Cool read on Alnico Speaker comparison -

[Verne Andru]

Yeah, thanks for posting.

 

I run 2 10" speakers off my 5 watter - a Weber Silver Bell Alnico and an Eminence Lil Buddy [ceramic] hemp cone. They are in identical cabinets. Sound-wise I find them pretty closely matched although the Weber has a bit more treble - or you could say the Eminence is "warmer" - same thing. They both sound great in their own ways, and as a pair they are pretty magical.

 

Size-wise the Eminence is big with a huge magnet that weighs a ton, relatively speaking. It's rated at 50 watts to the 25 of the Weber.

 

Six of one, half-a-dozen of another....

[hardtdc]

This shootout is from 1999. As I noted the Eminence Patriot and Redcoat series weren't released then, they didn't come out to around '05 or so. A lot of the other speakers in the test are no longer made/were replaced with newer options.

 

Hence why you always impress Wyatt. I don't keep up with all of the gear offerings out there so I didn't even think to look at or research what was current. You just know this stuff off the top of your head.

But.... I'm working on it, slowly but surely.

[honeyiscool]

I really wanna try a Celestion Gold one of these days.

[Kap'n]

 

It should also be noted that this comparison pre-dates Eminence's Patriot/Redcoat speaker series and that Mojotone has completely changed ownership, inventories and OEM suppliers (including for their speakers) in the last 13 years. I believe Magic Parts/Ruby also now offers completely different speakers, and maybe New Sensor does as well. I dpn't think the current owner of the Standel trademark sells speakers either.

 

 

Yep. It was also widely believed at the time that many of the "different" speakers listed, were in fact, the exact same Eminence, with either paper or kapton voice coil formers, privately labeled. It's funny to hear people split hairs on identical speakers.

[Wyatt]

 

Yep. It was also widely believed at the time that many of the "different" speakers listed, were in fact, the exact same Eminence, with either paper or kapton voice coil formers, privately labeled. It's funny to hear people split hairs on identical speakers.

 

 

That is true, they may very well have been the exact same speaker by the same company sold by Magic Parts (Ruby), Mojo and others. But they would not have been Eminence.

 

Eminence has always been a big OEM supplier to amp companies, allowing Fender, Peavey and others to relabel their speakers when they went into amps. Eminence has always drawn the line at selling those same speakers aftermarket...if a company wants to sell those speakers, they have to use the Eminence label. Carvin was the most famous company that tried reselling Eminence speakers with a Carvin label, and Eminence cancelled their contact with Carvin over it (which is why Carvin has had worse speakers for the last decade).

[Wyatt]

Hence why you always impress Wyatt. I don't keep up with all of the gear offerings out there so I didn't even think to look at or research what was current. You just know this stuff off the top of your head. But.... I'm working on it, slowly but surely.

 

I bought my first Weber from Ted in the mid '90's, Weber was going string by 1999, strong enough for Recoton to try and take part of their market with the new Jensen RI's. But I remember when that shootout came out and Ted address many of the issues in it, including delivering the 15-watt Blue Dog.

[Kap'n]

 

That is true, they may very well have been the exact same speaker by the same company sold by Magic Parts (Ruby), Mojo and others. But they would not have been Eminence. Eminence has always been a big OEM supplier to amp companies, allowing Fender, Peavey and others to relabel their speakers when they went into amps. Eminence has always drawn the line at selling those same speakers aftermarket...if a company wants to sell those speakers, they have to use the Eminence label. Carvin was the most famous company that tried reselling Eminence speakers with a Carvin label, and Eminence cancelled their contact with Carvin over it (which is why Carvin has had worse speakers for the last decade).

 

 

They were pretty much all the Eminence 10" and 12" alnicos, which are now the Legends. I'm not sure if they make the paper former ones any more, just the kapton models. New Sensor used to sell them dirt cheap. The blue alnico 10" speakers the FMIC used to put in the VibroKing and the eary Pro Juniors were the same thing. None of them were supposed to but it was sort of an open secret. Once Eminence figured out there was a market for their raw frame speakers in the MI market, they shut them all down at the same time and started their branding campaign. This was, I'm assuming in preparation for the launch of their Patriot and Redcoat series. Ted told me he was moderately annoyed when they came out, because at the time, the Blue Dog, Blue Pup and Silver Bell were the only speakers that were named, rather than having a model based on specifications.

 

I acutally think it sort of bit them in the ass. There's far too many names to keep track of, that contain only the vaguest whiff of what they're supposed to compete with. On the other hand, I still think they sell massive quantities compared to just about everybody.

[Kap'n]

 

I bought my first Weber from Ted in the mid '90's, Weber was going string by 1999, strong enough for Recoton to try and take part of their market with the new Jensen RI's. But I remember when that shootout came out and Ted address many of the issues in it, including delivering the 15-watt Blue Dog.

 

 

Yep. Ted told me, the 30W were designed to sound like the 60's Vox speakers. The 15W was altered to compete more directly with the current Celestion.