Speakerlab Stuff

[DizRotus]

Some Speakerlab parts and speakers are available on eBay.

Speakerlab K Horn like Klipschorn Speakers

SPEAKERLAB SK CORNER HORNS SEATTLE CLASSICS NICE LOOK!!

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I had four SKs in the mid '70's. I wish I still had them.

[Duke Spinner]

Dizzy ....!

you had Four SK's ....

that's enuff to make yer head Explod ...(thank's Sony )....!

..... ...........

[DizRotus]

Yes I had four Speakerlab SKs in the mid '70s. My loss of high frequency hearing bears testimony to the volume of sound they produced. Some are growing weary of this tale, but here it is again.

I put together a mobile DJ business to finance school using 4 SKs, a Dynaco ST-400, two Technics tables with Stanton cartridges, a mixer and a Sony cassette deck. The SKs were perfect for the task; too big to steal without a hand truck and plenty loud.

During its brief life Speakerlab built many versions of the SK. Some were MDF, others were plywood; some had fiberglass squawker horns, others aluminum. Mine were factory built 8 Ohm versions in unfinished plywood with aluminum horns. Painted black they were quite imposing.

Running two/channel in parallel produced a 4 Ohm load. The Dyna 400 made 300 watts/side into a 4 Ohm load. Even with all that power it could never be too loud for the crowd. I deafened adolescents all over greater Detroit.

The sound was loud and clear with prodigious bass. False corners were permanently attached (made from the plywood shipping crates). While not a perfect solution, it worked well. One customer who called to schedule a repeat engagement kept asking if the price quoted included the drummer. It was all I could do to persuade her that there had not been a drummer at the earlier event.

I do not recommend that much power into horn speakers. I bet I fried a dozen T-35 voice coils. In those days I would place a call to EV on Monday and a replacement diaphragm would arrive from Buchanan, Michigan in time for the weekend. EV let me run an open account. Theyd send the part and an invoice and Id send a check for something like $15.00. Take it from me, replacing those is easy.

Now that I use less than 20 watts of tube power to drive Cornwalls, I have yet to replace a tweeter diaphragm. While not the equal of the real McKlipsch, they were about half the cost of decorator Khorns. I do wish I still hade them.

[djk]

Note to those that insist that Speakerlabs made their own woofers:

137 is the EIA code for CTS (on that W1504S)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=14993&item=5776866218&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

[DizRotus]

I'm sure you're right. Nevertheless, Speakerlab did make some of their own drivers, but not for the SKs.

[DizRotus]

Oops. Those damn mittens!

[Daddy Dee]

Neil,

Thanks for the post. Also, your trip down memory lane with the DJ gear reminds me of old times with fondness. It was great fun spinning records back when God was young.

I've been wondering if Speakerlab was more popular in the NW US. Seems that is where most of the Speakerlab Khorns come from on Ebay.

[DizRotus]

Daddy Dee,

Crated SKs weighed approximately 200#, i.e., shipping from Seattle was expensive. It's no coincidence that they seem to be concentrated in the Northwest. I managed to talk Speakerlab into sending the four at their expense, in exchange for handing out their catalogs to the audience.

Before I bought them I asked if storing them in a garage in Detroit, at below freezing temperatures, would hurt them in any way. Speakerlab's response was, "We don't know, it never freezes in Seattle."

[Frzninvt]

I believe the W1508S was the Speakerlab built woofer, the ones I sold my wife's friend are in her basement game room and those things has some BASSSSSS! I love the look of the big EV T350 tweeters in them too!

She was running them with a little 15W X 2 Panasonic integrated which actually got them pretty loud. I reworked a Kenwood Control amp and 150W X 2 Power amp and the speakers really came to life with some juice going to them. The bass is incredible and can vibrate all the floors upstairs in their 4000 sq ft. home.

The CTS woofers and drivers were also used in the extremely rare LWE-I (Louis Erath) speakers. His special feedback circuit allowed the woofer to extend to 20Hz in a cabinet not much larger than a Heresy which was amazing. Tough to find the amps with his clip kit installed though. His design used an amplifier's negative feedback to enhance the speakers low frequency response. He was a geophysicist after all!

The LWE also used the EV T-35 tweeter!

[DizRotus]

Frzninvt,

For a time, CTS was the supplier of 15" woofers to Klipsch. The one time I had an audience with PWK, he told me that quality problems and/or production limitations, after CTS changed ownership, caused Klipsch to look elsewhere for 15" woofers. At various times (order unknown to me) Klipsch used EV or Eminence to provide 15" woofers.

PWK was surprisingly diplomatic about my use of SKs. Naturally, he felt that they were inferior to Klipschorns, but he indicated that they were probably better suited to being dragged around in a mobile DJ business and powered by a 600 watt SS "stove." His implication was that Khorns were above such indignities.

Our conversation included a discussion about why Klipsch stopped licensing its designs to EV and why Klipsch did not make kits. Both options prevented Klipsch from controlling the quality of the end product. PWK stated that he didn't want his name associated, in any way, with products that were inferior. Is he spinning in his grave now?

The short conversation bounced from the above topic to the merits of Jack Daniel and back to EV with lightning quickness. In mid syllable of a discussion of malt whiskey, PWK asked, "Do you know what a patrician is?" Before I could respond that its an EV speaker he said, "A patrician is someone who steps out of the shower to take a leak."<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

[djk]

Its interesting to see how LWE got the T35 to go to 20Khz, they used a 10dB notch centered at 8Khz and then 5dB of boost at 20Khz.

http://www.arsenal.net/speakers/acoustr/acoustr.htm

CTS also made the original Bose 901 drivers!

[DizRotus]

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On <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />

5/25/2005

11:33:21 AM

djk wrote: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

CTS also made the original Bose 901 drivers!

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The original CTS/Bose drivers with paper surrounds are probably still operating. The cheap foam surround drivers that Bose used in later incarnations of the 901 are notoriously self destructive.

[D-MAN]

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On 5/24/2005 8:12:53 PM djk wrote:

Note to those that insist that Speakerlabs made their own woofers:

137 is the EIA code for CTS (on that W1504S)

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I can speak from experience (Seattle - I was there at the time), they actually made their own woofers in-house, wound the voice coils on a hand-cranked machine, everything.

But I agree that those pictured are not the Speakerlab ones I remember, the steel-stamping is too enclosed on the ones pictured. The square magnet is right. The frames were also painted black. And they were 8 Ohms.

I had some hand-me-down CTS PA-cab drivers in my 70's home-made corner horns before I stepped up to the plate for some EVM-15B's. The CTS's were considered somewhat "less-than-premium" by my high-school crowd back then, which is why I could afford them secondhand at the time.

DM

[DizRotus]

The Speakerlab parts just sold for $222.50, which is approximately $40 more than my max bid, but still a good deal. I wanted that stuff; and it's local too.

[IB Slammin]

.....For a time, CTS was the supplier of 15" woofers to Klipsch. The one time I had an audience with PWK, he told me that quality problems and/or production limitations, after CTS changed ownership, caused Klipsch to look elsewhere for 15" woofers. At various times (order unknown to me) Klipsch used EV or Eminence to provide 15" woofers.

Just me 2 cents in support of Neils statement....I ordered my 2nd pair of CWs in 1975. They had CTS drivers. After no more than two months, the spiders came apart and were replaced.

Terry

[DizRotus]

The SKs went for $721; also a good deal if local pickup were an option.