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Photo's of Leak Sandwich Speakers

texasquad

texasquad

Active Member
I found a pair of leak Sandwich speakers at Goodwill for $30 a few weeks ago, was asked to post some photos. Jury rigged a cable for the DIN connectors and powered them up using my Quad 606. Success! Checked for sagging woofer, no indication of issue in either speaker. Rotated them 180 degrees just in case. Have parts on order to replace DIN connectors with banana plugs. Inside of enclosures looks new. Not bad for speakers built in Dec 1968. The anodized nut on the back of the cabinet is attached to to a threaded rod connected to the woofer.
 

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Leaker DIN connector

nick12345 said:
Weird, never heard of those. That's a strange connector on the back too.
Click to expand...

It's a 2 pin DIN connector, not my favorite. My Quad 606 amp and Quad 34 preamp built in the UK 20 years ago use 4 and 5 pin DIN connectors. Used to see a lot of them on all kinds of audio equipment. I have ordered the parts to replace the DIN connectors with banana plugs to make things simpler.
 
Isn't the woofer aluminium foil skins over an expanded-polystyrene core, kind of like foamcore?
 
Thanks for posting photos of your Leak speakers! I've heard they were a very well respected speaker in their day and have always wanted to see (and hear) a pair.

As I recall, the "Sandwich" part of the speaker name referred to something specific about their construction. Is the speaker enclosure made of some type of laminate? Or were they referring to the driver construction? How do they sound?

Radio Shack used to carry an assortment of DIN connectors. You can probably still find them in the Radio Shack online catalog.

BTW, I envy you, for the Quad 34 preamp! :thmbsp: I would love to find one of those myself. The Tilt tone control really intrigues me and seems to be a interesting approach to the tone control/loudness control issue. I understand the phono stages, both the MM and MC modules, were pretty good too!
 
Sandwich in the name?

thunderroad said:
Thanks for posting photos of your Leak speakers! I've heard they were a very well respected speaker in their day and have always wanted to see (and hear) a pair.

As I recall, the "Sandwich" part of the speaker name referred to something specific about their construction. Is the speaker enclosure made of some type of laminate? Or were they referring to the driver construction? How do they sound?

Radio Shack used to carry an assortment of DIN connectors. You can probably still find them in the Radio Shack online catalog.

BTW, I envy you, for the Quad 34 preamp! :thmbsp: I would love to find one of those myself. The Tilt tone control really intrigues me and seems to be a interesting approach to the tone control/loudness control issue. I understand the phono stages, both the MM and MC modules, were pretty good too!
Click to expand...

This link below explains a little more about the speaker design.

http://www.44bx.com/leak/sandwich.html

I like the quality of the construction and the way they sound.

My Quad system is my favorite. Very compact and competent. I just got my FM4 tuner back from Quad. Refurbished to factory specs for less that $80. The phono stages are first rate, I use the MM module.

Thanks for the suggestion on the DIN connectors. The 2 pin DIN speaker connector can use wire with a maximum diameter of about .00000001 in. Hence the change to spade or banana connectors.
 
I found a pair of those in a "junk shop" about a year ago - I didn't know anything about them - so I came home to research them. When I went back, they'd gone. Always the case; you must buy immediately! They were $100 - which I like to think is overpriced - at least that's the logic I use to keep from getting bothered by missing out on them.
 
steerpike2 said:
I found a pair of those in a "junk shop" about a year ago - I didn't know anything about them - so I came home to research them. When I went back, they'd gone. Always the case; you must buy immediately! They were $100 - which I like to think is overpriced - at least that's the logic I use to keep from getting bothered by missing out on them.
Click to expand...

I think at 100 bucks i would have reluctantly passed.....but i am a cheapskate, and i would be worried about buying such an old speaker, with all the inherent problems.......
 
Those are interesting. I have a set of Leak Sandwiches, and my buddy got a set at a thrift store for $50 a couple of weeks ago. Both of ours are the 15 ohm version, and we have different tweeters from each other, and from you! So far, every set I have seen pics of has a different tweeter in it. Weird.

I really like them. They changed my perspective on 2 way speakers. Don't get me wrong, I've heard better speakers. But the Leaks really have a sweetness that I enjoy. They also have a tight bass response that is very, very good. I will say that from all the 60s speakers I have heard (which admittedly isn't a huge number), they are the easily the best.
 
Dr. Mordo said:
Those are interesting. I have a set of Leak Sandwiches, and my buddy got a set at a thrift store for $50 a couple of weeks ago. Both of ours are the 15 ohm version, and we have different tweeters from each other, and from you! So far, every set I have seen pics of has a different tweeter in it. Weird.

I really like them. They changed my perspective on 2 way speakers. Don't get me wrong, I've heard better speakers. But the Leaks really have a sweetness that I enjoy. They also have a tight bass response that is very, very good. I will say that from all the 60s speakers I have heard (which admittedly isn't a huge number), they are the easily the best.
Click to expand...

I agree, love the bass response and owing a unique piece of technology. Will check out the tweeter question.
 
Hi, I also have a pair of these speakers, unfortunately I am yet to listen to them as they are a bit worse for wear at the moment. I notice the surround on your woofers is very shiny and supple looking. One of mine has a similar surround but appears to have dried out, it's very stiff and not shiny at all like your's just a dull gray. The other had the surround replaced badly by someone previously, trying to track down a suitable surround for it at the moment. Are you able to determine if it is a material surround coated in something or a rubber surround, just curious.

Mine also have different tweeters to yours.

Regards,

John.
 
Speaker Surrounds

The surrounds on my Leak speakers are airtight and rather stiff, not like your typical foam surround. The surrounds look like they were varnished.

here's a previous thread on the topic from the Classic Speaker forum.

It's been a very long time since the Leak Sandwich speaker has been on the market and my memory of it has faded considerably. If this is NOT an acoustic suspension speaker, no action is probably necessary and the suspension is supposed to be stiff. In those days, a stiff mechanical suspension was the more common design, the stiffness of the suspension supplied the cone's restoring force rather than air trapped inside. A clue to whether or not it is AS, is whether the enclosure is sealed. If it has a port or deliberate opening of any kind, it is not supposed to be air tight. In that case, treating the surround will not only not likely improve the speaker, it could degrade it. Hope this helps.

second reply

Assuming that this is an AS speaker, the surround must be air tight and flexible. I'd also give Orange County Speaker Company a call at 800-897-8373 about XL-49 or whatever they now have to replace it. It may be necessary to first dissolve and remove whatever dopant they initially used at the factory which might have cured before applying a new sealant.
 
Repairing Leak Speaker Surrounds with PVA glue

I did some experimenting today and had some success with repairing the Leak speaker surrounds with PVA glue. I used Gorilla brand glue and a small brush on the surround. The new glue did not react with the old coating and stayed flexible. I used a small scrap of silk coated with glue and fixed a crack on another speaker. Suspect tissue or rayon would work just a well. I rotated the speaker 180 degrees at the same time.

cheers, John


PVA Glues

Plain old white glue

PVA (Polyvinyl acetates) are probably the most common adhesive on the market. They come in a variety of formulas, all ever so slightly different, and specific to what they are designed to glue. Here are some tips for using Polyvinyl acetates.

* All PVAs are designed to work on porous materials only
* PVAs are water based, and clean up with warm soapy water.
 
As far as I know, they are definitely acoustic suspension speakers and the surrounds on the two pairs I've had, both with utterly sagged suspension so unusable, were very supple. Both pairs of mine had suspensions that sagged so much that the top of the surround was barely on the basket and there were ripples in the sides of the surround. Worse, the voice coils were no longer in line with the woofer, which had sagged on the voice coil. Alas -- I'd love to have heard them.
By the way, you seem to have the first version with the tweeter attached to the grill. There was a second, three way version with a more conventional baffle mounting, but I've always wondered if having the tweeter decoupled from the baffle might not improve low level detail -- I remember reading about Roksan's speaker with the tweeter suspended on springs, the rational for that being keeping it from being modulated by the tiny motions of the enclosure panels -- given the very small motions of a tweeter, having the baffel move at all (and they do no matter how much you brace them) must affect the output.
 
I picked up aset of these today at the local GW. I tapped them on the side and they were dead silent - no resonance. then I lifted. Some pretty good heft. I had heard the name Leak before but didn't know them too much. I popped the grill off and saw this tweeter attached wtih this huge, mongo magnet. Price, $24.99 pair. The cabinets are in pretty good condition. The fabric is a little worn.

They sound very good. Typical of most british speakers I have heard. The mids and highs are very eloquent and precise. The bass is tight and clean, but a little subdued. It seems like they never reach really deep, maybe 60 or 70hz for the bottom end before it rolls off. I can attenuate with an eq and get some really deep bass, but that is required to obtain it.

Overall, a very good speaker in my opinion. I would put it in league with either the wharfdale w60's or W70's. Probably closer to the w70's.

Overall a good day at the goodwills.
 
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