mending things

 I routinely search ebay for bargain HiFi gear, usually once great brands now rather forgotten. A recent search yielded a pair of scruffy looking speakers but I recognised the old name of Audiomaster. They had been one of the 50+ UK speaker manufacturers that existed during the 1970's into the 1980's along with the likes of Tangent, RAM , griffin etc. Audiomaster were one of the first brands awarded the LS3/5a licence - the right to make speakers to that BBC specification, no mean accolade. The speakers in question were in a poor state, the tweeter looked heavily corroded, the bass unit had tears in the rubber surround, there were no grilles and the cabinets were quite scratched, but the seller made this all very clear. I put in a very low bid,  and won them for £3.  Collected from the nearby Town and the seller was great, collected and set about trying to restore them. First off after a bit of research I think these are Audiomaster Image Two speakers. The complex crossov...

Some months back, I did a silly thing and blew one of the drivers in my speakers. I think while fumbling with the wires between my pre and power amps I may have run a tape monitor into the power. Anyway, there was a loud noise and after that one of the Dalesford drivers in my RAM 200 speakers was damaged. It still worked but sounded wrong, and applying gentle inward pressure revealed it was rubbing on the voice coil. Basically the wiring had over heated. I looked around for a replacement but my challenge was that the Dalesford drivers are no longer made, and the RAM 200 used a special large magnet version of the driver. Some KEF drivers were considered a drop in replacement, but again, it would  require buying a second pair of speakers to cannibalise for parts, which also seemed wrong. I wondered if the speaker driver could be repaired, though I realised this was beyond anything I could do. I found a few places on the internet that could do the work, though some seemed to ta...

Left had example is 1968 ( one of a pair). Right hand example is 1970 model ( one of pair) I recently managed to acquire two pairs of vintage Kef Cresta speakers. These are the original speakers to bare this name, one pair date from 1968, the other from 1970 according to the makers hand signed labels. With original failed T27 tweeters   I purchased both pairs from a nearby charity shop where they looked a bit forgotten. Their styling is rather dated, or possibly retro 70s depending on your viewpoint. What makes them particularly interesting is that they were one of the first speakers to use the combination of the Kef T27 tweeter and B110 mid-range/woofer. This same combination was subsequently used in the Legendary LS3/5a speaker, which i also own a pair of. I was interested to see how they compared.   Of the two pairs, the earlier 1968 pair were slightly better made. The cabinets of both are chipboard, not the ply of the ls3/5a. The 1968 unit had black grilles and a better ...