My Father-In-Law's vintage speakers

[Snowman_]

We brought these to my house to listen in my media room. We haven't connected them yet. He bought them in 1971. I don't know what they are designed to be- High Fidelity, Public Address, etc.

They are 4-way and the tweeter has a wave guide. Woofer is 12".

Here is the inside. I wish I still looked that good at over-forty!

And the back of the tweeter.

On the back of the tweeter it reads:

J.W. Davis
Dallas, TX
Model TW-3
Made in USA
91 D 945

What do you guys think? I wonder how to tell if the tweeter is a compression driver? I'll try to get a first impression on sound a bit later today.

 

[Randy]

Should be cool discovering what they are and chcking them out.

 

[Rope]

JBL 2426h high frequency compression driver.

Rope

 

[Deerhunter]

Very interesting, cant wait to hear what you thing of them.

 

[yromj]

Cool!! Let me know if you need any help w/ wiring these up, etc. These might be a fun topic of discussion during the GTG.

John

 

[malsackj]

Looking at the pictures and the crossover of the tweeter to the compression horn leads me to think that this is a 3 way speaker with two tweeters.

Comparative thinking is MTM is a 2 way speaker, tweeter and base.

It was hard to see if the larger and medium speakers are crossed over because the wires look like they go to the board with the variable L pads. If the wires are both straight wire to the larger and medium than they have full band width and this would make it a two way crossover with 4 speakers. It might measure between 3 to 6 ohm. It would tell us if the speakers are 16 ohm paralleled making 6 to 8 ohm. If two 8 ohm were paralleled you might be seeing 3 to 4 ohm.

When combining a tweeter not in vertical alignment with a horn you might be able to find some lobbing. I would think that they were trying to achieve a wider pattern in close with the ability of the horn to narrow and beam a little to the back of the room.

 

[Wardsweb]

4-way: woofer, midrange, tweeter and super tweeter (not a compression horn). J. W. Davis used the same horn over tweeters in several of their speakers.

 

[Snowman_]

Well I haven't gotten these set up in the media room yet, but have been listening in the living room. I wouldn't say that they are true high fidelity speakers, at least not what most of us are used to these days. Also, they want a lot of power. In fact, the little Denon receiver I'm using is unable to over drive them.

They are still working flawlessly though. That alone is pretty impressive to me, considering their age.

Cool!! Let me know if you need any help w/ wiring these up, etc. These might be a fun topic of discussion during the GTG.

John

Yeah we can discuss 'till the cows come home, but if anyone wants to hear them we will come over here. I'm not bringing these big bastards to your house! :snooty: