First Dive into HiFi with Realistic Optimus T-200

[jstpolar]

Hello all, this is my first post outside of introduction, I'm pretty new to HiFi and was wondering if anyone had pointers, I recently obtained two Realistic Optimus T-200 Floor Speakers, seeing as this is my first step into this community, I'm wondering how do I obtain more information about these speakers, a general list of what I should know and do before hooking it up to a system to test them, as well as a general laundry list of cleaning it, like refoaming, maintenance, replacement parts, etc.
So far all I know is that they're Radioshack 79'-83', there was a rumor on the previous forums I looked at that these were possible rebadged Pioneer (I doubt it), but they were considered very good quality, and Radioshack flagship for those 4 years of production. Any info would be appreciated! If/When I get the chance to start working on these I'll continue the thread as my progress. [Included Last is the Radioshack Article]

 

[Dswankey]

...I'm wondering how do I obtain more information about these speakers,..So far all I know is that they're Radioshack 79'-83' Any info would be appreciated!

 

[jstpolar]

View attachment 3752399

I found the same catalog page on the Internet Archive, but I mean outside of this, I can't really find any other info on it, unless that's all there is to know.

 

[swechsler]

It's possible that the woofers in yours have been replaced. The reason I say this is that all the pictures of T200s I could find online, plus the ad, show a woofer with four mounting holes, while yours have 8. While it's possible that the original gasket/beauty ring was replaced or misplaced when the woofer was refoamed (the cones on yours do look very similar to the originals), I can't say for sure without seeing the markings on the woofer magnet. Ironically, many, many speakers have lost most of their value because people replace the woofers with Radio Shack woofers, not knowing that the original woofers could be inexpensively repaired; it's possible in your case that the original Radio Shack woofers were replaced with non-Radio Shack woofers. It's also possible that these woofers were replaced with other aftermarket Radio Shack woofers, and if you're lucky, they're the same or very similar.

 

[McFork]

I see T100's and T120's come up for sale every so often and think about buying them...it's never lined up right for me, but I think I will one of these days. Although now that I know these exist, maybe I'll hold out for them... 'cause wow, they are beautiful. As to swechsler's point, they do look a lot like the originals, visually, and I only see four mounting screws(?), so ....
Typically with speakers, find a medium to low height bench, put a towel down and put them on their back, then unscrew a woofer by hand (first time, anyway) and gently lift out. If you're lucky the speaker wires aren't soldered but attached with some type of spade connector. If it's soldered I often clip them and attach a spade connector, but that's a whole other thing. In your case, if it's soldered, you can probably still lift if out and maybe even find a way to stabilize it, maybe ask a friend to hold it steady. Check its back for model numbers, serial numbers, whatever you can find. Take a picture, maybe. Google the heck out of it, as well as the originals. Look for listings, particularly on ebay, including in the sold listings. Hifi Shark too.
I mean, how do they sound? Generally, the speakers are going to be the thing you protect, so if you buy and amp and don't know if it's ok, you want to be careful, but that's because you don't want it to blow your speakers. If the speakers are unknown, chances are you can put an amp on low volume and see if they work and how well they work without a whole lot of worry...
I'm assuming that visually you didn't see a whole lot wrong? The foams are there, not rotted away? No torn cones? It does sort of look like there's some stuff going on, but I can't tell just from the pics...kinda looks like a foam is torn and some sort of white patch on a speaker cone in the first pic, and maybe a hole in the mid in the second pic, but I can't really reliably tell from photos.

 

[Bradbrews]

I just hook speakers right up to a solid state receiver and let it rip.
If I was really concerned I might check the dc resistance just to make sure they are not shorted.
Then check that each driver is working.
After that you can deal with cosmetics or rotting foam.

 

[jstpolar]

Just got around to hooking em' up, i connected them to main (8-16 ohms,) and each tower is 8ohms, so it fits perfectly, I thought they were a little quiet, but i put them on both sides of me and sat between them and just realized it was spacing, either way it works great with the current setup i have 4/10 is like a screaming level of volume i can hear from across the house.
The only current issue is the negative spring clip on one of the t-200s has an issue clamping the copper wire, i can temporarily wedge it out, but it's annoying to do everytime (very minor issue) It's with the first one (1319).
That being said, the current all-in-one stack I have is not exactly the best quality, so I will at one point need a dedicated turntable, power amp and pre-amp, that's an issue for later though...

Wiring, I will come back to this weekend and then again, foaming and cosmetics last.