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Acoustics III speakers from MI... who knows them?

jimbofish

jimbofish

for TRULY GREAT MUSIC
I'm getting ready to refoam the woofers on a pair of speakers for my buddy. As the label states, they are obviously Acoustics III. The drivers all appear to be CTS, there's a circuit breaker on the back, a 5uf cap on the mid and a 2.2uf cap on the tweet, some thick wooly sponge-like stuffing glued to the back panel, semi-hard foam grill material. Nothing special there, but there were a lot of very nice-sounding, reasonably priced speakers from that era that used CTS drivers, Avid and HHScott come to mind.

I haven't been able to find any info on this speaker. All my buddy remembers is that he bought them in the early 70s from one of the chain electronics stores in MI... ABC Warehouse, Highland Appliance, Fretter's... along with a Marantz 2225 receiver and a TT for $400. Allegedly there is a larger model... he remembers his brother buying some just to have something bigger than his.

Surely there are AKers from MI who remember this brand and hopefully know a little about them.
 

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Maybe it's not just a MI thing?

I assumed they were a house brand, made for one of those stores. There's nothing on them that IDs who made them or where.
 
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that would be my guess, similar to my Acoustalinear 660B's my uncle gave me...they were best buy's house brand back before they were best buy....I'll have to get pics of the innards of them, but same way, only 2 caps for high pass filters, the 12" runs full range, and they looked like CTS drivers to me..
 
Cool! That tweeter does appear to be a CTS, but that midrange looks of Becker. What does the backside of woofer look like?

Hmmm, from what I can see thru rotted foam, the woofer frame looks like a Rola :scratch2:
 
It's hard to do a search for these... the name isn't unique enough to filter out every reference with the word 'acoustic' in it. :no:

All the drivers in these have 137 as the manufacturer code.

The interior wires all use female spade terminals to connect to the drivers. When I first opened them up, it looked like there was a terminal dangling in mid-air on the red wire to the mid driver. Then I noticed that one end of the cap was crimped into it, with another female spade crimped to the other end of the cap to connect to the driver. Same on the tweet. :scratch2:
 
Ya know jimbofish back in the early 70's I was stationed out on Harsens Island when I was in the coast Guard. There was a little stereo shop in Mt Clements that I used to frequent. I bought a pair of speakers from that were MI made back then. Mine were two ways with a 12" woofer and a horn mid/tweeter. As I sold them to a buddy of mine who now lives in Traverse City, I cannot remember if they were CTS's or not. Not much help I know, but I did have a pair of Mi made speakes for a long time. :scratch2:
 
The 137 on the woofer magnet definitely identifies it as a CTS woofer, and the 7626 is most likely a date code for the 26th week of 1976. The other number is probably the part number.
 
boxoboom said:
Ya know jimbofish back in the early 70's I was stationed out on Harsens Island when I was in the coast Guard. There was a little stereo shop in Mt Clements that I used to frequent. I bought a pair of speakers from that were MI made back then. Mine were two ways with a 12" woofer and a horn mid/tweeter. As I sold them to a buddy of mine who now lives in Traverse City, I cannot remember if they were CTS's or not. Not much help I know, but I did have a pair of Mi made speakes for a long time. :scratch2:
Click to expand...

Hmmm... maybe I shouldn't have used "from MI" in the title. :no: I meant they were bought from a MI store chain... I have no idea where they were made, but I'd like to know. :yes: One of them has a sticker in the corner that says "Inspected by W-7". :dunno:

The only stereo shoppe I remember in Mt Clemens was Audioland, but that was actually south of town on Gratiot near Metro Parkway. IIRC they sold Sony and JBL, but can't remember anything else they sold.

Harsen's Island used to be one of my Dad's favorite fishing spots when I was a kid. We'd rent a boat with one of my uncles and fish the channels for walleye and silver bass, or the marshes for pike. A stop at Browns afterward was always required. :yes: :beer: In later years, my wife's family had a cottage that seemed to be perpetually flooded when the lake levels were so high.
 
I was at St. Clair Flats Coast Guard from the late summer of 73 to my muster out in Detroit in the fall of 74. They closed the station a year or so later. I used to fish those same channels also. I would take our small 14ftr out and fish out along Walpole Island in all of those little bays. Ahh those were the days. If memory serves the lakes were quite high back then.

I knew what you meant about that speaker. I used to go to both Fretter and Highland Appliance (mostly Highland as they seemed to have better deals) back then also. I do remember Acoustic speakers but that is it. :yes:

Audioland maybe the place I bought mine. I liked the horn sound back then and these also had a really good low end on them. But when I blew the horn I could never find another that fit exactly. So I had to make a baffle that fit a smaller horn which then threw off the xover as this one didn't have the same mid range that the old one had so I had to change that also. In the end I got tired of trying to make them sound like the speaker I originally bought and sold both of them to my friend who now lives in TC.

But according to the salesman who told me when I got them, they where made in Michigan. BY whom I cannot tell you anymore. :no:
 
Cap replacement?

The only crossover in these is the cap on the midrange and tweeter. My buddy says go ahead and replace them. The caps are non-polarized electrolytic. I can probably get replacements from RS for a few bucks total, or I can order some polypropylene caps for a few bucks apiece. Would there be any advantage to using the poly caps over the small electrolytic caps, other than the cost?

Also, the cap on one of the mids is 4.7uf 50v and the other is 5uf 50v. :scratch2: The 5uf cap is a different brand and color than the other 3 caps. AFAIK these were the original caps from the factory. Should I just use a 4.7uf on both, or should I look for a 5uf?
 
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Well, after a number of delays and changes of direction, I finally managed to get the foams and caps for these speakers and restored them. Spent most of the day listening and they sound very, very nice... much like an Avid or Marantz. :music:

Attached are some pics I took of the process. Everything went pretty smoothly except for the last woofer which I had to take out 3 times. :sigh: First, I forgot to connect the red wire to the circuit breaker. Then one of the screws wouldn't tighten down because the hole stripped. Lastly, I was short one screw, which had fallen inside the cabinet. :tears:

Shrewd observers will note a faux pas in the pic with the mid and tweeter. :scratch2: Actually, those had to be taken out twice. First time I adhered the caps to the inside of the baffle after mounting them while the woofer was still out, then realized there would not be enough slack in the cap lead to remove them in the future. So I took them out and stuck them to the back of the drivers. It was when I went to flip them over and back in that I noticed my second mistake. DOH!

There is still a partial crease in the center of one of the grills that hasn't rebounded completely. I'll have to ask my buddy how that happened as it also smashed in the center dome of the tweeter. Was able to get that back out with a 1/2" hose and a vacuum... worked pretty slick. Cleaning the grills seemed hopeless at first as they had 30+ yrs worth of dust in them. Some tedious work with a spray bottle, a small paint brush, and an air compressor to blow away the excess water was the solution. There are some minor rough spots near the bottoms of the grills, probably from shoes and vacuum cleaners hitting them while on the floor at some point.

This project almost never happened... he called to say he was bringing over the receiver and I casually asked if he checked the surrounds. Turns out he's never pulled the grills on these in all the time he's had them. :nono:

Overall, I think they look much improved over what he started with. I hope his kid appreciates what's gone into them.
 

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I am also from Michigan and have the same speakers. What is strange or note worthy is I bought them in a flea market on base in Rota Spain in 1988. :scratch2:

I have not been able to find any info on these but want to restore them. I may be tone deaf but feel they were a very good sounding speaker. Any info you have would be very helpful.

Thanks
Jonstigator

Sorry for such a late reply but I am new to AK
 
I have a pair of IV's that I inherited from my dad's old system years ago. I use them down in my work bench room. Sound good. Think he bought them at Lasalle Electronics back in the late 70's.
 
Jonstigator said:
I am also from Michigan and have the same speakers. What is strange or note worthy is I bought them in a flea market on base in Rota Spain in 1988. :scratch2:

I have not been able to find any info on these but want to restore them. I may be tone deaf but feel they were a very good sounding speaker. Any info you have would be very helpful.

Thanks
Jonstigator

Sorry for such a late reply but I am new to AK
Click to expand...
 
These were a house brand made for Highland appliance, They also had a brand called Phase Liner. The Acoustic brand didn't look as good as the
pl's but sounded great.
 
Crazy, I just found a pair of the Acoustics III's today at a thrift store. They are in desperate need of a refoam, however seem to work just fine and could possibly be decent sounding speakers.
 
jimbofish said:
Well, after a number of delays and changes of direction, I finally managed to get the foams and caps for these speakers and restored them. Spent most of the day listening and they sound very, very nice... much like an Avid or Marantz. :music:

Attached are some pics I took of the process. Everything went pretty smoothly except for the last woofer which I had to take out 3 times. :sigh: First, I forgot to connect the red wire to the circuit breaker. Then one of the screws wouldn't tighten down because the hole stripped. Lastly, I was short one screw, which had fallen inside the cabinet. :tears:

Shrewd observers will note a faux pas in the pic with the mid and tweeter. :scratch2: Actually, those had to be taken out twice. First time I adhered the caps to the inside of the baffle after mounting them while the woofer was still out, then realized there would not be enough slack in the cap lead to remove them in the future. So I took them out and stuck them to the back of the drivers. It was when I went to flip them over and back in that I noticed my second mistake. DOH!

There is still a partial crease in the center of one of the grills that hasn't rebounded completely. I'll have to ask my buddy how that happened as it also smashed in the center dome of the tweeter. Was able to get that back out with a 1/2" hose and a vacuum... worked pretty slick. Cleaning the grills seemed hopeless at first as they had 30+ yrs worth of dust in them. Some tedious work with a spray bottle, a small paint brush, and an air compressor to blow away the excess water was the solution. There are some minor rough spots near the bottoms of the grills, probably from shoes and vacuum cleaners hitting them while on the floor at some point.

This project almost never happened... he called to say he was bringing over the receiver and I casually asked if he checked the surrounds. Turns out he's never pulled the grills on these in all the time he's had them. :nono:

Overall, I think they look much improved over what he started with. I hope his kid appreciates what's gone into them.
Click to expand...

What woofer refoam kit did you use for these? I'm looking to start rehabbing a pair of these myself here in the near future hopefully.
 
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