by EWBrown » Sun Nov 23, 2008 4:37 pm
The original Karlson speaker cabinets were sold as kits, the wood was pre-cut and routed, and they were sold as "flats" that had to be assembled, with lots of gluing and screwing required, especially with Karlsons, as they had to be very solidly built else they could vibrate and buzz badly.
The Karlsons were a very unconventional speaker design, which basically flouted all the "golden rules" of speaker design, and used some techniques borrowed from early microwave antenna designs. They were intended for use with a coaxial or full-range speaker, but they tendsd to be somewhat "shouty" in the upper octaves.
WIth my "foundling" Karlsons, I circumvented this problem by using external 800 Hz Altec horns and crossovers, and the end results were very satisfactory, beter than I expected. (Thee same speakers were covered in another topic on this forum).
The original Karlson was a 15 inch FR driver design, and later versions were downsiozed for 12 and 8 inches.
The factory built cabs came empty, and the speaker choice was up to the buyer. The earlier versions of these cabs had a Formica "veneer", they went for performance, more than appearance.
If I wasn't in the throes of a somewhat sporadic relocation process, I would have thrown a bid on them...
/ed B back in NH for the next 6 months
Real Radios Glow in the Dark