Vintage 70's Century speakers???Info???

HiFiAaron

HiFiAaron

Member
Hello again fellow audio lovers,
I have found some century speakers claimed to be from the 70's but do to JBL's awesome century series it makes it hard to find anything about these Century branded speakers in between the cracks of all the jbl info. I cant even find a pic that looks like these on the internet. Any info would be much appreciated. curious as to their quality, frequency response, power handling...

Thanks in advance.
century speaker.jpg
 
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That woofer looks a bit out of place, almost like someone "upgraded" the speaker using cheap subwoofer drivers. Of course, I can't be certain, as I have no idea what the original looks like. Might be worth taking the woofer out and looking at the rear as it should be very easy to tell at that point.
 
when searching on the internet for century branded speakers i found a couple from the 70s with similar woofers but different cabinets. I do not currently own these so i cant remove the woofer. I know where a pair is in my area and was hoping to see if they had anything worthwhile going for them. I think Jeff K might be right though that it may just be a small house brand.
 
When I worked at Sounds 'N Imports in Houston back in '77-'78, we sold Century and Monitor speakers by General Audio Corporation. Sound 'N Imports was a local store with three locations.

The Century and Monitor speakers were built in the back of the main store. The brochure said that they were made from Pioneer components in cabinets made by GAC. My son has my pair of Century 470s; a three way system with a 12" woofer.

Your speakers have the same grill design, but the drivers are different. Also, the Monitor series were a bass reflex design. If your speakers came from Sounds 'N Imports, they were from before or after my time there.

Mr Bill
 

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The Century 470s I had were an ok house brand speaker. I won them in a sales contest. If I was buying speakers from the shop, I would have bought Altecs or Warfedales. Today I'm running New Large Advents, Norman Labs 335 and Frazier Manhattens. The Advents and Norman Labs are acoustic suspension speakers. The Fraziers have dual helmholtz slots on the front.

My Century speakers are a base reflex design, so I doubt they sound the same as your speakers. My son uses them for loud party music and they do well for that.
 
Foam surround on that woofer looks nice and fresh too, more evidence of a woofer replacement.

If I found these at the curb or at a garage sale for a couple bucks, I would not let them go to waste. But usually a "garden variety house brand speaker from the 70s" is decent but not a treasure. With some new caps they might be fine for a garage system. With incorrect woofers they might be pretty unbalanced though.
 
HiFiAaron said:
Hello again fellow audio lovers,
I have found some century speakers claimed to be from the 70's but do to JBL's awesome century series it makes it hard to find anything about these Century branded speakers in between the cracks of all the jbl info. I cant even find a pic that looks like these on the internet. Any info would be much appreciated. curious as to their quality, frequency response, power handling...

Thanks in advance.
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Are you in Spokane?
 
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