Help me pick some woofers, please..

[MisterD]

Hey folks!

I just bought this vintage Barzilay stereo cabinet and it’s empty.. Looks like it originally was set up with some Altec 608 15” coax speakers, at least that’s what the seller told me it had. Can anyone help me choose some efficient 15” woofers that would work well in it? I’ll be wanting to use a fairly low watt tube amp so want efficient speakers. They don’t need to be coax woofers as I’ll probably put a horn mid-tweeter in a spot that looks like it was cut for just that. Seller told me that was actually a port for the woofer, but I don’t think so..
What’s a good sounding 15” woofer that doesn’t need too much power?
Thanks for your help.

[davidB]

Beautiful.

How about dimensions/layout of the compartments.
And the holes for the horns.

Great project!

[Billet]

Very nice looking cabinet! I have a Barzilay also. I'm not sure what they originally contained, but Hawthorne Silver Iris (Eminence Beta 15CX) fit perfectly. They had a nice response for a 15" and are very efficient. I ran mine open baffle with the back of the cabinet open.

Eminence Delta 15A and 15LFA both look very promising also, I'd probably use one of those if I were starting over today.

[MisterD]

Thanks for your help, guys!
The above picture shows locations of the cutouts. The woofer cutout measures13-1/2” and the tweeter cutout is 9”x3-1/8”.
Speaker box measures 24”Tx18”Wx17”D.

Just curious; does anyone have an opinion of Peavey Black Widow speakers..?

[Paul O]

Just about any proaudio driver would work pretty well here I think and that includes the PV black widows. They made a surprising variety of these that all look the same but are slightly different, some have longer voice coils some shorter, I have some 1505's that compare quite well to the Eminence Kappa Pro.

[djg]

4 holes to mount a 15". Makes me think it wasn't very heavy.

[MisterD]

4 holes to mount a 15". Makes me think it wasn't very heavy.

You’re right. Makes no sense to me as the holes look like they haven’t even been used; no threads, no inserts or studs..

[Billet]

Mine had 8 holes for the woofer with T-nuts. Unfortunately one of the T-nuts broke loose from the wood and spun around. This resulted in having to remove the inner baffle with the 15" driver still attached, not fun. Since then, I have removed the baffle and hide my various DIY projects inside the enclosures.

[MisterD]

Mine had 8 holes for the woofer with T-nuts. Unfortunately one of the T-nuts broke loose from the wood and spun around. This resulted in having to remove the inner baffle with the 15" driver still attached, not fun. Since then, I have removed the baffle and hide my various DIY projects inside the enclosures.

Just double checked; there are 10-32 threaded nuts in the holes - probably T-nuts. All seem to be holding. I’d have to remove the baffle panel with grille cloth to add more of ‘em though. I could just mount a woofer using the four on each side (got some serious mil surplus 10-32 bolts to use) but I probably couldn’t use anything with heavy magnets - like the Black Widow speakers I was thinking about. The BW magnets are monstrously heavy. Maybe something with NEO magnets..(?).

Another question - with a cabinet volume of 4.25 cubic feet (I think that’s what it is), am I better off with a 12” or 15” woofer? I could make an adapter plate for a 12” if that would sound better..

[Paul O]

If you have the PV's on hand try them out, you're not going to put much stress on the baffle with only 10w or so input power.

[billfitzmaurice]

4 holes to mount a 15". Makes me think it wasn't very heavy.

Probably not, indicating a small magnet and high Qes. The lack of holes around the rectangular hole probably means it was a port, not an opening for a horn. It would be tuned around 50Hz. The original driver may have been a coax. They used to be popular back in the 50s-60s, pretty hard to find today other than in high priced pro-sound drivers intended for touring grade floor monitors. One option would be the Eminence Beta 12 CX with an appropriate HF driver. It's not too expensive, and doesn't model half bad in that cab with no alterations.

[MisterD]

A question for you all who have built open baffle speakers.. If I want to build some open baffles to use at ear level - sitting on top of this stereo cabinet and having only a squawker and tweeter in them.. Could that sound OK crossed over to woofers in the console’s bass reflex cabinets?
Or, are are open baffles generally not used in combination with a bass reflex woofer..?

[JRT]

John P. Kreskovsky had some very worthwhile content on his MusicAndDesign website, which David L. Ralph has archived and currently hosts on his SpeakerDesign website, which also has some other very worthwhile content.

http://musicanddesign.speakerdesign.net/index.html

[djg]

https://sites.google.com/site/undefi...diy-sunflowers

[Billet]

Many successful designs have been made with an open baffle midrange and/or tweeter added to a boxed woofer.

[MisterD]

https://sites.google.com/site/undefi...diy-sunflowers

Thanks for this link; some gorgeous speakers there.