R & A Higher Fidelity Speakers Made in WolverHampton England...anyone?????????

Kenny

Active Member
Season's Greetings,audio junkies..A month or so while picking through a thrift store some speakers popped up..They were in a sloped, 21x12 inch home fabricated,made to hang on the wall nicely finished Mahaogany enclosure with a rectangular slotted port and about what I thought to be felt through the grille cloth a single 7 inch opening.Hmmmm I thought Full Range...The guy I was with said he wouldn't even bother.I thought another good reason to come back.lol..For $7.97,including tax,I blew just about the whole wad and still managed to save enough for a Tea and a bagel,and put some gas in the car.Really glad I grabbed them,when I got home curiosity got the best of me and I opened them open and found a beautiful 10 inch full range with whizzer cone..Sorry no pics,as I haven't figured out how to do that yet.Too busy listening to music in any spare time I have..lol..anyways,they look extremely well made and sound absolutely Stunning with my small Eico tube amp..In fact I figured the first thing I would do when I found out they were 10's was try a bigger cab,but have been playing them ever since in my computer/workshop system.I put them on small 7 inch stands and really enjoy their refreshing sonic character...The sound reminds me of nothing I have ever heard,which totally blew me away.On the Alnico magnet cover it has a badge that says R & A Higher Fidelity,Made in WolverHampton England Type FLUX TRANS 7100P MKIV...I figure the MKIV is obviously the model,does anyone have any idea what flux trans means..There is also a badge with many patents,British,and US,and quite a few others,starting in 1938???..I am guessing the company may have been wiped out after the WW II...as I did a search on Wolverhampton England and came up dry..I may email their tourist bureau to see if anything is know about their history.If any one out there comes across a set of these I highly reccomend them.Gonna have to have to ask Santa for a meter to see what ohmage they are...I have been playing them gently,on the 8 ohm taps,and they sound big dynamic,detailed,midrange just knocks yer socks off..spun some Beach Boys Enless Summer,amazing vocals,Herbie Mann Push and Lighthouse Live and it was like Holy Poop,I almost passed on these.Paired with my recently acquired Linn Axis,which I admit is leagues better than my Technics SL-Q2 and Dual 704, it was like Wow,excellent budget system combo!!!....Just goes to show ya,Don't pass on the vintage it might be the best you ever find!!..I give these speakers an 8 out of ten,and for comparison I give Altec's 19's a 10 out of 10...Enjoy Your Music...Kenny
 
Last edited:
Season's Greetings,audio junkies..A month or so while picking through a thrift store some speakers popped up..They were in a sloped, 21x12 inch home fabricated,made to hang on the wall nicely finished Mahaogany enclosure with a rectangular slotted port and about what I thought to be felt through the grille cloth a single 7 inch opening.Hmmmm I thought Full Range...The guy I was with said he wouldn't even bother.I thought another good reason to come back.lol..For $7.97,including tax,I blew just about the whole wad and still managed to save enough for a Tea and a bagel,and put some gas in the car.Really glad I grabbed them,when I got home curiosity got the best of me and I opened them open and found a beautiful 10 inch full range with whizzer cone..Sorry no pics,as I haven't figured out how to do that yet.Too busy listening to music in any spare time I have..lol..anyways,they look extremely well made and sound absolutely Stunning with my small Eico tube amp..In fact I figured the first thing I would do when I found out they were 10's was try a bigger cab,but have been playing them ever since in my computer/workshop system.I put them on small 7 inch stands and really enjoy their refreshing sonic character...The sound reminds me of nothing I have ever heard,which totally blew me away.On the Alnico magnet cover it has a badge that says R & A Higher Fidelity,Made in WolverHampton England Type FLUX TRANS 7100P MKIV...I figure the MKIV is obviously the model,does anyone have any idea what flux trans means..There is also a badge with many patents,British,and US,and quite a few others,starting in 1938???..I am guessing the company may have been wiped out after the WW II...as I did a search on Wolverhampton England and came up dry..I may email their tourist bureau to see if anything is know about their history.If any one out there comes across a set of these I highly reccomend them.Gonna have to have to ask Santa for a meter to see what ohmage they are...I have been playing them gently,on the 8 ohm taps,and they sound big dynamic,detailed,midrange just knocks yer socks off..spun some Beach Boys Enless Summer,amazing vocals,Herbie Mann Push and Lighthouse Live and it was like Holy Poop,I almost passed on these.Paired with my recently acquired Linn Axis,which I admit is leagues better than my Technics SL-Q2 and Dual 704, it was like Wow,excellent budget system combo!!!....Just goes to show ya,Don't pass on the vintage it might be the best you ever find!!..I give these speakers an 8 out of ten,and for comparison I give Altec's 19's a 10 out of 10...Enjoy Your Music...Kenny
Sorry to revive an old thread...

But, I just bought an old R & A 7100P 10" 3.5 ohm and put in a Fender Custom Vibro Champ Reverb guitar amp... To quote the seller, "it sounds superb", and it does.
 
R&A drivers do turn up on Fleabay once in awhile and they usually have small but well designed alnico magnet structures. Maybe putting flux-density ratings on the labels was a British thing?

My Tale of R&A Driver Woe:
One of the rarest speakers I ever purchased was a Hegeman tulip tweeter, a style offered in some Eico speakers models at the time as well as stand alone units, and it had a highly modified R&A driver. There was a retaining metal strap behind the magnet structure and it never crossed my mind that the strap was the ONLY thing holding the magnet structure in place as every other driver I've every owned had the magnet structure glued or screwed in to hold it in the proper position. Needless to say I foolishly loosened the strap and when I did the magnet structure moved and in the process damaged the fragile voice coil beyond repair and the driver was toast! I still haven't heard an R&A driver yet as I hadn't run the Hegeman modified R&A tweeter before I destroyed it as the foam surround was disintegrated (foam which was installed during the Hegeman conversion process as I doubt any R&A drivers ever came with foam surrounds).
 
Back
Top Bottom