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Allison Four Tweeters!


jayrosc

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35 minutes ago, jayrosc said:

I'm now looking for 2 tweeters for a pair of Two's I have here. Afraid it will be another several months before the next huge wave of pristine parts rolls in. :)

Ha Ha (perfectly stated)?.

The right ones will show and when they do you better jump.

One option you have that's not ideal but would work is using Allison two way tweeters in the Model Two. Those are ferrofluid cooled while the three way tweeter uses silicone grease. The opposite however (three way Allison in the two way system is a bad move. Could burn out in relative short order.

Bill

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41 minutes ago, jayrosc said:

Gotta admit, I'm looking forward to a set up of the the fours and twos.

Surround?

1 minute ago, newandold said:

Ha Ha (perfectly stated)?.

The right ones will show and when they do you better jump.

One option you have that's not ideal but would work is using Allison two way tweeters in the Model Two. Those are ferrofluid cooled while the three way tweeter uses silicone grease. The opposite however (three way Allison in the two way system is a bad move. Could burn out in relative short order.

Bill

 

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7 hours ago, newandold said:

Surround?

 

Nope. Just want to run them all in a 16 x 26 room to really fill the space with Allison sound. But now that you mention it, these would make a great surround set up if I found a center channel speaker that matched them.

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19 hours ago, jayrosc said:

Nope. Just want to run them all in a 16 x 26 room to really fill the space with Allison sound. But now that you mention it, these would make a great surround set up if I found a center channel speaker that matched them.

I speak from experience it would be great for sure. I'm running 3 pairs of Allisons in a room with nearly identical dimensions.

I must measure again since the setup (at least the speaker placement) has been unchanged except for the center channel for 16 years.

Bill

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On 8/28/2016 at 0:27 PM, newandold said:

Ha Ha (perfectly stated)?.

The right ones will show and when they do you better jump.

One option you have that's not ideal but would work is using Allison two way tweeters in the Model Two. Those are ferrofluid cooled while the three way tweeter uses silicone grease. The opposite however (three way Allison in the two way system is a bad move. Could burn out in relative short order.

Bill

Using the two way tweeters in the Model Two is not ideal because of a different frequency response or because you would need four or because...?

Thanks.

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9 hours ago, BillI said:

Using the two way tweeters in the Model Two is not ideal because of a different frequency response or because you would need four or because...?

Thanks.

The ferrofluid  two way tweeter has slightly different dampening characteristics and operates with the two way crossover in a broader frequency range normally, so yes but in the two the difference should be minimal.

Anyway, 40 years later, choices need to be made with tweeters so tough to find. 

Some have found an Audax tweeter to be a suitable aftermarket replacement. Check out Madisound.com if you like

Bill

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I'm not into throwing some aftermarket Tweeters in these speakers. Those interested should stay tuned. Because if I can't find  actual Allison Tweeters then I will sell off the parts of the speakers that I have. I hate to do that, but face it, they really have a special sound, and if the parts from mine can bring back the original sound of others, so be it.

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13 minutes ago, newandold said:

Yep I'm with you 100 percent on that.....simply reporting what some others have done!

Bill

I know Bill. I guess If I had the resources I would buy some other tweeters just to see how they do. But I'm a purest, for better or worse.

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I faced this problem with a pair of Fours I was working on. I was advised to use these https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/audax-soft-dome-tweeters/audax-tw025a2-1-textile-dome-tweeter-4-ohm-by-aac/  Nice tweets, they're used in the Spica TC50

Like you jayrosc, I was fortunate and eventually found some original Allison tweets (I used Fives but they are perfect replacements). But they are few and far between. It's my understanding that all tweeters from 2-way systems are interchangeable although some are front-wired, some are back-wired, some have metal faceplates, some plastic. Same goes for the 3-ways but you should not use a 3-way tweet in  a 2-way system.  All of that gets a bit murky however because you "can" use a 2-way tweet in a 3-way system and apparently all of the tweets produced by the later Kentucky-based Allison were interchangeable. 

-Kent

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9 hours ago, JKent said:

I faced this problem with a pair of Fours I was working on. I was advised to use these https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/audax-soft-dome-tweeters/audax-tw025a2-1-textile-dome-tweeter-4-ohm-by-aac/  Nice tweets, they're used in the Spica TC50

Like you jayrosc, I was fortunate and eventually found some original Allison tweets (I used Fives but they are perfect replacements). But they are few and far between. It's my understanding that all tweeters from 2-way systems are interchangeable although some are front-wired, some are back-wired, some have metal faceplates, some plastic. Same goes for the 3-ways but you should not use a 3-way tweet in  a 2-way system.  All of that gets a bit murky however because you "can" use a 2-way tweet in a 3-way system and apparently all of the tweets produced by the later Kentucky-based Allison were interchangeable. 

-Kent

Yeah, from what I've learned doing all the research I could, you have the correct take on this issue. Good news is I actually have one extra tweeter for my pair of Fours, but it's one of the plastic faced ones with the leads wired in the back. Installing it requires a little work on the cabinet to make room for the wires. I "could" put this in the Allison Two along with a 4 ohm resister to cover the other bad one and wait for a tweeter, but I think I'll just wait before doing anything. I'm not reforming the woofers until I solve the tweeter issues. Gotta watch the $ on these. Lets face it, they are almost worthless without those tweets!

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56 minutes ago, jayrosc said:

Good news is I actually have one extra tweeter for my pair of Fours, but it's one of the plastic faced ones with the leads wired in the back. Installing it requires a little work on the cabinet to make room for the wires.

I had no problem IIRC. Here's a plastic-faced back-wired Allison: Five tweet in the Four cab. I could have left the spring terminals but plugged the holes instead with brass machine screws. The plastic pins on these were meant to keep the plastic grille from being pushed in and damaging the paper center cap (which is why I had to replace the tweets). You need to be a little careful tightening the mounting screws because it is plastic, but it really worked out fine. 

-Kent

newrighttweet resized.jpg

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I left the brass posts in when I added the same tweeter that you show into my set of Fours. Only issue was I needed to use a 3/8's of an inch drill bit on the cabinet in two places to make room for the spade connections on the back of the "new" tweet. Not a big deal. Once that was done I just cut the wires in the speaker very close to the binding post and attached the tweeters wires with wire nuts. Came out great. I will need to do the same procedure on the Two's. 

allison tweet.jpg

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1 hour ago, jayrosc said:

I left the brass posts in when I added the same tweeter that you show into my set of Fours. Only issue was I needed to use a 3/8's of an inch drill bit on the cabinet in two places to make room for the spade connections on the back of the "new" tweet. Not a big deal. Once that was done I just cut the wires in the speaker very close to the binding post and attached the tweeters wires with wire nuts. Came out great. I will need to do the same procedure on the Two's. 

 

I also did this, but with the midrange driver when I had my Allison Ones (same procedure).

Amazed how time flies....that was back in 1994. The company was still around, but no more wood bezel mids were forthcoming. When the plastic one with the protective screen arrived, I thought at first they had sent me the wrong part.

When I sold the A1s, I took that driver out and replaced it with an original wood bezel that I bought later on.

Reason being, the aesthetic match for the IC 20, as a spare.

Bill

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