New Venture

[johnnyreece]

Good day, all!

I (against my better judgement) have purchased a hoard of old radio speakers. If you're familiar with Play Things Of Past (oldradioparts.com), that's where this is from. Basically, the new owner was thinking about just taking it all to recycle, and I can't let anything get thrown away, so...I bought them. The previous owner, Gary, was a nice guy who knew his stuff. I bought a couple things from him for my radio projects, and he was knowledgeable and followed up to be sure my purchases worked out. I hope to at least be able to help people get old speakers. Again, the focus on this stuff is old radio, but there are some oddball old guitar amps that need field coil speakers. I have yet to take possession of the 5 pallets of speakers (yikes!), but if there's anything you're looking for in the really-old-speaker arena, feel free to drop a line!

[Phil_S]

Well, this sounds a bit like a traffic accident. You really shouldn't look and keep moving, but feel compelled to rubberneck. I also bought a few things from Gary when I was actively building -- mostly transformers -- good ones. I confess that I still have a few PT's and OT's that would be good for 15-20W builds. I guess his time came and went. I'm not surprised the new owner wants to clean house. I imagine the business is like any other antique store. Inventory turnover is measured in years, not weeks or months. I suppose speakers weren't moving at all. It will be curious to see what you get. I predict many of them will be smaller, low wattage, and odd ball Ω rated, but all it takes to make this worthwhile is a few good hi-fi or guitar amp compatible. Good luck with it. I hope it works out!

[johnnyreece]

Yeah, I hear ya. I should have kept on going, but the investment was small (just a little more than the estimated scrap value). I just hate to see stuff like this go. I know you can get around needing a field coil, but they aren't really making this stuff anymore. I'm a sentimental sap, I suppose. Gary passed in early 2020, and the new proprietor realized quickly just how massive this endeavor was. He already sold the tubes (of which, I believe there were 65,000). Kudos to him for coming in and saving it all from the scrap heap early on.

[Phil_S]

I didn't realize he'd passed away. Sorry to hear. You've done a good deed. There is a reward for you somewhere.

[thetragichero]

dang i'd never been to that site before. tons of transformers i'd be interested in

[johnnyreece]

dang i'd never been to that site before. tons of transformers i'd be interested in

Yeah, and it was all at reasonable prices. I hope to keep that going, at least with the speakers. His prices really couldn't be beat anywhere.

[cbass]

Dang I just burnt a couple dozen old speakers (not on purpose) mostly old jensens and Organ speakers a few radio speakers mostly alnico a few fields coils.

[johnnyreece]

Shoot! Coulda added them to my collection (which, after getting it all is way more than I expected, space-wise).