Vintage Philips dome tweeters any good?

[Zolton]

I have a pair of speakers that I built over 35 years ago that I am in the process of repairing.
Back then I didn't know much about speakers. The design called for a pair of tweeters per cabinet. I bought two poly dome Philips and two textile dome Philips and put one of each in each cabinet.
Fast forward to now. I figure I should have stuck to just the textile domes and I'm considering finding two matching units and swapping out the poly domes
The tweets in question are;
Philips AD 11600 T8 textile dome
Philips AD 11610 T8 poly dome
Are these worth keeping or should I upgrade all four?

 

[GordonW]

The AD11600 is a real classic, great sounding tweeter. It was the specified tweeter in the original version of the famous Georgia Tech speaker system, designed by Dr. Wm. Marshall Leach.

The AD11610 poly dome, not quite as much. The poly-dome Philips tweeters tended to have a resonant mode in the upper highs, which made them sound a bit 'steely' compared to the very-neutral AD11600 soft-dome.

How efficient are these speakers? I ask, as an AD11600- a SINGLE one- can easily keep up with speakers of up to 94-95dB sensitivity, by themselves. They're pretty loud! I wonder if two tweeters per cabinet is even necessary? It might take crossover mods to only use one- but it might be worth the effort.

Regards,
Gordon.

 

[Zolton]

As the speakers are home made and I can not find the original paperwork, I can't say how efficient they are.
They are three way with 2 ten inch woofers, a four inch mid and the two tweeters per cabinet. It was a StudioLab kit bought back in the late 70's / early 80's in Toronto. I doubt they are overly efficient.
The crossover consists of two coils, a 6.8uF cap and a resistor. Plus a switch for "frequency control" (the reason for the resistor no doubt) and a fuse. The original tweeters were crap so I substituted the Philips units.
I was considering just disconnecting the poly dome as you mentioned. I do have a line on two AD11600 tweets (used of course) but they are pretty pricey.

BTW. As far as modifying the crossovers, I think the existing two tweeters are in parallel with the 6.8uF cap in series with them. I'd have to pull things apart to be sure so I may be wrong at this point. The speakers are still "as found".
Could I just disconnect one tweeter and be fine?

 

[dave b]

Phillips speakers, my experience..

Back in the day I use to build some custom cabinets, and utilize the Phillips drivers. I recall the textile tweeters sounded fantastic not "hot" and ' sizzly". The 41/2" treated cone in the sealed basket or the domed mid range was very good on vocals and the Deep Purple lp's and either the 8,10 or especially the 12" butyl rubber surrounds that gave a very "thuddy" bass with the corresponding crossover. I remember utilizing the overstock large Advent very dense cabinets, with modifications to accommodate the drivers. By buddy still has them and they sound awesome!!!, from about 1978 or so. This activity kept me going for a while........

 

[Zolton]

Perhaps I should remove the poly dome tweet, replace it with an 8 ohm resistor and blank off the hole?

 

[taineasy]

I have a pair of speakers that I built over 35 years ago that I am in the process of repairing.
Back then I didn't know much about speakers. The design called for a pair of tweeters per cabinet. I bought two poly dome Philips and two textile dome Philips and put one of each in each cabinet.
Fast forward to now. I figure I should have stuck to just the textile domes and I'm considering finding two matching units and swapping out the poly domes
The tweets in question are;
Philips AD 11600 T8 textile dome
Philips AD 11610 T8 poly dome
Are these worth keeping or should I upgrade all four?

The AD 11600 is a GREAT tweeter! Very natural, thankfully NO ferro fluid and age well.