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Ultra Linear Brand. Seems like junk

R

RandomInsano

New Member
So, bought a pair of some Ultra Linear brand speakers today at a garage sale. Hooked them up, and other than a lot of bass, which I don't need, they seem pretty awful. I don't know enough about speakers to describe it, but it feels like they put four subwoofers and a tinny tweeter in a box.

Maybe I can use the towers and build something custom. Model number is ULH28B/ULH28S if you can find anything online :P

Anyway, the theme of this thread: There is nearly no information on the internet about this brand, and these speakers look like they were built within the last 10 years. How can that be? Are they some sort of puppet brand for something bigger? I'm reminded of the white van speaker scam.

What do other AKers know about the true nature of this company? I've seen references to this just being some garbage brand that was 'good enough' for Joe Public in the 1970s.
 
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Not white van if true Ultra Linears. And probably older than they appear. I bought a pair back in 1977. Honestly can't remember much about their sound quality (or lack of).
 
Maybe my musical palette isn't defined enough to truly enjoy them? Just doesn't feel like it has a satisfying mid-range for my taste. I might also be full of poop.

The big thing is, I can't find reviews, old docs, anything about Ultra Linear products. It's like they never existed. Well, other than snippets here and there.

Took some photos for review. Bad lightening in my place this time of day, so apologies on the grain.
https://picasaweb.google.com/115160...&authkey=Gv1sRgCJbVobbn48nmIg&feat=directlink
 
Ultralinears

We sold those back in the late 70s. They werent very good, but sold like crazy because, to the uneducated , they looked impessive. Large cabinets, many oversized drivers, boomy bass, shrill highs. A model called the DC10s we nicknamed the Dog Coffins. Never sold them to an audiophile or a friend. Big markup, made me lots of money. the original white van speakers of the 70s, but sold retail. jim
 
The Cal Stereo chain here in Southern California carried some Ultra Linear models in the late 1970's including one that was a JBL L-100 copy and then later a stepped baffle time-aligned unit. To my knowledge they were buit by the Wald speaker company that cranked out huge numbers of cheap "house brand" style speakers, most of them junk. When I would listen to them at Cal Stereo and local electronics stores I was always amazed at how crappy they sounded but their appearance and low price attracted many uninformed buyers just the same. I would call them "pre-white van" speakers.
 
I don't think that's the same Ultralinear. The Ultralinear company (actually Solar Audio Products) from the 70's/80's is spelled as one word. And as far as I know they are long out of business.

I am currently restoring a pair of 228's from 1978.

-Jim
 
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thy look like the typical chinese cheapos - for white van the have not enuff typos on the printed badges ;)

pre-white-van would mean < early '80s (I had first contact to white-van 1986), but this would make them vintage :D... not all cheap junk is white van so, and white-van stuff is also beeing sold in stores (under other brands), what doesn't make it better. Anybody can order containers of the chinese junk.
 
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Ah well. Good to know guys.

I guess these speakers are made by some no-one company who bought the brand name (Polariod, Commodore). The bright side I suppose, is that it was a good price for speaker housing, and they aren't unusably bad.
 
Some of their old 70's stuff was quite expensive and on par with anything similarly i.e. avid / marantz / pro-linear / fairfax
 
Jimesis said:
I don't think that's the same Ultralinear. The Ultralinear company (actually Solar Audio Products) from the 70's/80's is spelled as one word. And as far as I know they are long out of business.

I am currently restoring a pair of 228's from 1978.

-Jim

IMG_3224a.jpg
Click to expand...
To others, lighten up. Had a pair of Ultralinear 225w (walnut) speakers. Couldn't afford L100's at the time and I wasn't the least bit disappointed. Had them hooked up to Kenwood separates and a Dual 1237 TT w/AT cart (can't recall the number now). All bought new.

Where Utralinear went later is beyond me, but not at all surprised as even well known names went bye bye for financial reasons, one more reason why it's pretty lame to make statements about how long a company is around. Sadly most good companies with short lives were terribly mismanaged. Had good ideas and good intentions, but wreck-less business sense. And of course fickle consumers, etc.

Anyway, speakers posted by Random are definitely NOT the original stuff. As the image here (of the terminals) shows they were made in SoCa. Abused the heck out of mine and a mid went out. Drove them out to the factory and they replaced both mids (the other was weak when they tested it), they refinished the cabs and the speakers looked almost like new and sounded like new. Oh, all work performed under warranty, ie free. Worked perfect till the day they were stolen. Listened to rock, classical, some jazz, funk, pop, contemporary and on and on.
 
I have fond memories of these

I bought a pair of the Ultralinear 200's in 1973 and played them to death over the 17 years I owned them. They were part of my first decent stereo and I loved them. IIRC, they were acoustic suspension three ways with 14" woofer, 5" mid range and soft dome tweeter. Surprisingly efficient, my little Sansui receiver made them sing. While not the most refined, they did bring the rock and roll thunder I required in those days. I simply loved the way they presented Jack Casady's bass sound on Hot Tuna's America's Choice LP. They did pretty well with jazz and classical as well.

If I knew then what I know now about fixing speaker surrounds, I might very well still have these.
 
RandomInsano said:
So, bought a pair of some Ultra Linear brand speakers today at a garage sale. Hooked them up, and other than a lot of bass, which I don't need, they seem pretty awful. I don't know enough about speakers to describe it, but it feels like they put four subwoofers and a tinny tweeter in a box.

Maybe I can use the towers and build something custom. Model number is ULH28B/ULH28S if you can find anything online :p

Anyway, the theme of this thread: There is nearly no information on the internet about this brand, and these speakers look like they were built within the last 10 years. How can that be? Are they some sort of puppet brand for something bigger? I'm reminded of the white van speaker scam.

What do other AKers know about the true nature of this company? I've seen references to this just being some garbage brand that was 'good enough' for Joe Public in the 1970s.
Click to expand...
They are junk. They were our budget line for those making their first step up from all in ones. 100 point line. Circuit breaker protection, I/2" particle board cabs. Cheap drivers.
 
I had a pair. They were acoustic suspension and they were junk bottoming out way too easily. But IIRC, they did have the Philips tweeters with the black dot in the center.
 
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