Thrift Find - 1st gen Speakerlab 7s

[YALE70]

Or at least I think that's what these are. There aren't any labels on the cabs and I'm guessing these aren't the Super 7s since they have smaller tweeters (T35s from the looks of it, opposed to T350s). Mine also have L-pads, though I did see some have toggles instead. Not sure what that's about. Anyways, I found the pair at Goodwill for $40 yesterday and after determining they were at least well liked and in good visible condition, I figured "what the hell" and crammed them into the back seat of my car. The veneer is a bit banged up and it looks like whoever assembled them put the backs on with the speakers flipped upside down, hence why what should be the tops were all scratched up from being dragged along the floor. But otherwise, the grills and the goods underneath them were in fine shape.

I normally run R-51Ms as mains because I don't really have space for speakers this large (the most that I was reasonably considering were Heresy IIs). So, I set them up in the adjacent room from my receiver and ran in the wires, figuring I'd just be satisfying my curiosity. Instead, I think I might have just ruined all the other speakers in the house for myself. Given that these are the first floor speakers I've owned - vintage or not, I can't really say what they compare to, other than they just sound flipping amazing. Plus, the company itself seems pretty interesting (Klipschorn clones!) and I'm surprised to find one of their speakers this far south given that their primary market seemed to be the PNW. I couldn't seem to find much documentation on this particular version of the S7s so I'd also be curious to hear from those more familiar with them and how they've evolved. I'll probably end up re-veneering and look into re-capping the crossovers in mine at some point but for now, I'd say I'm pretty darn happy with these monsters.

 

[alteclipsch]

I'll bet they sound real nice. I've lusted over that model for a long time, ever since I let a pair get away a few years ago.

 

[nerdorama]

I think they evolved to play loud for rock music and with lots of bass. I find the bass to be wooly and bloated but with some slam, rather than tight and tuneful and horns just aren't for me generally although I've heard some Altec that I liked ok. I had S6's years ago and worked and worked on them for probably 10 years and never got them to my liking. When I mounted those 12" woofers in boxes of about twice the volume they sounded much better to me and seemed to go lower in frequency. Most of the old Speakerlab speakers were in a too small box volume to have tight and clean sounding bass. They had a very humped up high Q alignment which works ok for rock music I guess. I still have the 12in S6 woofers and a pair of the S30 speakers which are a bit unique. I lived in the Seattle area for years and always enjoyed going to Speakerlab.

Also be aware that the early SL woofers had alnico magnets, and the 10in used in the 7's I think always had alnico. When I measured a pair years later it seemed that the magnets had lost a fair bit of their magnetic strength based on the measured T/S parameters. This can happen with alnico.

Have fun with your 7's. I think that's what SL intended them to be, just not accurate.
John

 

[YALE70]

I think they evolved to play loud for rock music and with lots of bass. I find the bass to be wooly and bloated but with some slam, rather than tight and tuneful and horns just aren't for me generally although I've heard some Altec that I liked ok. I had S6's years ago and worked and worked on them for probably 10 years and never got them to my liking. When I mounted those 12" woofers in boxes of about twice the volume they sounded much better to me and seemed to go lower in frequency. Most of the old Speakerlab speakers were in a too small box volume to have tight and clean sounding bass. They had a very humped up high Q alignment which works ok for rock music I guess. I still have the 12in S6 woofers and a pair of the S30 speakers which are a bit unique. I lived in the Seattle area for years and always enjoyed going to Speakerlab.

Also be aware that the early SL woofers had alnico magnets, and the 10in used in the 7's I think always had alnico. When I measured a pair years later it seemed that the magnets had lost a fair bit of their magnetic strength based on the measured T/S parameters. This can happen with alnico.

Have fun with your 7's. I think that's what SL intended them to be, just not accurate.
John

Thanks for the insights.

They are indeed a lot of fun, which is about all I can really ask of them being so ill versed in the nitty gritty. They're easily the best sounding speakers I've listened to - which granted, isn't saying much since my ears have only really been exposed to the R-51Ms (I only started dabbling in vinyl and vintage gear as of last year), and whatever soundbar or stereo is in the room I'm doing something else entirely in. These are the first speakers that I feel genuinely compelled to just sit and listen to them without anything else going on. I'm sure I'll develop different and more complex opinions on 7s as I experiment with other gear down the road, but I could see myself being pretty content with these for a while.

I had family in Seattle and I wonder if they were at all familiar with Speakerlab. Found some of their old catalogs on their website and it seemed like a fun place to stop by back in the day.

 

[nerdorama]

I still have my old Speakerlab catalogs. It's fun to look back through them and remember.

 

[donbene]

Congradulations. That is a great find at a great price.

Those are first generation sevens.

Based on the horizontal placement of the tweeter, those were probably built from 1976 to 1978. The tweeter was mounted vertically and parallel to the midrange in earlier years.

I think the 1st gen only had L pads. The next gen 7WAs have toggles.

Here is a link to Speakerlab catalogs. They will have the specs.

Speakerlab

Speakers and speaker kits - A thoroughly modern evolution of the great Speaker kits of the 70's and 80's!

speakerlab.net

 

[Guido57]

You got yourself a score. Enjoy.

 

[fredgarvin]

I worked in a Lafayette store when I was a kid and the owner had some relationship with Speakerlab, We had the corner horn clone (set up completely wrong and sounded terrible) and I remember the model 6 being my favorite assembled speaker in the house. We were all about DIY components. Our feature woofer was The EV 12 inch. $80 back then. You found a nice deal there.

 

[tarior]

Ya' did good. Those don't have alnico magnet woofers, but indeed a Rola with an enormous magnet and a fairly long voice coil. If you like to rock out, you'll be very happy.

 

[YALE70]

Ya' did good. Those don't have alnico magnet woofers, but indeed a Rola with an enormous magnet and a fairly long voice coil. If you like to rock out, you'll be very happy.

Looking at the catalogs, I'm not totally sure regarding the woofers. It looks like both woofers (W1208R and W1008R; at least that's what they're internally designated, not sure if they were outsourced) were alnico and they pivoted to just the 10-inch using alnico around '78. I think mine are definitely '76-'77 based on the tweeter placement and lack of toggles. Probably won't be one-hundred percent certain until I open them up.

 

[tarior]

The 10" may have an alnico magnet, the 12" is most likely ferrite, based upon my experience with them. Speakerlab did not manufacture drivers that I'm aware of. The 12" is made by Rola (IIRC), the horns are E-V. Not sure I remember who made the 10". It might also be from Rola.

 

[nerdorama]

The Speakerlab catalogs indicate they made some/many but not all of the woofers. There's a picture of their magnetizer in one catalog as I remember. Look at pages 4 & 5 in either the winter 76-77 or summer 77 catalogs. Pictures of their folks by name performing the different steps in building the woofers.

Speakerlab

Speakers and speaker kits - A thoroughly modern evolution of the great Speaker kits of the 70's and 80's!

speakerlab.net

 

[tarior]

Evidently they did make some woofers. The two pair of S7s I've had come through both had Rola 12" woofers. I like learning new things.

 

[John Ess]

Used to drool over their catalogs...and amazingly they're still in business.

 

[YALE70]

Right? Especially in the kit department still. Nice to see they've kept mostly true to their old selves.

I'd be curious to hear how the current 7s stack up. I don't see many opinions out there on any of Speakerlab's new gear.

 

[YALE70]

Bit of an update on the SL 7s. Finally mustered up the courage to crack these things open and re-cap the crossovers. I used Dayton Audio DMPC polypropylenes and gave the L-pads a generous shot of Deoxit. Was a bit nerve wracking prying the drivers free from the heaping amounts of RTV, but the results were a lot more substantial sounding than I was expecting. I certainly didn't think the speakers sounded dull with the old electrolytics, but the sensation I immediately got was almost like they were just "unclogged". Really seemed to clean up the sound and open up the highs a bit.

While I've got the cabinets partially open, I'm also experimenting with a pair of T350s I decided to pick up, thanks to my never-ending curiosity and inability to stop reading about these dang speakers. Also read that it might be worth ditching or replacing the old ferrofluid in the midrange horns, though that seems like it's kind of a debatable subject. I suppose if it's anything like the caps, I don't really know until I try it.

 

[YALE70]

Finished everything up over the weekend. Probably to the surprise of absolutely no-one, I liked the sound of the T350s over the T35s enough to where I decided to install them. They're marked 16 ohms, but they seem to have had the diaphragms swapped out for 8 ohm units at some point as they both read roughly 6 and 7 ohms respectively and sounded fine in testing. Honestly, it's dumb luck that was the case and they weren't cooked, but for my purposes this seems to have worked out okay. Evidently 16 ohm T35/T350 diaphragms were hard to come by for quite some time - I think Crites was only one selling them in recent years.

Nothing elaborate about the install. Just routed the existing holes to size and RTV'd the tweeters in with their accompanying tongue depressors in proper 70s Speakerlab fashion. Not quite Super 7s (since they lack the K55-type midrange), but they sound really lovely. I'll want to redo/refinish the veneer at some point and possibly mirror the fronts and make new grills, but I'm going to save that until after an anticipated move in the coming months. I should hopefully be able give these things more room to breathe in the new house as well.

 

[absolve2525]

Finished everything up over the weekend. Probably to the surprise of absolutely no-one, I liked the sound of the T350s over the T35s enough to where I decided to install them. They're marked 16 ohms, but they seem to have had the diaphragms swapped out for 8 ohm units at some point as they both read roughly 6 and 7 ohms respectively and sounded fine in testing. Honestly, it's dumb luck that was the case and they weren't cooked, but for my purposes this seems to have worked out okay. Evidently 16 ohm T35/T350 diaphragms were hard to come by for quite some time - I think Crites was only one selling them in recent years.

Nothing elaborate about the install. Just routed the existing holes to size and RTV'd the tweeters in with their accompanying tongue depressors in proper 70s Speakerlab fashion. Not quite Super 7s (since they lack the K55-type midrange), but they sound really lovely. I'll want to redo/refinish the veneer at some point and possibly mirror the fronts and make new grills, but I'm going to save that until after an anticipated move in the coming months. I should hopefully be able give these things more room to breathe in the new house as well.

Awesome! Nice to see someone else using and enjoying the beefy T-350 tweeters! Definitely an upgrade over the not-too-shabby T35.

 

[GordonW]

Yeah, the T350- due to the larger, stronger magnet- would go considerably higher in frequency, than the T35. it's definitely better, in terms of transient response, as a result.

Regards,
Gordon.