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My Unusual Speaker Enclosures, Pics

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Posted on February 2, 2011 at 15:49:20
bake33@cox.net
Audiophile

Posts: 8
Location: Virginia USA
Joined: February 2, 2011



I have this pair or late 50s/early 60s diy speakers with Lafayette SK-212 speakers, which are 8" Triaxial made by Goodmans. A stange cabinet design where you open the top of the cab so the higher frequnies can reflect off the lid.

I am look for info on the speakers and the cabinet designs. Seems to be little on the web. If anyone can help me that would be great. Thanks

 

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RE: My Unusual Speaker Enclosures, Pics, posted on August 15, 2013 at 14:26:07
Iain42
Reviewer

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Location: Arcansaw
Joined: February 10, 2004
Here is an article on Gough Speakers.
http://itishifi.blogspot.com/2011/09/gough-speakers-welsh-hi-fi.html
High sensitivity, wide dynamic range, low distortion, and smooth frequency response. Pwk

http://www.itishifi.com

 

RE: My Unusual Speaker Enclosures, Pics, posted on August 14, 2013 at 16:33:54
these are Gough 8" speaker box
the plans can be found in the nov 1961 popular science mag

 

I had big plans for mine..., posted on February 4, 2011 at 21:22:40
Doug G.
Audiophile

Posts: 925
Location: Upper Midwest
Joined: September 21, 2005
in addition to the tweeters on goosenecks back in the seventies. Being that they had the large front surface area, I was going to remove the vinyl covering I put on them and attach some art prints to the fronts.

Then surround the prints with some carved beaded trim, paint them either ivory or light red, and antique them.

Alas, that never came to fruition either.

Sometime in the eighties, I gave them to my nephew who used them to listen to music as he learned to play the drums along with the songs.

He eventually blew the Radio Shack drivers and the particle board had gotten wet at the bottom in the past when the water heater leaked at our place and they began to fall apart.

They ended their days being taken to the dump sometime in the nineties.

Sad.

Doug

 

RE: My Unusual Speaker Enclosures, Pics, posted on February 4, 2011 at 18:17:47
Bold Eagle
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Although they were not a transmission line/acoustic labyrinth type, these remined me of an E. H. Scott console owned by a friend of ours. It had side firing three ways, and doors on the sides, hinged at the back, that opened about 45 degrees to direct the sound forward, and which gave a wider spacing of the virtual source. At the time, I didn't know what or who E. H. Scott was. Now I do, and I could have had that console for a song. Aargh!

Jerry

 

RE: My Unusual Speaker Enclosures, Pics, posted on February 4, 2011 at 08:13:24
Doug G.
Audiophile

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Location: Upper Midwest
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I built a pair of these in 1972 when I was 19 using some ceiling speakers from a grocery store I got from somewhere. Later, I put some Radio Shack 8" full-range drivers in there.

I used 1/2" particle board covered with walnut vinyl.

I guess I thought they sounded pretty good but was dissatified with the real high frequency response. I bought some of those little Radio Shack horn tweeters and some goosenecks and was going to install the tweeters on the goosenecks so I could aim the tweeters at the listening position but I never did do that. I just mounted the tweeters at the top of the front panel.

Bass was OK but not real deep.

My father-in-law and I built a pair of scaled-down ones for some 4" speakers he had.

And a friend of mine and I built a pair in about 1981 scaled up for some 10" drivers he had.

I never knew Lafayette marketed some.

Doug

 

These are the so-called "Gough" enclosures, posted on February 3, 2011 at 12:50:32
DavidLD
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The article that lays out the original design and the guy who created them was published in "Popular Science" in the early 1960s. I have that article around here, somewhere, but I will have to dig to find it. Generally they used a single full-range speaker in exactly that angle and position.

The enclosures can be scaled up and down by the do-it yourselfer. For example you could build a small 4" driver version out of 1/2 inch plywood.

The part I didnt know is that a company, Lafayette, actually built these as a commercial design at one point. All of the versions I am familiar with have been DIY.
IIRC I built an enclosure of the same design using a 4 inch speaker when I was about 16 years old--tho that is a long time ago LOL.

 

Link for all the information, posted on February 3, 2011 at 12:57:48
DavidLD
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http://www.gough-speakers.co.uk/historical-and-technical-background

 

RE: Link for all the information, posted on February 4, 2011 at 09:27:26
Crazy Dave
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That is the speaker I tested at the thrift shop!

Dave

 

RE: Link for all the information, posted on February 3, 2011 at 15:29:51
The Virginian
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That is great info David. Just what I needed. Thank you so much!

 

If I were building one of these DIY, posted on February 4, 2011 at 06:30:13
DavidLD
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I would take a look at the full range 8 inch drivers from Goldwood or maybe Pioneer. The Goldwood 8-inch full range driver PE part number 290-379 would be an interesting option for a Gough design (under $20) and being inexpensive, consistent with the original Gough approach of doing something that sounds way better than it costs to make.

The enclosure is not going to improve the high frequencies. I would be tempted to simply add on one corner of the woofer, a little Goldwood tweeter such as PE part number 270-175. ($2-$3 ea) The crossover would simply be a high value cap in series. How high a value might be an empirical experiment. A really fancy addition would be an L-Pad wired as a tweeter level control (another $3 or so).


The enclosure itself might be characterized as something of a folded horn. The original Popular Science article (they tried their best to look at the whole idea objectively) claimed that to their ears the enclosure produces considerably more extended bass than you would expect to get with the same driver in a conventional bass reflex enclosure. My experiments at age 16 using a smaller 4-inch full range driver in a scaled down version basically confirmed this.

The versions I've read about and built way back then were all made of plywood. Gough claimed that completely sealed joints were not essential for the enclosure to work. In the pop science article they said a quarter-inch gap in a joint made no difference in the sound whatsoever.

I do not see any reason why the cabinet could not be constructed out of modern 3/4 inch MDF, however, using screws and glue, sealing all the joints well.

Another option would be to try building a pair of these using one of the also readily available 4-inch full range speakers...maybe a Tang Band.

I wish I had space for more DIY speakers, but I already have too many pair.

A pair of these made with the Goldwood full-range 8-incher would attact a lot of attention at any DIY event for sure! I wonder how they would fare. Parts cost less the cabinets would run under $30

 

RE: If I were building one of these DIY, posted on February 4, 2011 at 09:26:39
Crazy Dave
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I have read that the Goldwood is a very good driver for the money, but If I were going to go to all that trouble to build such an elaborate cabinet, I would look to something better like a Fostex 8".

Dave

 

Part of the fun of a design like this..., posted on February 5, 2011 at 04:41:44
DavidLD
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...is to take a most commonplace (aka cheap) very ordinary driver and make it sound way better than it has any right to...The Fostex no doubt would work and maybe work well. But there is something special in DIY in coming up with a speaker that sounds way better than it ever should given the parts. If people have really low expectations, then they are much more easily amazed and impressed.

In DIY, as in commercial speakers, a lot of guys in the backs of their head believe that drivers and parts that cost more just have to obviously sound better too, everything else equal. Its fun to mess with DIY guys in this regard, and nothing better to try than a Gough design with a Goldwood full-ranger. If you read the original Pop Science article on Gough and his design, he absolutely delighted in messing with the so-called audiophiles in 1961 this way. That he seemingly broke all the rules in his enclosure design made it even more fun.

 

RE: Part of the fun of a design like this..., posted on February 7, 2011 at 13:31:09
Crazy Dave
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You have to go with what works for you!

Dave

 

RE: Part of the fun of a design like this..., posted on February 6, 2011 at 08:10:30
Bold Eagle
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Location: America's Heartland
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I re-learned my lesson on this when a pair of very stock Advents absolutely blew away a pair of B&W 602.2's with a B&W ASW500 sub. It wasn't even close; Kevlar cones, Nautilus tweeter, and dimpled ports notwithstanding.

Jerry

 

RE: My Unusual Speaker Enclosures, Pics, posted on February 3, 2011 at 09:37:25
Godzilla.
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Thanks for sharing. It looks like an interesting design with high WAF. I actually like that it can be closed up when not in use. Neat!

 

RE: My Unusual Speaker Enclosures, Pics, posted on February 3, 2011 at 07:41:21
Crazy Dave
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Speakers like this came into the thrift shop that I volunteer at. It was a homemade version, but it was very well built. It had 8" EV full range speakers in it and sounding suprisingly good. I liked it but I did not have room for the cabinet. (You not supposed to buy stuff from the store unless you plan to use it.) I priced it and put on the floor. Some lucky person got it for a very low price.

Dave

 

RE: My Unusual Speaker Enclosures, Pics, posted on February 3, 2011 at 08:08:37
The Virginian
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I am using a 14 watt, Eico HF-81 and they do sound great. I'm still evaluating them as Ive had them less than a week. I was surprised how good the highs are. Bass is good and tight, not super deep, great mids. Haven't listened enough to give a good review yet though. There are quality home built as well with a nice finish. I might take some pics of the baffling later. Thanks for the comments.

 

RE: My Unusual Speaker Enclosures, Pics, posted on February 4, 2011 at 08:10:04
Crazy Dave
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Location: East Coast
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From what I recall, the baffling was an elaborate back-loaded horn; which gave very good quality but not very low base. As you noted, they were very efficient. Other than the ones I saw, and you post, I have not seen any mention of this design. It is quite interesting and has surprisingly good performance. I wish I had had the room for them! I hope someone is enjoying the ones I saw!

Dave

 

RE: My Unusual Speaker Enclosures, Pics, posted on February 4, 2011 at 08:32:20
Doug G.
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Location: Upper Midwest
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Actually, they are not elaborate at all. There are just two vertical partitions on either side of the driver which extend down to about 6" from the bottom panel.

And then, the two outside side panels extend up from the bottom to about 6" from the top.

Doug

 

RE: My Unusual Speaker Enclosures, Pics, posted on February 4, 2011 at 09:32:46
Crazy Dave
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Location: East Coast
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I saw the plans above. Since I could not disasemble them, I assumed they were more elaborate. If I recall correctly, on the pair I stested, the backloaded area was stuffed, making it more a transmission line.

Dave

 

RE: My Unusual Speaker Enclosures, Pics, posted on February 4, 2011 at 21:07:01
Doug G.
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Posts: 925
Location: Upper Midwest
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The guys who listened to them at Popular Science thought they sounded a little tubby or boxy when the cabinets were left bare wood inside. They put some pieces of fiberglass in them and said they sounded better.

They didn't stuff them, though.

When I built mine, I just kind of laid some fiberglass in there loosely.

Doug

 

RE: My Unusual Speaker Enclosures, Pics, posted on February 2, 2011 at 21:30:20
The Virginian
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Location: Virginia USA
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Here is a link to more pics if interested.

 

RE: My Unusual Speaker Enclosures, Pics, posted on February 2, 2011 at 22:47:58
henrybasstardo
Audiophile

Posts: 1690
Joined: June 25, 2003
Thanks for the pictures

Cool design

I can't comment of the baffle design sorry.

I can say I'm jealous you have two!!
Good for you. I need to find another Jensen Concerto speaker for stereo.

I imagine they are efficient. What are you driving them with?
Little SET EL84 amp would probably be enough.

Nice finish too

Thanks again for sharing sorry I couldn't be more help.

 

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