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Thread: EV Sentry III find.

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  1. #1
    Regis
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    EV Sentry III find.

    I picked up a pair of EV Sentry III's in North Hollywood last Thursday and I am pleased. I spotted them on Los Angeles Craigslist and was intrigued. I did some quick research, made the arrangements and went to pick them up. Had to borrow a buddy's pickup truck, because there is no way, they are fitting in the back of my Focus wagon. I've had L-300's fit, 250 Ti's fit, L-150's fit, but not these. At 156 pounds each and 30x28x21 they are huge!

    The cabs aren't great, but they're not bad and can be cleaned up. No delamination, no chunks missing and not even any deep scratches, just normal wear and tear for 30 year old speakers. These are my first pair of EV's after owning many pair of JBL's throughout 40 years and while I have only owned a dozen pair or so, I'm pretty intimate with build quality and I have to say, these are really well built speakers.

    The cabs are beautiful. Very heavy MDF construction and quality veneer. These had to be handbuilt! The grills weigh ten pounds each and have three sides and they are literally, a friction fit to slid them on from the front. Not talking 1/16" clearance top and bottom, nor 1/32", but a slight friction fit to push them on to their velcro stops. And they'd better be perfectly straight, side to side and exactly vertical, because the grills will 'catch' and you have to pull on them and restart them! The tweed grill cloth is mostly intact and the badges are still there on the bottom. Each Sentry III weighs 156 pounds.

    The midrange horn is frigging huge! It is one solidly built piece of plastic. Very, very sturdy and nothing flimsy nor cheap about it. The tweeter horn looks a lot like the 44xx butt-cheek. The foam on the woofers is long gone, so after they were unloaded and at home, I pulled the woofers and they are heavy. Big motors, thick cast frame construction and nice color-coded spring-loaded terminals, I know this construction and was pleased. The surrounds remind me of the Altec woofers, in that there is a lot of foam between the edge of the woofer and the frame!

    Didn't get to listem to them, just yet, but I'm going to be dropping them off to be refoamed within the next couple of weeks. After that, I've got to find some kind of EQ that I can marry up with them to replicate the difficult-to-find EV SEQ unit, that allowed these monsters to go down to 28hz! Finally, they have small steel ingraved plaques on the back of each one, warning of high SPL's and that long term exposure can cause permanent hearing damage.

    From what I understand, these are efficient speakers and it doesn't take a lot of watts to drive them to serious sound levels. I'm fascinated with the fact that they were one of the first speaker designs to fully utilize T/S specifications. Looking forward to hooking them up within the month or so and seeing just how they sound.

    I paid $100 for the pair.
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  2. #2
    Senior Member grumpy's Avatar
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    Nice find. Just the tweeters were worth the drive

  3. #3
    Senior Member louped garouv's Avatar
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    older EV has a pretty good sized cult following also, correct?

    anyhow, great grab -- esp for a c note

  4. #4
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    Nice score!

    Bet they are going to sound reeeal nice.

  5. #5
    J.A.F.S.
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    Mid Horn

    The D. B. Keele designed mid-horn (the SM 120A) on the Sentry III is one of my favorite 1" throat horns. It is non-resonant due to its molding characteristics and sports 120 degree nominal dispersion, which makes it quite amenable to near-field (home) use. I'm not a big fan of the EV compression driver, but any similar JBL compression driver will fit nicely. I would re-foam the woofers and re-finish the cabs and then enjoy them. They are a great speaker!
    Amazed I'm still alive!
    Tim

  6. #6
    Administrator Mr. Widget's Avatar
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    Congratulations... a well spent couple of hours. Keep us posted on your progress.

    I think these speakers were not really designed with home use in mind. I think they were designed to be soffit mounted or at the very least elevated to ear level. You might want to experiment with that.


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  7. #7
    Regis
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    Quote Originally Posted by loach71 View Post
    The D. B. Keele designed mid-horn (the SM 120A) on the Sentry III is one of my favorite 1" throat horns. It is non-resonant due to its molding characteristics and sports 120 degree nominal dispersion, which makes it quite amenable to near-field (home) use. I'm not a big fan of the EV compression driver, but any similar JBL compression driver will fit nicely. I would re-foam the woofers and re-finish the cabs and then enjoy them. They are a great speaker!
    I agree on the compression driver and the EV driver, while adequate certainly doesn't look like an LE85. I think I'd have to match them up for both efficiency and impedance!

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by loach71 View Post
    The D. B. Keele designed mid-horn (the SM 120A) on the Sentry III is one of my favorite 1" throat horns. It is non-resonant due to its molding characteristics and sports 120 degree nominal dispersion, which makes it quite amenable to near-field (home) use. I'm not a big fan of the EV compression driver, but any similar JBL compression driver will fit nicely. I would re-foam the woofers and re-finish the cabs and then enjoy them. They are a great speaker!
    I am not all that familiar with EV equipment, especially their mid-range horns and drivers, even thought I have an alnico EV T350 tweeter. From what I understand the EV mid-range tweeters have a pipe thread rather than a 2/3/4 bolt pattern as in the Altec/JBL mounting system, so do you use an adapter of some sort?

  9. #9
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    Electro-Voice Sentry III

    I usually speaking French with English mistakes so please be gentle. There are three models of Sentry III. Mine have the suspension of the woofer in W. So no need to replace it. A pair of the kind in a showroom like condition and 100% functional up to $ 15,000 in Asia. In Canada and the United Etas they are worth less than the ignorance of their quality hi-fi and the linearity of the reproduction of their sound. They are of very high efficiency so important to the coupling with an amplifier and a pre-amplifier that will do them justice. I for my part my arm in two-EV steps with two amplifiers Yamaha Professional Series P2200 updated with new condensators and a pre-amplifier Bozak CMA-6S rebuilt. The source (cd player) is just as important (quality). Finally the interconnects are all important too.
    Undo edits

  10. #10
    Regis
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    Quote Originally Posted by memoire101 View Post
    I usually speaking French with English mistakes so please be gentle. There are three models of Sentry III. Mine have the suspension of the woofer in W. So no need to replace it. A pair of the kind in a showroom like condition and 100% functional up to $ 15,000 in Asia. In Canada and the United Etas they are worth less than the ignorance of their quality hi-fi and the linearity of the reproduction of their sound. They are of very high efficiency so important to the coupling with an amplifier and a pre-amplifier that will do them justice. I for my part my arm in two-EV steps with two amplifiers Yamaha Professional Series P2200 updated with new condensators and a pre-amplifier Bozak CMA-6S rebuilt. The source (cd player) is just as important (quality). Finally the interconnects are all important too.
    Undo edits
    I agree. While I haven't heard a pair of EV's yet, I am looking forward to getting the woofers back from Ken at Upland Loudspeaker Service, where they are being refoamed. The build quality of the cabinets and components are top notch and I'm betting they sound great! I looked up the Yamaha's and the Bozak. If you're running dual P2200's, you're not going to be short of power, that's for sure! The Bozak looks really good too, nice build quality and reminescent of early Harman Kardon preamps, with the internal wiring carefully laid out. I can hardly wait to get the big beasts running. These are the largest loudspeakers I have ever owned. I've owned the L300's so it's going to be interesting to see what these sound like.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Regis View Post
    I agree. While I haven't heard a pair of EV's yet, I am looking forward to getting the woofers back from Ken at Upland Loudspeaker Service, where they are being refoamed. The build quality of the cabinets and components are top notch and I'm betting they sound great! I looked up the Yamaha's and the Bozak. If you're running dual P2200's, you're not going to be short of power, that's for sure! The Bozak looks really good too, nice build quality and reminescent of early Harman Kardon preamps, with the internal wiring carefully laid out. I can hardly wait to get the big beasts running. These are the largest loudspeakers I have ever owned. I've owned the L300's so it's going to be interesting to see what these sound like.
    Do you still have your JBL L300 or dod you sold them ?

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by memoire101 View Post
    I usually speaking French with English mistakes so please be gentle. There are three models of Sentry III. Mine have the suspension of the woofer in W. So no need to replace it. A pair of the kind in a showroom like condition and 100% functional up to $ 15,000 in Asia. In Canada and the United Etas they are worth less than the ignorance of their quality hi-fi and the linearity of the reproduction of their sound. They are of very high efficiency so important to the coupling with an amplifier and a pre-amplifier that will do them justice. I for my part my arm in two-EV steps with two amplifiers Yamaha Professional Series P2200 updated with new condensators and a pre-amplifier Bozak CMA-6S rebuilt. The source (cd player) is just as important (quality). Finally the interconnects are all important too.
    Undo edits
    Tne pics are ready now
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  13. #13
    J.A.F.S.
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    Thumbs up Sentry III

    Quote Originally Posted by memoire101 View Post
    Tne pics are ready now
    A very nice system indeed. Search the forum for boiled linseed oil -- use it to treat the dry veneer. Again, the SM120a mid-horn is one of the nicest near-field horns I have ever heard. If they sound good, then don't modify them!
    Amazed I'm still alive!
    Tim

  14. #14
    Regis
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    Quote Originally Posted by memoire101 View Post
    Tne pics are ready now
    That is a great looking system! The big EV's look like the beasts that they are! I agree with your assessment of the value on these speakers. They are ridiculously low for what they are. The average price here is about $1,000 or so and up to $1,500. That is cheap for a 156 pound, horn driven speaker in a walnut cab!

  15. #15
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    So, how do they sound? That is a gorgeous pair of speakers that I had no idea even existed. What a find. What a price!

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