Also similar to to most of the British Hifi manufacturer they suffered the fate of being bought out by bigger corperations (in this case Thorne group). By the early 70s there was no real innovative products as they moved towards selling low end mass produced HiFi equipment and by some point in the 80s ended just being a brand to stick on cheap mass produced consumer entertainment electronics.
They were a very high quality speaker. I have a pair of Magnum-K's, and they're outstanding.
I have had mine since (I think) the end of the 1960's. They still sound wonderful. Don't they age ever?
I'm a bit worried about the top end, though. The sound of strings and voices sounds a bit "scratchy" - can it be that the tweeter has lost it? Or could it be the crossover electronics? On the other hand it might be my ears that are going.
Other than the high end, they are really nice. Bach's Tocatta and Fugue makes my (wooden) floors shake.
Might be the capacitors... That would be my guess. Those drivers were very-well-made. Do you hear any distortion at higher volume? If so, that could be a slightly-offset magnet on one of the drivers, but that can often be fixed by simply rotating the driver 180 degrees. However, my guess would be that it needs a recap.
Be careful what kind of caps you use with these old speakers. You want a cap that will play on the speaker's attributes (i.e., smoothness, musicality, openness, etc.). Vintage oil caps from the '50's to early '60's would probably be the best choice for a pair of tube-era Goodmans speakers. They would only serve to enhance that Goodmans sound, which is VERY-open and engaging, very-natural, and that's the sound that the best oil caps are known for having (Goodmans to me seems like a slightly-more-neutral version of the early Wharfedale sound... Not quite so-warm, but still loaded with that British "breath of life"... They made a hell of a speaker).
Which model are yours? I'm betting it's the caps. The surrounds should be fine if the speakers have been stored/kept properly.
I have read nothing underwhelming regarding Goodmans speakers. They seem to have been more prevalent than I would have originally thought.
I have come across several mentions of these speakers in discussions of equipment of a lot of 60s Merseybeat bands, who built their own cabs and replaced duff equipment with whatever was available. This may be why you see these frankensteined units with one original speaker and a Goodmans or Wharfedale, etc.
I have been trying to get a hold of a Goodmans 15" woofer or two for awhile now. They are a very rare bird indeed!
Peter, before replacing the caps inside your speaker, I would do some checks to ensure nothing else in your signal chain is the cause. I say this mainly because some of those audiophile caps can be pretty hefty in price. I might solder in a cheaper generic, (matching capacitance and voltage of course) to see if it really makes a difference. It might well be your ears!
Not to stir the pot, either, but it is worth remembering that a majority of the audio industry at this time was using whatever parts they could source cheaply and in large quantity. Additionally, because of the technologly outstripping itself at such a rapid pace, no doubt these units weren't designed to be used for anything more than a few years or so. I suppose that's also a good argument FOR recapping!
I leave you to confusion.
Thanks brother ggizzy,l'm seriously starting to consider rebuilding the speakers with new drivers,mid range and tweeters..as soon as l find out the impedance of the 880's but as l'm "basic" still don't know if the existing cross overs will work with speakers of different impedance as the originals l believe are 16 0hms and most speakers these days are 8 or 4 l think.. No specs on the nett for my Goodman's and have yet to find the brochure from when l bought them in 1990 but it's here somewhere :-(John,
I have seen several of these for sale in the US fleabay. Shipping might be cost prohibitive though and I'm not sure which particular 15" driver yours utilises. Good luck with the search!