What are these???

Hi everyone-

New guy on the forum. Found you in searching out info on these oddball (apparently) 70's era hi-fi/small PA speakers...

I'm not sure if they are DIY cabinets of if they were some kind of custom 70's era PA cabinet. They are loaded with JBL 123A-1 (8 ohm) woofers and an unmarked horn. And they use the Altec 32343 network. They sound pretty good as a small hi-fi or PA but I found that the caps were leaky in the HF comp network. Caps are black plastic, resin sealed, marked "TSI" and the values are: 3uf/75V; 6uf/100V; 8uf/75V; 18uf/50V (one of the 18uf caps had completely grenaded... shown in pic).

http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/a...Fi/Cabinet.jpg

http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/a...-Fi/123a-1.jpg

http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/a...Hi-Fi/Horn.jpg

http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/a...i/BlownCap.jpg

I don't know about the horn. I found no markings on it. The black rear cover is cast aluminum and the horn is plastic.

The cabinet is well made from 3/4 inch birch ply and its outside dimensions are: 24" (H) x 16.5" (W) x 12" (D) with a 3/4" vent across the lower part of baffle board. Does this resemble something that Altec/Lansing produced? I seem to recognize this grouping of components but I can't remember what speaker... 9800 series???

I was looking around here for the schematic for the cross-over network, but did not find it. Was this network known by another number maybe???

I was planning on re-capping this network, and thought I would ask for opinions on what caps people think would be best. Not a great deal of space inside these network boxes, so I was considering Solen metalized polypropylene, but have never used them. Good, bad, or indifferent?

Thanks for any help!

Allen

Looks like you have a nice vintage JBL woofer. Also the driver looks like an Altec 802-808 on some type of horn. Not sure if its an altec horn, doesnt look like an altec mantaray for the model 14. The crossover looks like an Altec 1500hz-ish type 2 way crossover, perhaps from a Altec 9849 speaker system. (Just going off the resistors and extra caps vs the traditional Altec 809 crossover)


Not sure here but perhaps a custom job. Nice components tho! Regarding the caps, I use the Dayton Poly's with nice results. I cant justify spending megaton of fancy caps.

The horn could be a 2370, but it's hard to see with this picture...

Thanks for the input guys... I'm going to post some clearer pics tomorrow evening. Stay tuned...

Allen

That compression driver looks like either a 2470 or a 2420 motor (being both the same except for the diaphragm), BUT with an Altec Cap on it. :blink:
.... and yes, I think the horn is a 2370. ;)
The 12" 123A-1 is pro'ly from an early model 4310.
Yes, the whole box is DIY including the x-over.
Because of the lack of a tuned port, may not be really suitable for extreme lows, but hey, what do I know..... :o:

.... but now, with the extra pics posted below, I give up. :confused:

The woofer is the same one used in early L100s. I recall that Zilch had a thread in the Audiokarma forums with discussion about building something like this.

Edit:
Not quite the same speaker, Zilch's econowave used a different horn and driver:
http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthr...14#post1856214

Ok everyone... here are some better snaps of this mystery horn. If you have specific things you need to see, let me know and I will snap some new pics...

http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/a...i-Fi/Horn1.jpg


http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/a...i-Fi/Horn2.jpg


http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/a...i-Fi/Horn3.jpg


http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/a...i-Fi/Horn4.jpg


http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/a...i-Fi/Horn5.jpg


http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/a...i-Fi/Horn6.jpg


Should I remove the back cover to help identify these? The cover is held on by three small phillips head screws and a single torx head screw which is directly in between the terminals. The body of the driver is painted in black wrinkle finish, and there is a fiberboard gasket (about 1mm thick) that mates the horn flange to the driver. The horn feels like carbon plastic.

Thanks again!

Allen

The horn is the narrower 2370 clone they sold at the same time as the full size. I think they were made by the sammi group ( korea ) or P-Audio. The music stores had lots of them in the late 90's then they vanished..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by subwoof

The horn is the narrower 2370 clone they sold at the same time as the full size. I think they were made by the sammi group ( korea ) or P-Audio. The music stores had lots of them in the late 90's then they vanished..

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Good eye, I noticed that the base and the outside of the horn was different than my own 2370 but I thought it could have been a different production year.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Corona Blue

Should I remove the back cover to help identify these? The cover is held on by three small phillips head screws and a single torx head screw which is directly in between the terminals. The body of the driver is painted in black wrinkle finish, and there is a fiberboard gasket (about 1mm thick) that mates the horn flange to the driver. The horn feels like carbon plastic.

Thanks again!

Allen

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If you are going to open the cap, you only need to undo the 3 phillips head screws.
Leave the torx screw alone.

Looks like a an Altec driver and Altec XO to me still. ;) Do you have pics of the XO, or is that photo'd next to the DCR meter...if so it is an Altec.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Progneta

Looks like a an Altec driver and Altec XO to me still. ;) Do you have pics of the XO, or is that photo'd next to the DCR meter...if so it is an Altec.

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Yes, that driver is either an Altec 802 or 806 .

A measurement of the drivers' body, ( without back-cap ) will tell the story .

Here's a marked-up pic to help with identification .

<>EarlK

BTW; I agree with subwoof / that CD style horn, looks like an older "Sammi" (smaller) knockoff of the 2370 .

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Progneta

Looks like a an Altec driver and Altec XO to me still. ;) Do you have pics of the XO, or is that photo'd next to the DCR meter...if so it is an Altec.

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Yes, the XO's are genuine Altec... I will take some measurements today of the drivers and we'll see what that tells us.

Thanks for all the good info so far!

Allen

Ok... I got a few minutes to get into the shop... here are the measurements of the driver:

Measuring from the rear surface of the driver ring to the forward surface of the driver housing, I measure 2.210"


http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/a...i/Measured.jpg


When I add in the .100" horn mating gasket, 2.310"

So does this narrow it down?

Thanks in advance,

Allen