Above, RS STA-100 takes the place of the STA-78 and SONY TA-1630 as 1980 year's 22 watt per channel receiver. British Dynatron. In the UK and Europe German Isophon speakers>> were toned for RadioShack receivers below, and available as special 8-ohm versions. In the US market and Canada, American UTAH speakers were usual in the enthusiast sections of the catalogs. Left below, Olson SP-400-A, Chicago, USA based on the US patented Motorola Piezoelectric tweeters as used by Savard of the deep south and Crisman of Colorado.
Left, Constructors matching piezoelectric horns need a squawker and woofer with similar surrounds to the Olson SP-400-A.
Above remarkable RS branded version Korean STA-2000 before the Dolby 2000D.
Left the STA-2100 tuner board is similar to the STA-2000 above but the white arrows show how possibly obsolete and unobtainable Integrated Circuits have replaced the old discrete circuitry. Chips reduce costs of assembly as identical whereas transistor circuits are more labor-intensive. The followers of vintage FM Stereo best opt for the STA-2000 and have the old filament bulb stereo pilot beacon replaced to protect the stock FM stereo de-modulator chip. New chips improve with running, best are old stock copper pin, tinned in the STA-2000 and audibly superior in the original stock issue. Chips have supposedly identical circuits but differ greatly in sound quality. Invar-nickel pins may suit the vintage car radio but copper is best for High Fidelity. The difference in the sound of vintage chips against modern manufacturing, suggests some hidden changes in design or materials quality. The STA-2100 below was miles better than the Asuki styled after it but peasants were happy with their lot, like this Skoda Estelle punter.
Right, Donald Trump's father (Photo credit) was a business magnate in Queens, New York and such people ensured that REALISTIC audio delivered to expectations. The brand was actually made to be tricked out by electronic engineers thereby to beat anything else at any price. Americans of Fred Trump's generation considered RS beat all others in every respect. Some Hi-Fi systems however suit their own equipment better.
Left ASUKI brand assembled in England as the Executive Series, based on Sinclair Research Kits. Lower a token
finned heat-sink, the Dynamic Range was -65dB, a poor power supply and noisy transformer made for assembly by low
skilled labor, albeit capacitor decoupled like the later shoebox Sondex S230, sound quality was very good and stereo separation 45dB, uses the PR45 speakers.
>>Frequency Response for a prolitarian buyer's AMSTRAD'Acousta', a name borrowed from large, elite Lowther Voigt horn loudspeakers. A 6.5-inch woofer and tweeter reach for the small upper-class townhouse room's EMI 812 in capabilities. The mid-woofer has a level response (Goodmans origin meant for the EL34 tube) and the tweeter is ''lumpy but gives a 'loud' quality, often selling the product in store auditions, carefully developed to please to the ear.
Awesome Bernie AppelREALISTIC STA-100 right used surplus harman/kardon parts with all-important wooden jacket, an American take on a quality receiver for the working class.
It wasn't cheap, priced beyond competition, local store working people bought by hire purchase but was the best product on the market, far superior to NAD 7020. Screw down styled output for the 1960s valve amplifier experience.
LeftEMI 92390EA
in the ideal enthusiast box size with elite wadding style and often appears in smaller cabinets when a ready-made unit. The rare 15-ohm version has a most unusual grooved cork baffle gasket, very loud speakers with low power, high-quality amplifiers of an old,
establishment following with germanium Output Transistors.
Right 1974 year harman/kardon 330c were the most expensive like the 1981 year REALISTIC
STA-100 but did high end where RadioShack did only simpler sets and
claimed to outperform competition up to twice the retail price. Note
the 330c all-steel case and double chassis sounded stunning but not 3D -
still no mean feat of engineering.
The South Korean made Pioneer SX-450 right and Sansui G-2000 below,
compare with the Hitachi SR-603 in being of the twin board style but feature small differences in build quality. For example, the Pioneer has clamped Elna make snap-in smoothing cans, others aren't clamped but the sound may not be better overall. Pioneer has the largest mains
transformer...
...and the Sansui the smallest, the Hitachi one not of the shrouded type but has an NEC output stage and sharp 3D sound using special Japanese speakers. Sansui G-2000 left is a wide-band 10-50 so you need an EMI 319 or sensitive, large floor-standing speaker suited to only 16 watts and Damping Factor 30. Pioneer
SX-450 is 15 watts, 20-60 and D.F. 25, Hitachi is 20-20, D.F. 30.
Right despite fine appearances many receivers are difficult to match with speakers. REALISTIC STA-2290 tone matched edge wound, own brand Liquid-Cooled Mach One below but probably aimed at Dynaudio and JBL.
Above the later 90dB Sensitivity at 1w, 1m REALISTIC Liquid-Cooled Mach One based on the British elite only Vitavox right, a 2-way reckoned most authentic in reproduced images. Bernie Appel had to use a 3-way and Marantz in their LS.10 made a similar 7-way but of 96dB as of 94dB in the early, 1976 year Mach One. The British Vitavox also came with brown grille cloth like all the Mach Ones. How about this copy of an elite Vitavox for the American working class.
Some thought them the worst ever heard and it may have been mismatched equipment or failure to run-in then warm-up speakers and amplifiers, for they'd give a 3D sound with enough time and catalog matched equipment. But are they as good as EMI 319 - if our ears are trained on them? -Maybe but what would we prefer?
The 1974 year REALISTIC tricked-out STA-80 has 1969 STA-120 styling but is a Bill Kasuga Trio made chassis, a Foster tuner and OTL
output of the later Sansui AU-3900, back in 1974, based on the output of the 1972 Marantz 2215 receiver using SANYO 2SD315E transistors. The 2215 is US$800-1500 and the US$50 STA-80 gives the same sound, it has the same 315 output devices but today nobody buys it.
RightREALISTIC Optimus-9 were 5-way speakers for the STA-80 Output above. The speaker followed a split-baffle concept of the early IMF STUDIObelow and maybe saved on expensive plywood as later TLS50 went full chipboard to get deeper bass. The STA-150 receiver (also works with the Optimus-9) Hitachi made, akin to vintage harman/kardon rather than Kasuga-Trio RadioShack STA-80. Squawkers in IMF STUDIO are heavily doped EMI with KEF T-15 and in Optimus-9 are based on the CTS (Chicago Telephone Systems) twin cone tweeter, phenolic ring, Marantz Imperial 8. Sound of the working class Optimus 9 actually resembles the elite IMF STUDIObelow, thanks to 'Mr RadioShack'.
Right mysterious 1960s flat piston-edge Bextrene cone woofers found in France and so thought to be Audax but not as cheaply made, the elite EMI for British TDL Transmission Line tower speakers by John Wright were never seen in their cabinets and as elite only, Akai claimed a world first in a similar flat surround. The broadcast speakers using 13 x
8 cores, 92390PB and PF, were hidden from the mass market and the cabinets had a deep gloss French polish, internal details still a closely guarded secret. Small versions of the three part EMI 300, the four parts to the the magnet sealed in a screening can resembles middle class
Goodmans, who may have cast the baskets for active speakers with an onboard tube amplifier, like an STD.373. 1950s REDD.36 and DLS-1 are seen today but elite transmission line speakers of the late 1960s have yet to appear from private collections.
A problem with Akai made Carver MXR-130 below is build quality shared with other sets like the AA-1020, appearing to sound very good even 3D but could they
equal a REALISTIC STA-2000 left? AA-1020 may sound better than MXR-130 but noise develops as the cheap metal strips screwed together, loosen off in time.
Left 'a world first' for Akai in 1970, using the elite only EMI flat edge for 'linear travel piston' motion that Akai developed from a museum-style artifact but in production used a cloth-edge instead. EMI was a follower like Rolls Royce, not a leader, their cutting edge military research wasn't for commercial purposes but reference in design. Sir Henry Royce famously said:
"Take the best that exists and make it better".
EMI speakers were international, i.e. the Wehrmacht 13 x 8.
>>Fane 30250 3 inch tweeter as below with metal mesh acoustic lens, styled after British elite Parmeko and Vortexion brands, rare and scarce even in their day, they'd never reached the mass market, remaining a British BBC studio monitor tweeter. The mesh spreads the sound, Rank owned Wharfedale later adopting the mechanism in their 3XP speakers coming before their hard dometweeter XP2 series (reckoned inferior by proud proletarian buyers).
Right Canadian RSC brand speaker for their SUPER 30 Solid State amplifier in England, in Canada with own brand rear wall reflecting Jensen made 12-inch. The SUPER 30 much resembles the South Rhodesian Supersonic One-Eleven that's still in demand. Deep basket Fane 13 x 8 right, a 10-watt woofer with round Fane cone tweeter used with mid-1960s EMI 205 14 x 9 and WERCo. Below the 1957 year EMI 98890B alnico tweeters in DECCA Decola Aristocrat with Siemens EL34, less of a British guitar tube, more like the Dutch original for Hi-Fi. Output Transformer nearest is for the EMI cube alnico 13 x 8 woofer. Three small, separate Output Transformers power six tweeters of Celestion type by 1963 and a 92390BP 13 x 8. Below Siemens copy of the Dutch EL34 - a 1950 reply to the Wehrmacht RL12P35.
Left a 1950s DECCA Knightsbridge console refitted in the early 1960s with a Garrard version of the BSR UA14/ McDonald 5500 record reproducer - a rare record playing autochanger item, possibly elite only as sold by bespoke dealers. Knowledge of the 1960s radiogram following has never been shared with the lower market but the sets are fabulous and click on images for full-size.
Left
the original EMI 98890 tweeters that in this baffle have had a paper enclosure having fallen off leaving the trace of glue. The 92390BV 13 x
8 isn't the original 46600 type that worked with the early 1950s elite gramophone tweeter belonging only to the British elite. 912390BV wasn't available to the general public and is the early 1960s here likely built into a gramophone to get the 20Hz or at least, reach below the 40Hz of the Plessey cube alnico magnet on the HMV/ Marconi 46600 13 x 8. It might be offered that the EMI ceramic magnet and paper edge 13 x 8 are far better than the German alnico type below, that whilst having a
good, nearly flat upper bass is much less efficient than EMI in the lower registers. The HMV/ Marconi 46600 cube alnico 13 x 8 isn't only more efficient and louder than the German 13 x 8 but so accurate, that only the 1950s EMIDEC type computers might explain it.
Right elite AlNiCo paper tweeter angled coaxial strips in an EMI 13 x 8 places the tweeter forward to clear the magnet from the rear cone and may have a time-aligned role. EMI speakers weren't available to a mass market so few know the special editions. Grey PVC edge suggests the late 1960s vintage. Red coloring might seem odd unless compared with Isophon below. Exclusive upper-class society speakers. The cabinet is homemade as most EMI speakers but on a very thin, chipboard baffle that won't give best. Slot head wood screws as in the speaker above. Chipped veneer suggests 1970s construction from an almost unique surplus core.
Right Rhodesian SUPERSONIC
with very rare, 'deep basket' German 13 x 8, Southern Rhodesia, largely independent of Britain since 1923 probably couldn't get EMI but bought Garrard AP75 record players - whether these beat PE 3015 is open to question, they looked alike, Hi-Fi in the colonies always a compromised affair. Below Verdik have a number of versions, all half the price of QUAD II and engineered to give as good from EL84. The power amplifier used linear grain orientated transformers and the compact ECC83 tube. The rectifier EZ81 tube is unlikely to compete with GZ32.
Dynatron LF 15 conventional transformers with EZ81, ECC83 and EL84 tubes. Below, Radford STA-25 has a Solid State rectifier and Verdik type g.o. transformers.
Left in Australia Valvemark Single-Ended were made by a Russian Doctor of physics using first a PL519 and later the similar E130L Output Tube. Quality of transformers is crucial to success but it was really a case of making do and suited Jazz music. Right
Australian market Fane Challenge, imported from England with Fane 13 x
8, squawker and tweeter. No match for EMI as very jagged in Frequency Response, an elite magnet system gives 100dB for 1 watt to suit tube amplifiers in Australia, competes with imported speaker cores like the WER HF1012 for QUAD II amplifiers. Fane 13 x 8 known to the BBC and few others are something of a mystery, as are the MSP
brand. Some 110 years ago AMI formed in Australia from Marconi and the
German Telefunken, in the 1960s, making some very old-fashioned
Marconi-HMV type cone speakers bearing the Manufacturers' Special Products label.
Left
in mirror-image pairs, Fane Challenge has been pricey. Clicking on the image may show the doping pattern seen in the rare and mysterious IMF Studio that later became the TLS50, the varnish is used to stiffen the cone and helps damp down unwanted sounds. In recent years the British Royd Merlin and Minstrel had used thick varnish in high power rivals to the Linn Sara Isobarik that's only 81dB/w/m. Above competition for WERC TR/61/4 loudspeakers that in 1950s England had rectilinear port room-corner cabinets but in 1960s Australia, an MSP round full range was coupled to the HF1012 in more modest floor standing boxes. Right EMI 550 commercial elite only
BBC Lockwood cabinet with a ducting system eliminates the need for acoustic
batting, that EMI had adjusted for anyone amplifier to prevent closed in
sound. The two pipes don't resemble similar ported bass reflex systems below, that DuKane used in the 1950s to boost up low notes and decrease the power needed to give adequate tones. The Transmission Line of Irving 'Bud' Fried was a development.
Left the American 1960s IMF Compact before the year 1968, uses a conventional reflex port duct. Fiber-glass doped Peerless 6.4 inch elite only foam edge cone woofer (for wider dispersion than bigger drivers but a 35Hz low note) and PVC edge squawker cores that Irving 'Bud' Fried managed to source via Harvard university social networks. After 1968 the British wing of IMF took a separate
direction with US Rola Celestion speakers following John Wright's
Transmission Line concept. American and European IMF
followed other routes. US IMF became Fried Hi-Fi and Franco-German made
speakers, loosely based on EMI
and US Rola know-how was adopted by most speaker manufacturers in
the ABR, or Auxiliary Bass Radiator concept that had a very poor
Frequency Response.
Right mass-market AR-3 is a 1960s 12-inch woofer, (poor dispersion) but in its day $540 a pair, 5-year warranty. The British, Hi-Fi QUAD 303 amplifier was partnered with 8-inch AR-7 (better dispersion) at $149 a pair. The IMF above has a 6.4-inch woofer (best dispersion). The American, Teledyne AR has a 4-ohm impedance and AlNiCo magnet for tubes, plywood baffle on wooden strut re-enforced high-density chipboard box. Crossover is point-to-point soldered. The amplifier most used is the American mass-market Dynaco ST-70 that uses US EL34 from Tung-Sol or Sylvania 6CA7 'fat bottle'. Fisher 500B and 400 receivers. These are the most prized lower market, American matches but Heathkit W5-M monoblocs were used secondhand, they had the British KT66 tube, reckoned one the best for Hi-Fi.
Left 1938 elite only
HMV or Marconiphone gramophone with speaker mesh used as surplus in
the early 1960s Scope EMI
Dangerous Speakers. Three 13 x 8 speakers are likely of the field coil type. Fane 13 x 8 speakers probably aim at such furniture but were
used in BBC studios where EMI was worn out and needed to be replaced.
Right the Frequency Response of a Swedish market HMV DLS 519 shows how these elite speakers outperform mass-market high end below. The very jagged response of the top-of-the-range American, Rola Celestion CX2012
would in its day have impressed lower society customers. The British elite EMI/ HMV speakers weren't known about until 1960 when Scope EMI
had marketed their lower marketDLS 529.
>>Celestion CX2012 were bought as cores, the round electronic part of speakers with cabinets home built with local supplies of timber and as a ported reflex speaker gives a very loud, Disco-like sound but the speech is sibilant and there's a booming, 'honking' tone that is old-fashioned, certainly taking us back to the 1970s outdoor Public Address sound and not up to modern standards of a 12 inch High Fidelity woofer's abilities. This tonal character noted of Tannoy stems from a very lumpy Frequency Response plot seen below.
<<How did cabinet construction take so long that the buyer never got finished? Back in the 1960s there weren't the same power tools of today's world. Here we are able to see some white caulking of the inner box sides and corner pieces prepared for a bass reflex pipe mounted on the front baffle board. CX2012 improved on the 'ring radiator' tweeter of the CX1512 by adding more treble in using a compression driver in its flared horn. CX2012 sound very similar to Tannoy Dual Concentric of that vintage, Tannoy used by many wealthy buyers in the middle-class and aristocracy was sold to a Scottish buyer in 1973 and recently passed to Chinese owners. Celestion was bought by the Rank Organization in the early 1970s and had too passed to other owners in recent times.
>>Black Hammerite painted stamped basket of a FANE loudspeaker bearing the circular paper badge seen on the EMI 14A 'Merciless Speakers', maker of these later 1960s EMI speakers being FANE, although briefly with their own deeper basket 13 x 8 steel stamped basket. The 1970s FANE that everybody loved had a flat F.R. but later issues adopted the jagged F.R. of fellow Yorkshire origin RANK Organization Wharfedale Melton, this still being impressive when using certain matching amplifiers.
<<A steel motor covering cup also painted in Hammerite resembles the plastic variety found in the EMI 14A/1000 and 14A/1200CA, and here FANE is custom manufacturing for Dallas Arbiter LTD rather than the Westminster based Abbey Road Studios of EMI. The cup fits into the four circular holes seen beside the square form ceramic magnet held in the U.K. to have been invented by the Yorkshire based Rank Organization of...
...Wharfedale in the 1960s. >>The FANE speaker giving its steel stamped basket to the EMI 14A/1200CA below, bears a warning that it's an 8-15-ohm type motor, meaning basically it's unsuitable for tube amplifiers with an Output Transformer, and more likely aimed at professional Solid State amplifiers likely found only in studios. The FANE Anisotropic Ferrite magnet was more efficient and expensive than the ordinary ferrous type so higher in sensitivity or acoustic sound pressure level at 1 watt.
>> EMI 14A/1200CA very subtle ribs within a smooth cone (Not an EMI 300/315 woofer, of which there is a 12 inch version), but like the 8 inch 14A/1000CA a B.B.C. John Atkinson led T.L. core for Studio Monitoring at Abbey Road Studios in Westminster, London. Low power, so possibly high efficiency and certainly elite only.
<<A curious plastic cup or 'bell' hides the motor size of a 14A/1200CA meant for an Atkinson 'line tunnel' speaker KMAL created for the smaller 8 inch 14A/1000CA in England, the 12 inch bigger than the U.S. Fried R/4 with instead its special ten inch woofer. The twelve inch uses the EMI Dammar-doped 4 inch mid range, its KMAL x-over and Isophon dome tweeter if EMI 14A/1720A are hard to find.
Right the Frequency Response of vintage mass market Tannoy was even worse than the Celestion, nasal and 'making a honking sound',
a painful quality appears loud but only appeals where rooms are much larger than average, in Westminster homes today worth £33-60 million, in other places worth much less, a Scottish castle less than a £1 million. In recent years Tannoy made some smaller speakers for the lower market prestige buyer. Russian 5881 Output Tubes are based on American RCA 6L6 from WW2. Crown A30-A30 has a Solid-State rectifier and heat-sink cooling.
Left the New York-based Fisher company, a big favorite in 1971 acquired by OTTO but in the year 1956 'The 100' was a 25 watt Power Amplifier with now pricey obsolete tube type and later British EL37 based on the Dutch EL34 but very hot, using just half the current and voltage of EL34 for the same output power. Changing EL37 to EL34 is to get affordable tubes, converted sets use instead American GE KT66. Below the most fabulous British EL37 tube amplifier is here saved from a...
...US occupation of Vietnam. The Crown SXA A-30-A30 was made in Elkhart, Indiana, near the New York Central Railroad Museum. (Click on image for full view).
Right the S1 Duplex was a 1940 year Pennsylvanian steam locomotive giving its name to Altec Lansing loudspeakers dating from the same decade. The British held a 126 mph world speed
record when one of their specially prepared engines briefly peaked on
the London run. In the wake of America's Cup yachting lead, Duplex
regularly ran above 140 mph and briefly touched on 156, taken out of
service in 1946 as unsatisfactory.
Left Dalmeny House survives where the similar Dunmore House and Crawford Priory haven't. It was home to among others the 5th Earl of Rosebery who got so bored with politics he resigned like the later Anthony Eden,
both disappointed in foreign policy during changing times and choices.
Eden's downfall was to ignore little details like Duplex going 30 mph faster and who'd paid to win WW2. (The USA). Right The Gilded Age and Robber Barons. British toffs like Anthony Eden weren't interested in the yachting Newport, Rhode Island or Gold Coast mansions. His somewhat modest Windlestone Hall in England was abandoned for some time, but is today near a golf course and appears to have been partly restored. Others follow speakers like
EMI and try to get them back to original elite performance.
Above Grundig 14 inch for the ELL80 output tube used in the German SABA Baden Sonorama radiogram's Grundig NF10 amplifier and in the video a Model PRAM 20 of 6WRMS per stereo channel. Click on the images for full view.
Ancient Free Moorish Rite
...Matsushita 50HB26 Beam tubes. A 1950s Damping Factor Control was used to reduce speaker distortion.
Left remarkable tweeter from the AIWA SX-77 modeled on a very loud British 17KHz Fane cone tweeter proposed for the American Heathkit Berkeley that used instead of it, a four-inch Goodmans unit from Eleganzia or Magnum and a paper speech dome as had Audax of France in their TW8 B
aluminum cone squawker/tweeter, closely following EMI metal center
portion practice, a similar aluminum 'presence dome' in the DECCA AL1500
mid/bass.
Right, in 1965 Radio Shack launched their Solo-4 speakers sound tailored to enhance EL84 seen in the British Empire Savile Double Twelve amplifier below as Output Tube. In the U.S., a military 6BQ5 version of EL84 is tougher built coping better with Mail Order over railroad networks and used with REALISTIC SAF-12 amplifiers of 1964 year launch. Solo-4 is the flagship speaker match and whilst doing only 100Hz L.F., is comparable to the Peerless speakers used by Bang & Olufsen buyers of New York City. Solo-4 is elliptical and appears to sport a tweeter although sellers never yet helped sharp-eyed buyers in revealing its internal build. Enthusiasts look for affordable high output speakers matching high quality EL84 amplifiers, missing Solo-4 as unknown to them. Tube Output Transformers affect results and EMI elliptical speakers were unknown in the lower society until much later, Radio Shack did cobble-together elite-look items, knowing of high-End audition rooms in Queens, N.Y.C. the horizontal or vertical bookshelf placement suggesting EMI speaker influences.
Right, Savile 12P controller unit and Double Twelve Stereo amplifier. H.D. 0.1%. Frequency Response: 25Hz-30KHz. +/- 1dB at 10 watts, 12 watts max, 21 watts peak or US. NFB 18dB. Noise -65dB. Scarce GZ32 tube rectifier as British Goodsell GW (Not the US guitar amplifiers) and QUAD II.
Left not Cerwin-Vega but another US brand - 'University' for powerful guitar tubes used instead for recorded music. NFB loop on the above warm EL84 amplifier is 18dB for -65dB, guitar tube KT88 in cold, analytical harman/kardon Citation II needs 32dB for -90dB noise.
Left, Klangfilm Philips EL 6400 push/pull EL81 Television Line Scan tubes, the British elite with a separate Hi-Fi version of PL 509, listed separately in data books. EL6400 has F.R. 40Hz-15,000KHz, the DECCA 1955 year phonograph record standard and power of 20 watts at >4 ohms from the 10 volt output.
Right, Tim de Paravicini's Mk.II EAR 509 was never copied, as based below on some surplus British eliteonly transformers, seen with yellowed paper and handwriting on the windings. They're wide-band and very powerful, just the thing to drive EMI 901 speakers that were...
...created as BBC monitors in 1964 before other brands took the helm as in KEF or Goodmans speakers for the new silicon wafer Solid State semiconductors. The E.A.R. 509 is probably the world's most sought after tube amplifier but of scrappy under-chassis build resembling the circuit board type Radford MA50 Renaissance by Woodside Electronics. Left hand mouse button click on images.
.
Above the Valve Museum gives PL509 as a time base television line output pentode but there was a separate audio version used in elite equipment with the world's best-defined low-frequency
notes. Using Hirata Output
Transformers (associated with elite 300B tube equipment) we see just what sort of current they were able to pass. Silicon stud rectifier diodes in the printed
circuit board date to the 1960s, some recent electrolytic
replacement. Volt Loudspeakers. Below a rare sight, Mercedes Fintail with European headlight style, middle class and styled by Wendler of Germany, so well received that a Bentley version was offered for the upper class - today's Rolls Royce Phantom is German.
Right, the SONY PSX-75 was a lower-middle-class turntable with a tonearm designed to cope with warped vinyl records. These were for people that couldn't buy new records and they were bought by the same social class as the mass-market Mercedes Fintail above that is a rust rotter. Time hasn't been a friend of the Biotracer either, often troublesome but remains very popular in the lower society. Right KT77 (Kinkless Tetrode) was invented by the British M.O. Valve Company and fitted into a socket of any EL34 (Pentode) amplifier without modifications. It had been an elite tube in the United Kingdom but was widespread in the United States. The tube was recently reintroduced by the Soviet Union and has since become more available. Acrosound used KT77 in the early 1960s mass-marketREALISTIC 210. The idea was to usurp EL 34 in Hi-Fi markets and make a profit. Guitar players have looked at using KT77 too but it's expensive as High Fidelity and not as distorted as their preferred EL34 tube sounds.
833 Single-Ended
<<Left the Siemens EL34 is 1950s vintage and differs from the British Mullard EL34 Guitar tube. To be fair performers likely prefer the British version for its pleasant distortion qualities. However, the Hi-Fi Siemens EL34 is a copy of the Dutch original audio EL34.
Below Russian KT77 in a Grant Lumley Reference TL50a are seen with East German Dimple Top Siemens EL34.
Left the Leak stereo EL34 amplifiers aren't as sweet-sounding compared to the TL12 but had been difficult to get at one time and are today collected by the British working class. Below Solid State middle American McIntosh from the 1974 year. The dial pointer led imitation from SONY.
Left the 1946 year US origin Rola P44 often re-coned with 1777 guitar ribbed to use the AlNiCo 'Celestion Blue'
bobbin for guitars as selling brand new, near US$775 apiece with the 1960s
'Beatles' famed tone color, the band saw in the link. They rarely if ever seen original radiogram cone left is High Fidelity, here in mint condition from Beam Echo's Avantic SL21-12 below, a 10 ohm, twelve-inch with network-free Rola HF 1300 tweeter. The SPA21 amplifier was suggested. 'Rhythm of the Rain'The Cascades.
Left 6-inch elite only EMI 2875 woofer developed in the 1960s with Cambridge university and louder for a few watts because, at the time, high power wasn't available. It led the way for modern mass-market British domestic speakers at best with only 70 c/s of low note from high power Solid State. Today lower frequencies in the mass market are handled by a mono active sub-woofer below as humans can't recognize stereo information at low frequencies.
Right, the elite only SIROCCO loudspeaker for the EMI 1515 germanium amplifier likely bought by Cambridge University academics as later hosting the foundation of Mo Iqbal's Monitor Audio Company to produce them as the MA7 for the graduate community in the locality. When the EMI drivers were all used up, Iqbal moved to Essex and imported far eastern drivers for his new Monitor Audio Company.
Right the REALISTIC active mono sub-woofer (0.1 channel) had followed the 1990 year passive SUB-700 (that is in the US market but no RadioShack catalogs). Awesome with the superb own brand matching satellite system. Later JBL had taken up the small apartment low-frequency challenge. Really first-class designs are few and far between. People wait for next year's option believing it best then regret their choice. The passive SUB-700 won't impress with other than Home Theater input sources, audio cassette suits other speakers better.
REALISTIC STA-120 from the year 1969 above had small Output Transformers below, on the back, panel. The Optimus-1 right
was very efficient and widely appreciated. The main difference with
KLH and AR is running with a known receiver and has germanium output
transistors. The cloth edge woofer is UTAH and the tweeters, CTS. Tonal balance was recommended for the skirl of Scottish military pipe bands, a good deep drum beat and rattle of other percussions. Suited for Country & Western with good, painful fiddle tones resembling the upmarket Tannoy, Scottish made from the year 1973 with a similarly 'nasal' sound. Great for bluegrass and some American southerner tastes. May suit the sharp guitar sounds of Chicago Blues, ZZ Top from Houston, Texas.
Right, a bronze basket 15-ohm EMI 150 series 92390DF and left below a green basket DF sports a low pass filter wound on a copper cooling pipe. The whizzer cone expires at 11KHz, and the ELAC AlNiCo tweeter intended is seen below right with an EMI 450. Left an EMI 92390FA.
>>EMI 92390CEZ. Below and right, a cooling pipe and coil distant from the steel chassis is seen instead of a conventional EMI x-over right, made by Plessey, crossing over at a much lower frequency where the coil's proximity to the steel and any heating effects have made an audible difference. EMI speakers had not been available to the lower society and 13 x 8 whizzer cone speakers were used with low D.F. (damping factor) tube and germanium amplifiers for characters like the fictional Bertie Wooster and real life Uffizi Society. The British elite had a great loyalty to EMI speakers, this view shared to the present day in Belgium and Japan for low D.F. amplifiers like Audio Innovations Series 700 with D.F. of 5 using EMI 92390DF, 450 and 150 series.
<<Keletron KN800 is given as a 3 speaker system, sellers claim the main speaker as an EMI 13 x 8 mid-woofer, the extra tweeter seen far left as an aperture behind the grille cloth, isn't mentioned but may be a FANE cone tweeter extending response to 20KHz similar to the elite speaker below only it uses an ELAC. Buyers might hope for a FANE generation 13 x 8 studio monitor, optimized for silicon transistorized amplifiers and the KN series being affordable doesn't rule out the possibility, consisting of the 400, 600, 800, 1100, 1600 and 2100, surplus speakers inside not widely known as sources of quality vintage drivers and also what amplifiers they're ideally suited to.
Mono Heathkit MA-12 and stereo S-88 and S-99 were 3 and 15-ohm speaker type tube amplifiers. The MA-12 was Hi-Fi with a Damping Factor of 30 and a response of 20Hz-30KHz. So ... use speakers suited to the EMI 600 of 1960 but those of the Marantz Model 8
(not the 8B) will do. MA12 were kits for radio techs to build for
distinguished customers and more expensive than ready built Hi-End, just
easier to post in kit form. Photo below: Doz' Blog.
Right and below, Stern's of London Mullard FIVETEN and with EZ80 instead of 5AR4 above, the Heathkit MA-12 claimed to be another Mullard 5/10, there were loads of them but very different in specifications, build quality, sound quality and prices. In the older 1950s Stern mono amplifiers the controller is shielded from the rest of the circuit.
..
Right, 5-ohm Studio EMI 550, 92390CR of coaxial form, EMI dubbed a 'combination speaker', polystyrene sheet batting. The CR was available in 3-ohm using the same network and single EMI 20KHz tweeter. Below, Heathkit S.33 Single-Ended, later version S.33H above has input for the red-bodied, stereo, high output Electrovoice crystal phono cartridge, whilst extremely rare advantages maybe lower noise and clarity via less gain stages.
<<EMI 92390EA 8-ohm, 92390DE 4-ohm below and DF 16-ohm, comprise the true EMI 150 for 8 watt RMS amplifiers.
<<Heathkit S-88 above, has a cult following but uses the Philips tube ECL82 needing very small magnet motors. The most effective speakers for ECL 82 are the REALISTIC Solo-2 below.
Right, 8 inch AlNiCo 'full range' REALISTIC Solo-2 (and flagship Solo-3 but don't use 1970s Solo 3A or 3B by mistake). These are Radio Shack's speakers sound tailored and acoustically power matched to feeble output, Philips Mini-Watt ECL82 tube amplifiers - and make no mistake they bear a paucity of power from days when loudspeakers had large amplifying horns and high efficiency motors made with aluminum wire, Hobbyists need a pair of 'Old School' tube amplifier speakers just like these to enjoy ECL82 tubes and Solo 2 gives us 45Hz-16KHz that's going to impress.
<<British 6.5 inch diameter Goodmans AlNiCo motor loudspeakers for 3-ohms impedance and suited for push/pull ECL82.
<<Reel to reel tape system for Heathkit S-99 adjusts replayed levels, improves tape speed contour and does other stuff with erase, record and replay head sockets.
Heathkit S-99 also developed a recent following and prices are high as ECL86 betters the ECL82 on sound quality, although both are excellent. Below 3-ohm EMI 92390DG was used for reel to reel tape replay whereas 92390DE above used a DECCA London Lo-Fi cartridge with the Garrard 401 turntable, today used for Hi-Fi moving coil cartridges. Lo-Fi was a low Damping Factor tube amplifier or with a response under 13KHz. Below, net weight of the Heath S-99 amplifier is 26 lbs.
>>Heath S-99 under-chassis. Power Bandwidth: 40Hz-15KHz +/-1dB Celestion T718 tweeter to 15KHz. Tape output for recording reel to reel: 30Hz-20KHz +/- 0.5dB. Power: 9 watts R.M.S. per channel, 1KHz 0.2% H.D. (USA), 40Hz : 0.45% H.D. and 0.35% H.D: 4KHz. Phono: 55db S/N ratio at 4mV input, 65dB @ 180mv input Line. ECL86 x 4, EF86 x 2, 3 x ECC83, 1 x GZ34. Channel separation 50dB at 1KHz.
>>12" Celestion AlNiCo loudspeaker with T718 tweeter suitable for use with Heathkit S-99 and ECL86 above. Note the size of the two black output transformers, capable of deep bass and accurate treble. Heathkit Cotswold are large wood finished floor standing speakers from the year 1965 and used with the S-99, the co-axial>> is more compact. With new capacitors S-99 will have no audible hum but the printed circuit boards are archaic and re-soldering needs done to copper link wires above the board, thus cutting the old component near the body and forming a loop from the old bare wire to solder on the new element. Solder on strips under the board mustn't be heated, if dry must have a heat-sink applied to all the connected tracks, the soldering iron hot enough to deliver rapid heating and quickly renew the flux in the dry joint so avoiding the tracks lifting and falling off from the board where they can't be glued back on with any success.
Left, 3-ohm EMI 92390CR EMI 550 for the Heathkit MA-12 amplifier, a kit built by local Television repairmen and probably the most expensive in an early 1960s Hi-Fi catalog, pricier than the Rogers Master! The small size of the baffle is to limit low frequency drain of amplifier power and these large 'bookshelf speakers' were preferred for the usual city listening room. The long baffle was pioneered by EMI but demands much more from amplifiers and equipment. Best not to judge by the sound collectors get from these as they use specially built equipment. The wires are twisted to improve imaging. With germanium Solid State no acoustic batting was usual.
Left, LEAK STEREO 30 compared with similar 30 watt output Wye 500 below. The Output Capacitors are of similar size but the power stage uses odd value electrolytic capacitors. The controller has a separate smoothing can and the Wye has one for all of the stages. The Output pair are also grouped in the surplus built Wye 500.
Right, 1971 year QUAD II Concordant with bare metal chassis and orange electrolytic of the Wye 500 below. GZ32 vacuum tube rectifiers so vaunted today, weren't regarded by 1960s engineers and the Concordant had stud diodes instead, the QUAD II, a wide-band with FR: 10Hz-50KHz from the year 1952. Below, Wye 9001 tuner from 1970, for EMI 13 x 8 speakers.
Right and below, 1970 year Wye Electronics Stereo 500, a true germanium 30 watt per channel with Mullard AD149 Output devices. Wye first made wooden stereo radiograms from surplus television components based in Sheffield's urban, Whittington Moor and Chesterfield North areas. Later they made a 525 stereo amplifier
and the brand...
...at least, was still around in recent years, making gold fascia amplifiers with a volume knob
detent (British word for a mechanism). Note above a couple of carbon composition resistors on the RHS channel, the rest being wire-wound, as germanium needs very critical elements due to thermal runaway. Servicing these vintage sets is difficult, Radiocruncher in Cornwall helps. Left WYE 500, speakers and right...
...screenshot of Vietnamese WYE STEREO 500 from the US presence, engineered to sell with 8-ohm EMI 13 x 8: 92390DW with Peerless MT-225 tweeter in OMAR Skinner Sultan for LEAK Stereo 30.
Left the Imperialist French Empire Merlaud STT 1515 layout closely follows the older slimline British Empire Wye Stereo 500. Below the French AUDAX 13 x 8 of which so little is known but the surround resembles an EMI 901 and doped cloth seems likely. PVC surrounds like the EMI 319 were Klangfilm of Germany patented and cloth edges were...
...seen on the mid-1960s EMI 105 Club and 950. The speakers need the low power vintage amplifiers as below, that is very strange as germanium amplifiers were terrible to construct successfully and the most expensive on the market, their owners being only landed gentryor the wealthy.
<<EMI 92390FA for germanium 2-stage amplifiers, small, 4-layer paper voice coil former in the mid/woofer, knob AlNiCo tweeter of the Lorenz plastic cone type, the 450 thought strange speakers in the late 1970s not flattering new silicon-based amplifiers using then cheap sources, EMI 450 sounded on the best available.
>>EMI 92390FP, 8 ohms from the Medway brand speaker reminiscent of the historic Dockyard at Chatham, the backyard of Dr Robert Prescott known in the eastern United States as a Brit of some standing. The cones very likely resemble the 92390FA above, the motor has a 10 watt nominal, ferrous ring magnet suited to amplifiers with 1960s vintage Mullard AD149 Output Transistors, including the well known LEAK Stereo 30, these amplifiers really quite awesome in abilities come rather more sophisticated in build quality compared to the later silicon transistor Stereo 30 and Stereo 30 Plus that probably, don't best suit the EMI 92390FA or FP.
>>EMI 92390DG, 3 ohm version suited certain tube amplifiers but practically nothing is known or shared about use of these speakers that many readers may not yet realize. Not available to the lower society, impatient enthusiasts are trying to discover how to get quick results. 3-ohm type amplifier to try is the very pricey Heathkit MA-12 with a choice of 3 or 15 ohm taps in the Output Transformer, there being many other similar 3/15 ohm EL84 tube amplifiers that might be tried, the more pricey likely to give best. If the QUAD II is hooked up, it may help decide the potential to be obtained.
<<Cabinet for the 92390DG above. Box is lap-butt joined with a V-planked veneer strip, a late 1960s practice, top and base panels lie between the side panels, the stands are used near a wall to lift bass output (as designed differently from modern speakers sounding better out in the room). 8 watt motor 13 x 8 often appear in seemingly small boxes, this enclosure is quite remarkable as an elite speaker, although bigger boxes are seen with a 10 watt motor using more baffle, living space is impacted by larger boxes like Studio Monitors. Below, Marsden Hall MH Annexe with unknown 13 x 8, could be EMI, Fane, Falkus or Helme but of 1974 year British stereo buyer markets.
Left the STA-2100 tuner board is similar to the STA-2000 above but the white arrows show how possibly obsolete and unobtainable Integrated Circuits have replaced the old discrete circuitry. Chips reduce costs of assembly as identical whereas transistor circuits are more labor-intensive. The followers of vintage FM Stereo best opt for the STA-2000 and have the old filament bulb stereo pilot beacon replaced to protect the stock FM stereo de-modulator chip. New chips improve with running, best are old stock copper pin, tinned in the STA-2000 and audibly superior in the original stock issue. Chips have supposedly identical circuits but differ greatly in sound quality. Invar-nickel pins may suit the vintage car radio but copper is best for High Fidelity. The difference in the sound of vintage chips against modern manufacturing, suggests some hidden changes in design or materials quality. The STA-2100 below was miles better than the Asuki styled after it but peasants were happy with their lot, like this Skoda Estelle punter.
Right REALISTIC Optimus-9 were 5-way speakers for the STA-80 Output above. The speaker followed a split-baffle concept of the early IMF STUDIO below and maybe saved on expensive plywood as later TLS50 went full chipboard to get deeper bass. The STA-150 receiver (also works with the Optimus-9) Hitachi made, akin to vintage harman/kardon rather than Kasuga-Trio RadioShack STA-80. Squawkers in IMF STUDIO are heavily doped EMI with KEF T-15 and in Optimus-9 are based on the CTS (Chicago Telephone Systems) twin cone tweeter, phenolic ring, Marantz Imperial 8. Sound of the working class Optimus 9 actually resembles the elite IMF STUDIO below, thanks to 'Mr RadioShack'.
A problem with Akai made Carver MXR-130 below is build quality shared with other sets like the AA-1020, appearing to sound very good even 3D but could they
Left
the original EMI 98890 tweeters that in this baffle have had a paper enclosure having fallen off leaving the trace of glue. The 92390BV 13 x
8 isn't the original 46600 type that worked with the early 1950s elite gramophone tweeter belonging only to the British elite. 912390BV wasn't available to the general public and is the early 1960s here likely built into a gramophone to get the 20Hz or at least, reach below the 40Hz of the Plessey cube alnico magnet on the HMV/ Marconi 46600 13 x 8. It might be offered that the EMI ceramic magnet and paper edge 13 x 8 are far better than the German alnico type below, that whilst having a
good, nearly flat upper bass is much less efficient than EMI in the lower registers. The HMV/ Marconi 46600 cube alnico 13 x 8 isn't only more efficient and louder than the German 13 x 8 but so accurate, that only the 1950s EMIDEC type computers might explain it.
Below, Radford STA-25 has a Solid State rectifier and Verdik type g.o. transformers.
Right
Australian market Fane Challenge, imported from England with Fane 13 x
8, squawker and tweeter. No match for EMI as very jagged in Frequency Response, an elite magnet system gives 100dB for 1 watt to suit tube amplifiers in Australia, competes with imported speaker cores like the WER HF1012 for QUAD II amplifiers. Fane 13 x 8 known to the BBC and few others are something of a mystery, as are the MSP
brand. Some 110 years ago AMI formed in Australia from Marconi and the
German Telefunken, in the 1960s, making some very old-fashioned
Marconi-HMV type cone speakers bearing the Manufacturers' Special Products label. 
Right mass-market AR-3 is a 1960s 12-inch woofer, (poor dispersion) but in its day $540 a pair, 5-year warranty. The British, Hi-Fi QUAD 303 amplifier was partnered with 8-inch AR-7 (better dispersion) at $149 a pair. The IMF above has a 6.4-inch woofer (best dispersion). The American, Teledyne AR has a 4-ohm impedance and AlNiCo magnet for tubes, plywood baffle on wooden strut re-enforced high-density chipboard box. Crossover is point-to-point soldered. The amplifier most used is the American mass-market Dynaco ST-70 that uses US EL34 from Tung-Sol or Sylvania 6CA7 'fat bottle'. Fisher 500B and 400 receivers. These are the most prized lower market, American matches but Heathkit W5-M monoblocs were used secondhand, they had the British KT66 tube, reckoned one the best for Hi-Fi.
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Right the Frequency Response of vintage mass market Tannoy was even worse than the Celestion, nasal and 'making a honking sound',
a painful quality appears loud but only appeals where rooms are much larger than average, in Westminster homes today worth £33-60 million, in other places worth much less, a Scottish castle less than a £1 million. In recent years Tannoy made some smaller speakers for the lower market prestige buyer. Russian 5881 Output Tubes are based on American RCA 6L6 from WW2. Crown A30-A30 has a Solid-State rectifier and heat-sink cooling.
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Right, in 1965 Radio Shack launched their Solo-4 speakers sound tailored to enhance EL84 seen in the British Empire Savile Double Twelve amplifier below as Output Tube. In the U.S., a military 6BQ5 version of EL84 is tougher built coping better with Mail Order over railroad networks and used with REALISTIC SAF-12 amplifiers of 1964 year launch. Solo-4 is the flagship speaker match and whilst doing only 100Hz L.F., is comparable to the Peerless speakers used by Bang & Olufsen buyers of New York City. Solo-4 is elliptical and appears to sport a tweeter although sellers never yet helped sharp-eyed buyers in revealing its internal build. Enthusiasts look for affordable high output speakers matching high quality EL84 amplifiers, missing Solo-4 as unknown to them. Tube Output Transformers affect results and EMI elliptical speakers were unknown in the lower society until much later, Radio Shack did cobble-together elite-look items, knowing of high-End audition rooms in Queens, N.Y.C. the horizontal or vertical bookshelf placement suggesting EMI speaker influences.
Right, Savile 12P controller unit and Double Twelve Stereo amplifier. H.D. 0.1%. Frequency Response: 25Hz-30KHz. +/- 1dB at 10 watts, 12 watts max, 21 watts peak or US. NFB 18dB. Noise -65dB. Scarce GZ32 tube rectifier as British Goodsell GW (Not the US guitar amplifiers) and QUAD II.
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...created as BBC monitors in 1964 before other brands took the helm as in KEF or Goodmans speakers for the new silicon wafer Solid State semiconductors. The E.A.R. 509 is probably the world's most sought after tube amplifier but of scrappy under-chassis build resembling the circuit board type Radford MA50 Renaissance by Woodside Electronics. Left hand mouse button click on images.
audio version used in elite equipment with the world's best-defined low-frequency
notes. Using Hirata Output
Transformers (associated with elite 300B tube equipment) we see just what sort of current they were able to pass. Silicon stud rectifier diodes in the printed
circuit board date to the 1960s, some recent electrolytic
replacement. Volt Loudspeakers. Below a rare sight, Mercedes Fintail with European headlight style, middle class and styled by Wendler of Germany, so well received that a Bentley version was offered for the upper class - today's Rolls Royce Phantom is German. 
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REALISTIC STA-120 from the year 1969 above had small Output Transformers below, on the back, panel. The Optimus-1 right
was very efficient and widely appreciated. The main difference with
KLH and AR is running with a known receiver and has germanium output
transistors. The cloth edge woofer is UTAH and the tweeters, CTS. Tonal balance was recommended for the skirl of Scottish military pipe bands, a good deep drum beat and rattle of other percussions. Suited for Country & Western with good, painful fiddle tones resembling the upmarket Tannoy, Scottish made from the year 1973 with a similarly 'nasal' sound. Great for bluegrass and some American southerner tastes. May suit the sharp guitar sounds of Chicago Blues, ZZ Top from Houston, Texas.
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Mono Heathkit MA-12 and stereo S-88 and S-99 were 3 and 15-ohm speaker type tube amplifiers. The MA-12 was Hi-Fi with a Damping Factor of 30 and a response of 20Hz-30KHz. So ... use speakers suited to the EMI 600 of 1960 but those of the Marantz Model 8
(not the 8B) will do. MA12 were kits for radio techs to build for
distinguished customers and more expensive than ready built Hi-End, just
easier to post in kit form. Photo below: Doz' Blog.
Right, 5-ohm Studio EMI 550, 92390CR of coaxial form, EMI dubbed a 'combination speaker', polystyrene sheet batting. The CR was available in 3-ohm using the same network and single EMI 20KHz tweeter. Below, Heathkit S.33 Single-Ended, later version S.33H above has input for the red-bodied, stereo, high output Electrovoice crystal phono cartridge, whilst extremely rare advantages maybe lower noise and clarity via less gain stages.(1).jpg)
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