[Vintage-Audio] Re Air Suspension Speakers

[Gerry Steffens]

I have the chassis and speakers from a 1972 120 watt per channel RMS
Sylvania console stereo.  It has air suspended speakers.  The bass speaker
is of a special type with a seal to prevent air leakage around the voice
coil and was usually of a long throw type (voice coil travels further for a
given signal).  They do indeed have the cone working against a fixed volume
of air, precisely calculated to give the proper damping.  And they do eat
power like a starving critter but the bass response is generally
significantly enhanced over ducted bass and other open case designs.

At the same time any other speakers in the unit are isolated from the bass
speaker enclosure for the obvious reason that the cones of the smaller
speakers would shoot across the room like a bullet if exposed to the
pressure differentials created by the movement of the large speaker.

An urban legend about these units was that if one tried to use the long
throw bass speakers in a non-sealed cabinet, they would destroy themselves
if cranked up.  Don't know if this is true or not.

Gerry


Collecting & Restoring since 1959
Gerald Steffens P.E.
Oronoco, MN


-----Original Message-----
From: vintage-audio-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:vintage-audio-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Duane Fischer,
W8DBF 
Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2004 12:47 PM
To: vintage-audio at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Vintage-Audio] Re Air Suspension Speakers


	
Hi All, 	
	
While wandering down memory lane around here, I recalled a friend in the
late
sixties who had a so called 'portable' stereo that head some speakers with
it
that were some kind of air suspension. They were not large, but did seem to
produce some large sound for their size. Now I won't swear to them being
'air'
suspension, but they were some kind of suspension. Do any of you remember
these?
Did they really have some benefits to their design or was it the usual
marketing
hype? 	
	
Thanks! 	
	
Duane W8DBF	

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