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Using woofers mand horns from console form DIY build?

greyhnd

greyhnd

Active Member
Good day folks.

I've been thinking about making some DIY speakers and using components taken from an older Magnavox console.

I can get 2x 12" 8ohm Heppner Alnico woofers and the accompanying horns. The set also includes the xovers and switches. Thought this might make a neat winter project. Less than $100 for the speakers and I can make my own boxes or maybe find some premade boxes somewhere.

Everything is in good shape, woofers have been refoamed recently. Just need a bit of inpout if this might be a good way to start a project..
 
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I did the same thing in my younger days, you wont regret it, the sound is very good and very easy to drive to high volume with very little power. so post us some pics!!
 
Went ahead and snatched up[ the woofers and horns. Here are some pics of what I bought.I really don't know, but I think I got a decent deal on this package, less than $100. Not sure what the best cabinet type is best, ported or sealed, but I suspect ported. I'll learn as I go along.
 

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Five to ten watts MAX is all those woofers are gonna stand before frying their voice coils.
Been there done that.
 
I rarely crank up my music to ear splitting levels. I'll be using my Sansui 661 receiver to run them and I think it only has about 30 watts channel @8 ohms. I was more interested in components that would efficient rather than volume. My listening room is not that big, so it doesn't take much to over power the room.

I will certainly heed your words of warning and I appreciate them. I suppose if I blow them to smithereens I can replace them. Thanks for the advice.
 
Using OB's is an option I hadn't considered. I'm not sure if I could make best use of that kind of setup because of the way my listening area is arranged. I'll so some reading on the subject and perhaps I can make it work.
 
Most console setups didn't really have a sealed back FYI. An OB would be pretty dang easy to test out.
 
dumptruck - I keep learning new things. If those aren't xovers, will I need to invest in a pair? Or, are the woofers not woofers but full range speakers, maybe?
 
I think there should be a crude crossover in the form of a capacitor in series with each horn, probably around 1-3uF. See any? Personally, I would not consider this idea worth the cost of wood for building new cabinets, but if you like to tinker around and can recycle something, by all means have some fun.
 
Yeah you will need at least a cap in there for the horn.

I have several sets similar to these sitting around, always planned to do this but nicer drivers came along for me to spend my time on. Sounds like a fun project for winter and certainly a great way to get into speaker building.

If a guy had an array of those woofers, say 4 in series/parallel to maintain the same impedance, you could really get some power handling capability. But they'll never go down into the deep bass, so you'd have to have a sub if you really want the full range. I thought about making some big towers for the garage, line array of console mids and tweeters, bass unit with multiple woofers, etc. But then Altec VOTTs came knocking...
 
My dad worked as a tech for Magnavox in the 60's and 70's. I had stacks of the styrofoam boxes that the horns and woofers were in, in a lot of those consoles. I built some nice sounding projects with them.
 
Interesting thread. Have woofers, mids, tweeters and super tweeters pulled from an old Zenith console. Stereo system. I like the idea of a OB system. I'll have to pull T/S specs from the drivers to see what I have to work with.

Hope this thread keeps getting updated.
 
Speaker builder GordonW built a pair called Hatu that used the Magnavox horns, but with different woofs. He also put together a driver kit for me using the Magnavox horns, but with a different woofer and a sorta supertweeter. Then I built up some cabinets for them. When done right, I can vouch for the fact that they sound really good. Gordon handled all the crossover work too.

Here is a link to the build thread. GordonW explains some detail on the design of them part way through the thread.

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=293582

Very sweet midrange, and sound great even when pushed hard.


greyhnd said:
Good day folks.

I've been thinking about making some DIY speakers and using components taken from an older Magnavox console.

I can get 2x 12" 8ohm Heppner Alnico woofers and the accompanying horns. The set also includes the xovers and switches. Thought this might make a neat winter project. Less than $100 for the speakers and I can make my own boxes or maybe find some premade boxes somewhere.

Everything is in good shape, woofers have been refoamed recently. Just need a bit of inpout if this might be a good way to start a project..
Click to expand...
 
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