How many pairs of speakers do you own?

[Baggy Trousers]

Only just discovered this thread.

Can't add much to the discussion; I have four speaker arrangements but they're not likely to mean much to anyone these days.

Amazingly, I still have the GEC 8" metal cone with "presence unit" in the cabinet I made for it in 1955. I used this with a Brenell tape recorder. Pre-stereo of course.

I also have kept a pair of HMV DLS519 speakers. HMV suggests a pleasant looking radiogram playing Bing Crosby's Greatest Hits, Vol 217, but in fact "DLS" stands for Dutton Loud Speaker. Dr Dutton was Chief Electrical Engineer of EMI in the early 'sixties and was a clever designer of audio stuff. I used these with a Quad II/22 and subsequently a HMV 555 which was a beautifully made 5/10.

Depending on my mood (and strength available to move the things - the Autograph is 58,5" tall), I alternate between a pair of Tannoy R-GRF and Autograph folded horns. Both are fitted with the 15" dual-concentric - NOT the derided HPD.

[Greg.]

It’s a flavour thing, Baggy. I could never live with a dual concentric horn. Every listening session I’ve had with them has given me a headache, the last time being so violent, I and my friend had to leave early and lay down in a quiet room for several hours thereafter. It was like a full night in a nightclub, but without the drink or substances to suppress the impact

[The Shadow]

I only have one pair of speakers: big sealed boxes housing a Fane 12-250TC single driver. This is a triple cone ‘full range’ driver. Main cone is 12” diameter and there are a pair of whizzers. One whizzer is the size of the one in the Goodmans Axiom 401. Concentric with this is a smaller HF whizzer.

The driver does a good job of covering most of the frequency range, but like many FR drivers, it loosens your fillings on-axis. It works fine off-axis up to about thirty degrees, then the treble falls off a cliff.

I’ve persevered with this driver for almost three years now and last week finally relented and introduced a helper tweeter in the form of the Monacor SPP-90, polypropylene cone HF unit. Fed off a 2.2uF cap, the tweeter is currently lashed up to the top of the cabinet with gaffer tape, but it’ll become a permanent fixture with a tubular enclosure after Christmas. The helper tweeter improves the performance of the speaker system as a whole and removes the last vestiges of screech from the presentation, as well as evening out the top end very nicely.

Full range drivers can be an absolute b’stard to integrate with a tweeter; chiefly because of their narrow dispersion characteristics at HF. They usually require a horn tweeter, which if you’re not careful will make matters worse by introducing unacceptable shrillness. However a cone tweeter can work very well depending on how efficient it is. Trouble is hardly anybody makes them anymore. The Monacor cone unit, is a little treasure and I hope they keep making them.

[A Stuart]

The Shadow that came in from the cold. Welcome back!

[The Shadow]

Originally Posted by A Stuart

The Shadow that came in from the cold. Welcome back!

Aye, it’s been a while.