I had kept the catalogs I used to have from those days.
 
RadShak1251 said:
Oh wow I used to get Speakerlab's catalogs all the time back in the early 80s! Very interesting stuff in there. But one speaker kit I remember in particular used some kind of special active woofer + "semi"-passive radiator system, I think 10" and 12" respectively. Does anyone know how that worked exactly?
Click to expand...

They called the large kinda driver on the bottom an Active Hybrid Radiator.

Apparently it was a regular driver that had crossover only for the lowest range where it would work in conjunction with the 10" woofer to extend the range where the 10" would begin to roll off. It was a sort of built in subwoofer with passive components.

Speakerlab 15 was a 2-way, leaf tweeter plus 8" woofer with a 10" passive radiator.

Speakerlab 17 was a 3-way, leaf tweeter, 6.5" midrange, 8" woofer, 10" passive radiator. (same as Speakerlab 15, but with the midrange added)

S300 2-way 3" cone tweeter, 8" woofer, 10" passive radiator.

S500 3-way 10mm dome tweeter, 4" midrange, 10" poly cone woofer, 12" passive radiator.

(This was the model the Graebner more or less copied for me, but less the passive radiator, and with their doped paper cone 10" instead of the poly cone)

Delta I Hybrid Type Five 4-5-way Samarian Cobalt Leaf tweeter, 1.5" large dome upper mid, 6.5" lower mid, 10" woofer, and 12" AHR (Active Hybrid Radiator)

(About the Type Five) "The 10" upper driver operates in tandem with a specialized 12" device called an Active Hybrid Radiator tm (AHR). The AHR employs a unique high impedance voice coil which draws only a specific proportion of the current supplied to the upper driver. This allows the massive 12" diaphragm to remain in phase with the 10" woofer as if the system was a sealed box. This provides the advantages of gradual roll-off slope, better transient response, tightly controlled cone motion and higher power handling below the system cut-off frequency. The AHR device also furninshes the advantages inherent in a passive radiator system of lower tuning frequency, reduced cone excursion and greater system design flexivility."
Crossover freq was 350 hz, 1500 hz, and 8000 hz.

Delta I Hybrid Type Four 3-4-way Leaf tweeter, 4" mid, 8" woofer, 10" AHR

I would guess that the "AHR's" were really just 16 ohm woofers. They are not listed in the driver spec chart.

And thanks for the great Speakerlab "family photos", Speakerlabfan!
 
Thanks a lot Paul for that description. :thmbsp:

I clearly remember that huge Delta 1 loudspeaker, partly because I had never heard of a 5-way configuration. The crossover must have been a nightmare to design!
 
Thanks both to Paul C and Speakerlabfan for the great info and pics. Much appreciated.
 
Re Speakerlabs

This summer I picked up a pair of 7's (not 7S) at a yard sale. They were
in near-perfect condition.

They sounded very nice, so I ran frequency response tests on them and
found that they were far flatter than my Klipsch KG4's in my living room.

So my setup is now 7's as front speakers and Speakerlab 1's as rear channel
with a Dynaco Quadaptor.
 
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