newandold

They are very old, so it should not be surprising to find more than one driver failing. The least invasive way to figure it out is to remove the grilles and allow music material to play softly enough to get your ear close to each driver, to figure out which ones are low, distorting or dead. For my part, I would want to pull the drivers and check every internal connection. Bill

I would also try the fuse swap as suggested by the previous poster and also run the spectral balance control all the way in both directions and listen for a smooth transition. However beyond that, you (or someone familiar with the LST,) will need to evaluate each driver and array to determine where the drop in output is coming from. Not as complicated as it is methodical with all those drivers. The sound you describe from the midrange is indicative of a driver failing (or possibly the fuse). Bill

Hi Chris, You’re right! I had the older, original lineup of Allisons in mind. (None of the cones from my A1’s (1977) were coated. All of the smaller woofers I’ve seen and Owned from the eighties and nineties were coated. I have the AL 115s, close in age to your LCs and the newer NL1440. That being said, it’s always the surrounds that go. Spiders get weak and loose compliance also. I have had both spiders and surrounds replaced in all my systems between 2012 and 2016. The quest to stay “new” continues.,...

Really, I never saw the Allison woofer cones coated until I bought a replacement woofer for an Allison One around 1994. Big changes by then within the company and that woofer (though it sounded perfectly fine) had the entire surface surround and all shiny coated. It looked different from the originals but not nearly as far of a departure as what happened later in 2000 when David Faulkner bought the company and tried to jump start it. From what I’ve seen over the years, any coating applied to the surrounds has done nothing to add to the longevity, only wishful thinking. Just a gooey mess with the surrounds rotting and the coating separating from the foam. Right now, I’m a “ crash test dummy” for all new surrounds on my current Allison’s with no coating on any of the woofer surrounds. They range between 2012 and 2016. We’ll see.... Can’t speak to the tweeters. If you’re happy with the sound then that’s all that matters. For what it’s worth, the foam surrounds of today chemically are supposed to hold up better than the foam of the 70’s and 80’s.... If true that would be the REAL ticket! Bill

The A1 woofer is 4ohm and the 9 is either 8 or 6 (pretty sure) I would send it in...I have sent work to them. They are honest and very reasonable. This way for sure you know what you’ve got!

Let’s hope the simplest answer (dirty contacts) is the correct one. your midrange uses ferrofluid but the tweeter is cooled with silicone grease. It is true that crackling sounds can be indicative of a driver failure, but see how the cleaning goes before sweating it. If it’s cooling material dried up causing the problem, I’m toast too! Not including the subwoofer I’m running 28 Allison drivers in my system.....so far so good. Bill

NOS= “NEW” old stock! (30 plus in your case. The only professional guy I knew Who attempted tweeter repair with no warranty is Long out of it. Some enthusiasts on the forums have done SOME repairs with limited success depending on the issue. Even Allison Acoustics, in their heyday, did not repair tweeters Or midrange drivers for end users. Replacement only.

I recall on the Yahoo forum some guys went for the Madisound tweeter as an alternative. I personally wouldn’t go there....the Original Allison tweeter and midrange define the “Allison” sound. Without that, it’s no longer an Allison Loudspeaker. The seller should make good to you. Putting aside the “autosound” debate, those labels show the point of origin as the Framingham Ma. Location and nothing Allison has come out of there in over 30 years, so you’ve got some seriously NOS on your hands. Is there any evidence of corrosion around the protective screen? Yours may have deteriorated simply by being in a box for decades. There are many Used versions Of the Allison two way tweeter (some without the screens) that are interchangeable with the 110. They’ve been listed many times before, but I’d be happy to list them again if the seller fails you. Bill

Chris, Have you contacted your Ebay seller to explain to him what’s going on with that tweeter and the system you’re using it in? Bill

Doesn’t sound like a capacitor problem. Are these CD 8’s or the original Allison Eight? Any restoration done on the drivers? Before trying anything with caps., the slope switches should be cleaned first. The symptoms you describe are indicative of poor contact within those switches. You’ll need some Deoxit and Dust Off or equivalent. The Original Eight has a slider switch that is virtually self clearing by sliding back and forth many, many times. If you do this with soft music playing, you will hear the sound “recover” to normal. The CD8 has toggle switches that could be tricky to clean, but the same kind of operation applies. You can also pull a driver to get to the backside of the switches.

Hi Brian, That Ebay seller has been out there for a number of years with his NOS inventory of Allison midrange and tweeter drivers with that infamous “automotive” designation. There was never an Allison full range automotive loudspeaker, or loudspeaker system (example, like a Bose branded system) that ever got off the ground. Bill

Allison Acoustics was never involved with anything thing “automotive”. That being said, when the company went out of business MAYBE someone outside of the company decided those tweeters fit another spec. close enough and bought them up for resale (pure speculation). You probably just got a lemon....try swapping it out with the tweet in the other cabinet and you should have your answer. Bear in mind those NOS tweeters have been sitting around for 20 years at least and could very well be older than that. Look for signs of corrosion/rust where the screen attaches....some tweeters fell victim to that. Bill

I was 63 when I saw an ENT specialist and had my hearing checked by the audiologist. I have a hearing loss in my right ear...not terrible, mostly less sensitivity in that ear, but what you describe is what I hear and It doesn’t matter which speaker I listen to. The result of an inner ear infection, it did improve but not quite what it was. Bill

Even more interesting to me would be how many IC 10’s we’re actually built back in the day. The cabinets were outsourced just as the 20’s were, and the 20’s were 100 cabinets in total. The IC 10 probably wins the prize for the most unknown and least produced loudspeaker ever to come out of the company. As seen here in the thread, there was a printed spec. sheet on the loudspeaker, available from the factory, but never the typical sales brochure that could be had of any other model. Bill

Hi Lance, The biggest difference with that gear will most likely come from swapping the preamps and not as much the amplification. Not better or worse (different for sure). I would want to live for a while with the Carver preamp and the Quads. If that combo yields the better result, you’ve got amplification backup and that’s great with older gear to avoid down time. Bill

With social distancing in play, probably sending them out is still your best bet. MillerSound had said recently no more Allison repairs, but perhaps he would still do woofers, since that is the most generic service of those 3 driver types. I had also used Simply Speakers for an Allison. Sorry I’m taking you even farther away. They’re in Florida but similarly priced to Legall. Bill

It would be a great match for the AR but I agree, the age may be working against you. If you can get it with a money back guarantee and not over 250/300, You should get your money’s worth out of it. I ran Bridged Carvers for 13 years with Big Allisons ( very similar in power demands to the AR. That’s only a part of my 43 years Using Bob Carver Amps. Bill

It’s been around 22 years now since the writing was on the wall for Allison Acoustics. back then, I needed a woofer for an Allison One and realized the company was failing. Six weeks of waiting and inquiring, then finally, two woofers that looked nothing like the originals showed up here. Fast forward, I got familiar with the Ebay marketplace around the same time. What a wonderful thing in retrospect, that I was able to keep an ongoing search there for anything “Allison” , until I built up a satisfactory stash of parts (mostly drivers) to keep the sound going for a lifetime beyond the demise of the company. Currently, I’m maintaining a 29 driver surround system that’s all Allison, except for one which is the Velodyne Subwoofer. Velodyne is dead also....that company has left audio and put their resources into autonomous vehicle technology of all things! Bill

Ebay is your best bet, though even there, whatever’s left that’s Allison has slowed to a crawl. Bill

What speakers are you using in place of the A4’s?

I’m not sure there are enough of us left to form a consensus! (Just kiddin) On the surrounds, if your intention is to do it yourself. Foam not rubber and roll radius as close to original as possible but don’t sweat it. You have damaged cones? Bill

www.millersound.net You need to talk with them first. They say no longer repairing Allison but they’ll probably handle the woofer reconing without an issue. The big deal with the Fours are the 4 tweeters. So rare and hard to find replacements. I would want to be sure I have 4 running tweeters before I recone the woofers which are easier to have repaired.

I had the same problem with a different model, but worth considering. Low frequency rattle driving me crazy. Turned out to be the crossover (glued to the cab. Interior) had come away an was flapping away inside, causing the noise. Bill

What did Yogi say?? “Deja VU all over again?” AR was so far ahead of the curve. and affordable to boot. Bill

I meant 120’s in general, not the surrounds on your particular pair. The pictures are pretty good, and yours look to be intact, but time is against you. After 20 years or so the foam really starts breaking down. Once you loose the air seal of the surrounds the bass deteriorates along with them. Bill