Part 2:
12 & 15" Woofer Opinions, HiFiTown
Some of the 1940s General Electric, (Electronics
Park era) bubble shape frame speakers are out of this world. Most are great.
They cover a similar similar range as WE728, but do not have the low cone resonance.
(This comment does not include the 1960s cambric / flexair version.)
“285”
Rola, another early all paper maker from Chi-Town — made some good stuff for the musical instrument co. If you are looking for “real” or “hybrid” speakers that are all paper, look at some of these carefully.
In general, Rola speakers are a mixed bag… some are OK, and some are 5 star outstanding…. not near as consistent as the Jensens… a reason why the Brand really sleeps.
RCA
9443 15” field coil
9449 15” PM
and Many 12” types.
Older is better.
And lots of others,
See EIA codes… these include 328 (Utah), (270) Quam and (465) Oxford
REAL WOOFERS
Born of the 1950s HiFi craze, robe wearing, pipe smoking, liquor tasting, really manly men, discovered they needed actual woofers.
By
“actual”, I mean, a speaker made to make LF, and only LF. The cones tend to be heavy, magnets are larger, and most importantly, the cone resonance is nice and low. For this reason, in some cases, we enjoy running them full range, cross-overless, because they simply can’t reach into the mids…
These actual woofers don’t know what fast is. They are slow moving air pushers.
The older they are, the less the cones moved in and out.
High excursion later models meant deeper, “whompas” bass, as Walt liked to describe it.
Whompas is enjoyable, for instance with authentic 1970s recordings with electronica etc.
Bozak:
Bozak B199— sorry to all.. I don’t see these as WECO 728 replacements. They do have low cone resonance, but they also move very slowly …making the class of an early “real” woofer (the paper really did have wool!). They’re good “real woofers” that can perform with low loads and maybe OB in some cases.
Rudy Bozak worked for Western Electric for a stint, and then an interesting company called Cinaudigraph. While there, he worked on some of the earliest super woofers, up to 24" (before the Hartley and the EV by decades). He then shot off on his own after WWII. His design philosophies were well researched, legit, and novel. The materials, ahead of their time. The systems, power hungry, well balanced and ready to rock the house. Ultimately, Bozak speakers are not usually sensitive enough to keep up in real miliwatt tube horn systems, but can be integrated in moderately stout to setups, to good success. Old Rudy did claim they were supremely efficient, but not sensitive, a perhaps correct redressing of terms. They do have uses, and allot of the early parts really can sound very, very good. The parts are generally very undervalued and getting less common, so watch for a price rise over time as new-found and rediscovered uses emerge. On these, I take notice on the early 1950s B series, most of which was a thick woolen paper -- this includes the 12", which often mounted in the space of a 15, with a nifty adapter ring... this ring setup was also used to form a crossbar to hold the tweeters, in coaxial arrangements.
By the 1960s, The B series 6 and 8" midrange drivers, as well as tweeters, had gone aluminum clad, high design. These parts are less sensitive than the older all paper, versions, which also sound different. Premiums are paid for the early paper stuff. Bozak systems are also well known for more-complicated-than-normal crossovers, which are no basic butterworth -- and are more of a complicated 6db per octave charade -- they have a cult following, as well.
— EV 12W & 15 “W” and “WK” (Klipsch)
Early EV was spawned by engineering at the west coast Stephens Trusonic camp.
Old Electrovoice was nicely made stuff, and possessed real hifi pedigree. It’s most certainly way undervalued at present day.
— University C15 (these are a odd beast, and have a cult following because of the dual voice coils) — They are cheap, overbuilt and sound pretty good, honestly one of University’s best products… As good as Altec, JBL or RCA? Looks / build, yes. Sound…maybe — maybe not — depends on your genius.
— Altec 416, 414’s, late model 515 C,D,E
All excellent woofers, with a nice balance of speed and excursion to please all.
An undersung version of the 414, we really liked was the last — 414 16C
— Jensen P15LL (there were 3 versions of this “real woofer”, all called P15LL…
the pretty one was used in the Jensen TP 100, TP 200 Triplex, as well as big RS-100 Imperials..
The plain one is just as good, and was used famously in the good Leslie organ speaker…
the Imperial version:
http://www.hifitown.com/pictures/jensenp15ll_imperiala.jpg
These are really good. and at present 2020 prices, a pretty good value.
The heavy paper makes these slow (not to confuse with P15 of F15 original)
By the late, late 1950s, Stereophonically intoxicated, space-faring man discovered the insane concept of hermetically sealed boxes…aka the supposed be-all, end-all of HiFi perfection (Hey one is at the Smithsonian, that settles it, right?, bah hahaha :-)
This lead to air suspension woofers:
— The excellent, originally AR1 and (early) AR3 12”.
This beefy, engorged, doped and rubber laden monstrosity worked very well for what it was.
On the first gen, no foam on these, just paper and cloth.
This speaker, went through more revisions than can be written here.
Suffice to say, the first version is the coolest, which was all paper, and a heavy black fabric edge.
Out of the sealed box, these have serious uses— in the deep, deep LF region.... they are not any less efficient or sensitive than the B199, and the midrange rolloff is SUPER STEEP, making it one of the woofiest-woofers you’ll ever encounter.
If memory serves, it’s also 16ohm.
Early Janzen systems also used the AR1 version (and of course AR1W)
It’s the real deal in this category.
— Jensen Flexair series, made for sealed enclosures and other heavy reflex cabinets like the famously donned in Frazier’s brilliant little Dixelander. Jensen Flexair speakers have a following and their uses. They are not super sensitive speakers.
Hybrid... aka "Jack of all Woofer - Speakers"
I am mixing things up here, because to be fair some of these below were never intended to be used in open baffle setups… leaving them in the list because allot of value to be had,, these are Jack-of-all-Trades, tube era speakers that try do it all: Look for 12 and especially 15” speakers that have blocked over vents on the dust cap
Altec Biflex series 412 and 415
Not sure why these are not more popular. They’re pretty good for allot of needs.
http://www.hifitown.com/pictures/rcvrpraltec412b8c.jpg
Altec 420 — these were the ill fated of Altec’s pro 15” line. A ruinous product that sent their languishing Musical Instrument division into an embarrassing tailspin. The 420 was Altec’s answer to the JBL D130, but it, like allot of Altec was just too delicate… so yeah, they cooked on silicon powered Deep Purple riffs — oops.
For HiFi, the 420 should be well enough suited, but so far, few reports in.
http://www.hifitown.com/pictures/rcvrpraltec420a3a.jpg
http://www.hifitown.com/pictures/rcvrpraltec420a3b.jpg
JBL D130’s and musical Instrument variants.
A masterpiece do-all speaker that we never used around here, .. unless it was in a spectacular JBL enclosure of one from or another. As with Altec, the older-is-better rule applies.
— The Rola 15” all paper (this speaker was used originally for pipe organs!
http://www.hifitown.com/pictures/rcvrprrolawoofersa.jpg
http://www.hifitown.com/pictures/rcvrprrolawoofersc.jpg
These ROLA's proved popular for nice, speedy low bass on open baffle…
— the EV’s, SP 12 (the 12W rocking a sub cone to make it full range)
— Many of the Jensens… look for felted over vent caps.
And many more....
The end for now.