austingonzo Posted May 15, 2019 Report Share Posted May 15, 2019 Hello all, I have recently purchased a pair of CD-7's in the Greater Austin, Texas, area from a Craigslist seller. These speakers are my entry into vintage audio. My acquisition price was $150. They are in very good condition, and are sequential serials. One front grill is missing, and a top grill has a slice in it. I had done sufficient research prior to auditioning them to know to check the cones and surrounds, all of which were in very good shape. They have expected cosmetic dings, but should clean up nicely with some polish. I expect to purchase modern grills from Etsy. While they sounded very good placed against the wall in my challenging listening area, with some male vocal recordings I noticed that the vocals didn't coalesce as well as could be expected, so yesterday I took them into Texasound, a local outfit that specializes in vintage speaker repair. http://texasound.blogspot.com/?m=1 Upon initial review with Lou at Texasound, he informed me that the surrounds appeared to have been replaced during the past 10 years, and it was even possible he had done the work himself. I'll have Lou bench test them to see if any caps need replacement, or if the problem is more due to my source material or recapped 90's-era Rotel AVR. Thanks to this forum for maintaining information about the Allison lineup. I hope to get many years of enjoyment from these speakers. austingonzo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austingonzo Posted May 15, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2019 By the way, is the Yahoo Group still in existence; or was that forum and its archives lost to the ether? I haven't ventured on to a Yahoo group in at least 5 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newandold Posted May 15, 2019 Report Share Posted May 15, 2019 10 hours ago, austingonzo said: By the way, is the Yahoo Group still in existence; or was that forum and its archives lost to the ether? I haven't ventured on to a Yahoo group in at least 5 years. Someone from the Allison Speakers Yahoo! Group contacted me several months ago because there was a spirited discussion going on there involving the IC20’s. He said I was “missing out”, but I had too many problems with Yahoo (a shame, not the group itself) to go back there again. In lieu of the spam risk, there is (or was) a lot more Allison going on there, than here. Can you post a picture....I’m interested in seeing the tweeters in Your speakers. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austingonzo Posted May 15, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2019 Hi Bill, Yeah, I figured Yahoo Groups was still active, if limping along. I had a profile for years that became impossible to manage after several changes of primary email addresses, redirects, etc.; but I still get email notifications from a local Astronomical Society Yahoo Group. So, even when you think you've shut down your profile, Yahoo continues on autopilot. Even with the security risks associated with the Groups, I may actually have to see if I can reactivate my profile and register for the Allison group. As I indicated, I put the CD-7's "in the shop" so to speak. Texasound will likely take a week or two to get to them. I didn't take detailed pictures of the tweeters before I dropped them off, and what few pictures I have I will need to resize down to the lower quality supported by this forum. I tried uploading a couple with my original post, but hit that 200MB limit immediately. I had posted pics to Reddit and to a local Austin Audiophile group page on Facebook. I don't know if this forum permits redirection links, but I'll see if I can add them. Otherwise you might need to wait a week or two for detailed pics of the tweets. Many thanks, austingonzo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austingonzo Posted May 15, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2019 Reddit post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austingonzo Posted May 15, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2019 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austingonzo Posted May 15, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2019 I took videos of music playing on them in my space with my LG V30 phone, but I've never actually created a YouTube account where I can upload them. I may see if I can share a link to a public Google Drive or OneDrive share. The problem with that option, I assume, is that the permalinks may eventually disappear. I wonder if the moderators have recommendations for how best to deal with this issue? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newandold Posted May 15, 2019 Report Share Posted May 15, 2019 11 minutes ago, austingonzo said: Reddit post Hello austingonzo, Hard to characterize the sound you’re getting....seeing the tweets just to be sure they are correct. The crossovers, if unaltered, should be fine with the original capacitors (very high quality). I m running all originals without issues. Are you certain both tweeters were operational? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austingonzo Posted May 15, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2019 I'm trusting that TexaSound won't mess with them if they bench well, Bill. Let me see if I can figure out how to post links to videos or PM you a shared link. As I said, they could be fine and the issue is due to hearing loss on my part, room acoustics, source, performance of the Rotel, etc. It's sometimes hard to say with so many elements in the chain. My troubleshooting skills are better on computers than audio gear, unfortunately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newandold Posted May 15, 2019 Report Share Posted May 15, 2019 5 minutes ago, austingonzo said: I'm trusting that TexaSound won't mess with them if they bench well, Bill. Let me see if I can figure out how to post links to videos or PM you a shared link. As I said, they could be fine and the issue is due to hearing loss on my part, room acoustics, source, performance of the Rotel, etc. It's sometimes hard to say with so many elements in the chain. My troubleshooting skills are better on computers than audio gear, unfortunately. Ok... I was able to view the front facing shot with the grill off. That is the correct tweeter. Those speakers look beautiful in that shot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austingonzo Posted May 15, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2019 Allison CD-7 The LG V30 has good microphones, but I did not really try to calibrate the recordings. Hopefully you can get some idea of their current performance. Again, I'm hoping to just get a little more out of them across more of the recordings and genres I listen to. Again, I appreciate this forum greatly. I sent TexaSound the crossover schematics and the product line driver specs, etc., last night. So I hope they have better information to use when testing them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austingonzo Posted May 15, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2019 1 hour ago, newandold said: Someone from the Allison Speakers Yahoo! Group contacted me several months ago because there was a spirited discussion going on there involving the IC20’s. He said I was “missing out”, but I had too many problems with Yahoo (a shame, not the group itself) to go back there again. In lieu of the spam risk, there is (or was) a lot more Allison going on there, than here. Can you post a picture....I’m interested in seeing the tweeters in Your speakers. Bill Okay, I've broken down and submitted a request to join the Yahoo group after retrieving my old profile. Down the rabbit hole I go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newandold Posted May 15, 2019 Report Share Posted May 15, 2019 40 minutes ago, austingonzo said: Okay, I've broken down and submitted a request to join the Yahoo group after retrieving my old profile. Down the rabbit hole I go! Ha Ha...……………(you can tell them I say "hi") Even on my iPhone I could hear your tweeters ! That is a very "live" sounding room, with hard wood area rug and so on. (of course no critical listening evaluation.) With some hearing loss (or without) voices can become harder to stand out in such a reverberant field. Some acoustic panel treatment on the walls could help that. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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