While cleaning out my Grandmother's barn I found an old set of speakers that have not seen the light of day since the early 1980's (1982?) I think they my be handmade as I see no Logos on the case. Did find one sticker that says Jenson.
Anyone know what I have here?
Paul B
In reply to Donebrokeit :
They were top shelf when they were new. Unlikely to work well now, but somewhere I heard about a re-coning service, which would probably make them sound as good as my old ears could appreciate. The boxes are certainly home-made, but the electronics were expensive.
DrBoost
MegaDork
10/17/19 5:57 a.m.
Look DIY to me. That's cool. There are places that recone. I used to do it professionally. There is a place in Detroit, Audiolight, that does them. Give them a call, talk to Russ and tell him Tracy says hi.
If you like the cabinet, I'd just go to Parts-Express, buy some new Dayton drivers, build some new crossovers to match the drivers and keep rocking them.
My grandfather was a cabinet maker, and I have a set of old home-built speakers he made for my mom. The craftsmanship on the cabinet is amazing, but the drivers rotted away. Plunked in a set of new ones from some online speaker place, and rocking them in my living room now.
Suprf1y
UltimaDork
10/17/19 7:52 a.m.
Looks like there's something interesting going on in that cabinet, possibly a port of some kind, but there's also no attempt at stuffing, and there should be.
The crossover is a 6db (attenuation per octave with a simple capacitor) with a voltage divider (L pad) level adjustment for the horn tweeter. They could very well be Jensen drivers as they were fairly popular.
I love the grille cloth. Cool find. Do you think your grandfather made them?
Home made, I assume with some Jensen components. Hook them up and see how they sound.
In reply to dculberson :
He might have but I doubt it, now his brother on the other hand was a MASTER carpenter and did make a few kitchen cabinets over the years.
@ Red2. I will have to check the numbers tonight. Would be cool if they are worth that much.
Either way I will try and hook them up this weekend and give them a go.
Thanks for all the information, this place rocks!
Jensen was a big player in the musical instrument speaker business in the 1940's through the 1960's. I'd put the driver manufacture date very close to 1960. The cabinets very much have that homemade vibe.
Definitely hook them up and play them. Not going to take a lot of watts, but should have a very nice, full sound.
Edit: It is curious about the number inked on two of the boards, 112 and 113. Do these numbers appear on both cabinets? Any other numbers visible? Possible, I suppose, that the speakers were assembled by a low-volume manufacturer. Honestly, the mid-1960's AR's I have don't look that much more sophisticated, really.
The 220 number looks like a date code:
There is an easy way to determine the date of your vintage Jensen speaker. On the edge of the speaker where the mounting holes are there will be a six digit number. The first three numbers will be 220 which denotes the manufacturer as Jensen. The next number is the year of manufacture and the last two numbers will be the week of manufacture.
Take the following example:
In this case, "220" is the Jensen manufacture code. "07" represents the year (2007), and "46" indicates that it was made in the 46th week of the year. Unfortunately on some older Jensen speakers, the year is only represented by a single digit (just "7" for example). In that case, you will have to make a guess as to the decade in which the speaker was produced (1947, 1957, 1967, etc.). If your speaker is in its original amplifier, you can make an educated guess using information from your amp.
So, 1958?
I didn't notice the number stamps earlier - maybe they were built from a kit?
Jensen made some good stuff back in the day, but expecting them to sound great after re-coning is like expecting a GT/luxury car by buying a 1955 Cadillac. It was great then, but now it's just old. Some people want the "warm vintage sound," but to me that equates with "inadequate frequency reproduction based on old tech." You can make a 55 Caddy run flawlessly, but it will never outperform a new Camaro. If you want a classic car, get the 55 Caddy and restore it. If you want something that performs really well for not much money, get the Camaro. That is to say, if you want to restore old tech, rebuild the drivers. If you want better sound, refit new drivers.
I will echo the Dayton driver idea. They look like amazing cabinets. Find the volume and make them sound good with appropriate drivers. Better sound, cheaper in the long run.
