Tomtastic

I've been seeing a lot of consoles lately at thrift stores. We had one about 25 years ago we also picked up at a thrift store for cheap back then. The one we had, had 15" drivers inside and very nice 3/4" wood, very solid. Had tons of bass. I keep thinking I might pick one up and yes, rip out all the innards and put new speakers and hardware inside but they are so big, I don't know where I would put it. I did find one small one lately. I'll post some picks. Consoles are sooo coool! First one is GE, (I think). Second was Magnavox with Micromatic player, 3rd is the small Sears Silvertone with pull out LP drawer. I was so tempted but I walked away.

Also the Shorthorn, which when I first saw the kit speaker at the thrift store that's what I thought it might be. So I quickly looked up the shorthorn on my phone to get an image to compare but I quickly discovered it wasn't that for sure but I hauled it home anyway because I was curious and then found the Aristocrat. And on another subject, I finally found the 15" version of the Aristocrat, I read a post about it at one point a year ago and couldn't find the name on it. It's The Royal. It was the same as the Aristocrat but larger for a 15" driver, but I suspect they didn't sell them very long. Maybe only in the early 50's. Posting a link to it here so I can find it again. There's some pictures of it there. http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/electro-voice-royal-corner-horn.400244/ Yes, it's been fun most of all. I can't wait until my next project but I'm not certain what the bass horn will be. La Scala, or something else.

I've had a difficult time determining if PWK actually drew up the plans himself on the Aristocrat and other EV folded horn designs, if I had to guess I would say no. I would say at the least, back in the 50's when EV was licensing the designs, anything that was corner-loaded was Klipsch-designed because of the patents. There was one brochure on the Aristocrat and a few others that had mentioned they were Klipsch licensed designs (trying to find it). I believe there may have been an arrangement for EV to sell the corner horn enclosures in exchange for selling EV drivers to Klipsch. It's a rear folded horn or back horn and corner horn since it uses the corner. So a rear (or back) folded corner horn. Ah, here it is but the image scans weren't high quality. Even the design plans list Klipsch design, again, maybe because at the time corner horns were Klipsch domain. Odd, since PWK didn't invent the corner horn, merely perfecting it. http://www.itishifi.com/2010/01/electro-voice-and-licensing-from.html

Link to article on the original Aristocrat Yes, it's a horn. PWK designed it and he thought it was. Placement is 1-4" from corner. Or near a wall with some loss in bass efficiency. The original Aristocrats were crossed at 800hz but I'm using 80hz high pass for mid and I have the bass driver set somewhere around 140hz, so there's some overlap.

And after everything was in, but before I had the top grills made and bottom grills installed.

Finally, with the tops attached. Then the front board cut out. From there it was just the rear top board and added some trimming for the amps. More sanding and finishing. Staining, lacquered. Then time to put the speakers in. Final pic, when I had them done, I remember stopping in to demo some 802's. They sounded pretty good, base was pretty tight and fairly thumpy and deep, treble and mids didn't really impress me, seemed average. And way overpriced.

All hands on deck (tool arrangement). Lower cleats installed. Top and sides glued and drying. And one last shot before the tops went together.

Riser boards installed. Bottom board for top section installed and drawn out for cleat locations. Went ahead and installed feet at this point.

Yes, basically that's right, and every info I've read suggests it was a PWK design, patent around 1954, IIRC. The K-horn is going to be more efficient since it's a longer horn path but for this pair I used a full-on subwoofer and amp, so the lower Aristocrat bin is handling up to 125hz or so (with dedicated amp) and the mids 80hz and up. If I stuck with normal driver for Aristocrat bin, I'd have to rework how the mid/HF would be arranged, not like this at all. So I guess this would be like a 2/3rd's horn or something. It's not fully horn loaded. The bottom is a folded horn, the HF is compression horn, the mids are cone woofers, sealed enclosure, a concept design I guess. I started with using the original plans for the build which called for 1/2" wood, but really should be thicker 3/4" at least. Got a few more pics on the build.

Couple more showing the dual layers. Inside, top, side and back views.

At some point, (looking at the date of the pics from my phone early April '18 I decided it was better to go thicker. 1/2" is just too thin! We can do better than that right? So I doubled them up for 1", nice, solid and heavy.

Road trip in the McLaren at some point in this stage. lol, just kidding. I did see it on a trip out of town and had to take this photo. Then I had to take my real car for a safety recall and I saw the GT so I had to get a photo of that too. Then it was back to work.

First pic had trouble with one back side, using a makeshift jib to hold it in place while it dries. Second pic, decided to start a second box instead of using the kit box I brought home. Wanted to catch up the second box to where I was at on the first box then proceed. Aristocrat kit is on the left with University driver on top.

Some build pics if anyone would like to see. Had to find room in messy garage. Still don't have it cleared out but hopefully by this summer I'll get more space. I'll post rest of the build next post.

Not much, will be trimming out the front of the lower bins with 1" oak board. It will basically be a frame to hide the screw holes and front edge. But I haven't got those made up yet and installed, probably here when it warms up a bit. Garage isn't heated. I think the baffle board stain is good enough on the lower sections to be as-is, don't plan on using fabric on the Aristocrat lower sections like the original design just because using metal frame for 12" driver and the wood is stained and I have fabric on the top hat section so that would look odd with both covered. Just today wife was listening to something on them, had them cranked up, I thought I liked it loud. "Good grief!", I says. She's like "What? Hell yeah, sounds good." Well she grew up with Khorns so... Original Aristocrats Stevedel? Might be worth more if they had the original drivers in. Fitting multiple drivers is tricky because of the rear port design, makes the 12" driver placed about the middle of the box which doesn't leave room for much above that. 2-way is doable but 3-way, might have to have the tweeter vertical, off to the side. Which is why coaxial is the most common probably. The one I have is just a kit with a University coaxial, figured out it wasn't EV-built pretty quick. I'll strip the cream paint off it, make a new cover. Have to look at the controls which were moved to the back and see if they work. All in all for 15.00 it's not bad but they only used 1/2" wood, for those drivers it's probably OK just seems really thin. I sort of miss working on them. Built them from Dec' '17-April '18, took awhile because of winter. Going to build some fully horn-loaded speakers next. Need to get those K-400's and drivers off the shelf and round up the rest of the bits. Have no idea where I'll put them but why worry about little details like that.

They do way better than 40hz, trust me. Klipsch rates the RW12D driver at 24hz but I tested with 18hz standing wave and it's plenty noticeable. The 12" RW12D was already a great speaker in the original subwoofer box but in the Aristocrat cabinets with 1" thick wood it's now even more efficient, thanks to the horn loaded rear port. I have a pair of RP-5's that I replaced the stock 12" Synergy series speakers with the same RW12 drivers and what a difference that made, but they don't hit as low or as hard as these. Now in stock form with a bass driver that would also handle the mid's up to 500hz or so where the mid squawker would take over, yes, they would fall off below 40hz probably get somewhere around 32hz at best but possibly might do better with modern drivers but would require more power and loose some efficiency. I'm going to build a pair that way too some day to complete my original plan.

The crossovers for the top section are from RP280's, I also have 80hz high pass on each 8" driver to cut the lower end out. Yes, the Patrician's. I've seen a few listed on eBay and they want xx,xxx for them. They had an option for a 30" woofer. I bet they didn't sound any better than a Khorn but I've never seen or heard in person so I couldn't say for sure. EV also had a 15" version of the Aristocrat but that was an earlier design and now I can't remember what it was called but it was just sized up for a 15" driver. I had trouble finding speakers that would fit in just the Aristocrat lower section using a 3-way setup. The 12" driver has to be positioned above the center line of box so that makes it more difficult for fitting. I've since found a mid horn and tweeter that will work so I'll probably make a pair of those sometime. The Aristocrat that I found was a kit built probably from early 60's based on the University driver inside. I'll likely just refurbish that box and put the speaker back inside. But I have one big project before then to start after I finish rounding up a few more components. I plan on building a set using the Aristocrat lower bins but larger for 15" K33's and I already have a set of K-400's and drivers on the shelf but I need everything else. I could build La Scala's but the bass bins don't allow for much below 49hz, not building Khorn lower bins, I'd buy a used set at that point. The Aristocrat design with larger cabinets and corner placement should improve bass response a lot over La Scala bins. The top sections I will build like the Klipschorn which isn't difficult. But I'm waiting till I have everything else before I begin.

So I found one Aristocrat speaker about a year ago at a thrift store, paid 15.00 for it and hauled it home, and so it begins... 🙄 I guess the Aristocrat was one of several designs by Paul Klipsch in early 50's that EV used per license agreement (probably for using ev drivers) I don't know the details but probably something like that. I liked the design, and first decided to build it a twin, but somewhere along the line my plans changed for various reasons and then they became something else altogether. At some point I'll actually make two more Aristocrat speakers to finish my original plans but that's down the road aways. I had a need for a pair of speakers in living room that would replace my old RP-5's that were moved to basement theater room, so big, full sound was on the menu and I didn't want to add subs so basically 2 speakers that can do it all and without throwing a ton of money into it. I had been buying up some used components over the last couple years for another project but ended up using them on this project. So this is sort of a Heritage-style Reference tower that Klipsch doesn't make. The bottom section is the Aristocrat design being used solely for the low end. Instead of .5" thick like the original plans called for I doubled up using two layers of plywood, so it's 1" thick and very solid. The top is the MF/HF section, which is connected but separate from the lower section. It's 3/4" thick plywood. All Klipsch components accept for the amps for the lower bins. I'll note too that none of these speakers were pulled from good working cabinets. I bought all components that were pulled from damaged boxes so no good speakers were sacrificed. I still have some work to do. The bottom sections I'm making grills to hide the screws for front baffle board and considering veneering them. I stained these to get them done quicker. Looks better in person, the flash shows all the problems with stain on plywood, in normal lighting with shadows it's not too bad. And I've never veneered before so I didn't want to go that route just yet till I had a chance to learn. In some places it doesn't show too well, but in other places it looks pretty good to me. You'll probably note the top section is smaller than you would have in a RP280 tower but I have them crossed at 80hz on low end so there's not much need for bigger volume for the top sections since the bass is handled by the lower bins. This allows the dual 8" drivers to deliver cleaner response in mid frequencies while increasing efficiency with lower power consumption by removing low frequency handling. Power is bi amped. Lower bass bins use the built in amp fed from receiver's pre-outs. Top sections use receiver's 110 watts per channel. Corner placement is best like the Khorn but they'll work near a wall too. Specifications 3-Way Aristocrat IV Concept Towers Frequency Response 18Hz-25kHzMax spl 120 plus db just a guess (idk, they cause pain to my ears at 80 percent volume so they're loud enough)Power Handling MF/HF (cont/ Peak) 150/600LF 250 Watt Dayton Built in Amp 40-180Hz adjustableNominal Impedance 8 Ohms CompatibleCrossover 1750Hz upper section crossovers from RP 280F towersLF adjustable 40-180Hz low pass on ampHigh Frequency Driver (from Klipsch RP 280F towers) 1” Titanium LTS Tweeter with Hybrid Cross-Section Tractrix Horn Mid Frequency Drivers (from Klipsch R28F towers) Dual 8" (20.3cm), copper spun magnetically shielded IMG woofersKlipsch 12" RW12D driver for lower bass bin.Enclosure Material: Plywood 3/4” upper section, 1” lower section (dual .5” sheets)Enclosure Type: Upper section- sealed, dual 8” mid bass with HF 1” Horn Lower section Front firing/folded corner horn Aristocrat design with Klipsch RW12DInputs: Upper section dual binding posts for HF/MFLower amp inputs, direct wire or RCA (using LFE input and L/R pre outs from receiver)Height 50.3”Width 20”Depth 17”Weight 120lbsFinish: Golden Oak wood stain with lacquer

Good ideas. I thought about adding magnets but hadn't thought about hot melt glue. The grills are in good condition, besides the broken pegs. I think I've thrown away all the broken pegs or lost them. Thanks for the suggestions.

I have a pair of RP-5's, wondering if it's possible to get replacement grills. Like the speakers but the grills are plastic and brittle. Most of the plastic pegs have broken. I like the newer magnetic ones. Any suggestions?