Dynaco Speaker Rediscovery

[thechatterboxman]

Hello--

I am a brand-new member to this forum, and I would like to tell you how much I have enjoyed reading your discussions about Dynaco speakers. I've owned my share of Dynaco gear over the years, (mostly tube stuff,) but I never bothered with any of Dynaco's speakers from "back in the day." I remembered that boatloads of little Dyna speakers were sold back then, but Dyna speakers gained a reputation among people my age for being "fragile." This of course meant that a lot of Dyna speakers died at keg parties when some idiot would decide to commandeer the stereo and and turn the bass control as far to the right as it would go.

About four years ago, I tried to build a dedicated mono system for playing early LP,s 45's etc. Life intervened and the seperate system never got built, but I wound up with a pair of largish Dynaco speakers that were in very nice shape, though I had hoped to find something with a cooler vintage pedigree. I've now dragged these old Dynaco speakers around through two moves in three years, but I never used them as anything other than "setup" speakers to test my main system after our moves.

When I set up my system in our current home in northern Indiana, I managed to snag a large room in a (dry) basement as my sound room. The room is only 13 feet wide, but it is over 30 feet long. I know those are not ideal measurements, but the room is better than some rooms I've had, and I hope to address that issue in the future.

I set up my system and wired up the Dynaco speakers to make sure that everything worked before I hooked up my "good" speakers. I was surprised by the Dynaco's sound quality in this larger room, even though I was using old speaker cables. I pushed the Dyna's hard a couple of times, and they seemed to like being fed clean power by a hefty amp. I pushed them really hard once, just to see how they would sound, and they rocked. (These were my semi-expendable set-up speakers, so I wouldn't have considered it the end of the world if one or both of them had buzzed.) The Dynas sounded good when pushed, but they sounded rather tight at lower volumes, which was almost certainly due to the fact that they have been sitting around for most of the last four years.

Fast-forward a year. My "good" speakers recently developed a problem that is a result of age, even though they are much newer than the Dyna speakers. I set the Dyna speakers up again, just to have something to listen to while I hunt for the now discontinued drivers my main speakers use as subwoofers. This time, the Dyna speakers are being powered with double runs of high-quality speaker wire and are set up off of the floor on rather make-shift, but serviceable stands which are 11 inches high.

In short, I was very surprised by the Dynaco speakers, especially after they had been used for a few days. The speakers began to loosen up and smooth out quite noticably. The slightly muddy, boxy sound I remembered from the setup process went away almost completely. I can see why so many people still like these old speakers and other speakers with the so-called "East Coast" sound. I decided to research the speakers more thoroughly, and see what I could find on them. I hadn't googled them since I bought them, so I thought it was worth another try. That is what brought me here.

After reading all of these posts here about "fused" speakers and "burnt" voice coils, I checked out my speakers more closely. They seem to have survived just fine. The tweeters both work as they should, and the woofers make no noise at all when I press gently on their cones and ease them in and out. It was a slightly amusing to watch one woofer move out when I pressed the other woofer in. The woofers also sound fine when the speakers are playing. In fact, my aging ears like the smooth, yet accurate music the old Dyna speakers are making.

The woofer surrounds are in excellent shape, and the cabinets are very nice too, especially when one considers their age. I sealed the cabinets with multiple coats of Tung Oil when I got the speakers, after I touched up a few small dings on their sharp edges and sanded out some superfical scratches. The grilles are in excellent shape also, with no stains or tears. Both logos are present.

I have read repeatedly that these speakers have a "bass hump" that makes them less desirable than the smaller Dynaco speakers. I don't hear any bass hump. Maybe the big room helps avoid that. The speakers also MUST be off of the floor. Otherwise, you are wasting your time.

I promise never to write another post this long. I just thought that I would share my journey from ignorance to appreciatiation of what these old Dynaco speakers can do. I considered trying to "update" them, but I am increasingly leaning towards leaving them alone and just enjoying them for what they are.

Randy

[Carlspeak]

Hello--

..........

I have read repeatedly that these speakers have a "bass hump" that makes them less desirable than the smaller Dynaco speakers. I don't hear any bass hump. Maybe the big room helps avoid that. The speakers also MUST be off of the floor. Otherwise, you are wasting your time.

I promise never to write another post this long. I just thought that I would share my journey from ignorance to appreciatiation of what these old Dynaco speakers can do. I considered trying to "update" them, but I am increasingly leaning towards leaving them alone and just enjoying them for what they are.

Randy

What model are you writing about? You didn't say. I have a pair of 25's with SS drivers and a pair of 10's to restore. My plan is to update the crossovers, take some measurements and post the results here. It will be interesting to see if that hump is present in the speakers I have. I can confirm the presence of a small hump in AR4x's; many of which I have measured. I suspect it's there for good reason, to give these 'little guys' some needed bass emphasis.

[thechatterboxman]

My speakers are A-50's. Sorry for the omission. It was very late when I wrote my post.

Randy

[thechatterboxman]

Maybe there is a bass hump and I just haven't zeroed in on it yet, becaue the speakers sound so much better than I expected.

[dynaco_dan]

Hello--

I am a brand-new member to this forum, and I would like to tell you how much I have enjoyed reading your discussions about Dynaco speakers.

I've owned my share of Dynaco gear over the years, (mostly tube stuff,)

COM..... Very good value and sound quality.

but I never bothered with any of Dynaco's speakers from "back in the day." I remembered that boatloads of little Dyna speakers were sold back then,

COM..... Over 1,000,000 Dynaco A-25's alone.

but Dyna speakers gained a reputation among people my age for being "fragile." This of course meant that a lot of Dyna speakers died at keg parties when some idiot would decide to commandeer the stereo and and turn the bass control as far to the right as it would go.

COM..... Fragile is not correct as you've noted already. They cannot take more than 5 or so watts long term but can handle maybe 100 watt

instantaneous peaks. I saw many, far too many burnt A-25 woofer voice coils caused mostly by Dynaco SCA-80, 80Q and Stereo 120 and even

smaller amps.Almost all claimants said they did not have them too loud. Dynaco and some other manufactureres claimed you can use the full

output of most every household amplifier with their speakers. Their message was not including heavy rock, etc. This was not initially made

abundantly clear to the consumer who maybe was high and wondered why the volume control stopped so low and didn't keep turning more. Also

the loudness control bass boost didn't help any.

I remember many customers trying to lie but their nose kept growing longer and longer as their story unfolded. LOL

About four years ago, I tried to build a dedicated mono system for playing early LP,s 45's etc. Life intervened and the seperate system never got built, but I wound up with a pair of largish Dynaco speakers that were in very nice shape, though I had hoped to find something with a cooler vintage pedigree. I've now dragged these old Dynaco speakers around through two moves in three years, but I never used them as anything other than "setup" speakers to test my main system after our moves.

When I set up my system in our current home in northern Indiana, I managed to snag a large room in a (dry) basement as my sound room. The room is only 13 feet wide, but it is over 30 feet long. I know those are not ideal measurements, but the room is better than some rooms I've had, and I hope to address that issue in the future.

COM..... Dry is very good in fact. I am no expert with anything but if i remember room issues it was that the non-ideal dimensions are a ratio of f

or example;. Height 8' x width 16' x 24' long. The dimensions here are far from ideal. assuming your ceiling is 8' high your dimensions are much

better than average and will support bass better. I am not rtalking about construction material which is another story for later. If your entire room is

concrete including the ceiling then you would have a very nice solid room for bass support at least.

I set up my system and wired up the Dynaco speakers to make sure that everything worked before I hooked up my "good" speakers. I was surprised by the Dynaco's sound quality in this larger room, even though I was using old speaker cables.

COM..... Old cables are not necessarily a bad thing. Check the wire insulation for cracking from age or heat, then it would need to be replaced.

otherwise keep using it. If you should need new wire, 18/2 lamp cord would be a suggested minimum guage. An open sytyle fuseholder with a 1

1/2 amp glass fast blow fuse would be from Dynaco's speaker fusing sheet.

I pushed the Dyna's hard a couple of times, and they seemed to like being fed clean power by a hefty amp. I pushed them really hard once, just to see how they would sound, and they rocked. (These were my semi-expendable set-up speakers, so I wouldn't have considered it the end of the world if one or both of them had buzzed.) The Dynas sounded good when pushed, but they sounded rather tight at lower volumes, which was almost certainly due to the fact that they have been sitting around for most of the last four years.

Fast-forward a year. My "good" speakers recently developed a problem that is a result of age, even though they are much newer than the Dyna speakers. I set the Dyna speakers up again, just to have something to listen to while I hunt for the now discontinued drivers my main speakers use as subwoofers.

This time, the Dyna speakers are being powered with double runs of high-quality speaker wire and are set up off of the floor on rather make-shift, but serviceable stands which are 11 inches high.

COM..... I believe that you have the usual 11" height for speakers as the woofer should be as high as possible.

In short, I was very surprised by the Dynaco speakers, especially after they had been used for a few days. The speakers began to loosen up and smooth out quite noticably. The slightly muddy, boxy sound I remembered from the setup process went away almost completely. I can see why so many people still like these old speakers and other speakers with the so-called "East Coast" sound. I decided to research the speakers more thoroughly, and see what I could find on them. I hadn't googled them since I bought them, so I thought it was worth another try. That is what brought me here.

COM..... A few years ago I suggested to Mark that a Dynaco heading would be popular because the Gregdunn site does not have a forum., great

information though.

After reading all of these posts here about "fused" speakers and "burnt" voice coils,

COM..... I've written much previously about these two issues. Remember that any heat damage is cumulative and not self repairing, the same as

our hearing.

I checked out my speakers more closely. They seem to have survived just fine. The tweeters both work as they should, and the woofers make no noise at all when I press gently on their cones and ease them in and out. It was a slightly amusing to watch one woofer move out when I pressed the other woofer in. The woofers also sound fine when the speakers are playing. In fact, my aging ears like the smooth, yet accurate music the old Dyna speakers are making.

COM..... I've written much of my dwindling memory here since it's beginning and still have more to add in the future. Even with my writings

along comes a new visitor and contributes even more information, archival documents, questions or memories which make this all the more

interesting,as a hobby. There has been little, if any Dynaco memos, drawings, etc and hopefully more will surface in the future.

The woofer surrounds are in excellent shape, and the cabinets are very nice too, especially when one considers their age. I sealed the cabinets with multiple coats of Tung Oil when I got the speakers, after I touched up a few small dings on their sharp edges and sanded out some superfical scratches. The grilles are in excellent shape also, with no stains or tears. Both logos are present.

COM..... The surrounds are a rubber/neoprene material and so far have never shown any signs of deterioration as does the foam surrounds. As

far as I am aware they were only made in oiled walnut unlike the A-25 which also had teak veneer and later vinyl finish. Funny thing is that ther is

at least 4 different cabinet internal constrution methods. Some were drawn as opposed to being photographed. Whether there is an auduible

difference remains to be heard. There was even different drivers, both woofers and tweeters. As a side note there was about half a dozen different

A-25's but there again no factory documentation to help us with product and tuimelines.

I have read repeatedly that these speakers have a "bass hump" that makes them less desirable than the smaller Dynaco speakers. I don't hear any bass hump. Maybe the big room helps avoid that. The speakers also MUST be off of the floor. Otherwise, you are wasting your time.

COM..... Dynaco mentioned that the sound will be closer to, an un-mentioned brand and model, an acoustic suspension speaker, rather than

the A-25. They also initially said the woofers should be highest if sat on the floor. Traditional speaker vreviews have the tweeters at ear level,

usually.

I promise never to write another post this long. I just thought that I would share my journey from ignorance to appreciatiation of what these old Dynaco speakers can do. I considered trying to "update" them, but I am increasingly leaning towards leaving them alone and just enjoying them for what they are.

COM..... As you can see I like to chatter a lot, too much, but that is the fun of this hobby. Updating them is usually reserved to replacing burnt r

resistors, if that should ever happen, it's almost unheard of in a Dynaco speaker at least, and replacing the aged capacitors. If the woofers should e

ever be removed from the cabinets, that would be a good time to add some contact cleaner to the switch contacts, which are also never a problem.

More information in the future, Randy.

Randy

[thechatterboxman]

Hello, and thank you for the advice. I am glad to know that I am on the right track as far as stands go. Getting the speakers off of the floor made a big, big improvement.

The speaker wire I was using before is not old enough to be cracked. It just has a harsher sound than what I am using presently. Both types of wire are as big as garden hoses. I am using double runs of my present wire, (Luminous Audio Technology Synchestra Signature wire,) because my speaker wireswere made to fit on a single amplifier binding post, but operate speakers in a biwired configuration. I didn't want loose runs of wire lying on the floor, or elsewhere, even though I put electrical tape over the unused spade lugs until my banana plug adapters arrived. One run of wire is hooked up using spade lugs. The other run is connected with Monster Cable banana plug adapters. That is not an ideal setup, but at least it gets all of my wire on the correct binding posts. The wires are too large, heavy and stiff to connect both runs by using the spade lug connectors.

My amplifier is a two-chassis Coda S100.

I can definitely see damaging speakers with those old Dyna solid-state amps. I loved Dynaco, but their solid state stuff has not "aged" well. In fact, most Dyna solid state gear sounds awful by today's standards, if it hasn't burned up.

My sound room is not all concrete. The floor is, of course, and two walls are. The other walls are wood, and the floor joists in the ceiling are exposed, which helps diffuse the sound.

Has anyone tried stacking A-50's, or is that overkill? Would the driver aarrangement place them too far apart? Supposedly, the efficiency of A-50's matches the effiency of A-25's and the A-35's. Has anyone tried stacking Dynaco speakers? I would be curious to know how it worked out if anyone has done so.

Thanks for the input.

Randy

[thechatterboxman]

Dynaco mentioned that the sound will be closer to, an un-mentioned brand and model, an acoustic suspension speaker, rather than the A-25.

I've heard this also, and have always wondered if Dyna was going after the AR-3 series. That would be a tall order, though a dealer friend of mine told me that AR's are overpriced now, and are no better than the Dynas. I had a pair of AR-2AX's for a while. They seemed okay, but not spectacular. I didn't experiement with them much though, so I won't violate anyone's beliefs in that brand. The AR's hadn't been rebuilt either. Refurbishment seems to be more necessary for AR speakers than for Dynacos.

Randy

[dynaco_dan]

Dynaco mentioned that the sound will be closer to, an un-mentioned brand and model, an acoustic suspension speaker, rather than the A-25.

I've heard this also, and have always wondered if Dyna was going after the AR-3 series. That would be a tall order, though a dealer friend of mine told me that AR's are overpriced now, and are no better than the Dynas. I had a pair of AR-2AX's for a while. They seemed okay, but not spectacular. I didn't experiement with them much though, so I won't violate anyone's beliefs in that brand. The AR's hadn't been rebuilt either. Refurbishment seems to be more necessary for AR speakers than for Dynacos.

Randy

Hi again Randy

I always suspect the motive of a seller who dispairs a good product such as most brands listed on this site in particular.

There has been nothing that I've read about about stacking a pair of specifically Dynaco speakers or any other brand, except perhaps Quad..

Other that the Double Advent setup, from, The Absolute Sound Magazine, which has both cabinets vertically aligned with tweeter to tweeter and

they used a 3 amp fast blow fuse and did not reveal what Dynaco would have recommended. Also posted here is the Dynaco classic speaker

fusing sheet with their suggested fast blow fuses, in the case of the A-50 was 1 1/2 amp.

Last year a member kindly posted here a copy of, Dynamax, a Dynaco multiple stacked speaker system with 4 or more speakers to increase

volume output in not necessarily a stereo environment. I believe that their inference was that it was the AR-3A, but it could have also been the KLH

Twelve or other. There again we do not have any insider documents, yet. Naturally as time goes by, already 30+ years has passed, it gets less

likely that old archival documents will surface here at all. The fact that the 2 previous documents surfaced here is most welcome, even decades

later. In the last few years I've found information about Dynaco scattered everywhere. There are free old manuals dating back to the earliest

electronics, speaker details, solid state and modifications for free. There is no one-stop shop for information and there is a lot of pay per page sold

on the net.

Since I joined here about 7+ years ago I alone have posted more than a few hundred instruction sheets, advertising sheets, reviews, service

information and just about the kitchen sink too.

Tom Tyson, Steve, Carl, Kent, and on and on have graciously posted what they wanted us all to enjoy as well.

We all did this at no charge to anyone, shared because of the love and pleasure of this site, friendship and hobby.

There is still well over 1,000 more scan and posts to be done in my collection.

[thechatterboxman]

Sites like this one are one are among the reasons I am grateful for the Internet. I look forwards to exploring what is on here, about Dynaco and other brands.

The dealer I mentioned had no personal interest in my choice of "second-system" speakers. In fact, he doesn't get involved with really old speakers much at all. His two-channel business is geared towards modern, high-end lines. He merely felt that for $189, which is what I think I paid for my A-50's, I was not going to be able to come close to the sound of the A-50's with any AR products in today's market. From what I have seen on the auction sites, he was corrrect. Again, nothing against AR.

The only thing that bothers me about AR is that so many of their early AR-1's are being gutted for their Altec drivers. That is a shame, in my opinion. Landmark speakers should not be rendered worthless so one of their drivers can be sent overseas. However, the people who own the speakers are certainly free to do as they please with them. I just think it is a shame.

Randy

[dynaco_dan]

Sites like this one are one are among the reasons I am grateful for the Internet. I look forwards to exploring what is on here, about Dynaco and other brands.

The dealer I mentioned had no personal interest in my choice of "second-system" speakers. In fact, he doesn't get involved with really old speakers much at all. His two-channel business is geared towards modern, high-end lines. He merely felt that for $189, which is what I think I paid for my A-50's, I was not going to be able to come close to the sound of the A-50's with any AR products in today's market. From what I have seen on the auction sites, he was corrrect. Again, nothing against AR.

The only thing that bothers me about AR is that so many of their early AR-1's are being gutted for their Altec drivers. That is a shame, in my opinion. Landmark speakers should not be rendered worthless so one of their drivers can be sent overseas. However, the people who own the speakers are certainly free to do as they please with them. I just think it is a shame.

Randy

Hi again Randy

Yes it is a shame that AR and others are being sold as pieces but the s&h is very high with the enclosures.

I've never heard the AR-1's nor did I ever come across anyone who owned them.

I used to buy off ebuy, a few years ago, when economy shipping was offered by USPS and was droppped.

Now we will need to use the next level up which is at least double the economy cost to Canada.

The Altec driver cost less than $25.00 way back when and it wasn't all that great.

It was likely the most affordable and suitable that AR could find at that time.

i have read it was also used as pa speakers in train stations.

Last year I posted an unusual review here from my collection.

It was a showdown of the AR-3A's, Dynaco A-50. Infinity 2000A and Harmon Kardon speakers.

Well worth reading for the fun of it.

[thechatterboxman]

Last year I posted an unusual review here from my collection.

It was a showdown of the AR-3A's, Dynaco A-50. Infinity 2000A and Harmon Kardon speakers.

Well worth reading for the fun of it.

Where can I find your review?

Randy

[dynaco_dan]

Last year I posted an unusual review here from my collection.

It was a showdown of the AR-3A's, Dynaco A-50. Infinity 2000A and Harmon Kardon speakers.

Well worth reading for the fun of it.

Where can I find your review?

Randy

Hi again Randy

Go to, "other speakers and electronics" section and look up, "enjoyable reading at bedtime" Mar 24, 2011.

Enjoy

[thechatterboxman]

Very interesting reading. I owned a pair of Infinity RS IIIB's for a number of years. They sounded good in many ways. However, they had a peak in the upper midrange/low treble that made your ears bleed if you played music that had significant energy in that part of the audio band. The RS IIIB's were also very inefficient, and had an impedance curve that gave amplifiers fits. A Halfer 500 finally made them sound decent enough, though the two 10-inch woofers in each speaker seemed to be hard for any amplifier to control. The only amplifier I tried that really "controlled" the Infinitys was a McCormack DNA-1.

[craig]

2 pairs of A25's in 4 channel mode in a big room is like cheating and not paying to see a show. quite mind blowing if the room is large enough. i was using a rotel amp and old hk pre amp to power them. my new place is not quite long enough to bother with the 4 channel sound, still a pretty big room and one pair sound great. Love my A25's they run circles around my much more expensive bw speakers. i have 3 pairs playing around with rehabbing the capacitors in one of the pairs. only one pair have a slight problem, they pass the time test nicely . Never heard a pair of A50's but i did see a pair, the drivers looked slightly different, didn't notice a dampened port. Heard some A35's but i thought the A25's had a more relentless tighter bass. but i have read diff opinions.

[thechatterboxman]

The A-35's were more like the A-50's than A-25's. The A-25's uses a damped port, where the A-35's and A-50's use two chambers in each speaker with a port between the two chambers in each speaker. The second chamber is stuffed with damping material and is supposed to act like a spring. The design was called an "Aperiodic" enclosure, or something like that. Supposedly, the design helped ameliorate the wide swings found in the impedance curves of highly-regarded "bookshelf" speakers made by...other companies.

I have my A-50's in a very long room, (slightly over 30 feet.) This may help keep the bass from being really heavy. The A-50's sound very nice from the mid-bass region on up, but they are not as powerful in the deep-bass region as one might think they would be, since they have two 10" woofers in each speaker. I don't think the bass from a single pair of A-50's is going to make anyone's teeth rattle in a larger-sized room. I was used to much heavier bass from my newer, much more expensive main speakers. I like the A-50's though. They image much better than I thought a "box" speaker would.

[dynaco_dan]

The A-35's were more like the A-50's than A-25's. The A-25's uses a damped port, where the A-35's and A-50's use two chambers in each speaker with a port between the two chambers in each speaker. The second chamber is stuffed with damping material and is supposed to act like a spring. The design was called an "Aperiodic" enclosure, or something like that. Supposedly, the design helped ameliorate the wide swings found in the impedance curves of highly-regarded "bookshelf" speakers made by...other companies.

I have my A-50's in a very long room, (slightly over 30 feet.) This may help keep the bass from being really heavy. The A-50's sound very nice from the mid-bass region on up, but they are not as powerful in the deep-bass region as one might think they would be, since they have two 10" woofers in each speaker. I don't think the bass from a single pair of A-50's is going to make anyone's teeth rattle in a larger-sized room. I was used to much heavier bass from my newer, much more expensive main speakers. I like the A-50's though. They image much better than I thought a "box" speaker would.

Hi there

Is there any chance of you posting a photo or 2 of your A-50's with and without the grille cloth on and also the cabinet rear please.

[thechatterboxman]

Hello--

I hadn't checked here in a few days. I will try to take pictures of the speakers and get them posted. The speakers are nothing unusual, from what I've seen. My A-50's have the top-mounted, offset tweeters, with the woofers below the tweeters. I wish Dyna had stuck with the so-called "Owl" configuration. I wonder why they didn't? We will probably never know.

Randy

[dynaco_dan]

Hello--

I hadn't checked here in a few days. I will try to take pictures of the speakers and get them posted. The speakers are nothing unusual, from what I've seen. My A-50's have the top-mounted, offset tweeters, with the woofers below the tweeters. I wish Dyna had stuck with the so-called "Owl" configuration. I wonder why they didn't? We will probably never know.

Randy

Hi Randy

I have not seen any actual photographs of the owl configuration.

Who, who drew the owl drawing I saw in a Dynaco ad?

It wasn't an actual photo but an artists conception, as I remember.

Seas horned woofers and Scan tweeter were shown to boot.

When I looked at the owl configuration I was seeing the woofer frames up to or under the left and right cabinet edges, similar to AR-3/3A mounting

holes.

This may have been too much horizontal baffleboard cut out.

By changing to the more common slanted style the front baffleboard face would be stiffer.

It also may have been easier to mount the drivers or brace the grille cloth frame.

Who, who knows?

[thechatterboxman]

Here is my first attempt to post pictures here. Wish me luck!

Randy

[thechatterboxman]

Don't laugh at the office crates under the speakers. They were the best I could do at this time. There are one-inch thick slabs of MDF on top of the crates and the A-50's are sitting on spikes. The crates allow for some "give," which is necessary to compensate for the poured concrete floor's imperfections. The speakers don't wobble.

I know the dual-runs of solid-core speaker wires are overkill for this setup, but they are what I had to use. My usual speakers are "Monitor/integrated subwoofer" units that I bi-wire. With them, the amp sees a 2-ohm load, which requires serious juice. The Coda S100 amp is rated at 400 wpc into a 2 ohm load. The Coda amp just idles with the A-50's hooked up.

Randy

[thechatterboxman]

The speakers sit out slightly in front of the equipment rack and other paraphenalia. The perspective is hard to judge in small, compressed pictures.

[thechatterboxman]

The speakers sit out slightly in front of the equipment rack and the other parephenalia in the picures. The perspective is hard to judge in small, compressed pictures.

Randy

[dynaco_dan]

Don't laugh at the office crates under the speakers. They were the best I could do at this time. There are one-inch thick slabs of MDF on top of the crates and the A-50's are sitting on spikes. The crates allow for some "give," which is necessary to compensate for the poured concrete floor's imperfections. The speakers don't wobble.

I know the dual-runs of solid-core speaker wires are overkill for this setup, but they are what I had to use. My usual speakers are "Monitor/integrated subwoofer" units that I bi-wire. With them, the amp sees a 2-ohm load, which requires serious juice. The Coda S100 amp is rated at 400 wpc into a 2 ohm load. The Coda amp just idles with the A-50's hooked up.

Randy

Hi Randy

Great photos, Randy.

It is a pleasure to see minty grille cloths after all these years.

I would have said that your's have Seas tweeters and Scan woofers.

They are round rather that the typical horned woofer version most conmmonly seen, but, I have also some round Seas woofers that I rescued.

Somewhere I recently read a writing that somewhere they are incorrectly calling the horned woofer, a star woofer.

All through my school years I used a universal quicky zigzag to create a star and a star is 5 sided historically, not six, as is the case of the horned woofers.

This, "horned woofer," reference was Ed Laurent's documented wording back in the early A-25 day's.

I saw something black under the speakers and I just assumed you had custom metal stands.

As long as the speakers are stable the crates can be used.

There is never a too heavy a wire to provide adequate current carrying capacity, as long as they don't cause the cabinets to fall backwards. LOL.

At first it appeared that you had a blue snake climbing up the rear of your cabinets. LOL

I have previously written here of my accidental rescue of a very sad pair of A-50's, maybe 10 plus years ago.

I did not recognize a pair of black spray painted ones with lot's of overspray on the grille cloths even, really ugly looking.

They were sitting on a cement floor with other used equipment stacked on top in a local pawn shop.

By fluke I looked over behind to look at something else and saw the familiar Dynaco speaker connection recess and that is all she wrote.

I think they were around $100.00 for the pair, took me only a few seconds to reach for my wallet.

They functionly worked but the switch was broken on one, which I replaced.

They also have the metal Dynaco logos but even they were so dirty as to be unrecognizable

When the weather improves here this spring I will be stripping them with environmentially friendly paint remover from Lee Valley.

Because they were only made in Walnut veneer, the worst I will find is, there is no veneer left under the paint.

At that time i will post some photos of the crossover and possibly the internal vent setup.

I will try to do a drawing of it's construction as well and post it here.

I still have what I believe was what Dynaco used to cover the A-50's woofer side only of the partition baffle, a strip of orange felt.

At that time I did not pull the tweeter to see what, if anything, is in the void behind it.

I only ever serviced one A-50 because of a defective woofer, in nearly 2 years of servicing at the local Dynaco warantee depot.

[thechatterboxman]

Hi Vern--

I am glad you enjoyed the pictures. I'm glad I was able to post them! It has been a while since I posted pictures of anything on the web. You have told me way more about the speakers than I would have ever known otherwise. I am going to copy and paste your post into an MS WORD document, so I can save it.

It is a pleasure to see minty grille cloths after all these years.

The grilles are indeed original, as far as I know. There are no tears or repairs. I see no evidence of them ever having been wet or "cleaned." When I got the speakers, the only real flaw, other than some superficial scuffs and nicks, was a missing "Dynaco" badge from one grille. I ordered a pair of the badges off of the auction site, and got badges that were a dead-on match for the one badge I had. I attached the "replacement" badge as closely as I could to where it is on the speaker that still has its original badge.

When I got the speakers, I sanded them lightly with a fine-grit sanding block and applied a number of coats of Tung-Oil. I like Tung Oil, because it penetrates, seals and strengthens wood. I lived in VA at the time, and humidity is often an issue there. I touched up a few small flaws in the cabinets' sharp edges, but other than that, the speakers are as I got them. I was lucky, because the speakers were not far from me. I went and picked them up, so I did not have to pay any shipping. I think I paid $189 for the pair. I would love to find another pair for that price, but I don't expect it to happen any time soon.

I only ever serviced one A-50 because of a defective woofer, in nearly 2 years of servicing at the local Dynaco warantee depot.

Thank is good to know. Thanks!

Randy

[craig]

Wow the pics look nice i'v seen A50's that don't look as nice as yours, never heard a pair, but i love the A25's. They look cosmetically great would love to hear them. Thanks for posting