Old Philips speakers blast from the past

[Brian Gaff]

Inside a Philips speaker from the 70s. Nice bass unit, nice tweeter, blown
up of course but the mid range appears to be encapsulated in a dome of
plastic, quite hard with no obvious holes. Not sure how this works.
Crossover is quite beefy, but Tweeter probably blown up by a clipping amp.
I think these sounded a bit soggy at the time. Probably fixable. Got at car
boot.

Gone back to person. Too big for me!

I wonder if any of their motional feedback speakers still exist.

They could sound quite good as long as you did not run them too loud. Brian


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[Dave Plowman (News)]

In article <phnu86$cc$1...@news.albasani.net>,

Brian Gaff <bri...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
> Inside a Philips speaker from the 70s. Nice bass unit, nice tweeter,
> blown up of course but the mid range appears to be encapsulated in a
> dome of plastic, quite hard with no obvious holes. Not sure how this
> works. Crossover is quite beefy, but Tweeter probably blown up by a
> clipping amp. I think these sounded a bit soggy at the time. Probably
> fixable. Got at car boot.

Remember in the late 60s, Rolls Royce fitted Philips speakers. Just a
fairly common 4 inch size (for cars) but much longer throw than others.

--
*Why does the sun lighten our hair, but darken our skin?

Dave Plowman da...@davenoise.co.uk London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

[Brian Gaff]

Yes I had some of their car speakers with a cassette unit. I foolishly lent
them to a friend who put them in his cortina mk1 and one night it caught
fire and everything was lost.

Brian

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"Dave Plowman (News)" <da...@davenoise.co.uk> wrote in message
news:57136a7...@davenoise.co.uk...

[~misfit~]

Once upon a time on usenet Brian Gaff wrote:
> Inside a Philips speaker from the 70s. Nice bass unit, nice tweeter,
> blown up of course but the mid range appears to be encapsulated in a
> dome of plastic, quite hard with no obvious holes. Not sure how this
> works. Crossover is quite beefy, but Tweeter probably blown up by a
> clipping amp. I think these sounded a bit soggy at the time. Probably
> fixable. Got at car boot.

I had a set like that. I parted them out as the cabinets had been standing
in the damp. I can't remember the model numbers of the drivers off-hand. Yes
the mids came with those (around 0.6l) plastic chambers so they were
isolated from the backpressure of the woofer in the cabinet. AD8066 W8 8"
woofer with rubber surround and octagonal faceplate? (The mids had an
octagonal faceplate too.) I still have a pair of the woofers only they're
the W4 version which is 4 ohms. This pair came out of a Leslie speaker that
was also otherwise rubbish.
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy
little classification in the DSM*."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)

[Brian Gaff]

Oh that was why then. I'd not considered that as an issue, but I guess it
could be with long throw bass units.

Brian

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"~misfit~" <shaun.at...@gmail.com> wrote in message
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[~misfit~]

Once upon a time on usenet Brian Gaff wrote:
> Oh that was why then. I'd not considered that as an issue, but I
> guess it could be with long throw bass units.

Goodmans did a similar thing with the midrange drivers in their RB20 3-way
speakers. They too have a roughly half litre plastic 'isolation chamber'
behind them. I remember Wharfedale Dovedale III speakers used a 5" diameter
foot-long piece of cardboard tube that was sealed at the rear and went all
the way to the back of the cabinet to seperate the rear of the midrange from
pressure waves from the rear of the woofer. (Using UK examples to keep this
relevant to the group.)

All of these speakers were 'acoustic suspension' sealed cabinets that used
the air inside the cabinets as a spring to control the movement of the
woofer cone. It wouldn't be good if this air pressure acted on the back of
the midrage driver, especially during bass-heavy passages of music.

[Brian Gaff]

Yes I have a pair of Dentons here, but these are only 2 way devices.
Somebody said I should look at the base units as the surrounds can perish,
but I do not think there is a way in to them its all glued up from what I
can see. They still sound quite nice considering their vintage. They were
cheaper at the time as they are Walnut and everyone wanted Teak a the time.
Got to have a mind for a bargain.

I also have a pair of Tannoy IIIlz IB units I'm using now, but I have a
powered sub with them to extend the bass a bit. Only problems I have had
with the tannoys were dirty switches on the crossovers. I'm not sure, but I
have a feeling that the speakers are a bit more mid treble heavy than they
used to be. Perhaps some capacitors in the crossover are drying out. On the
other hand it might just be my aging hearing!

Brian

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"~misfit~" <shaun.at...@gmail.com> wrote in message

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[~misfit~]

Once upon a time on usenet Brian Gaff wrote:
> Yes I have a pair of Dentons here, but these are only 2 way devices.
> Somebody said I should look at the base units as the surrounds can
> perish, but I do not think there is a way in to them its all glued up
> from what I can see. They still sound quite nice considering their
> vintage. They were cheaper at the time as they are Walnut and
> everyone wanted Teak a the time. Got to have a mind for a bargain.

I have a pair of Denton 2s here - what a coincidence. That walnut veneer is
good quality - thick. These had stains on the tops where pot plants had been
on them and I was able to sand down far enough to remve the watermarks and
the tops look great!

The surrounds on mine are in really good condition but they glue holding the
surroud to the chassis has come away on one of them. Be sure to play them
from time to time as that 'rubber' goes hard and brittle if not excercised.
That's what happened to the Dovedales I had. They'd been in storage foir
nearly 20 years, were in pristine condition but the woofer surrounds had
gone hard and brittle. The woofers are 13" things and I couldn't or the life
of me source replacements. One speaker refurbisher ooffered to do it for me
(at an exhorbitant price) but under interrogation admitted he would have
used a 15" surround and cut it down to fit and overlapped the join. I could
do that if I wanted a half-arsed job done.

I stored the drivers too long out of the cabinet whilst contemplating my
options and of course there was an accident, a woofer fell and a cone was
badly damaged. So I sold the mids, tweeters (purple UFOs) and x-overs...

> I also have a pair of Tannoy IIIlz IB units I'm using now, but I have
> a powered sub with them to extend the bass a bit. Only problems I
> have had with the tannoys were dirty switches on the crossovers. I'm
> not sure, but I have a feeling that the speakers are a bit more mid
> treble heavy than they used to be. Perhaps some capacitors in the
> crossover are drying out. On the other hand it might just be my aging
> hearing!

I've never owned any Tannoys and likely never will now. (I have more
speakers than I can easilly store.) I suppose you already have this page
http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/Tannoy_IIILZ.htm Good luck!

[Brian Gaff]

So how did you get access to see if the surrounds were damaged?
I have no issues with getting into the Tannoys but then I've not been in
since I lost my remaining sight in case i break off a wire.

Brian

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"~misfit~" <shaun.at...@gmail.com> wrote in message

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[~misfit~]

With the Denton 2s the fronts come off. A butter knife slipped under will
ease them away. I don't know if that's the case with the first release
Dentons though.

--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy
little classification in the DSM*."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)

Once upon a time on usenet Brian Gaff wrote:
> So how did you get access to see if the surrounds were damaged?
> I have no issues with getting into the Tannoys but then I've not been
> in since I lost my remaining sight in case i break off a wire.
> Brian
>

[~misfit~]

It's hard to be sure (because since Wharfedale released their 'Denton 80th
Anniversary' speaker finding hits on original series Dentons is hard) but I
think the original Dentons had the drivers mounted from the back of the
baffle. The Denton 2s have the drivers mounted from the front so it's quite
easy (for a sighted person at least) to check the inverted rubber surround.

If yours are original series Dentons then you'd likely need to remove the
back and unmount the drivers to check properly. That said they probably
wouldn't have the same issues the second series does. I have found various
pics of the Dentons, series 1 and 2 with differeing driver mounting and even
differing drivers. For instance my 8" woofers have a thin front flange and
rather than bolts going through it are held in place with four L shaped
pieces of aluminium with a screw in the centre used as retainers. I found
pics of Denton 2s in the UK for sale and the woofer was mounted the normal
way (and there was a little cover thing over the tweeter).

--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy
little classification in the DSM*."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)


Once upon a time on usenet Brian Gaff wrote:
> So how did you get access to see if the surrounds were damaged?
> I have no issues with getting into the Tannoys but then I've not been
> in since I lost my remaining sight in case i break off a wire.
> Brian
>