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Stephens trusonic Low-boy cabinets,,Score!!

thanks guys,the 5kt was the missing link and to have one resideing so close by was unreal considering these are fairly rare and how the hell did a 50's /60's British Columbia audiophile get his hands on soo many??
Biggs i mentioned my old buddy had built his own speakers with his dad extra pieces...he mated a 8 inch Stephens co-axial with a Stephen W-8 woofer,built sturdy thick cabinet ,both drivers mounted verticle in the cabs and they sounded great being driven by an early SS integrated amp.. called "Acoustech V"
never seen one before another of his dads obscure pieces,also had some early big Celestion speakers custom mounted in a way 12 ft up in his open ceiling living room,that system was all SS HK Citation gear driving them.

hunter
 
Wow!! Haha that is amazing! These are so rare, and to have the exact thing you needed, right down the street.. way too cool. I love stories like that. It's what makes this hobby so rewarding - you spend so much time researching, delving into different product and when you find your niche, stuff just starts finding you in the strangest ways.

Awesome hunter00, I'm stoked for you! I imagine the functioning tweeter made a solid improvement because now the balance would be right between the two speakers. Please let us all know just how sweet those sound. :)
 
Thx Canuckaudiog...when you comeing out to Mission B.C ,,? you could have a listen yourself ,you've got an invite!
Ive been running 2 JBL pro compression horns on top of each cabinet to give me highs on the one side till now.Im running the stephens on my Fisher 50A triode mono amps with a Fisher 400c preamp and all the general fantastic sound adjectives come to mind,just fantastic sound comparatively speaking and ive owned close to 100 pairs of hi end vintage speakers since the late 70's to compare to.
These are capable of deep solid bass with the midrange is stunning.Now the top end is even they are fully complete ,the 5kt horns sounds very extended an closeto my jbl 075's I have in my other Stephens cabinets.

hunter
 
hunter00 said:
Thx Canuckaudiog...when you comeing out to Mission B.C ,,? you could have a listen yourself ,you've got an invite!
Ive been running 2 JBL pro compression horns on top of each cabinet to give me highs on the one side till now.Im running the stephens on my Fisher 50A triode mono amps with a Fisher 400c preamp and all the general fantastic sound adjectives come to mind,just fantastic sound comparatively speaking and ive owned close to 100 pairs of hi end vintage speakers since the late 70's to compare to.
These are capable of deep solid bass with the midrange is stunning.Now the top end is even they are fully complete ,the 5kt horns sounds very extended an closeto my jbl 075's I have in my other Stephens cabinets.

hunter
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Thanks!! I'm definitely going to take you up on that offer hunter00! I may have mentioned this before but I'm diving right into the 50s/60s hifi, the 'golden age' of stereo as it were. I would like to try some Stephens drivers at some point, I have a pair of cabinets to hold the 120FRs that should work fairly well.

Lessee, the closest I'll be going to there is when I travel to Salmo BC next year for the Shambhala music festival, but that's still a ways away. I'm currently talking to my wife to see if we can swing going to Vancouver on that trip at the same time, because I want to visit Vancouver again (I am a Kamloops boy, so I yearn to come back to BC for an extended visit at some point). That'll be the best time for me to come by. Once I get some plans solidified, I'll get a hold of ya! Thanks again!
 
Anytime canuckaudiog,i live on a large rural acreage with tons of room to camp out a few days if you needed a basecamp.Ive got a few buddies all into the 50's early tube gear and premium speakers of the era,its our wheel house.One of my good buds is a great tech and we've been traveling this road together for many ,many yrs.He runs vintage Tannoy 15's and his main amps are Mac 60's mono's,we're both in the vintage monoblock camp for deadly sonics and channel separation.Another good bud runs Mac 275 and c-20 pre with klipshorns.All just humble vintage sound enthusiusts.
Your on the right track with the fr120's those divers have a tone all to their own!...and love tubes infront of them!

hunter
 
my only other issue with the one Tru-sonic cabinet was a slightly dented in M-8 mid driver cone dust cover.I tried the tape trick/and vacuume trick neither worked so ended up bending a long needle to give the needle trick a try and it worked pretty good..before and after..
DSCF1862.JPG DSCF1858.JPG DSCF1858.JPG DSCF1858.JPG hunter
 
This comes months after hunter00's last post but I read the 8 pages of his thread with enthusiasm. I had a Trusonic set up in the late 60s (I am 66 now) consisting of a 120 Fr in a Klipschorn bass bin (smaller size to fit the smaller speaker), an 80 Fr on top with the Toroid tweeter. They were my pride and joy for 20 years. I had to move and gave them to my brother, who had them for a while and got rid of them without telling ,me. This past year I bought two ported enclosures with 150 Frs and 80 Frs, and EV tweeters. Have kept a lookout but have not been able to find any working Toroid tweeters. I built one larger Klipschorn bass bin but could not obtain the same good results as the one years ago for the 120 Fr. So the 150 Frs remain in the ported enclosure with the 80Frs mounted above, along with JBL bullet tweeters. Back in the late 60s I met a man who was successful in mating the 150 Fr to a Klipschorn. He modified slightly certain aspects of the enclosure and I never forgot the terrific sound he obtained. But he has long ago left this earth and his secrets went with him. My interest now is in building the best enclosures for these 150 Frs I can.. I do not have the specs on the 150Fr nor do I quite know how to obtain them. Anyone with any thoughts on enclosures for these I would welcome a reply. I really love these Trusonics. These old beauties sound so good after all these years. Cheers, Dan
 
congrates dan on reaquireing those Stephens drivers after so many yrs without.They do have an accurate tone all their own and are my favorites after many yrs in the hobby.Im always on the lookout for more Tru-sonic speakers to ad and I believe the Fr-150 is one of their best full range speaker models.Ive owned a pair of their co-axial 12 inch drivers and they just weren't up to what the 15 inch fullrangers do.
goodluck with you search for appropriet cabinets
keep us appraised..

hunter
 
Thanks hunter! My first task is to get the T & S specs on the 150 Fr. On the Lansing forum I found them for the 120 Fr and 80 Fr but not the 150 Fr. A fellow over there who was very knowledgeable on Trusonic has apparently died. I believe one can purchase some software and hardware to do the task oneself, or so I have read. That said, my first choice would be to build another Klipschorn bass cabinet if I knew the exact specs of the Khorn that Robert Allen and Doug West from Altadena, Cal built back in the 60s which sounded so impressive. But alas, they too have l passed. I also wonder if the tube amps used back in that era helped in any way to bring out the best in those speakers. Just the thought of bringing these 150 Frs back to life makes me feel like a kid--well a teenager --again.
 
Hey dbgallup,

I recently bought the DATS v2 system, but there's also Woofer Tester. The free air resonance specs are easy to get out of it, hook up, press a button. What's valuable to me is the Le, inductance of the voice coil. But to get the details for what size box and the finishing data for the T/S parameters I haven't figured out yet. From what I read, you must put some weight of earthquake putty around the underside of the cone, or build a test box for the testing. At this point, I just don't know how to get accurate results with such testing. I'll get it soon, but don't have anything usable at the moment.

Biggles
 
Here I am, it's me "SixCats!" A bit late to the Party. At any rate, all I can say is WOW! Congrats Hunter! Such an AWESOME score and story!
I have no doubt that you will continue to enjoy owning/listening to such a rare piece of Audio History. Oooh Hunter, I only have ONE Stephens (MONO) Tru-Sonic and not a pair.
Nevertheless, I still very much enjoy listening to my (Charles Eames designed) E-3 (type) Custom Tru-sonic Horn in mono. I am presently using my mono HEATHKIT A-9C
Integrated Amp as my lil' PILOT AA-903B (EL-84) is in need of a minor tuneup. Wow! How wonderful that there are a few of us AK'ers that are now the "KEEPERS"
of Historical STEPHENS TRU-SONIC Speakers! ENJOY!

http://i39.tinypic.com/fjjhus.jpg

http://www.hifilit.com/hifilit/Stephens/eames3a.jpg

http://www.radiomuseum.org/images/radio/heathkit/amplifier_a_9c_691291.jpg

SixCats!
 
jgannon said:
I was intrigued by what AK member SixCats had to say about Trusonic speakers
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Hey there Sixcats!You were mentioned early on in the thread when I first scored my Tru-sonics,have been waiting for you to chime in with your experience and knowledge
That Stephens E-3 is gorgeous!!
hunter
 
Hi Hunter,

Thank you for your kind words regarding my Tru-Sonic. Yes indeed, the E-3 is quite a looker! My (ever) favorite piece of Audio gear over forty year! I hope you'll continue to enjoy your Tru-Sonic as much as I enjoy mine.

Regards,
SixCats!
 
SixCats! said:
Hi Hunter,

Thank you for your kind words regarding my Tru-Sonic. Yes indeed, the E-3 is quite a looker! My (ever) favorite piece of Audio gear over forty year! I hope you'll continue to enjoy your Tru-Sonic as much as I enjoy mine.

Regards,
SixCats!
Click to expand...

Thx Sixcats,To hear vintage Stephens Tru-sonics is to believe,especially with tube amplification ,they are one of the finest Vintage Speakers ever made in my opinion.Its too bad we are many miles apart or id welcome a visit for both of us and our respective Stephens speakers.
Between my 3-ways in sovoriegn type cabinets and my small collection of FR-150's they will never be sold,just passed on to family.
The 3-ways on my 54' Fisher 50A triode monoblocks are a marriage that wont change while I'm six ft ubove ground
,those monoblocks are simply stunning on the Trusonics.
Also of interest I also have an old heathkit only a model A-7 mono integrated that's next in my que for rebuild/rewireing
All exceedingly cool stuff
thx

hunter
 
I see this is an old thread.... however congrats on your cool find !!

I've found a lot of Stephens drivers over the years. Only once have I found any in their original enclosure. A single lowboy with a 120 woofer and the cool little 214 multicell tweeter.

Most of my collection centers around the 15" coaxials. P52A, 106ax, 206ax, 206axa. They really are wonderful drivers.....

My older Klipschorns have the 4ohm 103LX2 woofers in them. And then there's some odd drivers laying around. A single 150FR, A single P52 woofer. A pair of 50FR.

It's an addiction.
 
Hi Ohigh,

Yikes! A collection of Stephens 15" Co-axials! Wow! I dream of finding a pair of 15" Stephens Co-axials. Buried away in my Basement, I have a beautiful pair of (circa 1955 ?) of these :

http://www.ebay.com/itm/262214843795 (not mine, for pictures only).

I purchased Cabinets just like shown above from a guy in MA. The were said to have come out of a Church in Providence, RI (my home State). My Cabs have become known (here at AK) as "The HOLY Cabinets". The original 15" Jensen Tri-plex drivers were looooong gone, purchased by some guy in Asia. I purchased the Cabs in hopes of one day finding some SERIOUS 15" Co/Tri Axial Drivers. Many years later, I'm still waiting lol. Not sure what I'm going to do now. Enjoy your awesome Coaxials!

Ha! I found my original thread from TEN years ago, geeeezeeee. Man, I'm getting old.

http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/the-holy-cabinets.111796/


Regards,
SixCats!
 
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