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anyone tried to "clone" snell type C ?


Guest tordnilsson

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Guest tordnilsson

Hello I´m a happy owner of a pair Snell EII and like these speakers a lot, but I´m very interested in trying to "clone" Snell type C -not the later models, only the first type C.

The reason why, is because there is almost impossible to find type C in my country ( Sweden )for sale so I´m wondering if this is possible and if there are some helpful and kind people who would like to give me some advice and tips ?

/ Tord

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  • 2 months later...

Probably WAY late in responding to this, and I don't have much value to add, BUT when has any of this stopped me from doing anything... ;)

I owned a pair of Cis for more than 10 years. I LOVED them. Great speaker. They had best bass performance of any speaker, subwoofers included, I've owned, or even had in my living room, and some of the best bass quality and quantity of any speaker I've ever heard.

Soundstage and imaging are excellent. The E series of speakers is still an excellent speaker by any standard. I've spend many an hour enjoying my brother's E/IIs, and it's was an audition of the E/III that lead me to want to seek out a pair of Cs. The C/i is signficantly better speaker than either the E/II or E/III.

I have a pair of C/Vs that I bought thinking I was bettering my old C/is, but I like the C/is better than the C/Vs.

The foam woofer surrounds started to fail, and I felt like after a long period of ownership and enjoyment, I just wanted to move on to something different. I sold them to someone who carefully, deftly repaired the surrounds and reported back to me that the speakers were the finest he'd ever owned. Yeah. I can believe that.

It's interesting to watch the evolution of the Snell C, from the original C to the C/V. I like the original C the best. I've thought about looking to buy another pair, but I don't want to deal with the foam woofer surrounds, which all have to be rotted by now (and the woofers were mass-load tuned with a lump of epoxy-looking looking stuff in the center of the cone, so removing and replacing the spider dust caps in the course of a typical surround replacement isn't so straight forward), Snell's $400/woofer replacement cost, shipping a pair across country, and I haven't seen that many for sale locally.

The original Snell C. GREAT speaker. I think it could even be a bit better with a tweak here an there, like even just getting rid of the electrolytics in the woofer circuit and providing spiking provision. Somebody clone it!

- SJ

P.S. - I do have a copy of the schematic from Snell, and I've document the crossover and driver brands. I don't have full technical details on the drivers, or deep details on construction, unfortunately.

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Guest tordnilsson

Hello !

Thank you for your answer, and it would be VERY intresting to se your specs and notes for type C-speaker !

(I have posted a message to you)

/ Tord

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  • 5 months later...

I am a happy owner of Snell Ci. I bought them on eBay earlier this year, the woofer has been refoamed and is in excellent condition. The only problem i have is lack of bass.. belive it or not.. the deep bass VERY good, but the upper bass freqense are missing. My uncle have the Snell C, and after what i can see they are 100% identical, only the Snell Ci have a rear tweeter.

Im guessing my bass problems is 1 out of 2 things, or both: 1. Bad room, 2. Lack of amp power, i run them on bi-wire on a Denon 3806 surround reciver. teoreticly 2 x 240 watts (using 2 120watt channels). What i rellay want is a monster amp in bi-amp, atleast 2 x 200watt, like Nakamichi Stasis MKII ect..

But i KNOW this is a GREAT speaker and im really looking forward to getting out all its potensial.

About the specs, i acually have some info.

Model Type Ci

Years in Production 1985-1989

Original Price per Pair $1890.00

Power Rating in Watts 80-400 watt

Frequency Response 35Hz-22kHz

Impedance 4 ohm

Sensitivity 90 hz

Dimensions 44x13x15

Woofer 10"

Mid 5"

Tweeter 1"

Rear Tweeter 1"

Cloning a Snell C... wow.. an iteresting thought... What about using the original boxes, and change the woofer, tweeter, mid, with new elements that snell is using in newer models? I would love to hear the results...

Snell rocks...

rock on

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  • 2 months later...
Guest tordnilsson

Hello again !

After a lot of time and energy I have found 1 pair of Snell C "old school" with serialnumber 8XXX, I think this is an early version..!!

In excellent condition ! And they are mine now !

- Sounds Super !

The search is over, just have to relax an play music - nothing else !

See Ya / Tord

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  • 1 month later...
Hello again !

After a lot of time and energy I have found 1 pair of Snell C "old school" with serialnumber 8XXX, I think this is an early version..!!

In excellent condition ! And they are mine now !

- Sounds Super !

The search is over, just have to relax an play music - nothing else !

See Ya / Tord

Hey, Tord!

Congratulations on acquiring a pair of old school Cs. Are they Cs? Cis? Where'd you get them? What're your impressions? From you post it sounds you're loving them. Still loving them after a bit more time with them?

Cheers,

- SJ

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  • 3 years later...

Hi guys, I've read a lot of postings about how many people appreciate the late 80's Snell Type Ci's. I have owned my pair since the early 90's (bought them from a high-end stereo place in Santa Barbara, CA). I have never heard better speakers- maybe I haven't gotten out enough, but these things blow me away every time I sit down in front of them...

They are in great condition, except for the common degradation of the 10" sub surrounds. This website provides a very reasonable repair:

http://www.simplyspeakers.com/snell-speaker-foam-edge-repair-kit-fsk-10f.html

I've been bypassing the bass by just amplifying the high-end drivers and using a new sub. It works as a decent band-aid.

These speakers are in awesome condition for being 20+ years old (rear super-tweeters are not perforated, have both original grilles, etc.). The only exception are the recessed 1" hidden stands at the very bottom of the structures- they have a few dents and marks that are only visible if you get on the ground and lift up the speakers.

These things cost $1,900 in 1988 ($3,500 in today's dollars) and I am offering them for $1,200. Local pick-up would be preferable, but I can ship them wherever you want- at your cost.

Check out the pictures. It really makes me... ahem, upset to have to get rid of these "souvenirs" of my past. They're just too big for "our" new place...

Here are the pics... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=646748703&aid=306105

Sean at ssimmendc @ yahoo.com

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