RS Nova 4

skrol

I stopped in the local Goodwill today just to see. They had a pair of Radio Shack Nova 4s in decent condition (2-way, 8" woofer, bass reflex). The foam was still good on the woofer, tweeters were slightly pushed in and the cabinets were very good other than missing the emblems. The grills were very cool with wooden slats. They are a very attractive little speaker for $15.

I have too many speakers now that I am fixing up and need to move before my wife puts knots on my head.
Stan

20hz

are those the cone tweeter types ?

skrol

Yes.

Joe08867

I think this is them. Not a bad Garage speaker imho.

mhardy6647

nothin' to write home about (especially in the context of vintage Polk Audio loudspeakers :-) ... but worth fifteen smackers in good working order, no doubt.

FYI and FWIW... my beef with virtually all (but not identically all) of the vintage R/S speakers was a certain lack of depth and naturalness to their sound... while some loudspeakers obtain what some would call transparency, I'd call most of the R/S loudspeakers' sound "opaque". YMMV, of course.

A notable exception was their cheap little "Electrostat 2" two-ways with single-ended electrostatic tweeters. No bass, but nice MR and treble. They made a three-way with electrostatic tweeters as well... but I've yet to stumble across a pair of those.

EDIT: I am drawing a blank at www.radioshackcatalogs.com on a "Nova 4"... though there were other, similar 8" two-way R/S "Novas". Nova 5 is on pg. 25 of http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalogs/1982/ and Nova 6 was around for several years, e.g., page 42 of http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalogs/1978/

EDIT^2: oops, got it: page 20 of http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalogs/1984/ I wouldn't have guessed that it was that "modern". Actually, that Henry-Kloss-esque cone tweeter with the dome-shaped dustcap isn't a bad sounding HF driver.

Joe08867

mhardy6647 wrote: »

nothin' to write home about (especially in the context of vintage Polk Audio loudspeakers :-) ... but worth fifteen smackers in good working order, no doubt.

FYI and FWIW... my beef with virtually all (but not identically all) of the vintage R/S speakers was a certain lack of depth and naturalness to their sound... while some loudspeakers obtain what some would call transparency, I'd call most of the R/S loudspeakers' sound "opaque". YMMV, of course.

A notable exception was their cheap little "Electrostat 2" two-ways with single-ended electrostatic tweeters. No bass, but nice MR and treble. They made a three-way with electrostatic tweeters as well... but I've yet to stumble across a pair of those.

I was going to argue your statement by saying something about the little Electrostat 2 but you beat me to it.

By an large one of the most musical speakers from RS is the electrostat. I will say for there size though the the RS minimus 7's weren't bad either.

mhardy6647

There are a coupla pairs of the 7s at the ol' manse, and a coupla others have passed through... they just don't quite do it for me, though. The ads and Visonik minispeakers which "inspired" them are just far more musical, to my ears and tastes.

a 7W:



I believe this pair (one shown) was salvaged from the Titanic...
worked as they were supposed to, though.




That said, though, everyone should have a pair of Minimus 7s or their later, ported, incarnations and interpolations. :-)

Joe08867

My original HT setup had 5 of them in it. With a Down Firing 12" Sub from RS back in the day. I agree Whole heartedly that the ADS and Visoniks were much more musical. But for the price the 7's held there own.

And yes everyone should own at least 1 set of these or the Minimus 26 with the cone tweeter. I kinda wish I still had those. They were quite musical for a cone tweetered bookshelf.

mhardy6647

Joe08867 wrote: »

My original HT setup had 5 of them in it. With a Down Firing 12" Sub from RS back in the day. I agree Whole heartedly that the ADS and Visoniks were much more musical. But for the price the 7's held there own.

And yes everyone should own at least 1 set of these or the Minimus 26 with the cone tweeter. I kinda wish I still had those. They were quite musical for a cone tweetered bookshelf.

My father had a pair of those - my first experience with that tweeter (which is a quite respectable cone driver, if not up to the polish of the vintage Peerless AlNiCo 2" cone tweeter).

Henry Kloss used a very similar (perhaps identical) driver in his fine Cambridge SoundWorks Model Six speaker - one of his last loudspeaker designs; well worth seeking out for a good price (and still in production, last I knew).

skrol

They appear in the 1984 RS catalog for $79 each. The freq range is 60Hz - 20KHz. I read somewhere that this spec is for +/- 10dB.

I was tempted but then I figured I really didn't have a need, couldn't sell them for much more than $15 and Polk has some fine little vintage speakers out there if I really needed. I just liked the grills. Maybe I can make some for my Monitor 5s.:biggrin:
Stan

saemark30

I have some Minimus 7W too.
But they are bettered by PSB Alphas
and Wharfedale Diamonds.

saemark30

Try changing the capacitors to make them less opaque.

Joe08867

saemark30 wrote: »

Try changing the capacitors to make them less opaque.

It won't help. They will still sound flat in the mids and boomy.

It's a by product of the speakers themselves. Big box for inefficient speakers.

cnh

Have to agree with mhardy. I have a pair of non-ported Minimus 7s as my computer speakers operating in tandem with that 4"+ powered-sub module that Kloss designed (I think) at Cambridge Soundworks as their first computer Sat/sub offering. Found the powered sub-module at a 'salvage' store for 5 dollars!

Can't remember the name. But it mates almost perfectly with the 7s for a fairly pleasing background Pandora streaming presentation in my home office.

How big is the woofer in the Nova 4s? Wasn't the Nova 6 or 5 the 8" two way?

I see, it's an '84 update of the earlier higher model Nova. I picked up a set of the MC-1000s for 10 bucks. A slightly similar configuration (but air-suspension instead of bass reflex). Will run them in the kitchen off an old RatShack Allied Receiver. Nothing to write home about, but OK for FM in the kitchen.

cnh

Joe08867

The woofer is an 8". They aren't bad speakers at all. They just aren't a great speaker either.

I think they are more about appearance than sound honestly.