Any stereo speaker experts around here?
 

Or at least someone more knowledgeable than me anyway.

Since I, like everyone else, have been spending more time at home, I'm getting around to projects that have been sitting around for a while. I've been wanting replacement woofers for some cool older Optimus speakers and I'm having trouble finding an exact match. First off, I'm not even sure how to measure for size, I think they're 4 1/2"? Or do I measure the metal frame of the speaker as well?

Also, the impedance printed on the speaker itself says 6 ohms, but the data plate on the cabinet says 8 ohms. Which is it? And the wattage says 65 with a max of 130. So anything in between is ok? Or do I want to look for 65?

Any help is appreciated!

Pics for reference:

https://i.imgur.com/N2UIkUu.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/hN3IT0f.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/dLmvct7.jpg

those would be 4.5 Single 8 Ohm parts express would be your friend

May just need re-foamed.
https://www.ebay.com/i/114158494294?...hoC44sQAvD_BwE

Do a google search Optimus Pro LX511 there will be some replacement speaks there.

Parts express used to be good but they have cut way back on what they carry. Used to be there Dayton line of speakers had something for everyone.

Also speakers are measured in diameter to the outermost edge of the housing.frame. Not to the outer edge of cone or outside edge of of surround ring that Bug needs replaced.

In Bugs case he would measure outside edge frame frame both ways to see if same nearest outside edges. I suspect it's a 5 or 5 1/2 inch woofer.

Bugs I think those Optimus were made by RCA for Radio Shack and sold by RCA as as their model Optimus pro LX5. May be a chance rca parts would have them still since radio shack is worthless now days.

typed with my trusty nose picker using Tapatalk

Buy Denon or Yamaha

Optimus was a Radio Shack brand, right?

They still have the Dayton line of speakers......

I only know about Camero speakers!!!

I haven't seen anything like these in quite awhile, I've been looking to upgrade to the Sonos speakers, things are stupid expensive though.

Damn..I haven’t had anything like that in years. I have a 10 speaker system hooked up to my desktop with one subwoofer and 9 smaller speakers and that’s about 15 years old

Yep, and for the most part the Radio Shack stuff was really good, it just wasn't worth the absurd prices they charged for it.

If I was buying new I'd lean strongly towards Yamaha for sure, but I'd kinda like to save these because they have a cool ribbon tweeter on top, nothing else out there like them that I know about.

Camero has the kickass factory Bose system, don't need to touch that.


(cue the Bose haters....I know you're out there)

Well shit, srvy was right about them being built by RCA, went to google up a pic of the tweeter and these came up. Same exact speaker branded by RCA instead.



https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/sFMAA...kN/s-l1600.jpg

Oh yeah, The Shack rocked RCA, Optimus, and 1000% markup adapters.

I have a 1979 Realistic Lab-500 turntable. It’s fantastic. Bought it for $25 at an estate sale several years back. It’s been my primary turntable since the day I hooked it up. A lot of the 60s and 70s Radio Shack stuff was of great quality.

Radio Shack contracted with a lot of companies to make their stuff. Sound, phones, answering machines, toys.

I worked there in the waning days of RS.
I think it was Hamas that worked there in the better days.

Well shit, the image search turned up better results than any other search I've done on them. LMAO

Apparently they are 5 1/4", Amazon used to have a direct replacement but they're no longer available.

But looky here...

https://www.parts-express.com/dayton...eaker--295-303

I may just pull the trigger on these.

Not to be negative, but why rebuild Radio Shack speakers? You can get good stuff on Craig's List. Get some Polk, Infinity, JBL or Klipsch.

I've used JBL's but I'm telling you Sonos is where it's at if you got the money to spend.

As I mentioned earlier, they're a unique speaker, if they didn't have the ribbon tweeter I wouldn't bother. Just for fun basically.

B&W all day long, baby......

Get a Marshall mini MS-4 mico stack at guitar Center for $69 new

LMAO GODDAMNIT I AM NOT LOOKING FOR RECOMMENDATIONS I JUST WANT TO REVIVE A TRIPPY OLD SET OF SPEAKERS AAAAAGHHHHHH

Look on eBay for that needle in a haystack !

I'm pretty sure I already found it.

The claim to fame on those speaks was the dipole lineaum tweeter.

Also be aware that Dayton has a Depth 2.74" or about 2 3/4" check that back magnet to inside face speake plate. Make sure you have clearence in the old box.

THIS IS WHAT I KEEP TRYING TO TELL EVERYONE


Old one is the same depth. :thumb:

https://www.avsforum.com/forum/89-sp...-did-i-do.html

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index....ineaum.294255/


From these two forums I gleaned the specs on that woofer.

SPECIFICATIONS
Frequency Response ............................................................ ............................ 80–25,000 Hz
±10 dB
Power Handling ............................................................ ................................ 75 Watts (RMS)
Maximum Power ............................................................ ........................................ 150 Watts
Impedance ............................................................ ................................... 8 Ohms (Nominal)
Speaker Complement ........................ 5-Inch Cone Woofer made with KEVLARâ brand fiber
and 2 ´ 4-Inch Linaeum Dipole Tweeter
Dimensions (HWD) w/Front Grille .................................................. 105/8 ´ 61/4 ´ 77/8 Inches
(27 ´ 16 ´ 20 cm)
Weight...................................................... ............................................................ .....7 1b 8 oz
(3.4 kg)

Jeesh, that one I linked doesn't really stack up to the original. You ever done a foam replacement? I feel like that's pushing it to "not worth the trouble" territory.

I have not but I have a pair of 1970s era Janzen Electrostatic speaker that need it.

You tube has a lot of video on the process.

This may fit your needs from Madisound. Says its an excellent drop-in speak for Pro LX511

https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.co...r-cone-woofer/

Only problem is its OOS right now.

Also doesn't hurt to call Parts Express or online chat if they think or have a suggestion for your speaker maybe that 5 1/4 fits who knows.

My old Electrostats. You can see the foam surround is wet looking and sticky. That was a mistake by the manufacture the adhesive they used eventually broke down the foam.

https://oimg.photobucket.com/albums/...100_0043-1.jpg

https://oimg.photobucket.com/albums/...100_0039-1.jpg

Anybody remember the Kraco being the highlight of the Kmart and Venture stereo displays? You can go to a junkyard and salvage them from the camaros and el caminos, along with the fosgate power booster and equalizer.

I am apparently the only person who has love for Sonos.

They are fine for what they are glorified expensive satellite speaks that cant hold a candle to well designed bookshelf or towers.

Really? They have a soundbar that is one of the best things I have ever heard.

So I have a pair of hose 901s I bought in the early 70s the foam has went to shit on them and Bose wants on top of 700.00 to fix any other options that won’t compromise the sound? I bought a new pair to replace them but would like to get the old ones fixed and give to my son just not 700.00 worth lol

It’s Camaro, bro...

They pass the wife's eye test.

I think of Sonos as I do Bose wonderful engineering in 10 cent speakers with a marketing department second to none.

Yeah I remember Optimus being very competitive with the large brands. We had an Optimus in our “Kids Den” with our game systems and arcade machines. I blasted Prince ‘When Doves Cry’ album a lot. My mom heard Darling Nikki and came in and took my cassette tape, 3 times. The fourth time she pulled the tape out of the cassette.

I remember the Glory Days of Radio Shack it seemed like they had everything there was to offer at the time.

Well they have about as good of an infrastructure as you could ask for as far as pairing them together and all that.

Well you said they were expensive so I figured that eliminated me but if you throw up a link I'll check them out

I have an Acoustimass system that I really like but it's not something I ever would have bought new. Years ago I did some work on a guy's house who had a set of Polk Audio SDAs sitting around, and he convinced me I needed them so I took them as partial payment for the job. Well...long story short the wife didn't seem to share my appreciation for them so I traded them for the Acoustimass and some high powered Polk bookshelf speakers. Probably got the short end of the deal but they were a better fit for my needs.

Well they are expensive a soundbar is 700 bucks...

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=sonos&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

https://www.amazon.com/Sonos-Playbar...dDbGljaz10cnVl

I wanna put that in my living room but again 700 bucks...

LMAO

I loved Radio Shack, I was always tinkering around with electronics and they had what I needed for whatever hairbrained idea I came up with.

fredsanforditsthebigoneelizabeth.gif

my wife wants to put that in front of the tv with...https://www.amazon.com/Sonos-Play-Wi...6277713&sr=8-6

those behind the couch on each side....

so for a cool about 1000 dollars.

These are the same SDAs I had...damn they were bad ass

https://www.ebay.com/i/153809646350?...EaAm1XEALw_wcB

These are spendy but are seriously one of the best bookshelf speakers I have ever listened to.

Dynaudio C1's
https://images.reverb.com/image/uplo...nhmeyfso3l.jpg

But they are about 5000 a pair used:deevee:

Oh you want a sub...

https://www.amazon.com/Sonos-5-1-Sur...s%2C183&sr=8-8

Bug I see the above speak is back ordered they have a email link to notify when back in stock. These sound like just what the doctor ordered.

Ahhh, I kinda miss Radio Shack.

"You've got questions, we've got blank stares"

Well the price certainly is right. I'll hold off on anything else and see if they come in sometime soon. If it's too long I'll pack them back away and forget about them for another year lol.

My problem is I don't have one specific room I hang out in so I can't really justify that much on one system. As it is now we have a Sony surround sound system in our great room, a pretty nice Samsung soundbar/sub in the living room, the Acoustimass is in the garage and the Polk bookshelfs are in the man cave. Could use something out on the sun porch so the Optimus set would be adequate for that.

I hate this rich bastard. That floor speaks are Klipsch Jubilee and highly sought after. Bet the wives wont approve.
http://wardsweb.org/mysystems/denhometheater.jpg

Same pricks sunroom system I believe those are some vintage altecs and DIY horns.
https://www.theaudioannex.com/forum/...320-jpg.10372/

Same douche bag with DIY speaks using Altec and JBL speakers.
http://wardsweb.org/misc/main2ch.jpg
http://wardsweb.org/misc/DIYhorns2.jpg

This monsters dining room
http://wardsweb.org/misc/diningroom080512.jpg

Guest room DIY
http://wardsweb.org/misc/guestroom080512.jpg

Now back to us normal heathens this jerks vintage Optimus Pro LX4 speakers. This audiofile thinks pretty highly of those Ratshack speaks for his workbench system.
https://www.theaudioannex.com/forum/...att-jpg.10511/

Well you can link all the sonos speakers together for a whole house experience if you by enough to do that, its their big selling point.

:hmmm: Oh really?



****...don't give me any expensive ideas...I can come up with plenty of them on my own.

Yeah. Don’t go down that road. Wife convinced me to buy a new TV for the Super Bowl. Now I am compelled to replace all my TVs. I haven’t. But I want to.

Yea basically it they have an app, if you buy the soundbar you actually optical that to the tv, you can then put smaller speakers with it to create a surround experience.

If you buy the small wifi speakers and place one in each room of your entire house you can use the app to either have them each be their own thing or group them entirely together so the same thing is played everywhere.

They play basically any streaming service that exists, have google and amazon voice control...they're super expensive but have a ton of perks.

http://www.cerwinvega.com/home-audio...ers/sl-5m.html

you're welcome

I AM NOT LISTENING TO WHAT MECCA IS SAYING

This one could work.
https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.co...-woofer/#tab-1

https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.co...13pfc25-08.jpg