Design Acoustics PS-6

[JKent]

Found these at Goodwill for $13. They're from the 80s so the foam surrounds were shot. MSound provided what I needed!

These little-known speakers were built in Ohio. Design Acoustics was (or became) a division of Audio Technica. Their most-recognized speaker was probably the D-12 dodecahedron shaped omnidirectional "ball". Their most highly rated was the PS-10.

Specs:

• 6-1/2 inch woofers
• Polymer Laminate diaphragm
• ferrofluid cooled tweeters.
• 12 inches by 11-1/2 inches by 8 inches.
• Freq Resp 55-20,000hz
• Sensitivity 88db SPL/W/m
• mirrored pair
• Impedance 8 ohm.

I now have a number of 6.5" woofer 2-way acoustic suspension speakers: These, Cizek KA-1, Bozak MB-80, NHT One.

Have not done a side-by-side comparison but these little speakers have a very full sound, with bass that belies their small size.

All I did was re-foam. I left the xo caps. These have that loathsome "wood-grain vinyl" but it was 99% intact and the grilles were good so I left the cosmetics alone except for a couple of chips that were filled with brown tinted epoxy. Also not a fan of the spring-clip speaker terminals but left those.

Before & after shots below.

-Kent

[iso]

There seems to be better and not so good looking wood grain vinyl. These look nice.

When I did buy walnut veneer for my Kef Cantata cabs I noticed that my supplier also had veneer called technical veneer. It is made from wood. It has been stained and grain pattern has been modified to look some other expensive or unavailable wood. I suppose suitably stained veneer has been glued in alternating layers to create large block of wood... and this block has been sawn to create technical veneer. Handy no knot holes etc... maybe a bit too handy.

http://www.hvloy.com/tarkastele+tuotteita/varastosta/tekninen+viilu

Best Regards

Kimmo

[DavidDru]

Yeah, those would be hard to pass up at $13. At first glance the tweet looks like the infinity polycell.

I passed on a pair of realistic MC1000's last week at Goodwill. They wanted $30! Out of their minds.

[JKent]

Yeah--prices at GW can be goofy. The one near me had a single Advent Prodigy with a damaged woofer for about $20 for the longest time. They do sometimes have 50% off sales but it's a real crapshoot. I think there are a lot of "pickers" looking for good hi-fi stuff.

Those MC-1000s seem to be sort of mediocre speakers (tho I have not heard them). I see one AKer found a very nice looking pair and used the cabinets as the basis of some DIY "Indignia" speakers (as I did when building the Johnny Richards Rompicollos). Maybe if your GW runs sales you might pick up the 1000s for the cabinets.

-Kent

[DavidDru]

Good lord, I just looked at the local CList and there is a pair of Design Acoustics PS-55 listed. Don't appear to be as nice as the P-6.

The only reason I even knew anything at all about the MC1000 was that same morning I had read on a AK thread about "your first speakers" a members explanation that he had brought back a pair from the military store in Asia during Vietnam so they held a kinda special place in his heart and of all the speakers he had gotten rid of it was the one pair he still had. I was just going to pick them up and ship then to him but at $30 plus the shipping the cost was too high.

Otherwise they didn't look like much but the cabs and drivers were all in good shape. Of course the longer they sit on the shelf in a place like that the more beat up they get.