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A speaker story

Saratoga48

Saratoga48

I need that radio
Just a note about some very different speakers I bought off Craigs list a few weeks ago. Answered an ad for a set of "Martin" speakers. The gentleman who had them was in his late 70s and moving south. I got there and looked at these quite different speakers. Downfiring 8 inch woofers, and rear firing mids and tweeters with a glass reflector plate positioned at a 45 degree angle directing the sound (mids and highs) up from behind the speaker at that 45 degree angle. I auditioned them with some Count Basie and was impressed even though it was a BPC pioneer and a CD.
I got them home and hooked them up to my Eico ST-70 with the same Basie on Vinyl and was VERY impressed with both the bass and the sound stage.
My wife came down and confiscated them for her system and happily is currently enjoying them.
I searched the forums here and came up with a link to Martin speakers http://www.martinspeakersusa.com/. I wrote to the email on the site and got a response from the current president and son of the founder of the company. He is looking through old files for any information he can find on these speakers. The only thing listed on them for a model is "reflector". He said he remembers helping his father put them together in 1969 as prototypes for a new design and doesnt believe very many were made.
I have listed a few pics just as an interest point.
These are not associated with Martin-Logans. I just thought it was very nice for Michael Martin to respond as he did, and publicly would like to thank him for his efforts.
 

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I have a bluebook that lists Martin speakers saratoga48(some as early as 1971), any model numbers on yours?
 
bolly said:
I have a bluebook that lists Martin speakers saratoga48(some as early as 1971), any model numbers on yours?
Click to expand...

No model numbers on these, on the tag where it should list MODEL_______
It has "reflector" typed in.
Thanks Jim
 
It is always neat to find something totally different. How many woofers, mids, and tweeters does each speaker have? Is it really a glass plate that is used as a refector? I have never seen anything like what you describe.
 
MJKing said:
It is always neat to find something totally different. How many woofers, mids, and tweeters does each speaker have? Is it really a glass plate that is used as a refector? I have never seen anything like what you describe.
Click to expand...

The mids and tweeters are pictured in the original post, Each speaker has an 8 inch downfiring woofer.
The Glass plate sits at a 45 degree angle in front of the mids and tweets, behind the black grills.
 
I have to sets of Martin's for the '80s, Gamma Gold 3000 (bought new) and 2000, (craigs list), great spekers, and Michael is a VERY cool person !
 
Martins

speedracer said:
I have to sets of Martin's for the '80s, Gamma Gold 3000 (bought new) and 2000, (craigs list), great spekers, and Michael is a VERY cool person !
Click to expand...

Yes he is, and the great part is that he remembers helping his dad build these when he was a kid. Actually what he said was he thought his dad had gone off the deep end a bit with the glass reflectors but almost 50 years later they are still sounding great.
 
Micheal built my 3000's, his intials are on the warranty card on the backs of mine, and he knew the stereo store i bought them at !
 
The thing I like about them, is they don't look like ordinary speakers. No grills sticking out the front, with looks to match. I've never heard of these either, and it's great to see yet another vintage speaker brought out from obscurity.

Congrats on a real neat find!
 
Wow, How great is this!!! This proves that people that love music and sound are like family. With a common passion in life. And now thanks to AudioKarma and Grumpy we can share our views. I thank you for your comments. Yes, those Reflectors are from when I spent summers from school working for my dad. I thought we had enough on our hands with the MICRO MAX (a big seller) a 2 way unit with an 8 inch woofer, but now to build furniture! But as always my dad was right, they are of museum quality. And very few made. I will be surprised to ever see or hear of another pair. I am 99 percent sure that they are from 1969. A great year, and my love for music started then with "Whole lotta love" I could not stop turning that record. Thanks again everyone!!!! Mike
 
A question for Mike and Saratoga48. With those drivers all shooting backwards (and up), what is the preferred placement of the speakers? Must be sensitive to where the walls are. Were they designed to shoot into the corner so the reflection comes into the room well dispersed or to reflect off the back wall directly? How far out from the walls? In case I run into into one of these some day don't you know :D

Pretty cool to have you join in Mike :thmbsp: Especially to give some history and info on what looks to be a rare bird speaker.
 
Glass Angle?

Kencat said:
A question for Mike and Saratoga48. With those drivers all shooting backwards (and up), what is the preferred placement of the speakers? Must be sensitive to where the walls are. Were they designed to shoot into the corner so the reflection comes into the room well dispersed or to reflect off the back wall directly? How far out from the walls? In case I run into into one of these some day don't you know :D

Pretty cool to have you join in Mike :thmbsp: Especially to give some history and info on what looks to be a rare bird speaker.
Click to expand...

Now that is a difficult question but the woofer fires down probably to radiate bass on the floor also having small table legs to give the woofer room, and the mids and tweeters we must find out if the glass redirects the sound to the front of the room?? Saratoga hows the glass angle am I right? Mike
 
hmmm.... take a pink noise generator/graphic equalizer, move the mike around the room and map out the room's acoustic space. Place the mike at your listening point and move the speakers around, noting bass peaks...

Or just use your ears... :music:

Enjoy!
 
Those are very cool looking speakers and appear to be in excellent condition. Great story 0007 and welcome to AK! :thmbsp:
 
One minute to tell you all my own SPEAKER STORY!!! In about 1976 my dad got me my first car a GREMLIN X 5.0 it remains the most dependable car I have ever had. But I got a KRACO 8 track player and in the back seat I wired 2 small fullrange speakers 2 in each cabinet, 5 inch, at 4 ohms each speaker. Wow! I can still hear "Been a long time crossing BRIDGE OF SIGHS" so you can blame me for the loud cars of today!!!! Mike Martin
 
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