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Found these Goodmans EE-4410


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I was in the middle of my regular evening bike ride and spotted a pair of speakers out for trash pickup.  I drove back to get a closer look at them and in the dark decided to take them home for further inspection.  Long story short, this is a pair of Goodmans EE-4410 speakers, labeled as "A Design Product of Elite/Goodmans of England".  These probably represent a fairly low brow, low end of the market at the time and lack the features of a better quality speaker but they have some interesting points, both good and bad.

First, the bad:  While Goodmans seems to have started as a reputable English company, they clearly outsourced these. It's not clear where they were made or who made them. This pair is mismatched.  The tweeters are placed differently even though they both have the same grills and fabric.  The "INSPECTED" stamps on the back are different. The instalaltion of the tweeters is really sloppy, with black adhesive goo originally slopped all over them, as shown in the tweeter photo below. The tweeters were installed rotated to different positions. The cabinets had a single 1" thick layer of yellow fiberglass insulation inside.  The particle board and veneer has some staining and damage in some places.  The capacitors on one unit had been replaced but with the wrong values compared to the other speaker.  The 'crossovers' are only capacitors, with no inductors or other components or controls.  The tweeter screws are differnt sizes between the 2 units.

The good:  The date stamp on one grill shows 1970 which is exactly what they look like.  All of the drivers were 100% intact and had good ohm readings. The woofer surrounds are accordion type, not rubber, so they did not fall apart.  The woofer dust caps are somehow not damaged.  The model number stickers are totally intact.  One of the paper cone tweeters does have a couple of small holes in it, but the backs of the tweeters are entirely sealed, entirely metal across the back.

The work:  I gently cleaned the veneer and have been rubbing in a furniture polish made from bees wax, lemon oil, and mineral oil.  I have used XXXX steel wool a couple of times.  The wood looks beautiful in spite of some of the damage on the corner and other staining.  I removed all the drivers, replaced the capacitors with new 2.2 and 4 uF ones (each of the two tweeters per cabinet uses a different value capacitor), sanded the front driver mounting board to remove the black adhesive drips and 50 years of grime. I removed the rear wire terminals, removed all the dried black goo from them, and used epoxy to glue the terminal plate back in place.  I sanded and cleaned the rear driver mounting surfaces to remove the black adhesive and used foam tape to make an air tight seal.  I sanded the screws and painted them black.   The grills were originally stapled on, so I removed all those staples and stapled on 4 velcro pads and hot glued velcro to the back sizes of the grills.  I reinstalled the tweeters so they're not rotated. I re-soldered all connections.  I replaced the fiberglass with polyfill, managing to get 1 pound in each cabinet which was tight.  Finally, I had some spare cedar so I made a set of angled stands because I love a good woodworking project.

The sound:  I can't give these a proper listen because I'm waiting on a new amplifier, but with a cheap amplifier I am impressed with the sound.  I will be able to compre these to something of a known good quality, but that will have to wait.  They produce some real bass and good highs, but I am not able to judge the overall sound with an accurate, critical ear yet.

The company:  I had never heard of Goodmans, and I don't know if these were sold in the US or if these moved here with someone.  Goodmans started in England in 1931 making speakers and after WWI was making earphones and also speakers by the 1950's.  By the 70's the company had different owners over the years but  by 1973 was making 95,000 speakers a week. In 1985 the 60th anniverserary was reached, and Thorne EMI was still the owner at the time.  I don't know what happend to them after that.

Goodmans EE-4410 after (1).jpg

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Goodmans EE-4410 after (11).jpg

Goodmans EE-4410 after (12).jpg

sloppy construction.jpg

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Nice job on those cabinets!

Goodmans is a respected English speaker brand (so you'll find more over on AK instead of here where the focus is on NEW England). I recently refurbished a pair of EE60s for a friend but neglected to take photos. He had purchased them 40+ years ago and they had absolutely no identifying markings. In fact, he thought they were "Max-Sonic" or some such ridiculous-sounding name. Fortunately he had kept a sheet of literature that gave the whole run-down.

As I recall, his were similar to yours inside. Two caps, no other crossover. Minimal damping. Crappy speaker terminals. I replaced the caps and installed 5-way binding posts. Also repaired a torn mid and a torn tweeter, glued copies of the spec sheet on the backs and ordered a pair of repro Goodmans grille badges.

He has them stacked with a pair of Altec 890C speakers I had previously refurbed and he's loving the setup.

Enjoy yours!

Goodmans EE-60 resized.jpg

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