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Allison One woofers


SC.SimiValley

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17 hours ago, SC.SimiValley said:

Have 4 Allison One 10" woofers that need complete reconing.  Free to anyone who would want to undertake that project.  I replaced with Hertz DS 250.3 woofers.  Perfect drop in replacement.  Bought my One's around 1980 in Woodland Hills, Calif. and its nice to have the bass back.

At the end of the day, all that matters is that you’re satisfied!

That being said, the replacements you put in are wildly different automotive application subwoofer drivers where the only spec. That matches RA’s originals is the 4ohm.

If I were you I would hang on to those originals for a period of time, as you may grow weary 😮💨 of those car subs.

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You may be right. I’ve only had these woofers for a week, so time will tell. They still sound good to my non-audiophile ear.  I recently retired and was horrified to discover the deterioration in the Allison woofers that hadn’t been played for awhile.  Rebuilding did not seem to be an option that I wanted to get into so I looked for the simple solution of just replacing the woofers with something I could put in myself.  I made some charts and compared available woofers with the Allison specs posted online.  It was immediately apparent that I would not be able to duplicate the originals.  This meant I would have to be satisfied with something that was different.  Not wanting to do any cabinet work, my first criteria was fit.  It seems many 10” woofers are too large for the Allison grill boards. That narrowed my choices considerably. The Hertz were not in my price range, but as luck would have it, a pair popped up on Ebay and then Amazon for about 1/3 of retail. The specs don’t seem to be that far off, even exceeding the originals in some areas.  I’m not a speaker builder so I can only relate to what I’ve read online as to what is important.  They are different but that may not be a bad thing.  At any rate, they work, so I feel successful.  Of course, ignorance is bliss. Thanks for your input.

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1 hour ago, SC.SimiValley said:

You may be right. I’ve only had these woofers for a week, so time will tell. They still sound good to my non-audiophile ear.  I recently retired and was horrified to discover the deterioration in the Allison woofers that hadn’t been played for awhile.  Rebuilding did not seem to be an option that I wanted to get into so I looked for the simple solution of just replacing the woofers with something I could put in myself.  I made some charts and compared available woofers with the Allison specs posted online.  It was immediately apparent that I would not be able to duplicate the originals.  This meant I would have to be satisfied with something that was different.  Not wanting to do any cabinet work, my first criteria was fit.  It seems many 10” woofers are too large for the Allison grill boards. That narrowed my choices considerably. The Hertz were not in my price range, but as luck would have it, a pair popped up on Ebay and then Amazon for about 1/3 of retail. The specs don’t seem to be that far off, even exceeding the originals in some areas.  I’m not a speaker builder so I can only relate to what I’ve read online as to what is important.  They are different but that may not be a bad thing.  At any rate, they work, so I feel successful.  Of course, ignorance is bliss. Thanks for your input.

It sounds like you’re “OK” then….

From my experience with the 10” Allison drivers, I can tell you that obtaining originals became problematic as far back as 1995. Between then and 2000 the company made the I’ll fated relaunch attempt and failed again. 
Right now I continue to run the IC20, which has woofers very similar to your original A1, (I had them also, bought new in 77.)

I bit the bullet over 9 years ago and had those woofers professionally redone.

 

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I have been oblivious to the audio world for the last couple of decades.  Only learned of Allison Acoustics demise when I started looking for the replacement woofers.  Also discovered Audio magazine ceased publication in 2000.   Always looked forward to their October equipment directory ( I still have the Oct. 1999 issue).   IC20's must be awesome.   Although they would be too much for my skinny arms to move around.   When ever I move the One's,  I sometimes think,  maybe I should have purchased the lighter weight Two's,  which I auditioned at the same time.  Naw!   I made the right choice and you probably did too. 

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37 minutes ago, SC.SimiValley said:

I have been oblivious to the audio world for the last couple of decades.  Only learned of Allison Acoustics demise when I started looking for the replacement woofers.  Also discovered Audio magazine ceased publication in 2000.   Always looked forward to their October equipment directory ( I still have the Oct. 1999 issue).   IC20's must be awesome.   Although they would be too much for my skinny arms to move around.   When ever I move the One's,  I sometimes think,  maybe I should have purchased the lighter weight Two's,  which I auditioned at the same time.  Naw!   I made the right choice and you probably did too. 

The Allison:One was my first from the company and a quantum leap from The AR 2ax that was my first Hi Fidelity Loudspeaker. The ones played infinitely louder and clearer, no doubt going from six to twelve drivers had all to do with that. In the 35 years that I drove them, from records (no such thing yet as a CD 💿 player,) right up to being part of a full blown “Allison” home theater system, I never seriously considered replacing them with anything else. That was no easy task with the company gone belly up, but I got it done.

Regarding moving heavy speakers around; I took a ride up to Sears (now gone) over 9 years ago and bought a neat little folding hand truck. A savior, to be sure!

 

Bill

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Good move.  I'm using those plastic furniture sliders now.  As I recall, I used to just pick the A1's up and move them around.  Not trying that anymore.  I play classical music through old Yamaha separates.  CD's and KUSC on the tuner.  My turntable is in use by my daughter who has recently discovered vinyl.  She is playing them through a Yamaha receiver and a pair of KEF bookshelf speakers.  My next experiment will be to connect a Chromebox computer to my preamp and see how music from the internet sounds on the Allison's.  

 

Steve

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17 hours ago, SC.SimiValley said:

Good move.  I'm using those plastic furniture sliders now.  As I recall, I used to just pick the A1's up and move them around.  Not trying that anymore.  I play classical music through old Yamaha separates.  CD's and KUSC on the tuner.  My turntable is in use by my daughter who has recently discovered vinyl.  She is playing them through a Yamaha receiver and a pair of KEF bookshelf speakers.  My next experiment will be to connect a Chromebox computer to my preamp and see how music from the internet sounds on the Allison's.  

 

Steve

You won’t be disappointed In streaming with the Allison’s (been doing that for years….)

I stream mainly with A UHPH1 Sony high resolution Blu-ray player.

The Allison’s do the same thing they always do, provided they are maintained in restored original condition….If source material is great you’ll know and equally so if the material is bad.

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