Kliewer Speakers with Trusonic Woofers info

bsujeep · Sep 9, 2009

Hello all,

I picked up this set of Kliewer Speakers today and when I opened up the back I found a Stephens Trusonic 150 W woofer and a Jensen (code 220520) horn tweeter. I have attached some pictures, they are not the greatest as it was too dark to get good ones. I will post some better ones in the daylight.

I really have no idea what I have, does anyone have any info as to history, specs, or potential quality. They seem to be very efficient, less than a watt will run me out of the room.

They have an interesting crossover with jumpers for 2k, 2.5k, and 4k for both the woofer and tweeter.

Thanks for any info.

Bill

Tom Brennan · Sep 9, 2009

Interesting. Stephens gear was very high quality and Jensen was high quality too. You have something pretty nice there.

Captain Scary · Sep 9, 2009

NICE!!!!!
Beautiful cabs and Stephens made highly respectable gear
and can sound phenominal.
What model Jensen horn?

Those are beauties,
how they sound?
Enjoy......

bsujeep · Sep 9, 2009

Thanks for the replies,

Just a cursory hookup and I am thinking they need to be hooked up to my tube amp. I happen to have a set of odd speaker wires that do not lend themselves to the screws in the back of the Kliewers so I hooked them up to my Technics with the big meters on the front, yah .01 watt is comfortable to listen to and anymore will run you out of the room.

They seem to image well, not too deep of bass. Gotta hit the sack and have a long day tomorrow, friday will hook them up to the tubes and give them a real test.

I will pull the back off and take good pictures of the jensen horn and all. I know that Don L Kliewer was the maker of DLK speakers, however I could not find anywhere that had Kliewer badged speakers.

I am guessing that the 220520 meant that the jensens were made in either 1955 or 1965 20th week, anyone else? I could not find much on the 150W's either.

I just made an interesting discovery, in the really bad picture of the inside you can see that the port is next to the tweeter horn, they are mirror imaged. Too cool!

HomerJSimpson · Sep 9, 2009

Very nice score !!!

bsujeep · Sep 10, 2009

Thanks, had some fun with them last night. With the tweeters being mirror imaged should the speakers be placed with the tweeters on the outside or inside of the cabinets?

rifftrax · Sep 10, 2009

bsujeep said:
Thanks, had some fun with them last night. With the tweeters being mirror imaged should the speakers be placed with the tweeters on the outside or inside of the cabinets?

There's no hard/fast rule to it but really just your preference on if you want a little more soundstage width (setting the tweeters on the inside can compress the soundstage a bit if the speakers are not properly spaced).

Those guys are really really lovely by the way...:drool:

bsujeep · Sep 10, 2009

That makes sense I have them to the outside right now. I was pretty impressed at how well they locked vocals in the middle last night. Looking forward to some tube action with them.

sparksaflyin · Sep 10, 2009

Jeepers.... What a score!

Orienting the horns to the outside does seem to make sense as first try. I would also suggest trying both ways, and just for grins, try them on their sides!

I would be glad to do some research on them... just drop them off at my place, it shouldn't take more than 6 months give or take....

bsujeep · Sep 10, 2009

sparksaflyin said:
Jeepers.... What a score!

Orienting the horns to the outside does seem to make sense as first try. I would also suggest trying both ways, and just for grins, try them on their sides!

I would be glad to do some research on them... just drop them off at my place, it shouldn't take more than 6 months give or take....

True spirit of AK, what a giver you are. :yes:

Divotdog · Sep 10, 2009

I’m looking forward to coming by in the next few days and giving them “a real good listening to” :music:

bsujeep · Sep 10, 2009

Looking forward to the visit Mel.

Had a few minutes so I pulled them apart and found the tweeter is a Jensen rp103b horn. The crossover is from Radio Shack, hmm me thinks that it is not original.

Anyone have any idea what the frequency response of the the woofer is?

bsujeep · Sep 10, 2009

Here are some more pictures gents. So far I am impressed with the Jensen Horn.

Divotdog · Sep 13, 2009

Got a chance to give these a listen today, Bill has work in front of him to get them up to snuff, right now there are only two words to describe the sound from these bad boys…..

Wow :drool:

These are going to outstanding speakers! :thmbsp:

sparksaflyin · Sep 13, 2009

These are really great sounding speakers! After poking around in the cabinets a while, we found a few interesting facts. The cabinet was likely to have been designed to run just the Stephens woofer with a large bass reflex opening; the Jensen horns appear to be add-ons mounted to the bass-reflex opening. The horns were installed symetrically left to right, but we noticed that the woofers were mounted in one spot towards the right, on both cabinets. Looks like the owner added the Jensen in the port with a piece of wood for an end piece. In these cabinets, the Stephens have a very smooth valencia sound to them, which I really like. The crossover needs work - it's designed for 8 ohm drivers, and these are 16 ohms. Bill said he had a 2uF cap to try on the Jensen which should get rid of the crossover overlap. Can't wait to hear them again with the other caps! I'll bring the Altec's, Mel can bring the Klipsch gear! Thanks for turning me on to the Orrin Star LP!

bsujeep · Sep 13, 2009

Good to have friends to help with the figuring out of stuff!

These two are always a welcome sight at the ole hacienda.

Now on to the speakers, they have an extremely musical quality to them that after some tweaks started to get jaw dropping (for me anyways

) I took the jensens out and have them setting on top and used a 2.2uF cap to get the crossover for the Rp-103 near 4K matching the crossover for the stephens. Smoothed out a hyper sensitive midrange and just draws me into the music.

A little lacking on the top end so I added a supertweeter horn of sorts out of an old set of Johnzers. Needs some serious tweaking to get that one dialed in, right now they are facing up with a folded washcloth to tone them down. :dunno:

As Mel said there is some work to get them up to par, but wow they are gonna be awesome!!

spaceman · Sep 17, 2009

Nice speakers, and other than the cabs, almost the same as my 2nd favorite pair. :thmbsp: I have those Astronix out of Johnzers, but my Stephens Trusonics are 150FR, for full range, while yours are obviously a woofer. These ones get really low on the bass, but I'd love to hear yours, especially comparing the 15"s with the same tweeters. Have you tried it as a 2-way yet, without the Jensen mids? It might straighten things out for ya. :scratch2: Have fun.

sparksaflyin · Jan 21, 2010

From 1963 Stereo/Hi-Fi Directory

Jensen Model RP-103B
Compression type tweeter; cloth base plastic diaphragm; 30 watts; 2000 to 15000 cps; 16 ohm impedance; shipping weight 3 lbs; 3"x7-1/4"x6-5/16"; baffle cutout 6"x2"
.........................................$16.50 Net

Kliewer Speakers with Trusonic Woofers info

bsujeep

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