I heard a Leak loudspeaker with a "sandwich" cone woofer in 1971---it was excellent, the best speaker I had heard until hearing my first ESL later in the year. That year I also heard the ESS Transtatic I, which had three RTR ESL tweeters and the legendary (with good reason) KEF B139 woofer, itself having a sandwich cone with a flat front face of Styrofoam and a butyl surround. I currently own a pair of the Transtatics, and their B139’s are still operating perfectly, as are the KEF 5" B110 Bextrene midrange drivers (the first commercially available Bextrene-coned driver) and the RTR tweeters. |
I’m a big fan of composite construction, @bdp24 , from Focal’s W, to Rohacell to ... paper! :)
I’m currently listening to Scanspeak’s Revelator mid-woofers, which are two paper layers with an epoxy bonding them together. really pretty marvelous.
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The "aged cheese" woofer never caught on, neither did the overly damped "used catcher's mitt" design...I say stick with paper...or hemp fibre...anything... |
They should have just followed Peter Walker's lead. KLH? |
I believe Lowther still uses a paper cone. Great sounding speaker if set up right. |
My Audionote AN-J's have a nice paper 8" woofer and sounds great to me!
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Bozak has it was rumored beaver felt in the tapered cones
the Eagles have never sounded better than the B-305 ( half a Concert Grand ) circa 1965
@bdp24 |
We of course being a KEF and KEF-Kits dealer had access to drivers, filters, cabinet designs, etc
i goofed around w Cantata, 104 a/b ( a B200 driving a passive 139, which I recall was ok...
the lovely and sweet T-27 or T-33
with a Decca Ribbon
ah the fun |
We also had an FFT running on a Commodore PET
you understand the Vandersteen and Thiel..... or maybe not....,
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In the late 70’s I had a prospective employer tell me that COBOL was dead.
So much for predictions. 😊 |
"We of course being a KEF and KEF-Kits dealer..." Do KEF kits still exist? They used to be an interesting concept. A friend of mine built a pair and they sounded really good. For that time and to me, at least. Model 102? 103? 104? or am I mixing something up? |
@glupson
Do KEF kits still exist? Not for a very long time, but you never know when some one will find a NOS kit in their garage and sell it on ebay. Not that I'd buy one, age will do a lot to a driver, but hey, lots of great kits from Maidsound, Meniscus and Parts Express are available for peanuts. Best, E |
Had a pair of Leak Sandwich speakers . Very good sounding on low watt tube amps. Look them up. IIRC foil and styrofoam? Sorry about no paper ref. |
bdp24 noted your comment on the KEF B139,
I finally bought commercial speakers, (Monitor Audios) and decommissioned my homemade KEF speakers.
Have to say the B110 (dextrene?) I think still sound fantastic.
I`m making small subwoofer boxes for the B139s,still going strong after 35 years!
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@lastperfectdaymusic, the ESS Transtatic put the KEF B139 in a transmissionline enclosure (hence the "trans" part of the name; the "static" for the RTR electrostatic tweeters). That enclosure was very similar to that of the IMF Monitor, which also had a B139 woofer. Irving Fried (IMF were his initials) was a fan of transmissionlines. |
Interesting that on both pair of Frieds I had in the 80s-90s it was the paper cones that eventually failed.
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