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Vintage Asylum Classic gear from yesteryear; vintage audio standing the test of time. |
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In Reply to: Design Acoustics PS-10 speakers - Should I buy? posted by HOK on January 9, 2006 at 15:05:19:
About two years ago I received a pair of the PS-1O speakers for free from a seller when I bought his Dynaco A-25s. Both woofers were missing, so I had no choice but to locate replacement 8 ohm 10" drivers. It turns out that the basket and magnet structure of most 10" woofers are too deep to clear the internal chamber (really just a cardboard tube) that isolates the back wave of the PS-10 midrange driver's output from the rest of the speaker cabinet.Call it dumb luck but I happened upon a sweet deal on the Bay on a pair of 8 ohm 10" Yamaha woofers from the Yamaha model NS-5 speaker. These woofers are high quality and are a perfect fit (not too deep) in the PS-10 right down to the screw holes that attach the woofer to the baffle board. The Yamaha woofer has butyl surrounds so there is no problem with foam rot.
I tested the installed Yamaha woofer's output with a signal generator and was able to get clean audible bass without any doubling down to just above 50 Hz. That coicides pretty well with the test results that I had read about the PS-10 speaker when it was reviewed by Stereo Review in the 80s so I assume the woofer is a fairly good match for the PS-10 cabinet. The sentitivity is around 90~91db / watt and this is also close to specs of the original woofer.
I also replaced the original grill fabric (which was missing ) with some fabric from Parts Express. The wire connectors inside the PS-10 are flimsy push on spade connectors that break easily. I replaced these with solder joints and suggest that you may want to do the same.
With the Yamaha woofers installed the sound of the PS-10 was well defined from just over 50Hz to whatever upper-range frequency your hearing finally gives up. I wound up adjusting the tweeter level control (some variations of the PS-10 have this adjustment) to about the 2 O'clock position and left it alone. The soundstage was fairly wide with good midrange and vocal performance no doubt due to the dedicated midrange driver. Although they look like the should sit on the floor, unless your listening room is furnished with bean bag chairs these speakers should probably be positioned a bit higher so that the tweeter is at ear level.
After rebuilding this pair of PS-10 speakers I sold them to a friend for the cost of the woofers and speaker grill fabric (about $50 total) together with a circa 1980 Technics SA-202 30 watt per channel receiver. I found that the PS-10 speakers worked well with the Technics receiver after auditioning this combination while listening to jazz and classical radio and also CD via the auxilliary input.
I question whether the PS-10 would be a good match for an EL-84 PP amplifier as the speaker was designed for amplifiers from the solid state age where medium to high power, i.e., 25 watts or more, and a high damping factor is expected. Since the typical EL-84 PP amplifier will only deliver about 12 watts per channel, this would be a bit low for the PS-10 unless you listen at fairly low level. There are better choices in speakers for use with an EL-84 amplifier.
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Follow Ups
- Re: Design Acoustics PS-10 speakers - Should I buy? - mkmelt 19:03:14 01/09/06 (0)
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