Need help identifying a pair of Vintage Speakers?

[Niall76]

Hi all I recently acquired these vintage floor standing speakers, but I have no idea what make or brand they are and would love to know. There is absolutely no logos or names or number of anywhere on them, quite nice looking with an all white back on them, they would have been purchased in the U.K. any ideas anyone? Any help would be greatly appreciated

P.S. 69 cm tall btw��

[Diabolical Artificer]

Weird, that can't be an egg shaped driver in it surely, what are the drivers in them? Are the bottom squares ports of HF horn's?

Andy.

[Radio Wrangler]

It's an egg shaped aperture in the board carrying the speaker cloth to clear a bass/mid driver and a tweeter.

Does the front come off so the drive units can be seen and identified? It's probably on plug-in clips.

Ports at the bottom are rather large for an ordinary tuned-port box. They may be transmission line cabinets.

David

[Ted Kendall]

I'd guess at a home build, maybe from a Hi Fi News design, in which case lucky you! Do they work?

[Niall76]

Hi David and Andy

Yes it is an egg shaped aperture cut out in a board, no the front does not come off at all, which is unusual too as I’m not an expert at all in speakers but I know that the front usually pops off sometimes. I’ve tried googling the exact height and dimensions etc and still no clues.

Niall

[Radio Wrangler]

Maybe a magazine design, maybe a kit from the likes of Wilmslow Audio. You might find them in some period catalogue.

David

[Niall76]

Originally Posted by Ted Kendall

I'd guess at a home build, maybe from a Hi Fi News design, in which case lucky you! Do they work?

Hi Ted, yes they work fine, although I’m guessing you would need an amp to get the best use of them? I know that the man who used to own him was really into his hifi equipment back in the day, all top of the range stuff he used to buy

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

Maybe a magazine design, maybe a kit from the likes of Wilmslow Audio. You might find them in some period catalogue.

Could be David but the only thing, regarding a kit, they are a very solid build, almost like a factory build rather than a flat pack kit?

[GrimJosef]

There are kits which supply only the drivers and the electronic components for any crossovers. There could well be plans, or perhaps just dimensions, given for the cabinet but the actual woodworking is left to the builder. My experience of such cabinets is that commercial manufacturers don't over-engineer them. They use the lightest material they can get away with (sometimes for the good, if the cabinet behaviour is managed as part of the overall acoustic design). Home constructors, however, can be tempted to work with the stiffest/heaviest material they can afford (or lift !). I have come across cabinets like this that would survive artillery bombardment.

Cheers,

GJ

[Edward Huggins]

Shining a light through the grille cloth might reveal more details as to the drivers and their cones. It definately looks Transmission Line to me, but the very basic screw type connectors at the rear seems to rule out factory made units. But just what is the OP using these with - he references the need for an amplifier in Post #8?!

[Niall76]

Originally Posted by GrimJosef

There are kits which supply only the drivers and the electronic components for any crossovers. There could well be plans, or perhaps just dimensions, given for the cabinet but the actual woodworking is left to the builder. My experience of such cabinets is that commercial manufacturers don't over-engineer them. They use the lightest material they can get away with (sometimes for the good, if the cabinet behaviour is managed as part of the overall acoustic design). Home constructors, however, can be tempted to work with the stiffest/heaviest material they can afford (or lift !). I have come across cabinets like this that would survive artillery bombardment.

You are certainly right, this would survive artillery bombardment, so heavy and strong!

Originally Posted by Edward Huggins

Shining a light through the grille cloth might reveal more details as to the drivers and their cones. It definately looks Transmission Line to me, but the very basic screw type connectors at the rear seems to rule out factory made units. But just what is the OP using these with - he references the need for an amplifier in Post #8?!

Hi there I did try shining a light through but no luck, I just connected them straight to my Denon mini system. I already have them connected to another pair of vintage speakers and they sound amazing, but when I connected these to the same system they sounded a bit disappointing if I’m honest, which is why I thought maybe an amplifier might work better with them

[GrimJosef]

Speakers and record cartridges are the most varied things in hi-fi systems - what Peter Walker said about all amplifiers sounding the same (he actually said something more careful than that, but you get the point) has been true for quite a long time.

We do have to be careful when it comes to listening to speakers. It's quite easy to make ones which sound 'amazing' to begin with but which are actually altering the music and which can become tiring after a while. There are also limited, dull speakers out there. But if a speaker 'just' sounds neutral then that may not be a bad thing. It may be accurately reproducing the music when we have got used to something more brash and coloured. You might want to give the new old speakers a bit more time and see if they grow on you.

Cheers,

GJ

[Niall76]

Hi GJ you could be right I , neutral would probably be an accurate description of them, maybe I will give them another listen!

[SteveCG]

Is the Denon 'shaping' the audio output signal? A fair check on the relative performance of your 2 pairs of loudspeakers would be done if you can make sure that any sound processing is turned off.

[Whaam68]

They look a bit like LNB Paralabs?

Do you have a pic without the grilles on? You can probably lever them off gently with a screwdriver blade.

They also look like an acoustic labyrinth or transmission line design & will need a bit of power up em to come on song. They look like a 70's design when big power class a/b transistor amps were all the rage.....I don't think your Denon mini system will cut the mustard! :O)

Mike

[Vintage Engr]

They do look remarkably like LNB Paralabs.

However, the front cut-outs are different to those on the pair I own. The overall view definitely looks LNB-ish, and the rear leather-cloth & connectors are identical. The fronts do come out but require a bit of gentle persuasion. I used a wide wall-paper scraper to remove mine.

Then you will probably require some velcro to re-fix, as if they are the Paralabs, the front grilles were lightly glued onto small rectangles of hardboard, used as a spacer. I replaced these with black Velcro pads.

I re-built my Paralabs two years ago after having them for over 40 years, as the suspension on the bass/midrange units had crumbled away, they obviously sounded awful at that point! I also replace the KEF T27 tweeters at the same time. They now sound stunning, & it was worth the cost.

I'm just going over to the house & will measure mine & see if the dimensions are the same.

Have just measured: Height = 596mm
Width = 226mm
Depth = 260mm

It may be that your speakers are a slightly different model, if they are from LNB. From memory, they did manufacture some other labyrinth enclosures. The Paralab Super was rated at just 25w, that's real RMS watts, - and were 8 ohm impedance. The passive crossover did look a little primitive, but it works, overall they're still a good speaker. I've incorporated mine into a home - cinema system, but still using my original 40+ year old Scott amplifier, also re-built.

As others have said, I think it might be worth checking them out & using them for a bit, before dismissing them.

David.

[Niall76]

Originally Posted by SteveCG

Is the Denon 'shaping' the audio output signal? A fair check on the relative performance of your 2 pairs of loudspeakers would be done if you can make sure that any sound processing is turned off.

Hi there I did try these speakers connected to my denon and another Phillips hifi, and I thought the sound was a bit flat, in comparison to my own refurbished vintage speakers on both systems too .

[Edward Huggins]

It's possible that the input impedence of these may be 15/16 ohms.
If so, your small Denon system (which has an output impedence of 8 ohms) will really struggle to drive these with any conviction. At best, using these with the Denon may only yield a lowish output and possibly some "clipping" in the Denon's amplifier.

[Niall76]

Originally Posted by Whaam68

They look a bit like LNB Paralabs?

Do you have a pic without the grilles on? You can probably lever them off gently with a screwdriver blade.

They also look like an acoustic labyrinth or transmission line design & will need a bit of power up em to come on song. GThey look like a 70's design when big power class a/b transistor amps were all the rage.....I don't think your Denon mini system will cut the mustard! :O)

Mike

Hi Mike, I think you could be right I googled them and they do look very similar alright! The person who I got them off originally had a scan dyna 3000 amp to power them, probably a lot more powerful than my denon😊

[Niall76]

Originally Posted by Vintage Engr

They do look remarkably like LNB Paralabs.

However, the front cut-outs are different to those on the pair I own. The overall view definitely looks LNB-ish, and the rear leather-cloth & connectors are identical. The fronts do come out but require a bit of gentle persuasion. I used a wide wall-paper scraper to remove mine.

Then you will probably require some velcro to re-fix, as if they are the Paralabs, the front grilles were lightly glued onto small rectangles of hardboard, used as a spacer. I replaced these with black Velcro pads.

I re-built my Paralabs two years ago after having them for over 40 years, as the suspension on the bass/midrange units had crumbled away, they obviously sounded awful at that point! I also replace the KEF T27 tweeters at the same time. They now sound stunning, & it was worth the cost.

I'm just going over to the house & will measure mine & see if the dimensions are the same.

Have just measured: Height = 596mm
Width = 226mm
Depth = 260mm

It may be that your speakers are a slightly different model, if they are from LNB. From memory, they did manufacture some other labyrinth enclosures. The Paralab Super was rated at just 25w, that's real RMS watts, - and were 8 ohm impedance. The passive crossover did look a little primitive, but it works, overall they're still a good speaker. I've incorporated mine into a home - cinema system, but still using my original 40+ year old Scott amplifier, also re-built.

As others have said, I think it might be worth checking them out & using them for a bit, before dismissing them.

David.

Hi David thank you for the info it is most helpful, I didn’t try to take off the grille in case I damage it. The dimensions on mine are slightly bigger by a few mm but it’s probably a slightly different model. I think they probably would have a lot of potential with the right equipment but not really suitable for me as I am quite limited with space and I am happy with my little Denon and my Gramovox Floating Record player. But I was really curious to find out what brand they are and I think it is looking pretty likely that they are like you said LNBs. I think I will probably sell this pair, as pretty as they are they just aren’t suitable for me at this particular moment

[Niall76]

LNB Paralabs 20 is what I think they are, I think I found the exact same model on a selling site via google😊