EMI Elliptical Drivers

[Spur07]

Sorry all, just worked out how to embed the images in the thread. Here are the pics:









That's much easier than following a link

[spendorman]

Yes I think you're right Spenderman. Many people are still enjoying those B&W today, apparently the Quad 303's were a good match if I'm not mistaken.

Yes, if in good condition, the B&W DM1 and DM3 are pretty good and don't need much power to drive them. I still have some of each.

[DSJR]

HMV in Oxford St had a lovely quality system for rock music on the first floor for years - TD150/M15e, Quad 33/303 and DM1's set high in the suspended ceiling. This system lasted years and the Td150 became a TD160/M75-6s before the whole floor was re-developed and some crummy cheapo KEF's or similar came in and the treble and bass were turned to maximum (or that's how it seemed).

A few months before I left my final audio employer for the last time, we traded in some DM3's. They must have been faulty or knackered, as all I could hear was a thrummy bass and little else. I'd love to hear a "proper" pair

[SPS]

i have 6 of those emi drivers, 4 have tweeters speakers across the front both twin & single tweeters , the other pair have larger magnets and were the bass drivers from a late type decca decola, i used these in some open baffles the other week with a pair of saba lookalike telefunken 3" mid/tweeters

they where a good match with a nice sound.. but not enough bass in ob, so they are back in the garage.

i also have a pair of older dm1's... sounds like there may be another pair inside

cheers
steve

[DSJR]

The CM1's had mass added to the cones to take the bass down further (Tannoy did similar with their "Girdacoustic" cones). I don't know the physics, but it worked at the time for B&W in any case.

[hornucopia]

Circa 1965-6, I made a nice Coffin shaped box for my Garrard Lab-A deck, plus 2 mono one-valve, off-the-shelf, amps, running 2 awful looking boxes with 13 X 8 ellipticals.
No padding; must have had a cavernous sound.
should have kept the EMIs
AND I gave my brother the B+W DM1s a few years back.
I have impeccable taste in stuff I've given away!

My best friend used to work in that HMV shop for years too.

[spendorman]

In the 70's my friend worked at EMI as a sales engineer for loudspeaker units. They supplied many manufacturers including B&W, Monitor Audio and IMF. The MA3 used an EMI elliptical 14"x9" with a cast chassis and massive magnet (think part number may be 14A770C).

You may have to be logged on to see these MA3's


http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=243338


The MA7 used an EMI 6" bass/ mid and an EMI dome tweeter.

[Spur07]

Further update on my Eliipticals,

just before christmas I bought a cheap 25 watt Class D amp from Shure Electronics in China for £11.00 specifically to run the EMI drivers. (I think now I probably should have paid an extra £20 for a fully boxed model with volume control).

Here are some pics. Please excuse the dust







The amp has 4 gain settings so itunes has to perform the volume duties into my Beresford 7510. Not an ideal set up. I tried using the 7510 as a pre-amp but it's not recommended by Shure and the resulting sound was insipid.

When I switched to fixed output from the 7510 I had to turn the itunes volume right down to its minimal setting, (in fact it's not really low enough), but the results were excellent. Both drivers seem to be in good working order and I quickly became addicted - they are much more transparent than my Royds with whole levels of music appearing on certain tracks that I'd never heard before. The first thing I noticed was how the splash of a cymbal sounded so much sweeter and authentic and there's a real twang to the guitars. Predictably these drivers sound best with jazz, acoustic, and straight rock. Bass is lacking, especially in this temporary set up. Vocals can be a forward at times on certain tracks (female vocals) but not shouty. Unfortunately, the driver on the right (single tweeter) has slightly less gain than the other. I'm now intrigued as to how these will sound with valves, in particular the Quad II which the drivers were designed to be used with. So I've made a few enquires.

Anyway, I've decided to build some JE Labs OB's for the EMI drivers to see how much bass I can get. My local builders can supply 3/4" birch ply and one of the guys there is happy to cut the design out for me. I'll change the speaker wire and install some binding posts as well but the drivers will remain untouched as they maybe prototypes.

Steve,

what OB design did you try with your EMI's?

Anyway, plugging my Naim/Royd system back in the other day it did sound good so we'll see what happens, but I've been thinking about selling the Naim gear for some time now. Could do with paying a few small debts and after some sterling service my 7510 probably needs upgrading.

P

[John]

Good luck with the build

[Spur07]

Good luck with the build

Thanks John.

Wood now bought and being cut - I'll try and post some pics.