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Speakerlab 7WA. A hundred pounds of pure eighties attitude

lattiboy

lattiboy

Well-Known Member
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(The 7WA completely overshadowing Klipsch Quartets, being looked over by Polk Monitor 10s)

I went through the agonizing decision of driving across the mountain pass on my day off over in dollars and sense, but thought the folks over here might be interested in them.

My very limited time with them review:

First off, they weren't kidding about the 98lbs. Fitting them in my Subaru was... interesting, and I think I'll be soaking in a tub the next week or so to fix my back, but they fit.

I happened to have picked up some Klipsch Quartets (behind the 7WAs) the other day. The Klipsch are very, very, very nice speakers, but they sound like kids toys compared to these monsters. You need at least ten feet of distance from the 7WAs to really hear them, but when you hit the sweet spot it is overwhelming.

Also, 4 ohms! I've never had a speaker bigger than a small bookshelf at 4 ohms. Still ate up the power from the SX-1080 like a champ.

I really don't care for horns, but whatever weird configuration these guys have might make me a convert. It's not nearly as bright as I'd expect and it works really well in concert with the subs and tweeters. I haven't played around too much with the selectors on the back, but I think I can dial it in further.

The BASS! Sweet gawd the BASS! With the SX-1080 having tone disabled they damn near shook pictures off the walls at 11 o'clock! It's for sure not as tight as some other speakers I have, but it ain't sloppy and boy does it produce!

All-in-all they rawk.

Here's some video of them making the Bad Plus shake my garage:

 
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Those are sweet!

You planning on cleaning up the glue around the drivers?
 
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Mark B said:
Those are sweet!

You planning on cleaning up the glue around the drivers?
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I dunno. I have the grills and I'm pretty sure that is the factory sealing. Not looking to mess with these too much. They are ugly as hell when naked though.

I'm just mad I got the black grills instead of the red or blue they show in the catalog!

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Interesting that this would come up right now. Cool that there are 2 of us a continent and an ocean apart that just bought a pair of these rare birds.

Think about how rare these speakers are right in the heart of the PNW. Now ask yourself what are the chances that a humble Bratwurst would be able to find a pair over here in Germany. But 2 days ago I did find and buy a pair, for the princely sum of €111 plus €30 for shipping. I'm so worried about the shipping that I actually paid the guy an extra €20 for the shipping and begged him to be careful about the packaging. I'm going to be on pins and needles until they get here.

I can hardly wait to audition them sitting next to my 3rd gen ribbon S7's.

Hey spkrdtr, yes, I would very much like to have a copy of your schematic. That would save me the time of working it out myself.

Cheers,
James
 
Bratwurst7s said:
Interesting that this would come up right now. Cool that there are 2 of us a continent and an ocean apart that just bought a pair of these rare birds.

Think about how rare these speakers are right in the heart of the PNW. Now ask yourself what are the chances that a humble Bratwurst would be able to find a pair over here in Germany. But 2 days ago I did find and buy a pair, for the princely sum of €111 plus €30 for shipping. I'm so worried about the shipping that I actually paid the guy an extra €20 for the shipping and begged him to be careful about the packaging. I'm going to be on pins and needles until they get here.

I can hardly wait to audition them sitting next to my 3rd gen ribbon S7's.

Hey spkrdtr, yes, I would very much like to have a copy of your schematic. That would save me the time of working it out myself.

Cheers,
James
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That's insane! Both that you found a pair AND that somebody would ship these even 10 feet for thirty Euros!

I see still see some Speakerlab stuff in the area at estate sales and on craisglist, but I've never seen 7 or 7WAs for sale before.
 
The red grills are swwweet indeed!. There is a guy (probably more then one),
that sells JBL grill cloth colors on The Bay.. The red is sooo nice. Food for thoughtsss!.
 
lattiboy said:
That's insane! Both that you found a pair AND that somebody would ship these even 10 feet for thirty Euros!

I see still see some Speakerlab stuff in the area at estate sales and on craisglist, but I've never seen 7 or 7WAs for sale before.
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When they get here I'll start a thread for them. A restoration is planned but will be most likely a somewhat slow and long term project, mainly because I can only afford to take small steps money wise. In any case we can share thoughts and info as we go. Should be fun. With any luck we will draw in the few other members that have some of these beasts and make a party out of it.

Cheers,
James

edit: btw, yeah, €30 to ship 2x 41 kilo speakers is/was a fantasy. I'm exchanging post with the seller and it looks like the cost will be more like €80. No problem, for the price that I paid for the speakers I'll pay the extra shipping costs. Fair is fair and one doesn't always have to be inflexible.
 
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Negotiations with the seller are complete, the speakers and shipping are fully paid for and he has promised me a quality packaging job. Next week they should be on the way. Now comes the tight sphincter time until they get here and I find out if the promise was kept. I'll start a thread when they get here.

So Lattiboy, please give us your extended impressions now that you have had some more time. Also, will you be recapping?

Cheers,
James
 
Bratwurst7s said:
Negotiations with the seller are complete, the speakers and shipping are fully paid for and he has promised me a quality packaging job. Next week they should be on the way. Now comes the tight sphincter time until they get here and I find out if the promise was kept. I'll start a thread when they get here.

So Lattiboy, please give us your extended impressions now that you have had some more time. Also, will you be recapping?

Cheers,
James
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Glad you got it worked out!

I'm not one to really take a bunch of notes on a speaker, but I will say they're very, VERY bass heavy. I would advise some EQ-ing to turn down the bass a bit.

It's not as open sounding as my Klipsch Fortes and not quite as detailed. Somehow though, it sounds BIGGER. Like a PA speaker more than a home audio speaker. I think you'd want the largest possible listening space for them. My garage is about 20'x30', but my usual work location only gives me about 10' from where my speakers are setup to listen. You can just begin to hit the sweet spot of these at 9' or so. I think if you had 12' or more it would be much better.

All in all, I think they require more space than I am capable of giving them for regular listening and may end up selling them. It's a shame, because they are incredibly unique and powerful.
 
I watched your vid, it looked like the mid was switched to the -4db position. I'd suggest tipping that back up, and, based on my experience with my 3rd gen ribbon S7's, get the speakers 4 inches or so up off of the floor. In spite of being so called "floor standers" my 7's sound much better a bit up off of the floor and with some damping material between them and the stands.

Cheers,
James
 
add extra stuffing inside the cabs to lower the Q. this will give slight bass extension as well. i use Acoustastuf from PE. it really is great.

follow the suggestion about getting them up off the floor a bit, too.
 
nexus said:
add extra stuffing inside the cabs to lower the Q. this will give slight bass extension as well.
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Good advice! I should have thought to mention it because doing that really did help my S7's. The kits came with enough Dacron to give them perhaps a 50% fill and I used them that way for 33 years. End of last year I tossed the Dacron and gave the cabs an approx 90% fill with good old fibreglass matts. It made a nice improvement, tightened up the bass and made it all around nicer. I'm very glad that I did that, especially considering that it only cost me something around €5 to do.

Cheers,
James
 
The silicon holding the drivers in is standard Speakerlab assembly.
Don't bother trying to "clean it up".

The 7WA are rare around here because two flippers that used to live here sniffed out a lot of them and parted them out.
And at the size and weight of them, I wonder how many were actually produced.

I know of one pair being used in a large warehouse and they actually sound pretty good.
Most the what I've heard in that place was actually pretty bad, just because of the room, not the speaker.

I agree, you probably want to stand back a little when using them.
They are damn near commercial PA type in performance.

Speakerlab woofers are some of the best I know of.
They used really good drivers in all their stuff.

The whole "glued up box" thing is odd since Seattle is home to some fine woodworking.
But, I think it was all about the music and not about the furniture.
 
Bratwurst7s said:
I watched your vid, it looked like the mid was switched to the -4db position. I'd suggest tipping that back up, and, based on my experience with my 3rd gen ribbon S7's, get the speakers 4 inches or so up off of the floor. In spite of being so called "floor standers" my 7's sound much better a bit up off of the floor and with some damping material between them and the stands.

Cheers,
James
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blhagstrom said:
The silicon holding the drivers in is standard Speakerlab assembly.
Don't bother trying to "clean it up".

The 7WA are rare around here because two flippers that used to live here sniffed out a lot of them and parted them out.
And at the size and weight of them, I wonder how many were actually produced.

I know of one pair being used in a large warehouse and they actually sound pretty good.
Most the what I've heard in that place was actually pretty bad, just because of the room, not the speaker.

I agree, you probably want to stand back a little when using them.
They are damn near commercial PA type in performance.

Speakerlab woofers are some of the best I know of.
They used really good drivers in all their stuff.

The whole "glued up box" thing is odd since Seattle is home to some fine woodworking.
But, I think it was all about the music and not about the furniture.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I rarely see Speakerlab stuff around here, which seemed odd to me. A few dedicated pickers would explain that.

I generally don't like parting out speakers, but I think Speakerlab might be the exception as their boxes are all kind of.... ugly and bad. I don't plan on doing that to mine, but I see the logic. The parts would probably be better served in a nice cab, and if I'm not mistaken these were originally offered as kits.

I hooked them up again last night and confirmed that about 10-12 ft is the minimum listening distance for these guys, which is too bad because I just don't have that kind of space. Adjusting the mids did help some with the overwhelming bass, but I'll need to find some kind of solution to get them off the ground. They're too deep for my built-in shelf, and I don't have stands that could safely support 100lbs.
 
I think they were supposed to sit on the ground.

There were kits and kit plans and factory builds and whatever they decided to do on any particular day.
I've seen so many differences in them that I have no idea what was factory or what was kit.

They had a lot of driver options too so things changed around.

Some of the real early crossovers look like some mad scientist nightmare.

Given the time period (early 80s?), to be in "period" you should pout them on cinder blocks for stands.
Hang some macramé art around the room.
Get a Lava lamp, burn a lot of candles. Maybe some incense or weed.
Tie Dye would go well.
Maybe a spinny light show or mirror ball and colored spot lights.

Sit in a hot tub and grooooove baby.
 
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