pch300, the sound is well, vintage. It lacks a lot of top end sparkle that I have come to expect from superior speakers. But, that is reasonable, given the age and design. They simply never were able to create the shine that is with newer technology. The big call to fame was the mushroom cloud soundstage, and they have that. Am I going to add some super tweeters to open up the top end. No, I’m not putting any more money into them, as there are fundamental limitations that are obvious.
They will be curiosities, something to put in the system when I am bored or want to hear the omni sound pattern. It’s a good thing I have a radically clean rig, or else I couldn’t take them at all, as they would be horridly mushy.
I was fairly realistic in my assessment of what to expect from the repair. I didn’t expect the world, and they have not given it to me. For a few hundred dollars they work fine. I haven’t pushed them yet, but I will at some point. If they die, they die. I’m not going to keep them as a souvenir that is not worth opening up and running. They have physical defects, i.e. the cabinet compromise and some ferrofluid stains on one upper paper driver, so they’re not worth much.
This does confirm once again that most vintage equipment is beneath my expectations nowadays. I have yet to work with any vintage equipment that I could stand in the primary rig for more than a day or two. The sound is simply far too compromised. The price is right, for sure! But I don’t have to settle for bargain speakers. So, why did I in this case? Again, because they were presented to me as a speaker charity case that I knew I could revamp on the cheap. I don’t need another reference speaker, and this will definitely never be close to that. I just wanted a fun project. We’ll see if over time they "blow up" in a good way, or in a bad way. But, I’m not going to keep them forever if they never have the capacity to thrill. Having a unique soundstage simply is not enough to entice me to love them forever. I slowly upped the level and it didn’t seem to phase them. But, I got bored and put the Kingsound King III ESL speakers back into the mix. Much more excitement and prodigious. Who knows, maybe they can take a lot more; I was very light with them.
So, what do I expect for a couple hundred bucks? About what I got. Good enough for now. Next run I’ll push them harder to see if they have more to give, because I handled them with kid gloves this time, and they didn’t really shine in terms of the orb soundstage they can do. They’re either going to bring satisfaction, or be destroyed. I will not harbor low cost speakers that long term do not bring fun. Well, "destroyed" is a bit too harsh; they simply would sit around and perhaps be sold cheap to recover the costs or given away. But, please, people, do not contact with offers to take them off my hands. They're for fun and I don't know how long I'll be entertained. It's not your free speaker project. :)
I will put the Kingsound King Tower omni speakers back into the rig soon. I want to gain a clearer picture of the fundamental differences between that omni and the old F. I was going to sell the King Tower omni, but maybe not quite yet.
I was going to redo the batting in the bottom of the cabinet, but I wonder if the drivers would react differently, potentially have too much excursion if the fairly solid batting was not kept in place. It would be stupid to remove the pretty solid mass that acts as an air brake, then push the drivers such that they had too much excursion. I think I’ll let that one go.
