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Speakerlab 7's

J

jaykoly

Active Member
I bought this pair of Speakerlab 7's built from a kit for my stepson's room. I wanted a speaker capable of high output and power handling to handle the rock and metal he likes to listen to. These work. They hit hard and sound excellent for his type of music. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they also sound very good with other types of music. The cabinets were overbuilt, these things weigh 130lbs each! No grills but I think they look good this way. Anyone have any opinions on these?
 

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huge

So, SirByrd...would those be Super Duper Sevens?

Speakerlab are incredible speakers.

Weird company though.

I've never heard a bad pair of speakerlabs.
 
I should add that they will be much improved with a revamped crossover.
Also I found that the Bob Crites CT-125 tweeter sounds as good as or better than the T-350s which you can sell for $400-800 depending on condition and the buyer/forum of sale.
 
T-350s are great when fed clean source material, especially, imho, via tube amps. I have a pair of T350s in my front pair of corner horns. The back pair has the wave aperture tweeters. All four are fed by tube monoblocks.

Is it my memory, or do those cabs look a little taller than a normal Super Seven? I don't remember the 12" woofer being that high off of the floor...
 
They were the kits where you only received the crossover and drivers, the cabinet looks totally home-built.
 
Yeah, I thought they looked a bit different from others I have seen. The extra volume probably gives some useful bass extension too. Hopefully the original builder braced the cabinet internally. I've heard a few 7's and with the right electronics pushing them they sound pretty good, to say the least.
 
Speakerlab 7 Crossovers

Sir.Byrd said:
I should add that they will be much improved with a revamped crossover.
Also I found that the Bob Crites CT-125 tweeter sounds as good as or better than the T-350s which you can sell for $400-800 depending on condition and the buyer/forum of sale.
Click to expand...

Sir.Byrd, Sounds like you are the one to talk to about Speakerlab speakers. I have pair I build 30 years ago and still love them. So much so, I recently bought a second pair. The cabs on these are nothing to write home about so they will become a project. I am interested in improving the cross-over on this new pair. Do you have schematics or parts lists for improved SL7 cross-overs?
Other than the above mentioned Crites are there other upgrades I should consider?
 
You will have to tear yours open to determine the crossover, I am not an advocate of using any parts list other than one you generate from your actual speakers.
I just upgraded all of the parts other than the inductors, and I replaced the l-pads with resistors in parallel with the tweeter and midrange. You will have to determine what level of brightness you like and then measure from that L-pad value.
 
great speakers for pushing your face in. I have a set but my cabs are shorter yet still massive.

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Nice pickup and nice speakers for your son! :thmbsp:

:yes: :music: I think "Huge" is a good description for their physical dimensions and alot of other qualities, see KFA888's comment above: "great speakers for pushing your face in" but these have some staying power, unlike a lot of the big outlandish speakers.
 
Unusual feature is using the Acoustic Suspension model in a relatively large cabinet.

Acoustic Suspension initially made their impact with much smaller ~2ft^3 cabs ("vintage bookshelf" size) or smaller. For example Advents, AR-2s, most KLH's (still have my 5's).

7's have the smoothness of the musical A.S. bass without the usual disadvantage of decreased sensitivity (or occasional compressed dynamics).

That said, much better upstream always gives SpeakerLabs much better sound. 150 clean wpc will 'wake them up'. If your pre has a rumble filter consider pushing that button...acoustic feedback below 20 Hz can rattle your TT right off its shelf. Mini-monitors? Nah, I'll pass, this isn't Kansas anymore*.

My stock SL-7's look like kfa888's set. They made an 'impression' on the Kelso dig...so did Sir's more beautiful restored set.


* Or maybe it is! :D
Kansas_-_Leftoverture.jpg

And Toto too.
 
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Truly a high water mark for the SpeakerLab company! I had the 6 model several years back and liked them pretty well. I did later work on the 7 models and really fell in love with them.. The super 7's were very dynamic with great low end punch. I thought they rivaled the low end Klipsch models and even exceeded the Heresy. If you wanted that big horn sound at a reasonable price then there were your ticket! Hook them up to a big 150+ watt amp and you had something to really show off.
DC
 
Just hooked these up the other day. Got them off CL a few months ago for $250 in excellent shape... I'd say, mint. Very nice looking walnut cabs. Grilles look great. Whoa! These things crank. We all know about the low end, but I have found the mid and high to be very detailed and pleasing...

1067567504_N8jX4-XL.jpg
 
I have the WA version and just the other day was the first time i listen to classical through them off FM solid state and was blown away on the detailed and wonderful bottom end. I always felt they were bass heavy for much of rock n roll, not all, but man do they do classical well. Can't imagine what the tube setup and a classical recording off a turntable would sound like. By the way, great score!
 
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