jhawk92 Posted March 27, 2004 Author Share Posted March 27, 2004 Guy- Thanks for your comments. They have been in the family for lotsa years. I was chatting with Dad today and he said they could very well have been made somewhere in the 40s, as he remembers the cabinets being in houses they lived in during that time. I don't know that you can crank these like you can Klipschorns, but they sound pretty good. We were just listening to a classical FM radio station, as we didn't have a CD player handy. I figure we'll try that soon. Stan- Welcome to the forum! Thanks for your inputs. Yes, the other cabinet is in equal condition. I'll have to tell Dad to flip them over! I guess it makes sense that the location it's in is the only place for it. Very interesting information about the history. I'm so far out of my league here it isn't even funny. I'm happy trying to understand my '68 Klipschorns (I was born in '69), and these are probably 20 years older, if not more. And a Rock Chalk Jayhawk to you! Obviously, I'm a later-model Jayhawk. Bob- Thanks for steering Stan our way. I can see him becoming a valuable resource for folks here on the forum. Gil- I can't confirm your hypothesis on why the tweeter was added, as I certainly wasn't even a glimmer in my Dad's eye at the time. And, unfortunately, my grandfather passed away about 4 years ago, so I can't talk to the source. As far as how things are wired, in the pic below, the white wire that runs from bottom-right to the crossover, is attached to binding posts on the speaker back. The crossover then has three sets of wires out, two to the woofer and one to the tweeter. Ed- Happy to make a contribution to the really vintage part of the forum. Dad's just happy to have them up and running since he grew up with them. Dee- Thanks. I never would have figured there would have been such an interest in these. I guess historical audio has its fans. My grandfather was pretty meticulous about caring for his gear, and seemed to go for high quality. Now I really wish I would have known about tubes 4 years ago when he passed, as I would have jumped on that Fisher 400. It was mint, as I recall, and in my "youth" thought it was quirky having to wait for the tubes to warm up. Had I only known. If folks need more/better pics for identification, or curiousity, let me know and I can take some more. It would give me a reason to see family and let my parents be grandparents for an afternoon. Obviously we won't be cranking these to shake the foundations, but are there any precautions we should take? It sounds like these are pretty rare, and while I don't think dad will want to sell, what would these be worth? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted March 27, 2004 Share Posted March 27, 2004 ---------------- On 3/27/2004 7:30:32 PM jhawk92 wrote: Dee- Thanks. I never would have figured there would have been such an interest in these. I guess historical audio has its fans. My grandfather was pretty meticulous about caring for his gear, and seemed to go for high quality. Now I really wish I would have known about tubes 4 years ago when he passed, as I would have jumped on that Fisher 400. It was mint, as I recall, and in my "youth" thought it was quirky having to wait for the tubes to warm up. Had I only known. If folks need more/better pics for identification, or curiousity, let me know and I can take some more. It would give me a reason to see family and let my parents be grandparents for an afternoon. ---------------- Quirky indeed. I hear where you are coming from on that. Sometimes we look back and wish we might have gotten to a particular place sooner. However, more than that, you've got an appreciation for and kinship with your grandfather that is more than what you could have imagined before. That is pretty cool. You are probably already thinking of him when you are waiting for your tubes to warm up. Go ahead and make another appointment to get over there to take some more pics and facilitate some more grandparent time. I'm not sure right now, just what I want to see more of in the way of pics, but when you get there, you'll know what to pick out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 Rob, Maybe we should have a Jensen "vertical listening session"! You cover the 40's, I'll cover the 50's! I had a guy email me about mine: "A guy just gave me his dad's Pilot console stereo that apparently used the cn-100's as extensions according to the catalog." Interesting stuff. I'd like to hear what Stan has to say about my end tables! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan Ricker Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 Hi, All! A little more info about the 15-inch drivers in the ST-600 cabinets---both the JHP-52/$47.04 or a JAP-60/$55.53 are really low power by today's standards----14 Watts for the first, and 15 Watts for the second!! The big problem, as you know on all of the Vintage speakers, is that the glue ignited when the Voice Coil got hot, also burning the Voicecoil paper former the wire is wrapped around to form the coil-----------the old glues were made from Nitrocellulose---used to make paint and gunpowder~~~ About the value of the pair; I'm guessing that 450-600 each would be fair------if they had H-510 coaxials or G-600/610 triaxes, the value would be higher, but these later speakers didn't exist when the cabs were first sold---- By the way, the Jensen list prices were JHP-52/$72.00 or JAP-60/$85.00-------- The last year that these speakers appeared in Allied or Jensen catalogues is 1949, so I peg these guys as from late 47 or 48......... Cheers, and thanks for the warm welcome--------this vintage stuff is one area that being somewhat old seems to help!!!!! Stan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhawk92 Posted March 28, 2004 Author Share Posted March 28, 2004 Dee- You pretty much hit the nail on the head with your post. I'll see what things are like over there and if things work out, I'll take the camera along. fini- Sounds like fun. I guess somewhere in the middle between CA and CO...guess that's somewhere in Utah! Stan- I'll try and get some more info on the drivers. Since they are pretty low power units, I guess we shouldn't crank them up too heavy? I'd hate for the paper to go up in smoke, but then I figure if that was going to happen, it probably already would have. Would you say we need to do anything special in terms of preventative maintenance on these? The '47-48 comment may be about right, as that would put Dad at 6-7 years old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan Ricker Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 Greetings--------- As a way of further explaining the early Jensen technology regarding the transformered treble control, take a peek at this ebay item------the tweeter's been mangled, but the xformers are pictured nicely; the control is at the end of the "hairy" cable, out of view in all shots------ Cheers, Stan http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3087056258&category=50597 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrot Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 Welcome, Stan. As word spreads here about your career accomplishments, I'm sure you'll get lots of questions. Working on any famous artist currently? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhawk92 Posted April 5, 2004 Author Share Posted April 5, 2004 Ok, dredging this one up from the depths. Went over to my parent's again this past weekend. Didn't take any more pics, and couldn't see through the grill cloth to actually see the dual driver, but you can certainly tell there is a woofer and a "higher" frequency driver in there. Doesn't have the clarity of more modern speakers, but Dad still likes them, mainly for their sentimental value. We hooked up a CD player so he could have "digital" tunes in the basement as FM radio pretty much sucks around here. Initially we had set the CD player on one of the speakers, had the volume turned up a bit, and the vibrations actually skipped the laser. Kinda cool. CD player now on a more substantial platform. These seem a bit more directional than most speakers, so we played around with the toe-in/out some and got some good results. I think he will live with these for a while, but seemed open to the possibility about retrofitting them with some other, better, components. There isn't any critical music listening going on in the basement, just a basement work bench and other "basement" things. I'd be interested in recommendations from the forum, or should we just leave them stock? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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