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Frazier Ceiling Speakers Circa 1967


Flashback67

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11 minutes ago, Flashback67 said:

Sorry, l am the last person on earth not to use Facebook.  Please respond with message. 

I'll be right there with you. And to make it even worse, I am an IT support engineer.

 

Frazier - 6.5 - I dont think their woofers are anything to crow about. I would be inclined to replace with functioning new 6.5's you can remove and service/replace easily. Speakers with foam surrounds don't survive for very long in suspended situations if I did my eyeball calculations right. They need to be put on vertically and rotated top/bottom at some regular intervals.

I have a Pioneer PAX20 (8") that has encountered the same fate. Someone stuck it @ an angle I believe up in a corner. The entire cone came flying out 2 mins after I hooked it up. Of course the electrostatic tweeters and internal XO were what I was after, and those worked, I sourced a correct 8" that can blend in with the electrostatic tweeters and it went in a cabinet I had sitting around.

 

Cool.

Srinath.

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  • 6 months later...
On 2/26/2017 at 9:28 AM, Flashback67 said:



One final surprise was that in one of the cabinets a 4" X 10" tweeter horn was used instead of a 3" X 7" (see photo). 

This cabinet was a bear to remove the drivers from. All the others had the tweeters held in by front removable screws. The large tweeter was fastened in from the back. With the small tweeter removed I could reach in to remove the woofer fasteners. With the large tweeter I need to work through the woofer basket holes.

I will be trading the large tweeter for a small one to install with an adapter plate I will fabricate. 

More in a couple weeks.

 

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If you aren't planning on using the 4x10 horn I would possibly take it and any other one like off your hands.

PM me if interested in selling. In the process of building a pair of custom Frazier cabinets.

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  • 4 weeks later...

To Those that have been following my posts.  There have been multiple detours along the path of restoring the Frazier speakers.  But the good news is the house audio system now filling our lives with music almost every hour we are home, and not sleeping. For the last month I was worried the final sound performance after the many days of work would disappoint. While waiting to sort out problems with the speaker components I temporarily installed a pair of very good Polk three way ceiling speakers in each room to check out the wiring. The Polks sounded good, but they don't compare to the Fraziers

Not only am I extremely pleased and amazed at the sound quality and warmth of the Frazier speakers, my wife is also. So my decision to restore versus replace the Fraziers is now vindicated.

Since it has been so long since I started this project, I am posting a photo of what all ten Fraziers looked like before restoring.

 

Rebuilding the Foster tweeters were the longest delay in the project. I had to rebuild them three times before they had the right sound and kept their original efficiency. The third time I learned my lesson and didn't rebuild all ten before testing them with the woofers in cabinets.

The original domes in my Foster tweeters were paper. We tried two different Titanium domes and two different phenolic domes before deciding on the PRV phenolic domes. To me they sounded better than even what is sold as Foster replacements. Also their quality of construction is much better. BTW cut down 2" PVC pipe caps fit perfectly as replacements for the Foster tweeter caps.

The new custom 2700 Hz crossovers replace the original single wax cap and were potted in rigid foam before installation.

Restoring the cabinets was a slog to get done. Not only were there ten, repairing and sealing the cabinets had to be done on a ladder with my neck craned back. My respect for Michael Angelo had grown enormously.

The original cabinets had a slotted port on each end. But these ports vented into the ceiling and did nothing. So I converted the cabinets to a sealed design. This definitely improved the sound and with the Altec 8" woofer efficiency is not a problem. Especially with them now having a modern coil on a Kapton former. A modern amp driving them helps too.

From the final product photo you can also see the L-pad is now mounted on the cabinet front where it can be used. Also you can see the Altec woofers are now mounted to the cabinet front versus the back.

All the cabinets were stuffed with Acoustifil and the drivers sealed to the cabinet with Kent caulking. I have maximized my Parts Express coupons at every chance.

The final touch was polishing the brass Frazier badge that was originally on the back of the woofers (hidden from sight for 50 years) and affixing it to each cabinet front.
 

The last task remaining is fabricating new grills for all ten speakers. The originals were just a wood picture frame with cloth stapled at the back and screwed to the ceiling. I have a plan for something cleaner looking with hidden fasteners. But I am in no hurry to cover up my hard work.

 

 

 

 

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