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Allison One Tweeters...and a woofer question


kcbluesman

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I picked up a very rough set of Allison One speakers (SN A6138 and A6371) several years ago with the notion that I might restore them.  Unfortunately, all of the tweeter wires were broken and 3 of the 4 tweeter dust caps were torn.  I was able to get DC resistance readings on 3 of the 4 (2.6 ohms, or thereabouts).  On the 4th one, I could not get a stable reading.  I did not want to break the wires back any closer to the coils than they already are, so did not make additional attempts.

Because the cabinets are so rough, and because the tweeters are so hard to come by and expensive, I've decided to just sell off the woofers and mids, which I will be doing in the near future.  The cabinets will be discarded.

From the little research I've done, it doesn't appear that anyone can repair the tweeters.  However, one of my "audio friends" mentioned that there is a CSP member who is rebuilding them.  If so, perhaps he would be interested in these tweeters - I hate to just toss them into the landfill.  If anyone has that member's contact info, i would appreciate it.

Regarding the woofers....I had not noticed until yesterday, when I was removing them, that one pair has ribbed cones (the same as just about all pictures I've seen of Allison Ones) while the other pair are smooth.  From what I can tell, both pairs are original.  The mounting screws were all covered with the butyl that Allison used on the surrounds and cones, the baskets and magnet structures are identical, and the spiders are all the original orange with blue "squiggles".  Were there two different versions of this 10" woofer?  Other than the ribbing, they seem identical.

Thanks for any help or info you can provide.

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10 hours ago, kcbluesman said:

I picked up a very rough set of Allison One speakers (SN A6138 and A6371) several years ago with the notion that I might restore them.  Unfortunately, all of the tweeter wires were broken and 3 of the 4 tweeter dust caps were torn.  I was able to get DC resistance readings on 3 of the 4 (2.6 ohms, or thereabouts).  On the 4th one, I could not get a stable reading.  I did not want to break the wires back any closer to the coils than they already are, so did not make additional attempts.

Because the cabinets are so rough, and because the tweeters are so hard to come by and expensive, I've decided to just sell off the woofers and mids, which I will be doing in the near future.  The cabinets will be discarded.

From the little research I've done, it doesn't appear that anyone can repair the tweeters.  However, one of my "audio friends" mentioned that there is a CSP member who is rebuilding them.  If so, perhaps he would be interested in these tweeters - I hate to just toss them into the landfill.  If anyone has that member's contact info, i would appreciate it.

Regarding the woofers....I had not noticed until yesterday, when I was removing them, that one pair has ribbed cones (the same as just about all pictures I've seen of Allison Ones) while the other pair are smooth.  From what I can tell, both pairs are original.  The mounting screws were all covered with the butyl that Allison used on the surrounds and cones, the baskets and magnet structures are identical, and the spiders are all the original orange with blue "squiggles".  Were there two different versions of this 10" woofer?  Other than the ribbing, they seem identical.

Thanks for any help or info you can provide.

Some of us have done minor repairs (like lead soldering which I have done). Personally I know of no member who has had any measure of success with voice coil restoration, and no exact coil to match the Allison is out there in the wild.

Even when Allison was still around, never did they offer repair of their drivers....replacement only.

Between 1977 and 1994, I saw a number of different production changes in the woofers, but the performance was always top notch.

After that time, the inventory went away and The new woofers that showed up around 2000 were a big problem for the original cabinets.

To obtain satisfactory performance, they had to be replaced in pairs and the gaskets had to be doubled up to keep the magnets from contacting inside. The mounting holes didn’t line up well either, somewhat of a nightmare.

original woofers can be rebuilt easily by competent pros like Miller Sound and Simply Speakers to name a few. Those are the holy grail for restoration fans.

My heart goes out to those in search of tweets.

I’ve got a handy stash, but it was no easy task and took eight years to collect.

Just when I thought I was set for life, the impossible happened and I found myself sitting on the first pair of Allison’s IC 20’s.....which was great....BUT, 20 drivers in a stereo pair rather than 12, so my spare search restarted for a while again.

 

Bill

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Thanks for your comments.  I was able to identify the member who is rewinding the tweeters, and am making arrangements to get them to him.  Much better than chucking them!

The Allison One woofers don't seem nearly as difficult to find as the tweeters, and pricing reflects their relative abundance.  It does appear that the midranges are more difficult to come by.  I assume that this is because the mids and tweeters were/are more likely to suffer damage from being overdriven and from poor handling.  

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6 hours ago, newandold said:

It would be nice if you could have this member share his story/success rate on the tweeters.

Member Chris1This1 has been very successful rebuilding dead AR tweeters. Is he doing the Allisons?

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Unfortunately there is no service, repair or compatible, replacement for the original Allison Tweeters.

Yes....there is always “the one guy” who got lucky and corrected a dead short created by the metal protective screen on the newer old versions.

And a resoldering of the fragile external leads for the brass pins.

Or the removal replacement of a dimpled cone.

But a replacement voice coil that would match Roy’s specs. For the varied models simply doesn’t exist out there in the wild.

Were it out there, believe me, I would jump on it.

With a combination of 12 Allison tweeters (2 and 3 way) running in my current system, I have a vested interest indeed.

 

Bill

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Several years ago I was looking for tweeters for my Allison: Fours and someone on the Yahoo Allison group suggested the Audax TW025A2 1" Textile Dome Tweeter, 4 ohm. Madisound has these. Turned out I didn't need them because I was able to find originals but that's becoming difficult.

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15 minutes ago, newandold said:

Unfortunately there is no service, repair or compatible, replacement for the original Allison Tweeters.

Yes....there is always “the one guy” who got lucky and corrected a dead short created by the metal protective screen on the newer old versions.

And a resoldering of the fragile external leads for the brass pins.

Or the removal replacement of a dimpled cone.

But a replacement voice coil that would match Roy’s specs. For the varied models simply doesn’t exist out there in the wild.

Were it out there, believe me, I would jump on it.

With a combination of 12 Allison tweeters (2 and 3 way) running in my current system, I have a vested interest indeed.

 

Bill

Sounds like the fellow who is rewinding the Allison tweets would do better not to post about it. Maybe he is just collecting them as paperweights.  In any case, since he covered the cost and kept me from putting them in the trash, I'm glad he took them.

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9 minutes ago, JKent said:

Several years ago I was looking for tweeters for my Allison: Fours and someone on the Yahoo Allison group suggested the Audax TW025A2 1" Textile Dome Tweeter, 4 ohm. Madisound has these. Turned out I didn't need them because I was able to find originals but that's becoming difficult.

Yes I remember, the Audax is an old story. 

However, the Allison with it’s unique dispersion characteristics has never been duplicated.

 I should be set for life with my spare stash, but if I run out of parts I will be leaving for another brand of loudspeaker.

Bill

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8 minutes ago, kcbluesman said:

Sounds like the fellow who is rewinding the Allison tweets would do better not to post about it.

What's the big secret? If it's Chris, I'm confident he knows what he's doing. RoyC tested Chris's rebuilt AR tweeters and proclaimed them to be very good. High praise indeed!

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Tweeter Trivia.....

In the glory days of Allison Acoustics, if you blew a tweeter, a new one would ship to you from Natick in a week to 10 days at the most 30 to 40 bucks a pop including shipping. 

If you were an original owner, the cost was zip, unless you were way out of the 5 year warranty.

 

Bill

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2 minutes ago, kcbluesman said:

As you can see from newandold's posts, repair/rebuild is not possible.

I'm confused. Why did you send your tweets out for repair if it's not possible? And FWIW, that's what they used to say about AR-3a tweets.

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Sorry for the confusion.  As I noted in my original post, I am not trying to restore the Allison Ones I have.  Instead, I am selling off the parts (the cabinets are in very bad condition, and all of the tweets have broken wires).  I did not want to trash the tweets if someone has a use for them, so I contacted RoyC  knowing that he likes to fiddle with them.  He was not interested, but told me there was a member here who was rebuilding them.  He could not initially recall his member name, but later found it.  This member is covering the cost of shipping the tweets to him.

However, Newandold has made it clear that the tweeters cannot be repaired.  

I will post the member's name if/when he lets me know it's ok with him.  Given the widespread conclusion of the Allison community that the tweets cannot be correctly repaired, I'm guessing he will get contacted and castigated by many of them...so just wanted to be sure he is ok with it before I post his info.

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1 hour ago, kcbluesman said:

 

I will post the member's name if/when he lets me know it's ok with him.  Given the widespread conclusion of the Allison community that the tweets cannot be correctly repaired, I'm guessing he will get contacted and castigated by many of them...so just wanted to be sure he is ok with it before I post his info.

Exactly 

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3 hours ago, kcbluesman said:

As I noted in my original post, I am not trying to restore the Allison Ones I have.

Sorry. Should have paid better attention. 

3 hours ago, kcbluesman said:

Newandold has made it clear that the tweeters cannot be repaired.  

No disrespect to newandold but I think (hope) we may be pleasantly surprised.

3 hours ago, kcbluesman said:

I'm guessing he will get contacted and castigated by many of them.

Who would do such a horrid thing?

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1 hour ago, JKent said:

Sorry. Should have paid better attention. 

No disrespect to newandold but I think (hope) we may be pleasantly surprised.

Who would do such a horrid thing?

You’re right at least I went back and looked and thought “castigated” was extreme to say the least.

All of this comes back to what is now a very old story.

The Allison tweeter was highly unique and never again duplicated.

There is no satisfactory aftermarket replacement for it.

At least the used market place can yield some results and quite a few of those Allison’s are interchangeable except the RDL’s that appear identical but are not interchangeable with any of the Allison models.

 

Bill

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To clear up any confusion...I recommended forum member chris1this1 to kcbluesman as a person who I would choose to look at the tweeters if they were mine. I never said he has rebuilt Allison tweeters. (For those who don't know, Chris is rewinding the voice coil for the early AR 3/4"  tweeter as part of successfully rebuilding this unique AR driver.)

Roy

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I misunderstood  Roy's email, in which he talked about chris1this1 successfully rebuilding AR tweeters.  As Roy states above, he did not say that chris1 was rebuilding Allison tweeters...only that this was the person to send them to if looking for an authentic restoration.  That's what led me to assume that chris1 has had the same success with the impossible Allison tweeters as the impossible AR tweeters!  My mistake.  But I am still quite happy to send them to chris1 in the hope that he can learn from and experiment with them, for the betterment of the Allison community.

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I don't have any guaranteed fix so I'd say keep holding onto it!

I'd like to get an idea of the coil and gap height, moving mass, or anything else that can be measured.

I am able to measure T&S parameters in addition to physical on a dead one.

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Let's hope Chris is successful. It would be great if he can work his magic with the Allisons like he did with the ARs. 

FWIW, some of the tweeters in Joe Rutledge's AR stash were quite dead so I shipped them off to Chris rather than toss them. If he can raise them, like Lazarus, from the dead that will be great!

-Kent

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