Can anyone shed any light on these speakers?

[Nukeybrown]

Ive looked for the company badge on the speaker etc but come up with nothing. Theyre big , im thinking PA system or similar. Any ideas and why the rtc badge and wharfedale cabinet??

[Edward Huggins]

Looks like a homebrew. Note the RTC's cast chassis. No Xover, so could be a twin cone or just a bass driver. Is that an ARU on the back panel?

[vidjoman]

Look a bit home made. Wharfedale, like many others speaker firms made kits or drawings available. They may have been Wharfedale kits that have had the drivers changed.

[Nukeybrown]

Dont think its homebrew , everything just looks a little bit too straight , machine cut stuff.

[audiomagpie]

I did read somewhere, possibly in 'A Pair of Wharfedales' about the Wharfedale 'Column 8' hifi speaker, that you could buy the cabinet with or without Wharfedales own drive unit, or alternatively fit a make of your choice.
So maybe the same with this cabinet..?

[Radio Wrangler]

The felt gasket to seal the basket to the baffle is a very wharfedale touch.

David

[Nukeybrown]

The plot thickens

[teetoon]

Hi, the speaker chassis looks to be made by BAKER and were sold by RTVC in mags like Practical Electronics etc.

David.

[Jonster]

My guess is a hifi cab re-purposed for PA duty with a more powerful driver.

[Radio Wrangler]

That sounds likely to me.

From Wharfedale, there would have been a tweeter or at least a whizzer cone. Pressed into guitar service, there must have been a lot of old hifi speakers with melted voice coils. Mounting hole patterns were common, so a quick look in the back of the magazines for something boasting plenty of Watts for minimum money would get something to drop straight in, and probably give a boost in efficiency.

I've never seen a Baker before. I remember the adverts, but the illustrations in them were so low resolution they could have been of anything with a round cone. I grew up in the Yorkshire speaker triangle, where all the budget-conscious guitarists got Fane replacement drivers from RSC in Leeds. The posh guitarists got their stuff from Matt at Radiocraft in Huddersfield.

David

[Edward Huggins]

I well remember the Baker "Selhurst" range. These were based on 12" and 15" cast chassis. I don't know who built these, but whoever it was there would have needed to be a sizeable infrastructure. Some had 2" voice coils and all were solidly built.

Hopefully not going off-topic too much, we have to thank Celestion for bringing out a dedicated range of high powered drive units in the early 1960's, especially designed for the electric Guitar. They were specified using the open E string as the benchmark resonant frequency.

[AC/HL]

If these are Baker drivers, they appear to be a later incarnation of the name: http://www.ajaudio.co.uk/Loudspeaker...0of%20fame.htm (scroll to the bottom)

[Nickthedentist]

And from Bill's link, the address given as Baker's was indeed RCS (now crudely converted into flats, by the look of it):

[Nickthedentist]

And something about one of the proprietors, Frankl Jackson, here, where he says he closed the business in 2003 when he retired.
There is a "contact us" button. : http://www.thehi-fis.co.uk/frank_jackson.html

Also, an article from EPE, attached.

[dseymo1]

Originally Posted by AC/HL

If these are Baker drivers, they appear to be a later incarnation of the name: http://www.ajaudio.co.uk/Loudspeaker...0of%20fame.htm (scroll to the bottom)

The original Baker drivers were known for their rough, unfettled castings (fair enough, they were budget speakers), but these look quite well finished.
I wonder if these late ones were made by Fane? They have the distinctive vented dome.

[teetoon]

Hello again. These are definitely Baker as can be seen by the machining on the basket spokes (if that's the right word). They always seemed to be very rough and ready to me but sounded ok. Also notice the positioning of the terminals.

I just Googled these images but I do have a 12" Baker Disco 100 chassis here and had a pair of Group 25 watt 12's back in the 70's.
David.

[Nukeybrown]

Interesting that they are baker speakers which they def are. So could it be this rtc company that made the rest or wharfedale? Im convinced they were tannoy speakers not only because of the lack of tweeter & crossover but there is a wire hanging off the back at the too which would have angled it in a warehouse or somewhere similar. Not sure what to do with then to be honest. Lol

[teetoon]

Another quick Google shows this W2 model which has a similar cabinet but you can see the difference with the original Wharfedale drivers having a much nicer finish to the basket.

Edit: if you zoom in on the back pics, you can see the biscuit joints in the corners aswell.
David.

[Nukeybrown]

So any ideas how I work out what wattage they are?

[ToneArm]

The speaker cone from the front looks very much like my Baker auditorium but your magnet is much smaller(and looks like yours may be alnico, which the Auditorium is not.) Anyway the Auditorium is rated for 25W, so I’d suggest yours will handle less power, maybe 10-15W.