Vintage Radio Shack/Realistic Speakers?

[jstang]

In case you are like me and can not get enough of the Realistic Super tweeter....

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/psho...100&FTR=270-100&CFID=2520530&CFTOKEN=10866065

 

[Teradacto58]

Analog Digit.....I have never seen the foam go bad, on a Mach 1. It not the average foam...It seems more resiliant! We have had many vintage Realistics...and parted many out. Some with the same foam..all fine, other than the odd cat claw!! At the moment we have 4x Mach 1's....The foam is excellent!! ...Jim

 

[Teradacto58]

Replaced Bose 601's with Realistics!

I found a pair of Bose 601's at a swap meet a few years ago. The top woofer foam suspenions, were rotted out! I had a pair of Realistic 8" woofers ...that I replaced them with. I noticed the rear magnets were an exact match as the Bose...gold anodized, exact size magnet, + the dimple in the middle!! The only thing lacking was the "Bose" name stamped in the back! I was wondering... if they were made by the the same manufacturer?? Realistic had a better poly foam suspenion! I Finally sold them off to a co-worker...I'm not a Bose lover.....The 301's were their only ones...I didn't mind!

 

[Tecexec]

I was the designer of most US made systems from 1977 to 1990. There were two major manufactures: Sunwood (from Asia) and Tandy Speakers. While Sunwood did have better cabinets (finish-wise) and attention to details, the US made speakers from Tandy Speakers were always superior in sound and acoustical replication. It's difficult separate the wheat from the shaft. The T-100 was design by me but built by Sunwood. Really outstanding speakers were the Optimus 10, Optimus-23, T-70 and T-300. I tried to change the philosophy of the closed box designs to the higher efficiency and greater bandwidth of tuned system (second order and greater). Just for the record.

 

[terra1]

I was the designer of most US made systems from 1977 to 1990. There were two major manufactures: Sunwood (from Asia) and Tandy Speakers. While Sunwood did have better cabinets (finish-wise) and attention to details, the US made speakers from Tandy Speakers were always superior in sound and acoustical replication. It's difficult separate the wheat from the shaft. The T-100 was design by me but built by Sunwood. Really outstanding speakers were the Optimus 10, Optimus-23, T-70 and T-300. I tried to change the philosophy of the closed box designs to the higher efficiency and greater bandwidth of tuned system (second order and greater). Just for the record.

Welcome.

I gave away a pair of Nova 8B speakers which I still have fond memories of. Looking forward to more contributions by you!

 

[pmsummer]

I was the designer of most US made systems from 1977 to 1990. There were two major manufactures: Sunwood (from Asia) and Tandy Speakers. While Sunwood did have better cabinets (finish-wise) and attention to details, the US made speakers from Tandy Speakers were always superior in sound and acoustical replication. It's difficult separate the wheat from the shaft. The T-100 was design by me but built by Sunwood. Really outstanding speakers were the Optimus 10, Optimus-23, T-70 and T-300. I tried to change the philosophy of the closed box designs to the higher efficiency and greater bandwidth of tuned system (second order and greater). Just for the record.

Welcome to AK, and thanks for piping in! I've long thought Realistic speakers were by and large under appreciated. Where were the US made speakers manufactured?

 

[Tecexec]

P.M.,

They were produced mostly in Fort Worth, TX. Tandy Electronics had two operations: Tandy Speakers and later Tandy Cabinets. Many years (after 1990) later after Tandy bought O'Sullivan Industries; some were built in the O'Sullivan operations in Virginia and Missouri.

 

[jocko_nc]

I was the designer of most US made systems from 1977 to 1990. There were two major manufactures: Sunwood (from Asia) and Tandy Speakers. While Sunwood did have better cabinets (finish-wise) and attention to details, the US made speakers from Tandy Speakers were always superior in sound and acoustical replication. It's difficult separate the wheat from the shaft. The T-100 was design by me but built by Sunwood. Really outstanding speakers were the Optimus 10, Optimus-23, T-70 and T-300. I tried to change the philosophy of the closed box designs to the higher efficiency and greater bandwidth of tuned system (second order and greater). Just for the record.

T-300 were my first serious speakers. Mowed many lawns and raked tons of leaves to get them. RS would have 50% off sales when phasing out a product, I think they were $299.00 for the pair. Why were the crossover coils so darn wimpy? Melted down a few of those. Were the tweeters Peerless? Those were good speakers. RS efforts seemed to go downhill after that.

 

[M Jarve]

TRS also used and sold some drivers that almost anyone would be happy to have in their systems. Their horn and some of their dome tweeters were indeed by Foster/Fostex; who also provided some OE drivers for the older Realistic lines like the Solo series.

The Linaeum tweeters were made by Toshiba. The diaphragms were thicker than genuine Linaeums, somewhat negating the HF extension, but they were also more robust.

Peerless even made its way into the Pro LX8, by way of the woofer.

Many of their raw-frame drivers were Pioneer, and even the no-name "Manufactured in Taiwan for RadioShack" were decent enough.

 

[Tecexec]

Jocko NC,

The T-300 tweeter was originally a Peerless soft dome but later a Tonegen knock-off to save money (make Tandy more profit). The midrange was originally a CTS mid, which Tandy speakers tried to knock off with poor yields. The woofer and drone were made by Tandy Speakers. They were good driver except they had foam surrounds.

I didn't remember problems with the crossovers BUT I'll take you word for it. From a design point, I didn't like exotic crossovers. I read a review on my T-100 that it only had a 4.7 microfarad cap and a 50 ohm variable resistor. Well duh, that's how I designed it. The T-100 had two 16 ohm custom made drivers. We use an extra long former and almost twice the windings length of an 8 ohm. What that gives you is extra inductance, which when designed properly levels the response and crossover frequency. Bottom line, we didn't need a large inductor and possible shunt capacitor for a good crossover. We had no insertion loss and much greater efficiency (both power and acoustically).

Back to the T-300: If you had trouble, it had to be in the mid/tweeter crossover. It's been a long time but I really thought we heatsinked some of the components because of heating issues(?). I know we heat-sinked the L-Pads.

I was Senior Director by that time and I was mainly involved in product definition and the design architecture. I know that I was adamant about a using a fourth order passive radiator design. The T-200 used two 10" active drivers, which unless you use them in a isobaric arrangement (which Sunwood didn't), drives to VAS requirement to double the cabinet size. Sunwood at that time had little to No skills in acoustics.

Anyway, I left in 1990 over way two many philosophical issues. I had a magical period that think that I upgraded the audio products in spite of the obstacles that I had to hurdle.

 

[OLDisGOLD]

Those Optimus 7 speakers are excellent marc mc! Nice looking and well made cabinets too! And yes, Radio Shack did have some exceptional speakers over the years, some better than others, but most were very, very good in their price range. Yours are among the best. I bet they will sound like new again if you replace those 35 year old crossover caps.

Congratulations - and enjoy!

Here is the catalog page from 1973. (And they are still playing and sounding good too. Interesting, isn't it?)

I had a pair of the NOVA 9's back in the 70's. Not the worst, but certainly not the best, Realistic speaker made. I never see any advertised for sale anywhere. Was it because few were sold, or they got pitched or parted out, or gutted & re-stuffed? They had nice cabs

It's a MYSTERY !!!

 

[Maron]

Nova 8's

terra1 , are these the Nova 8's you are talking about ?

 

[Canuck57]

I've been visiting a local thrift shop periodically and have scored 2 pairs of Minimus 7s (Made in Japan) and a pair of Nova 6s (made in Japan). Each pair was under $10 CDN! I'm in the process of refinishing the Novas. They're nice sounding little speakers.

I picked up a pair of Mach 1s, the original version which I've read are better than the later versions & have the rubber surrounds. I love them! You can see the Mach 1s tucked in among other speakers in the picture attached.

Link to past Radio Shack Catalogs (yes I realize this has been posted elsewhere, however, it's relevant to this thread).

http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalog_directory.html

 

[ChadHahn]

I had a pair of Optimus Pro LX-5s that I picked up at a thrift store for $25. I had wanted a pair since they first came out but never got one. I compared them against my JBL 2500s and liked the sound of the JBLs better. I ended up putting them on eBay but the auction ended on Easter Sunday so I didn't get much money for them.

I have had plenty of RS stuff over the years and have a pair of Pro-7s on the back porch right now hooked up to a Yamaha R-5 receiver.

Chad

 

[cityslicker]

Back in the late 80's I had a pair of Mach 1's and mach 2's hooked up to my Denon PMA 920. 115wpc. It sounded pretty dam good. I thought the Mach 2's sounded better. I had a Vector Research cd player hooked up to it. that was the first cd player I bought, back in 1983.

 

[jocko_nc]

Jocko NC,

The T-300 tweeter was originally a Peerless soft dome but later a Tonegen knock-off to save money (make Tandy more profit). The midrange was originally a CTS mid, which Tandy speakers tried to knock off with poor yields. The woofer and drone were made by Tandy Speakers. They were good driver except they had foam surrounds.

I didn't remember problems with the crossovers BUT I'll take you word for it. From a design point, I didn't like exotic crossovers. I read a review on my T-100 that it only had a 4.7 microfarad cap and a 50 ohm variable resistor. Well duh, that's how I designed it. The T-100 had two 16 ohm custom made drivers. We use an extra long former and almost twice the windings length of an 8 ohm. What that gives you is extra inductance, which when designed properly levels the response and crossover frequency. Bottom line, we didn't need a large inductor and possible shunt capacitor for a good crossover. We had no insertion loss and much greater efficiency (both power and acoustically).

Back to the T-300: If you had trouble, it had to be in the mid/tweeter crossover. It's been a long time but I really thought we heatsinked some of the components because of heating issues(?). I know we heat-sinked the L-Pads.

I was Senior Director by that time and I was mainly involved in product definition and the design architecture. I know that I was adamant about a using a fourth order passive radiator design. The T-200 used two 10" active drivers, which unless you use them in a isobaric arrangement (which Sunwood didn't), drives to VAS requirement to double the cabinet size. Sunwood at that time had little to No skills in acoustics.

Anyway, I left in 1990 over way two many philosophical issues. I had a magical period that think that I upgraded the audio products in spite of the obstacles that I had to hurdle.

That is a neat story to hear. I lugged those towers to school and they served me well enough. I had to learn to replace crossover coils, they would simply melt with enough abuse. My roomies got loaded once and and killed both mids, I took them home with me and had a tech re-cone them. Eventually I remade them with a superheavy 2-way crossover and 1 1/8 horns. They played louder that way. I probably still have a foam-rotted woofer somewhere. I got my money out of those. Eventually replaced them with Vandy 2Ce's, it was no competition.

 

[geiman]

I'm still looking for a clean (and CHEAP) pair of these. Optimus-1. Compared very favorably with the KLH 17. I enjoyed a pair for years, but I left them behind while moving a long, long time ago.

I need a woofer for Oppy ones just like those!

No recone kits available. Help! Someone?

 

[Out Of Time]

Mach II's, my friend. $50 purchase price, $25 worth of refoaming. They will shake your booty. Don't forget that the Shack sourced their drivers from many name brand audio companies. One look at the components will dispell the "cheap" monicker forevah.

Quoted for truth.

I've never been disappointed in them on the basis of performance vs cost and I've owned two pair in the last 25 years. Are they uncolored? No. 'Accurate' No. But I wasn't looking for monitors. I was looking for a clean-sounding, though colored, speaker, which could make rock sound like rock. Not all 'Boom and Sizzle' mind ya... but just a warm sound from a speak which could take the punishment. I also run a pair of of the RS Fostex bullet horn supertweeters on top ( A-models ) bought new in '84.

 

[HomeBody]

Excellent Read from all Posters....Thanks Kindly for your inputs!

 

[cornwallguy]

realisitc

It made me smile when i read this topic
In fact its the only house brand on anything that i ve really liked !
I work in Pro sound, i ve seen some darn good stuff, some so-so,and some plain ole dogs !
I still own my minimus 7 pair, currently running on my daughters little sharp stereo it actually makes it sound reasonalble.
Also Dad gave to me a original set of Minimus 2 that i have connected to the B switch on our electrohome console .
Dad picked these speakers hands down, to run on a new Sony reciever, dual TT,and Sony reel to reel, yet he had to have the minimus speakers
He says it was because they were the little brother to the Optimus 5,Mom liked them because the real wood finish matched the dining room, Yay Mom, allways the deciding vote in the house.
they had other gems, the sta 225 was easilly one of the best recievers they offered ,and the TM -1000 tuner was a good contender for seperates.
there are others of course but these have stood the test of time

PWK said it best, theres no substitute for good engineering
hmm something in that i guess LOL

enjoy
Rob