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Yet Another Mystery Speaker Thread

Sam Cogley

Sam Cogley

Last of the Time Lords
Subscriber
I've got a real head-scratcher on my hands. They cost me $5 at the SA, but I have no idea what they are. The one that's working sounded pretty good, even though the doped-cloth surround is loose in one spot. The other didn't work with an RCA cable off of my Realistic STA-82, I haven't tried the screw terminals yet.

The cabinets are heavy particle board, veneered with walnut-grain vinyl. The routing and construction are pretty much top-notch.

The grilles remind me very much of the grilles on these mystery speakers: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=202998 They're the same style and same molded plastic mesh/cloth construction. The big difference is that on the units in question here, the grilles are stapled down.

Cabinets, terminals and the woofer surround remind me of these mystery 2-ways: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=203425

The crossovers in these are very weird - just capacitors soldered in-line on the internal speaker wires.

The mids have the same little square magnets as the woofers. The tweeters have regular round magnets.

So...what the heck are they, and are they worth putting an effort into salvaging? I think they'd work well with the cheap receiver my parents have had since the early 70s that's still in their basement.

mystery1.jpg

mystery2.jpg

mystery3.jpg

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Well...at least I have some solid cabs to play with!

It didn't appear that the grilles have ever been removed, though - unless the grilles came from somewhere else entirely. There aren't any extra holes where they had previously been tacked down.

As far as the Nova idea goes, it's not a bad one, they're roughly the size of a Nova-7...but they don't have holes in the corners where the lattice grilles would have been screwed down, and all of the Novas I've seen had an inset speaker terminal plate that also had a Nova nameplate with the series, catalog number and serial number. The Nova-7 series also had an adjustable crossover with a knob on that plate. These don't appear to have ever had anything of the sort.
 
Upon further review, I agree with the idea that these have been frankensteined. My best guess is that they were originally a 2-way design with a 10" woofer. So...that's where they're going again! Now I need to choose drivers and some bits to make crossovers, and I'm going to need some suggestions/advice.

Based on some rough measurements, the interior volume of the cabs is right at one cubic foot.

If it helps anyone recognize them, I found "2EB21" stamped in the bottom of one.
 
klama2006 said:
I'm so happy you posted this.......... Who-ever made yours, also made these.


http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=202998


Or at least the same company made the grill covers............The best part of this site, is that nothing ever remains a mystery for too long here.


Sorry, I just noticed that you already mentioned my thread.
Click to expand...

Your thread inspired me to pick these things up. :smoke:

The grilles are getting tossed tomorrow - the plastic is pretty busted up. Obviously yours have much nicer drivers. The tiny cubical magnets are just weird.
 
klama2006 said:
So, how the feck do they sound?
Click to expand...

The one that works sounds pretty decent. No idea what's wrong with the dysfunctional unit. The drivers can't be worth much of anything with those weird little magnets, though - unless they're some of those rare earth things they use in hard drives.

Edit: at anything over very low volumes, those drivers sound like hell. Definitely putting them back to the original 2-way configuration with some decent (if inexpensive) drivers. I think Parts Express has some decent candidates.
 
I'm unable to feed the pair I picked up with much power either. I have since moved them into a lower powered tube based system, and have been able to enjoy them there.
 
 
You might check around AK for drivers. I don't know but I just have a feeling people here have all kinds of drivers lurking in closets and on storage shelves.
 
The weirdness continues. Just for the hell of it, I hooked up the operational speaker to my Realistic STA-82 (again) while listening to Aja. It sounded pretty good again. I think I'm going to replace the caps, figure out what's wrong with the one unit, clean them up, build grilles, and give them to my parents essentially as they are now. They'll be fine for the semi-finished basement, being driven by an ancient low-powered receiver that my parents have had a lot longer than I've been around.
 
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