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Well, well, what do we have here?

sealy

sealy

Addicted Member
Found these in a box of odds and ends in an antique store. Marked $4 pr. I picked one up. For its size, it was heavy. Took the grilles off and they looked promising. Looked like old, full-range drivers.

Not much to look at. Old, discoloured tweed grilles. A mere 16 in. x 9 in. x 4 3/4 in. deep. However, they weigh about 7 lb. apiece. I took out one driver and was excited to find a large alnico magnet attached. 16 gauge wiring, 16 ohms impedance. Made by Sony. I'm guessing vintage late 1960's. Rated at a whopping 3 watts.

Sound? Much better than I could have dreamed. Beautiful mids and very acceptable treble. One driver was rattling. I managed to lift the entire surround away from the frame and re-glue it. End of rattle.

3 watts is actually enough to get a good amount of volume out of them, but I'm not going to push them more than that.
 

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interesting indeed. Are both the top and bottom powered or is one of them passive?

edit---upon closer inspection i notice a magnet structure in the photo...old speakers are interesting for sure.
 
budgetaudio6 said:
interesting indeed. Are both the top and bottom powered or is one of them passive?

edit---upon closer inspection i notice a magnet structure in the photo...old speakers are interesting for sure.
Click to expand...

The wires on the cone face are a clear indicator all are powered.
 
Allright, nice find!

Could these be related to the FE103a familly? A lot of things point to that IMHO. Are there any numbers on the back of the magnet? There are Sony-labeled versions of this driver.

az
 
tensleep said:
pre 901 thinking at Sony labs......
Click to expand...

They kinda remind me of a pair of Sonys that came with a package deal I picked up. Model number is SS-23. They were paired up with a Sony RTR that had a built-in amplifier. TC-230, I think.
 
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Yea these are a fe103 variant. 5dg printed on the magnet is a good sign I think. There's more than just that written on it too.

The 16 ohms versions won't have too much bass to them. With resonances being around 90hz-100hz instead of around 60hz for a 8 ohm.

You could build these http://diyaudioprojects.com/Speakers/Fostex-FE103E-Zigmahornets/ to squeeze more bass out.

Or there's another project that uses 1 pair in each box. Can't find it right now though.

That's if you want to keep these as full range units. They also make GREAT midranges for other projects.

Great Find :thmbsp:

Cheers,
Rudy

P.S. Don't go any more that 1.5 watts per speaker. That's kinda pushing it. I had a fe103a that after a long loud listening session developed cone cry/buzz.
 
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Frankly, they look like they would have been mated to a compact stereo system.

Those were the receivers with a turntable mounted in the top. Some variants had a tape player built in as well. Sony excelled in selling these from the late 60s on through the 70s.

IIRC, KLH was one of the first with the packaging concept for audio in this way but it really caught on.

Cheers,

David
 
Solid wood boxes, brushed aluminum trim pieces on both sides of the grilles, heavy duty binding posts. I doubt they were part of an all-in-one system, although that may be the case. Very well-built for what they are.

Regarding the idea of using them as mids, you read my mind. For the time being, I'm content to use them as is. I'm currently wrestling with an old pair of Goodmans 3-ways in custom, furniture-like cabinets. I've got to cut out the bottoms of the speakers to get in.
 
JesusJones said:
Yea these are a fe103 variant. 5dg printed on the magnet is a good sign I think. There's more than just that written on it too.

The 16 ohms versions won't have too much bass to them. With resonances being around 90hz-100hz instead of around 60hz for a 8 ohm.

You could build these http://diyaudioprojects.com/Speakers/Fostex-FE103E-Zigmahornets/ to squeeze more bass out.

Or there's another project that uses 1 pair in each box. Can't find it right now though.

That's if you want to keep these as full range units. They also make GREAT midranges for other projects.

Great Find :thmbsp:

Cheers,
Rudy

P.S. Don't go any more that 1.5 watts per speaker. That's kinda pushing it. I had a fe103a that after a long loud listening session developed cone cry/buzz.
Click to expand...
Message received. They sure sound nice at lower volume levels.
 
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