Old University corner enclosure driver ID, please?

drbiggles

I like to pull weeds.
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I pulled a Biggles today and drug home another orphan. This time it's a University 3-way corner box. But it has a back, not open like the EV Aristocrat. There's a baffle inside that angles up from the bottom, towards the back, then up the back. It's got the N3 crossover, it's labeled. But the woofer or maybe it's a full range driver, and the mid/tweeter horns are unmarked.

What have I got in there? Halp!

I can get it sanded up, then Danish Oiled all purdy like without much issue. The enclosure is a really nice size and I like it a lot.

I'm wondering if the drivers are worth keeping around, or should I source replacements/upgrade?

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Biggles
 
Nice score, dude. That looks like it might be late '50's. Maybe '61-'62 at best. I think it's from BEFORE the Medallion XII and those models. Not sure of the model name, but I bet someone will have it soon. That's a true University model for sure.

Does it have electrolytic caps in that thing? Maybe '60-'62 if that's the case.
 
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Nice score, dude. That looks like it might be late '50's. Maybe '61-'62 at best. I think it's from BEFORE the Medallion XII and those models. Not sure of the model name, but I bet someone will have it soon. That's a true University model for sure.

Does it have electrolytic caps in that thing? Maybe '60-'62 if that's the case.

Yeah, that's about the era I was thinking. The cabinet's design features are pretty primitive and thought maybe late 50's. The presence and brilliance badges in the back look really old too, knobs are long gone. The pots feel good and turn nicely.

I don't know what caps it has in the crossover, I haven't torn into that yet. I did a little looking on the net and there seems to be quite a fluster with people replacing the original caps in there. I grabbed a few schematics, just in case.

Where do you find this stuff??

This specific time I had a 1959 Fisher 610 console up on CL for sale, this guy called me. As I was leaving his place with the 2 Stephens Trusonic 8" full range drivers, I saw this enclosure in the back of his junk pickup. It was covered with cardboard and hunks of wood. YANK.

:D

I spy a pair of ported W70's in the back. I always felt University and Wharfedale shared a lot of sonic similarities.

Heh. Yeah! That's my W70 project, the one waiting for me to get off my butt and learn how to veneer. I've got the veneer. Sitting next to that are the 1956 Jensen 15" woofers from the Heathkit SS-1B's I drug home. I'm a busy guy.

Biggles
 
Looks like a 6200 woofer, 4409 mid horn, and a 206(?) tweeter...

This is all from my 1956 Olson Radio master catalog.
 
Looks like a 6200 woofer, 4409 mid horn, and a 206(?) tweeter...

This is all from my 1956 Olson Radio master catalog.

Excellent, thank you sir! I have a University 6201 driver, duplex I think. I didn't like it very much. I'll have to jack this into the Scott and see what works, what doesn't, or how well it does stuff.

Biggles
 
The 6201 was their budget coax at the time. The 312 ands 315 would have been their top models, blending the 206 tweeter with the diffusicone style speaker for a "triaxial" driver. The 6200 woofer is also their budget extended range driver. A little odd to see one of those in a 3-way configuration as it extends up to 10kHz. You could probably make a significant upgrade in sound by just replacing that with a C12W, an actual woofer...
 
The 6201 was their budget coax at the time. The 312 ands 315 would have been their top models, blending the 206 tweeter with the diffusicone style speaker for a "triaxial" driver. The 6200 woofer is also their budget extended range driver. A little odd to see one of those in a 3-way configuration as it extends up to 10kHz. You could probably make a significant upgrade in sound by just replacing that with a C12W, an actual woofer...

I think Bigs is just saying he happens to have a 6201, the cab looks like it has the C12 in place...
 
The 6201 was their budget coax at the time. The 312 ands 315 would have been their top models, blending the 206 tweeter with the diffusicone style speaker for a "triaxial" driver. The 6200 woofer is also their budget extended range driver. A little odd to see one of those in a 3-way configuration as it extends up to 10kHz. You could probably make a significant upgrade in sound by just replacing that with a C12W, an actual woofer...

Thank you! The 6200 does look like a budget full range, nice to have a confirmation. And thank you even more for the suggestion on replacing it with the C12W, a real woofer. I looked around and they're very inexpensive, so it should be an easy situation. This I can do.

FWIW -- University info:

http://www.hifilit.com/University/University.htm

Also see 1950s to early 1960s catalogs at www.radioshackcatalogs.com and www.alliedcatalogs.com

The OP should be able to turn up at least a bit of info on all of the components in question

Thank you Mhardy, it's appreciated. When I drug this home and hit the net looking for specifics as to exactly what I had in there, the answers eluded me. But had I dived into those catalogs, I could have found it myself.

The reason I wanted to find out what I had, was to know if I had any weak spots in the system. I suspected the woofer, it looked very thin and light. Nothing like its Wharfedale or Electro-Voice counterparts. Now that I know it's a 6200 woofer, and that if I wanted to upgrade it, I could use a C12W woofer.

I think Bigs is just saying he happens to have a 6201, the cab looks like it has the C12 in place...

Naw, sorry for the confusion. It's a 6200 extended range driver in there. The 6201 University duplex I have is sitting up on a shelf, I don't care for its sound. I need to source me a C12.

Biggles
 
Hey,

I finally got a chance to hook the sucker up and take it for a quick test run. Everything works just fine, even the pots. The two horns sound really nice, I like them. They ain't shouty, add a nice sparkle where it wants to be. The full range 12" sounds better than expected. But, it's kinda flat in the bass department. The big mellow lows aren't there. The twitchy me wants to put in my extra later model EV SP12B full range. But I know better and will wait for the woofer that was mentioned earlier in this thread.

I haven't gotten into the crossover yet. There's a lot of wires connected to it and I want to take my time with removing it for inspection and a more than possible installation of new capacitors. And while all that's going on, I can refinish the enclosure and get that ready for new parts.

Making a new grill, or repairing and replacing the old one isn't straight forward. The Aristocrat's grill slides right off, easy peasy. But this thing looks as though it was put together and no access to the front baffle was possible once it was installed. I need to remedy that situation.

Biggles
 
I am a big University fan... I love the N3 coupled with a Cobreflex mid and 206 tweet... Great find! ... and I must repeat the question... WHERE DO YOU FIND ALL THESE GEMS? I have only ever found 2 university pieces in the wild before and I had to pay 80% of ebay price for them...
I am so jealous!
 
I am a big University fan... I love the N3 coupled with a Cobreflex mid and 206 tweet... Great find! ... and I must repeat the question... WHERE DO YOU FIND ALL THESE GEMS? I have only ever found 2 university pieces in the wild before and I had to pay 80% of ebay price for them...
I am so jealous!

Hey mang!

I'm into all the typical places that most of us are. But after a little thought, many of these things I haul home because of someone I met. And if the person you met isn't into old audio, they may know someone who is.

I'm really digging this enclosure and can hardly wait to start making it pretty. It's too bad this enclosure got fitted with the budget full range, really takes the finesse out of the sound. Ya know?

Biggles
 
That's interesting to know about the University lines in terms of pedigree. I had a few things backwards. May have to start looking for some 312's. I have those huge corner bins, which are already good to go for a 15" driver. They're designed for the 15" alnico W15's, but I don't see why I couldn't also use them for some 312's or something. They have dual vents on the bottom left and right corners of the baffle and 9 cubic feet of internal displacement, plus they have that sandwich construction on all three vertical sides, so a pair of nice vintage FR drivers should work nicely, shouldn't it? Maybe I can use them for trying out vintage 15" FR drivers before I get too far into that 3-way omni-directional project.
 
Wow, the varnish on the sides of this box is absolutely trashed, degraded. It's turned into rough, spiky crystals! The paint has begun to more than fail, but it's held strong on the more dense portions of the wood's grain. I decided to use a hand-held propane torch to cause the paint to fail prematurely. Yes, yes I know. BAD BIGGLES !!! But it does no harm and the paint bubbles and falls off on its own. Within about 6 minutes, I got to the final image down there on the bottom.

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Biggles
 
Woohoo! I figured out the grill situation. There are two bolts with nuts on the bottom holding a board that's attached to the grill fabric. If you remove the nuts, tap on the bolts, the board and grill assembly come out. The track for the grill is tapered. It's going to take a little effort to get the grill trim sanded and glued back together. I'll clean the grill cloth and get this all back together as it should be. There are no side wood supports for the cloth, maybe they're missing?

And, got all the paint off the back, sanded it all down. It still needs the finer grits to get the old plywood nice. Am going to finish it all with Danish Oil.

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Biggles
 
The wood frame around the grill was rough, trashed and severely weathered, it was nasty. I've got it mostly cleaned up! I'm planning on hitting the entire enclosure tomorrow with Danish Oil. The Stephens Trusonic project will also be getting oiled tomorrow, everything done at once.

I saved the little, pot metal University logo!

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Biggles
 
Looking good. I was prying out the University logo on my cabinet and snapped it in half...:tears: Hopefully, some super glue will fix it.
 
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