Coral BX-1001's

atrac

Active Member
Does anyone own some Coral BX-1001's? I'm curious as to what you think of them. I saw a pair at the local SA for $21.50 each. Seems a little high, or not? ;)

Unfortunately it looks like the grills are stapled on so I couldn't even examine if there's foam rot or not (or if they are even foam?).

Thanks!
 
yeah, a little high. Think Sansui sound. They don't usually have foam, usually pleated paper surrounds on the mids and cloth on the woofs.

1001's if I am not mistaken have a 10" woofer and a kabuki collection of mids , tweets, and supertweets.
 
As far as I know.....they have the same driver configuration as my 3-way Coral BX-801's.....except using a 10" woofer instead of an 8".
My 801's didn't have much bass response, very forward mids, but a quite nice high end, coming from a pair of good quality alnico horn-loaded tweeters.

Steve
 
Does anyone own some Coral BX-1001's? I'm curious as to what you think of them. I saw a pair at the local SA for $21.50 each. Seems a little high, or not? ;)

Unfortunately it looks like the grills are stapled on so I couldn't even examine if there's foam rot or not (or if they are even foam?).

Thanks!


Don't be so shy. Put the speakers in your cart and take them into the kitchen ware isle. Grab a butter knife, a sturdy fork, and have at her! :D Did that with the last pair of speakers I picked up at GW (Fisher XP5's). There's nothing wrong with inspecting something you intend to buy. :)
 
The 1001s are a 3 way speaker with a 10" woofer, paper mid and small horn tweet.

I always liked the sound of Coral speakers. They are Japanese and very efficient and sound great with tubes.

With that said, 20 bucks a speaker is a bit steep in my opinion.
 
Don't be so shy. Put the speakers in your cart and take them into the kitchen ware isle. Grab a butter knife, a sturdy fork, and have at her!

Please don't do this. There are 4 small philips screws holding the grill on, one in each corner. With the screws removed the grill just pulls off. Some jacknob did that to the set I picked up at the local thrift and it was a pain to fix the damage.

I like the efficiency of my set of BX-1001's but they do roll off pretty quickly below 70hz. I use 2 pair stacked at my solar powered cabin along with a tripath based amp and you can't beat the combo for power draw vs. volume vs. cost. However, they should be $21.50 for the pair not each.
 
I found that I had a 50% off coupon for SA, so I went back today and found the Coral BX-1001's were still there. Unfortunately, the goons had gotten to them -- the grill on one of them had been partially ripped off the staples. I was able to find the holes the staples made and push the grill back on nice and tight. I could see the aforementioned screws, so I'll know how to get in there if I ever decide to.

So yes, I did buy them. They are SO heavy...had to carry one at a time! It's interesting because each time I walked out with one, a different person commented on "how nice those speakers are!"

As pilotputz has said, they inded are a 3 way speaker with a 10" woofer, mid and tweeter.

So...how do they sound??? I have to admit, my expectations were high -- and not fully met. These speakers have really really nice sounding highs and lows, but the midrange is a bit soft. I listen to the same music I always do when I test speakers and the midrange is definitely lacking. I hear sound coming from each mid so I don't believe they are blown.

On the back there is a knob for "Tone Control" with decrease, normal, and increase settings. I have tried it with normal and increase and the latter only seems to boost the base even more.

All of that being said, I do like them. I spent several hours auditioning them this evening. The more I listened to them, the more I liked them. They do sound different than anything I've ever heard before. And dare I say, they have a "vintage sound" quality to them. I kept thinking of watching movies in theaters back in the 80's. I listen to movie scores and that feeling kept coming into my head as I listened. The age before Dolby Digital! Does that make sense? Thespeakerdude8 mentioned "Sansui" sound. How would one describe that?

Also, the front grills have areas that are dinged, so the wood appears lighter than the rest. I was thinking of using some brown shoe polish to touch it up -- I'm too cheap to buy wood stain right now. :(
 

Attachments

  • coral.JPG
    coral.JPG
    124.3 KB · Views: 193
  • coral2.JPG
    coral2.JPG
    90.6 KB · Views: 216
I dabbed some old stain I had around here on the grill dings but shoe polish should work as well. IIRC there are only two 1 uf caps for each speaker and since all the drivers are 8 ohms that makes the crossover point 10k. I'd replace the two caps and get some deoxit on the rear switch and see what happens. If that doesn't work go on two stage two.

My lows and midrange were all screwed up when I got my first pair. Everything smoothed out quite a bit when I softened up the woofer surrounds with some Meguiars rubber conditioner. I removed the grills, laid the speakers on their backs and with some music very softly playing through them I spread the Meguiars on the surrounds (don't get it on the paper cone) with a 50 cent small foam paint brush.

Alternatively, you could just try to loosen them up with loud music for a few days. Wire one speaker out of phase, put them face to face and throw a big thick blanket over them and pump some tunes through them.
 
Last edited:
To add a little more, my tone control on the back works exactly as described. decrease=normal american speaker, normal=somewhat in your face japanese sound, increase=jab your ears with high frequency icepicks. YMMV depending on where and how they're set up and your personal preferences.

When I had them set up in my normal listening room I couldn't possibly think of a use for the increase setting but now that I have them in my sound challenged unfinished cabin I generally use that setting to balance out the exaggerated lower frequencies.
 
Thanks for the tips, Scuzzer! I think the next obvious step for me is to try the "decrease" setting. Can I make that adjustment while the sound is playing or should the receiver be completely off first? *EDIT* Decided to play it safe and make the adjustment with the receiver off. And that did it -- now they sound fantastic at the "decrease" setting. It was the proper balance I was looking for! I guess the American sound is what I was looking for! If only I had tried this before I posted my initial review! ;)

I just tried the brown shoe polish and it worked fairly well -- but never-the-less wood stain seems to be the best choice. The brown wasn't dark enough. Cheapskate I am!
 
Last edited:
So...how do they sound??? I have to admit, my expectations were high -- and not fully met. These speakers have really really nice sounding highs and lows, but the midrange is a bit soft. I listen to the same music I always do when I test speakers and the midrange is definitely lacking. I hear sound coming from each mid so I don't believe they are blown.

Try new caps and see how it goes.
 
Is anyone else thinking Coral may have been Radio Shack's supplier for some of the Nova series with screwed on grilles and hot chocolate paint on the rear baffle?

John
 
Just walked in the door with a pair of BX 1001's.....VV in Bellingham,Wa. sold them to me for $14.95/Pair. Boxes pretty good...just one front dinged top corner.....repairable! Woofers are a lil' dusty.....Gonna give them a try.... Well they sound grea!t.....Nice vintage sound!!! Ran My $40.00 Realistic STA-2290 into the Corals....
This works great because it also has a midrange adjustment!
ZZ Top sounded Sweet!!!....as did The Hollies!!!!!
 
Last edited:
Just walked in the door with a pair of BX 1001's.....VV in Bellingham,Wa. sold them to me for $14.95/Pair. Boxes pretty good...just one front dinged top corner.....repairable! Woofers are a lil' dusty.....Gonna give them a try.... Well they sound grea!t.....Nice vintage sound!!! Ran My $40.00 Realistic STA-2290 into the Corals....
This works great because it also has a midrange adjustment!
ZZ Top sounded Sweet!!!....as did The Hollies!!!!!

WHAT?! Dude!! You totally just stole these right out from under me! I'm just kidding...all is fair! (Especially seeing as how you don't know where I live, ha ha).

Check out my post from last night in Dollars and Sense:
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=347637
 
Last edited:
Hey just found a pair in Charleston, SC at GW. I love the speakers! These are just about mint, still in the og Coral box and paper wrapping. I think Coral is rare stateside as you could only buy at PX in the pacific so I always find stuff like these cause I'm near a air base. I also enjoy mid century objects. But any ways its a cool speaker bass is low but clear on the top end!
 
Back
Top Bottom