Quadraflex ST-17 Speakers - Biggles' Free Speaker Therapy

[drbiggles]

Yes, yes I know exactly what these are. But I got such a thrill being the first one on the Free section of CL to respond about them. Today was really a great eye opener as to why I'm going to all this trouble for such a mediocre (at best) pair of speakers. You have to move more than really fast on the Free section to get in, I figure most hard core people have apps for that. I just have my computer and the refresh option. I hit refresh early this afternoon, found a listing, replied with my phone number and she called inside of 10 minutes.

The pictures she took on CL were actually quite good, but it really doesn't matter for me. I'll take pretty much any old speaker in any condition, the worse off they are, the better. I'm sure someone else would have come along, but she was ready to haul them off to the recycler. I was out of the door within 5 minutes, heading off to Montclair. If you're not hip to this little township, it's exceptionally affluent. The homes tend to be older, tucked away under large oak trees on teeny tiny, windy roads that go straight up and then straight down. I got up there in about 30 minutes from Richmond, not too terribly bad on a Friday early afternoon. She wasn't there, had an errand to run and had left them behind a gate for me to grab. And I did!

Compare the condition of these speakers to any I've drug home over the last year and these can be considered near mint. Straight edges, nice corners, no scratches or dings, good badges and good grills. Of course the foam around the woofer has long since paid the price of age and cracked to near pieces. So, new foam for the woofers, new capacitors for the crossovers, a cleaning then restor a finish followed up by some bees wax. Bam, done!

I haven't checked the continuity of the speakers, yet. But they're so clean and have clearly been taken care of I'm not losing any sleep worrying about dead drivers. If there are, no loss. Now I have 5 woofers that need new foam. As soon as I can get a decent, constant flow of cash coming in the door these will get some attention. Until then, I'll stack them in the garage along with my other treasures. I've got the Sansui SP-3500's in my sites at the moment.

I like their styling, they look good to me. And I had a great time during the hunt and kill. What's next?

Biggles

 

[halo71]

Nice looking cabinets. Kinda remind me of McIntosh for some reason.

 

[drbiggles]

Nice looking cabinets. Kinda remind me of McIntosh for some reason.

Hmm, can't speak to that unfortunately. Maybe I need to find a free pair of McIntosh speakers to see for myself. That right there is a great idea!

Biggles

 

[TPettenati]

Excellent Score! and the price was right. I wouldn't have passed them up.

I have a fondness for Quadraflex gear. I've had a Reference 300R receiver since new. Well built and still working great.

The entry level speakers from Pacific Stereo were the "TransAudio" brand. Avoid those, they wouldn't be of any interest even if the price was free.

 

[drbiggles]

Excellent Score! and the price was right. I wouldn't have passed them up.

I have a fondness for Quadraflex gear. I've had a Reference 300R receiver since new. Well built and still working great.

The entry level speakers from Pacific Stereo were the "TransAudio" brand. Avoid those, they wouldn't be of any interest even if the price was free.

I get that. It'd be nice to find a little Reference receiver to go along with, ya know?

What about these CBS speakers? They're awaiting for the same treatment as these. They're buried deep in the garage at the moment.

Biggles

 

[stickman]

The woofers used in Quadraflex speakers were often quite decent while the midrange drivers were usually the weakest link. The more deluxe models sometimes used the original Peerless soft dome tweeters while lesser models got by with inexpensive cone tweeters like those found in this speaker. Why Quadraflex had a penchant for larger diameter "squawker" midrange drivers has always eluded me unless they were really cheap to purchase.

"Free" is actually well within the justifiable price ballpark range for these speakers! (lol)

PS - The "CBS" speakers were also a Pacific Stereo house brand line just like Quadraflex and Transaudio, but at least they used a decent tweeter on that Reference model.

 

[drbiggles]

The woofers used in Quadraflex speakers were often quite decent while the midrange drivers were usually the weakest link. The more deluxe models sometimes used the original Peerless soft dome tweeters while lesser models got by with inexpensive cone tweeters like those found in this speaker. Why Quadraflex had a penchant for larger diameter "squawker" midrange drivers has always eluded me unless they were really cheap to purchase.

"Free" is actually well within the justifiable price ballpark range for these speakers! (lol)

Yeah, that inexpensive midrange they used leaves me in a quandary as well. And the Free price tag I felt justifiable. Maybe I can buy a new 2-way speaker and crossover setup and convert them. I do like the cabinets!

Biggles

 

[plazmaplanna]

Interesting the differences between the st-19 and the 17

higher quality filler in the 19's, higher quality woofer, not sure on the mids, slightly more advanced crossover (barely) and then the higher quaility tweeter.

Cabinets are identical though...except the 19 has a sealed tube for the mid that has fiber fill in it like the rest of the 19. Your cabinets are in excellent shape, mine are in pretty good shape but they didn't have the grills, and the lower part around where it says quadroflex was pealing off so i glued it back down on both.

Only thing in better shape on mine were the foam on the woofers and the mid/high switches.

 

[drbiggles]

Interesting the differences between the st-19 and the 17

higher quality filler in the 19's, higher quality woofer, not sure on the mids, slightly more advanced crossover (barely) and then the higher quaility tweeter.

Cabinets are identical though...except the 19 has a sealed tube for the mid that has fiber fill in it like the rest of the 19. Your cabinets are in excellent shape, mine are in pretty good shape but they didn't have the grills, and the lower part around where it says quadroflex was pealing off so i glued it back down on both.

Only thing in better shape on mine were the foam on the woofers and the mid/high switches.

Yeah, I lucked out on the condition. It made the acquisition much more palatable. I will would have taken them though, that's how I am.

I don't know how the mid on this one is mounted, I didn't pull that one. It was too late in the day and grabbed the shots I did and had to move on.

I'm oddly excited to see how they sound once I get them back on the road. That tiny little 8" woofer is cute.

Biggles

 

[markshan]

Maybe I can buy a new 2-way speaker and crossover setup and convert them. I do like the cabinets!

Biggles

Maybe convert them into poor man's Klipsch KG4s. Big passive, smaller woofer and hi-fi horn. WAG on the sizes, but you could do this fairly inexpensively and I bet it would crush the original design. Plus, you could keep those nice cabinets completely unmolested.

http://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-sd315-pr-12-passive-radiator--295-496

http://www.parts-express.com/grs-8pf-8-8-paper-cone-foam-surround-woofer--292-408

http://www.parts-express.com/goldwood-gt-520-1-soft-dome-horn-tweeter--270-180

 

[markshan]

That tiny little 8" woofer is cute.

Biggles

So, is it an 8" woofer and a 6 1/2" mid? The passive project just got considerably cheaper.

http://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-sd215-pr-8-passive-radiator--295-492

http://www.parts-express.com/grs-6pr-8-6-1-2-poly-cone-rubber-surround-woofer--292-426

http://www.parts-express.com/goldwood-gt-520-1-soft-dome-horn-tweeter--270-180

 

[kirk57]

That little bit of foam inside the cabinet is ALL the stuffing that was in there?
Are there any inductors inside cabs somewhere?

 

[plazmaplanna]

That little bit of foam inside the cabinet is ALL the stuffing that was in there?
Are there any inductors inside cabs somewhere?

Ya I found that strange as well...my st-19s had fiberglass fill in them

Here is the only differences I see between the crossovers

Those two black things...not sure what they're called...(learning the ropes electrically speaking) Not sure if those are inductors...they're all wrapped up.
You can see a small fuzzy glimpse of the fill in the lower right hand corner. Not sheeted, nearly the same as you would see above your ceiling.

Another difference is the size of the woofer 12 vs 8

Just for comparison purposes...these woofers certainly can flex =)


The mid on my 19 is 5 1/2 (if it's measured from seal to seal) 6 1/2 if it's measured from edge of screw mounts. (pretty certain that they're the same)

Maybe you could turn these into st-19s >< though i'm sure you can think up something better...would be pretty simple though.

 

[ken kantor]

Some meaningless trivia:

When we started NHT, we hired the former Factory Manager from Quadraflex to run our production lines.

-k

 

[kirk57]

Those two black things...not sure what they're called...(learning the ropes electrically speaking) Not sure if those are inductors...they're all wrapped up.

Yes, those are inductors.

 

[drbiggles]

Will come back later to play here. Am out in the garden, in the sun with the Rectilinears and the Aquabats.

xo, Biggles

 

[bashman]

Hey Biggles,
Just down the road from you in Berkeley and I did grab a Reference 300R receiver this morning in El Cerrito for $30 (with turntable, cassette deck and 2 very questionable TransAudio speakers. From the included manuals, I was surprised to see that the company had its HQ in Emeryville. And dang, it was beautiful weather today in the East Bay!

 

[drbiggles]

Maybe convert them into poor man's Klipsch KG4s. Big passive, smaller woofer and hi-fi horn. WAG on the sizes, but you could do this fairly inexpensively and I bet it would crush the original design. Plus, you could keep those nice cabinets completely unmolested.

See, now this interests me greatly. Thank you for stopping by and offering up the suggestion. And you're correct, the parts to replace the old ones really isn't adding up to all that much. I just can't imagine the originals sounding as good or better than the new replacements. Armed with this theory, I will probably just bypass the refoam and recap and go new right from the start.

That little bit of foam inside the cabinet is ALL the stuffing that was in there?
Are there any inductors inside cabs somewhere?

There were 3 halfway decent sized pieces of that foam stuffed inside the cabinet. It was pretty haphazard, those will be going in the recycle bine for sure. I went back and looked at the JPG of the crossover, I'm going to say NO inductors in mine. Which means I will have to buy a new pair of crossovers for sure.

Some meaningless trivia:

When we started NHT, we hired the former Factory Manager from Quadraflex to run our production lines.

-k

Ha! That's pretty cool. I'm getting antsy now, wanting to find more Quadraflex products. Heavy sigh.

Hey Biggles,
Just down the road from you in Berkeley and I did grab a Reference 300R receiver this morning in El Cerrito for $30 (with turntable, cassette deck and 2 very questionable TransAudio speakers. From the included manuals, I was surprised to see that the company had its HQ in Emeryville. And dang, it was beautiful weather today in the East Bay!

The weather has been like that for months now. Sure, we had some freezing, some cloud cover from time to time and it nearly sprinkled a few times, but it's been mostly like that. That sounds like an awful lot of fun for 30 bux, I would have done the same in a heartbeat. Where'd you hear about it? My oldest boy is in to tapedecks like a hound, that haul would have been distributed throughout the family! I'm not familiar with the TransAudio brand, I know someone here the other day mentioned their less than mediocre performance. I would still like to drag one around, then disassemble it though. Hope you made it back home without issue!

Biggles

 

[Recpro]

I like the sound of this 650fet r receiver, cracked glass, and terribly dirty. Its in the needs major attention pile but isn't going anywhere. Most i can find pictures of have black knobs???

I'm finding it hard to find information on quadraflex, had a front load cassette deck recently that was cool, and weird.....flipper dude said it went quick, trying to resurrect a TT.

Beautiful cabinets!

I'm signing up, have to see how these turn out.

 

[kirk57]

I like the sound of this 650fet r receiver, cracked glass, and terribly dirty. Its in the needs major attention pile but isn't going anywhere. Most i can find pictures of have black knobs???

I'm finding it hard to find information on quadraflex, had a front load cassette deck recently that was cool, and weird.....flipper dude said it went quick, trying to resurrect a TT.

Beautiful cabinets!

I'm signing up, have to see how these turn out.

Nice looking unit, kinda like the Sansui integrateds.