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Old 21st Apr 2017, 8:47 pm   #16
mhennessy
Dekatron
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Evesham, Worcestershire, UK.
Posts: 4,241
Default Re: Radio sound quality - some measurements

Yes, the large-magnet Elac only fits the VHF Herald, sadly.

The "Hunter Elac" should fit comfortably in the Sovereign II and VHF Herald, and it's a mystery as to why Hacker never fitted that speaker to those sets. I suspect that one of the reasons was a form of perceived value: the Hunter was the economy set, so it got the cheapest speaker, whereas the Sovereign II was the premium top-of-the-line set, so it got a more expensive speaker. But as we've seen, there's no real correlation between price and performance. And bear in mind that measurements were much harder to do back then - I doubt Hacker had the equipment to do it in-house. So any decisions about sound quality would have been subjective, and at this point we have to wonder if the design team had much of their hearing left up at the 10kHz region... Additionally, perhaps the differences between them were not so obvious with programme material of the time (I'm no expert on '60s music, and rarely listen to it). Back then, AM was what most people were used to, so to those folk, an excess of energy at 4-5kHz was probably quite a novely!

It's interesting to note that the Sovereign IV/RPC1 went for the "Hunter Elac", albeit in 4 ohm guise, and the amplifier was basically the same as well. Simpler than what was used in the Sovereign III, but perfect for the purpose. It's been a while since I listened to a Sovereign IV, but I remember thinking that despite the economies in electronic build quality, it was a fine performer. Must try to remember where my examples are hiding...
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