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Stephens trusonic Low-boy cabinets,,Score!!

hunter00

hunter00

Super Member
Just got in with my latest score...a pair of early 1960's Stephens Tru-sonic low-boy cabinets in excellent condition.These are stuffed with Stephens top
60's era Drivers...W150 woofers/8m midrange and 5KT bullet horn tweeters...
These were a rare find and of course luck was on my side..
Just hooked up to my Fisher mono's/400c pre and the smiles hard to get off my face!
 

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Oh wow. Did Stephens even make it into the 60s? Almost everything I see of them is mono era.
 
And then? THERE THEY ARE !!! Holy fnorking moly batman, congratulations!

I would have those. Nice badges, by the way.

Biggles
 
You should hear these bigs..effortless/smooth detail and these Stephens 15 in woofers dig deep! Torroidial bullet horn is fantastic,Just a deadly pair of speakers!
 
Sam Cogley said:
Oh wow. Did Stephens even make it into the 60s? Almost everything I see of them is mono era.
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From reading what I can find Robert stephens died in 1957 but his company continued well into the 60's.Ive got a photofact showing these speaker components as their top 3 way system available in the early 60's with a price of around 269.00 u.s without cabinets with their 12 inch woofer and 8 inch woofer systems somewhat less.
Alnico magnets on these w150's are inpressive,the toroidal horn tweeter looks much like a JBL 075 bullet horn,sounds very clear and extended,cabinets are what look like thick mahogahy veneer over 3/4 inch plywood
Anyone with first hand knowledge of these would be appreciated to chime in thx
hunter
 
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Wow, hunter, those are serious (By the way, those without cabinets cost the same as my W90's WITH cabinets). I heard one of the big Eames models, and it digs deep like you said. Surprisingly-neutral for a mid '50's design. That pair you have will probably lay waste to any vintage, equivalent-sized JBL's. Stephens drivers are no joke. Cool find for sure.
 
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Wow, your system must really sound amazing Hunter! :music: I was intrigued by what AK member SixCats had to say about Trusonic speakers as that he runs one with a Pilot amp of his.
 
As I said earlier it was just shyt house luck finding these.They sat in an 80 yr old gentlemans house in the BC Okanogan area and were spoted by a dude who regularly hits the 2nd hand stores being unloaded of his truck.
He listed them for sale a couple days later and I hit the ad after it was just 2 hrs old.
Drove 300 miles to pick them up yesterday with a good buddy that's into vintage gear as well.Great field trip!
Yes the sound reminds me of early JBL 001's only with them being a 3 way the mids are just great.And the big Stephens bass drivers dig deeper than anything I have here for speakers!
 
hunter00 said:
As I said earlier it was just shyt house luck finding these.They sat in an 80 yr old gentlemans house in the BC Okanogan area and were spoted by a dude who regularly hits the 2nd hand stores being unloaded of his truck.
He listed them for sale a couple days later and I hit the ad after it was just 2 hrs old.
Drove 300 miles to pick them up yesterday with a good buddy that's into vintage gear as well.Great field trip!
Yes the sound reminds me of early JBL 001's only with them being a 3 way the mids are just great.And the big Stephens bass drivers dig deeper than anything I have here for speakers!
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Yeah, see that's how you do it. Don't hesitate, don't post a thread wanting to know if you should buy these and are they worth the time. Are they okay? Keep your eyes open, when "it" shows up you pounce without care, thought or hesitation. Make them yours, own their soul.

You win.

Biggles
 
GREAT FIND! I would love to find these in busted cabinets so I could make some towers to remount those wonderful drivers into! Congrats
DC
 
dc270 said:
GREAT FIND! I would love to find these in busted cabinets so I could make some towers to remount those wonderful drivers into! Congrats
DC
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I wont be touching these cabinets..look like they came out of a time capsul.They did have your usual 50 yrs worth of smokey .dirty residue on the tops but these are almost mint and I have a thing for Keeping rare vintage in tact,In my mind these are the needle in the haystack and I just dig this era of speakers both for looks and obviously sound!

I was up late listen last night so just got them settled this morning .They surely don't need any help on the top end but I used my homemade x-overs I had on my Stephens fr150's when I did my switch of speakers.
Gonna be tuff to beat these for just overall sound and bass slam would shock most people and that's with the level controls set flat on the 400c.

hunter
 
few more pics
 

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I noticed one of the 5kt horn tweeters had less output then the other so I pulled it this morning and will take it apart to see if a solder point has come off inside.I had a boken copper wire in one of my Braun horn drivers once and I just had to remove one copper winding and resolder and it was fixed.
 
carcrazy said:
They look amazing, good score!
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thx guys,here's another score for us Canadian Boys! How they found there way to the BC Okanogan I'll never know but this is where I found my first Fisher 50a as well.
Theres hidden treasure out there for sure.
Been running blues on them off the thorens TT last while and these speakers sound like their on steroids..lol

hunter
 
Ok ,I know all about "speaker infatuation" but just played "Crazy Mama" off JJ Cales Naturally album and SPOKEY good!"After midnight" Cales voice sound so life like in the room clarity/dynamics,guitar solo ...just wow

hunter
 
top of cabinets after a cleaning...Im thinking these are a heavy oak veneer
 

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