Speaker Help...Sort or Skip

I was given these speakers by a friend of a friend.
The were aparentley custom built in the 60's, for a classical musician.
They are amazingly heavy ..at least 75 kg each!
Well braced and pretty well built, bit tatty though.
I had to take the old front cloth off and ditch, they do not have removable Panels on the front.

Anyway they have 2 Bass drivers (only visible when I took the front cloth off, as they have a divided panel
that runs from the bottom to near the top inside and the drivers are fixed to the front baffle)
I think these are KEF B139 Woffers but I'm not sure as i can't get access to the back of them. They seem in tact and not perished.

They have a Compressed Horn Mid and a tweeter that fires upwards..
The Crossover box is a big wood box in each Cab, Goodmans x0.950

I connected them (to a 300b PP Amp) up and all works fine but the bass is lacking and the tops are shrilly!

Thoughts?
Is it worth chucking dosh at this project or skip?
I feel obliged to get them singing..

pictures are on the link below as I am unsure how to embed them on AoS site.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/151702904@N08/508e22

Have a chat with Paul Baldwin at reelaudio. He use to work at Goodmans in Wembley probably around the time those speakers were made. Maybe he has something info that is helpfull.

Send my regards if you chat with him.

Sent via Tapatalk

The crossover being a 15 ohm design will not work properly with the 8 ohm KEF B139 bass drivers unless they are in series. Then you'd have very low bass efficiency, which is maybe why the speakers sound shrill. You could try a 15/16 ohm attenuator ('L' Pad) with the mids to reduce output and restore some kind of balance and try the same with the tweeter (which looks like a Celestion HF1300). A better alternative might be to find a pair of sensitive 15/16 ohm bass drivers to bung in instead of the KEFs.

I doubt they're going to sound great whatever you do. I don't like the Midax mid horn. It's pretty coloured and a bit brash.

If you give up, the drive units will sell OK.

Cheers Edward

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Edwardlon

Have a chat with Paul Baldwin at reelaudio. He use to work at Goodmans in Wembley probably around the time those speakers were made. Maybe he has something info that is helpfull.

Send my regards if you chat with him.

Sent via Tapatalk

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Thanks Geoff..

Try Keith mf1000 on the wam (maybe here or PF too?), he's built some speakers based on those drivers. I'd love to say they sound pants to wind him up but they don't....

Stripping them for parts is definitely a solution. As said already the drivers will sell easily and are simpler to package and post than complete cabs.
That said I'd want to hear them with a bit of power through them before binning them.

I just couldn't break up a pair of speakers or any bit of kit for spares. Just feels utterly wrong to me.

If parts from two faulty speakers can be combined to make one good speaker it only makes good sense.

Unfortunately, the B139 bass units have a limited range of applications, they are best suited to use below 500 Hz. The Midax mids are not great for Hi-Fi, they have obvious colourations and are a bit coarse, their sensitivity is too high to work with the KEF's. They'd be fine for DJ use though. The HF1300 tweeters can sound very good in the right context.

I had a chat with Paul Baldwin, thanks Edward.
He was very helpful indeed, top bloke. Suggested the x-overs to be freshened up, and go from there.
He thought the driver combination and the implementation would give very very good HiFi results!

Lots of good advice here too, so we shall see and i will let you know how they come out.
The 300b pp with no feedback won't be sufficient to bring out the best from them so will have to match an Amp to test (SS?).
I take it on the basis that whoever put these together must have put those drivers with the horns in that configuration for a reason!
So a cross over do over is the first step, and the cheapest..
stay tuned! I agree it would be a shame to break em up.
cheers

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Edwardlon

Have a chat with Paul Baldwin at reelaudio. He use to work at Goodmans in Wembley probably around the time those speakers were made. Maybe he has something info that is helpfull.

Send my regards if you chat with him.

Sent via Tapatalk

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by WESTLOWER

I had a chat with Paul Baldwin, thanks Edward.
He was very helpful indeed, top bloke. Suggested the x-overs to be freshened up, and go from there.
He thought the driver combination and the implementation would give very very good HiFi results!

Lots of good advice here too, so we shall see and i will let you know how they come out.
The 300b pp with no feedback won't be sufficient to bring out the best from them so will have to match an Amp to test (SS?).
I take it on the basis that whoever put these together must have put those drivers with the horns in that configuration for a reason!
So a cross over do over is the first step, and the cheapest..
stay tuned! I agree it would be a shame to break em up.
cheers

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Good to hear Adam.

Feel free to invite me over for a listen once you have them sorted. :)

Hey you never know your speakers may well compete favourably with highly priced/prized Adam Speakers!

Indeed you are not far from me...N2..Finchley?
You actually have an Amp i could LOVE to hear!, maybe a coffee, and a Tune or 2 on your Radford STA25?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Edwardlon

Good to hear Adam.

Feel free to invite me over for a listen once you have them sorted. :)

Hey you never know your speakers may well compete favourably with highly priced/prized Adam Speakers!

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by WESTLOWER

Indeed you are not far from me...N2..Finchley?
You actually have an Amp i could LOVE to hear!, maybe a coffee, and a Tune or 2 on your Radford STA25?

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Anytime ...

Ditto for the WAD.

Possibly a KEF15 tweeter

Just seen the second photo, fairly definite that it's a T15

Quote:

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Originally Posted by spendorman

Possibly a KEF15 tweeter

Just seen the second photo, fairly definite that it's a T15

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Yes. You're right actually. I'd thought it was an HF1300, but the blue and black wires identify it as KEF.

The mounting too, and no threaded hole in the back of the magnet

Not sure what size (internal volume) the cabinets are, but it could be that they are too small for good bass from the two B139's. Removing one B139 and blanking the hole, might improve the bass, of course the crossover would not be quite right then, that is assuming it was right in the first place.

This project is on hold for the time being till funds allow.
Have a nice Tannoy project I am working on.
I won't give up on these though...

I'll report back..soon ish

thanks for the input chaps

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WESTLOWER

This project is on hold for the time being till funds allow.
Have a nice Tannoy project I am working on.
I won't give up on these though...

I'll report back..soon ish

thanks for the input chaps

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Just a little prod on this Adam. :)


Get the xovers out and replace the caps. 60 minutes tops.

Minimal cost. DIY.