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Posted by Sound22Card on
01-26-2019
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Wow! Did I ever stumble onto the right website.I've got enough reading here for a few lifetimes.
Recently I cracked open a couple of speaker cabinets that I obtained years ago. Inside I found a Vitavox AK 121 woofer and a G.P. 1 horn unit, along with a 233 crossover box. As pics will show, these are all in what seems to be....excellent...condition. I fired them up and am amazed at the air they move. The sweep from horn to woofer is smooth, detailed and very alive. I tried China by Vangelis and the almost inaudible bass notes he put in.....were there...chest-thumping and surprising. These cabinets were manufactured in Toronto, CANADA, by the now defunct Astral Electrics. The horns protruded ahead of the woofer so they kind of counter sunk the speaker baffle a few inches in, to allow a grill cloth to cover. The exterior of the cabinet is well-made and substantial but the baffle and the floor are of cheap wood. There is also a 4" x 5" rough-cut hole in the floor of each cabinet.
I offer these units for sale and if no movement, then I will totally enjoy them myself.
Just thought I'd drop this in here. Someone who knows more about them could possibly enhance or improve them to modern standards. They are so loud but so smooth. From Nat King Cole and Sarah Vaughn to Chicago, ...greatly produced music by the Bee Gees, M. Jackson and Uriah Heep, .....they give an energy and a sparkle that I have only seen in modern 'monster' units.
I welcome any reply, or any added info.
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Posted by Sound22Card on
01-26-2019
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Other pic
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Posted by Sound22Card on
01-26-2019
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Another....
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Posted by Sound22Card on
01-26-2019
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Last one.
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Posted by Romy the Cat on
01-26-2019
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I do not know how about the “greatly produced music by the Bee Gees, M. Jackson and Uriah Hee” and the rest of the crap. It appears to me that you do not need to spend time “enough reading here for a few lifetimes”. You do not need audio sites but some other sites, which is a different story all together.
What you found is reasonable, there was many custom-made enclosures with all possible drivers from 50 and 60, it was a busses model at that time, the companies made driver and local wood shops built enclosures. Even I know generally Vitavox products well but I never dealt with GP compression driver and 12” woofer. I think I had it once, not a pair but single driver but I had no use for them and I do not think I try them sensibly. The AK 121 should not be similar to 151 I presume.... That all that I can tell you, wish is not much.
If you insist to convert whatever you have now to “modern standards” and to “enhance or improve” you driver performance then you must have a well defiled list of the very specific critiques of how you drivers perform now. Go over your list and address the problem one by one. It is simple as this.
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Posted by Sound22Card on
01-26-2019
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RtC,
I am VERY thankful to you for the info, ...sincerely, ... but not for the 'attitude'. My taste in music, which is very varied, is not in question here. I also did not say I was going to enhance the speakers. I said the others, who knew more, might want to. As to what I read, again, it is not the subject here.
This is an amazing site and I will continue to visit and read, to increase my knowledge. I don't need any more negativity though.
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Posted by rowuk on
01-27-2019
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SoundCard22,
at one point in time you will realize that the music that you mentioned does not have the technical qualities to discern performance of any high quality playback. Very primitive engineering techniques hide color, space and dynamics. This problem is not unique to popular music, but certainly the goals of popular music are more tied to sales to people with very limiting playback. Designing an art form to fit in the acoustic space and dynamics of a car, a cheap stereo simply means that all of the warts will be more present than the qualities that are documented here.
There is a post here by Romy that accurately documents that the higher quality the playback, the worse that "lacking" recordings will sound.
That all being said, it was not a challenge to your choice of entertainment, rather only that that choice will not lead you to sonic nirvana.
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Posted by Romy the Cat on
01-30-2019
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 Sound22Card wrote: | | I am VERY thankful to you for the info,
...sincerely, ... but not for the 'attitude'. My taste in music, which is
very varied, is not in question here. I also did not say I was going to
enhance the speakers. I said the others, who knew more, might want
to. As to what I read, again, it is not the subject here. |
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Sound22Card, I express no “attitude” in my post but rather
my long standing position. The rowuk is correct about the fact the music you
mentioned does not have the musical wealth to be discriminated by higher or
lower quality playback. Not that it is “bad music” and I imply anything about your
personal taste or preference. It is just not a material, in purely audio sense,
that would allow people interact and to have any common scene of listening values.
It is also the material that has no expressive
complexity or any kind sonic demands. I know that you do not understand what it
all means and I sound to you like a snobbish jerk. It very much might be so but
let me give you an association that might illustrate my point of view. Pretend
that you burn some very specific hallucinogenic insects in a very septic way in
order to very narrow navigate the direction of your hallucinogenic trip. Then somebody
observe your action and concludes that the burn smoke itself is your objective
and that sniffing the smoke of an automobile exhaust is a similar activity. My standing is that M Jackson has as much relationship to a needs for a better
audio as your consideration what king motor oil to put in a care in order your exhaust
sniffing to become more “productive”. My apology for the stupidity of the example
and perhaps for the inaccuracy: I know very little about artificial stimulants
but insists that the quintessence of the example is quite accurate.
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