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Utah Heritage HS1-C Listening Test

winters860

winters860

Super Member
I finally got the Utah HS1-C pair up and running with a completely rebuilt crossover. I put in a new Dayton poly caps, new Mills resistors, and new Dayton L-pads. And they sound… pretty good.

The sound, paired with my Toshiba SA-7150, is pretty nice overall. My first impression was otherwise. I was used to my Genesis 110 and these speakers seemed pretty poor. The highs were weak, even with the L-pad cranked and they lacked the detail I’d come to expect. Clarity didn’t improve until I moved about 8 feet back. I also found out that the tweeters are extremely poor off-axis. This pretty much necessitates bean bag chairs or speaker stands. I’ll cop that the receiver is completely overkill for these speakers that have a maximum rated power handling of 40w and that the listening room is odd at best and requires placing the speakers less than two feet apart.

They sound warm and maybe a bit rounded off or smoothed out. I’m still trying to decide how much I dig it. I’ve heard a lot worse. I couldn’t help but notice on the Wrinkle Neck Mules’ album Pull The Brake that amplified acoustic guitars sound remarkably like amplified acoustic guitars. This perhaps shouldn’t be surprising, since the same woofer made it into some Fender amps. Whether or not I keep them depends on how they do in my post-MAT Electronics order and refoaming shootout. Regardless, I’m already sure these very listenable speakers will be placed with friends whose stereos I’m frequently exposed to.

The cabs are a bit scratched up and there’s the prerequisite drink ring on one, but I still think they’d be an easy refinishing job, as they’re not that far down the line.

I saw a smaller pair of Allied speakers at the St. Francis the other day that I’m sure rolled off the same assembly line as the Utahs and if I weren’t absolutely, completely out of room, I might buy them.

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I hate to dig up an old thread, but what were your final review of the speakers? My dad used to have a set that my brother completely ruined. I remember they sounded rich and warm.

I have a chance to pick a pair of them up here near Pittsburgh, and am going to pair them with an old Kenwood 50 while the 80U is in the shop.

I see you mentioned St Francis...that could only mean you're from around Kettering, and I right? My old stomping grounds...
 
Decent sound for budget speakers

I have a set of old Utah's in my shop at work and they do sound quite decent. They are not going to win any sound quality awards but they do sound pretty good for a budget speaker.
 
Back in 70/71 I used to sell Utah HSC1s at a stereo store where we had some nice upper tier stuff, as well as entry level equipment. NW Suburbs of Chicago.

The Utahs were used as "come on in" speakers and listed for $100 each, but we invariably had them on perpetual sale for $100.... 2 for 1. We paid between $32 and $35 each because we bought so many and still made money.

They were a decent rock-n-roll speaker which could make the good noise, but they were basic entry level big boxes......and so many people liked them! To me they were always a little boomy, but that's what sold too!
 
Well...the set that was for sale wasn't in the shape they guy advertised them to be in. The backs had been removed at one time and replaced with cheap plywood that wasn't that thick.

Darn shame too, because I was getting excited thinking about them.

I remember dad's to be a bit low in tone...not as crisp as what I generally like, even though I remember them to have a warm tone.

One of these days I hope to come across a decent pair in need of a home...
 
Which store in NW suburbs

CT Jim said:
Back in 70/71 I used to sell Utah HSC1s at a stereo store where we had some nice upper tier stuff, as well as entry level equipment. NW Suburbs of Chicago.

The Utahs were used as "come on in" speakers and listed for $100 each, but we invariably had them on perpetual sale for $100.... 2 for 1. We paid between $32 and $35 each because we bought so many and still made money.

They were a decent rock-n-roll speaker which could make the good noise, but they were basic entry level big boxes......and so many people liked them! To me they were always a little boomy, but that's what sold too!
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Was it Musicraft on Dempster in Morton Grove?
 
I found a pair of those on Freecycle a few years back, fixed them up and ended up selling them with a Kenwood rig to a guy doing some work for me. Nice garage speakers, certainly not deserving of the dumpster, but you can do better for a main system IMHO.
 
i bought some cheap and ended up giving them away. maybe should have tried the econowave trick:scratch2:
 
I enjoy collecting vintage audio since the mid 90's and over the years have picked up some nice receivers, tuners/amps etc along with sought after speakers but also love working with wood. I saw Utah HS1-Cs (3) for sale locally for $40 so I decided to purchase them. I took the worst shape one to work on first, it looked like they had ti mounted to the wall or ceiling so I took the drivers out (all good) and the front baffle out (screwed on) and removed the grille cloth to wash
it (quite dirty and might have been cig smoke residue). I will trash the crossover system, one cap, one resistor and an L pad that had the center leg and one outer leg jumped together which when measuring at the cap gave 1+M resistance. I will remove the L pad jumper and check it and deox it if it is good and go with a decent 3 way crossover unit. I do have one question does anyone know the original crossover points on these speakers?? It is funny that Utah stuffed a 12" woofer into the cabinet and had to notch the bracing for the woofer, no insulation except on the back so they may have been a bit boomy, will add some recycled jean insulation on all sides to reduce side resonance.
 
49Stude63 said:
I took the worst shape one to work on first, it looked like they had ti mounted to the wall or ceiling so I took the drivers out (all good) and the front baffle out (screwed on) and removed the grille cloth to wash
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can you post some photos?
 
malden said:
can you post some photos?
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Will do, and the nice things about these cabinets is they are not MDF, only the baffle board and back are MDF/Particle board material. The sides/top/bottom appear to be birch or similar hardwood. I figured I would see how they sound after repairs and new crossover and insulation addition and see how they sound or go back and replace the baffle board with 3/4" MDF and go with a 8 or 10" woofer and replace the midrange and tweeter. I went back since I had been checking from the inside, outside and front, the sides/top/bottom are double sided particle board. Outside is a nice walnut veneer and the inside is more of a birch type veneer to give it more of a finished look. The boards are 1/2" along with the baffle board but the back is 3/4, currently sanding and staining and will take photos when that is done but still not fully assembled.
 
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The crossovers are pretty simple on these, 15 ohm resistor +/-10% all 3 were well in spec, all the caps were bad, one speaker said no highs, yep a 4uf cap was reading nearly 400uf so I am sure the killed the tweeter signal. All drivers were good from each of the 3 speakers. I am waiting on replacement 4uf caps so when they are done I will finish the first one and hook it up to see how it sounds opposite Advent Heritage or a Yamaha NS-555. I will probably sell them to recoup my expense and maybe a bit of profit. I am hoping the sound insulation deadens part of the boominess mention earlier and I may even plug the port to see how they sound as an air suspension speaker vs a ported speaker.
 
49Stude63 said:
Will do, and the nice things about these cabinets is they are not MDF,
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MDF is a high quality material and perfect for speaker enclosures.
49Stude63 said:
only the baffle board and back are MDF/Particle board material.
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MDF and "partical board" are two different things, speakers of that vintage are usually particle board, occasionally you'd find veneer core (plywood)
49Stude63 said:
The sides/top/bottom appear to be birch or similar hardwood.
Click to expand...
those are generally the same material as the rest of the enclosure but with a veneer
49Stude63 said:
I figured I would see how they sound after repairs and new crossover and insulation addition and see how they sound or go back and replace the baffle board with 3/4" MDF and go with a 8 or 10" woofer and replace the midrange and tweeter.
I went back since I had been checking from the inside, outside and front, the sides/top/bottom are double sided particle board. Outside is a nice walnut veneer and the inside is more of a birch type veneer to give it more of a finished look. The boards are 1/2" along with the baffle board but the back is 3/4, currently sanding and staining and will take photos when that is done but still not fully assembled.
Click to expand...
:dunno:
 
malden said:
MDF is a high quality material and perfect for speaker enclosures.

MDF and "partical board" are two different things, speakers of that vintage are usually particle board, occasionally you'd find veneer core (plywood)

those are generally the same material as the rest of the enclosure but with a veneer

:dunno:
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Yes I am aware of the difference, but generically flakeboard all the way to HDF is particle board, where the particle used is derived from wood. The main difference is the particle size derived from wood that is used. In the MDF and HDF they make a wood cellulose fiber paste and use an updated resin and manufacturing process. The smaller the wood particle the more dense the manufactured board can be so even for what most people call particle board (using older resin and manufacturing process) the smaller the chip size the more dense the particle board will be. Not knowing the acoustic values of the woofer used in these Utahs you can't use any type of speaker calculator to match the size of the woofer size to the volume of the box or determine the proper port length. People probably use MDF for home built speakers because finding/determine values like fb is easier since all the components of the box are the same and the board density is more uniform. MDF is not perfect for speaker building (moisture/water issue plagues all fiberboard types) but make good speaker kits because of the sonic values of the cabinets and drivers is readily available in most cases. Now there is a is shift to high end speaker manufactures moving to composites, I have a set of Yamaha NS-555 and Advent Heritage and both on the same receiver sound well using different materials. Most vintage speakers that users rate highly were made prior to the 80s and not using MDF boards. With these Utah's the 12" woofer is IMO too big for the box they had to notch some front baffle bracing to install it. Typical of the 60's and 70's the crossover is simple. The port is 4" in diameter and has a length less than 2". When they were new these Utahs were low cost speakers and 50 years later they are still "low priced" speakers so any work you do to restore them and update failed parts is following the the common phrase "you can put lipstick on a pig and dress it up but it is still a pig", in the end they are not worth sinking much effort or money into but the fun is restoring them even if they still sound deficient. Thanks for your insightful input
 
Simple 6dB crossovers can work really well....think EPI/Epicure speakers, which are (still) some of the nicest sounding and well-balanced speakers and only have a single capacitor, ostensibly just there to protect the tweeters. I recapped my HS1-C's and they sounded----pretty good! (see poster #1). But the mids just didn't get it for me, sounded somewhat distorted, and I replaced then with Goldwood GM 85/8 closed back mids from Parts Express. They dropped right in. An inexpensive upgrade that really woke them up. I'm really happy with them now.
 
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