Pioneer Vintage CS-99's

Gary Robertson

I just got a totally free pair of the ol Pioneer vintage CS-99's with the 15 inch woof--they aren't anything like the current stuff but "NOT BAD". they have the wood grills with a lil' curtain behind them-- a neighbor gave them to me-he said that he bougt them back in 1975 with a bonus he got for joining the service.He also ghas a beautful Marantz receiver with about a million knobs on the front and pretty blue lights and fm dial up numbers--way cool. Does anybody out there have any knowledge of these old vintage models--i need to knoe how much wattage thwy can handle etc,etc.......

TroyD

I've got a pair of CS-88a's....courtesy of George....

The cabinets are to die for, they sound ok. Don't need a TON of juice to get 'em going. I run mine off a Marantz 2215 (15wpc) receiver. I'd bet that they will handle as much juice as you want to feed them. Probably only rated at 100wpc or so though. It should say on the back where the binding posts are.

BDT

Tour2ma

http://www.classic-audio.com/

site has fairly extensive pioneer and marantz sections...

George Grand

I wouldn't be surprised to find they can only handle about 40wpc rms. They don't have liquid-cooled dome drivers, and were designed for the low to mid power receivers of the day. Cabinets WERE their strong point. Quality of drivers installed wasn't.

That Marantz receiver might be worth a bundle.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grand's)

Gary Robertson

I'm thinking about (just for fun) going to best buy or circuit city and getting some of those 200.00 --- 15 inch 4 ohm auto woofer and upgrade the tweets and mids..--Hell my Adcom amd Bryston can both drive 4 ohms like it was a feather. it might be distorted but the kids would dig it and the neighbors would cry--sounds like fun..ha,ha.s

RuSsMaN

Gary - nothing wrong with a Frankenspeaker experiment.

Check out partsexpress and madisound, and find *better* drivers that would be a good (close) drop in match. Even pe's standard Dayton line would be upgrade to what Pioneer used in those models.

If the drivers aren't labeled, I can probably find out what the network is expecting, and get you some basic parameters for your search.

Cheers,
Russ

gidrah

I think the sesitivity falls in the low to mid 90s range. Here's a E-bay link for some CS-99A. The back says 100w.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3058168629&category=14993&sspagename=rvi:1:1

If you Frankenspeaker, just be careful PLEASE! If you get tired of the components laying around taking up space and such, let me know.

Jstas

Originally posted by Gary Robertson
I'm thinking about (just for fun) going to best buy or circuit city and getting some of those 200.00 --- 15 inch 4 ohm auto woofer and upgrade the tweets and mids..--Hell my Adcom amd Bryston can both drive 4 ohms like it was a feather. it might be distorted but the kids would dig it and the neighbors would cry--sounds like fun..ha,ha.s

I'm going to rain on your parade here. Those "200.00 --- 15 inch 4 ohm auto woofer" are most likely subwoofers and not bass drivers like what is in your cabinets now. You can go and get them if you like but you will need hundreds of watts to drive a 15 inch sub woofer from a car application. You might want to run the speakers as bi-ampable because any car application mid-range/mid-bass or tweeter will not be able to handle the 200-400 watts needed to push that 15 inch sub. Well, you can get ones that will but you are pricing yourself way out of your plan.

You can get component sets. They wll have a decent mid-range speaker and most-likely a dome tweeter of some sort. They will be expensive but should work OK in those enclosures. But if you are going to go with a "frankenspeaker" I think you would be better suited at finding an adequate set of drivers from one of the many companies that makes individual drivers for home applications. I have seen posts from quite a few DIY'ers here with references to companies that sell quality, inividual drivers. I think that would be a better route. After all, use teh right tool for the job and I don't think that automotive speakers are the right tool for the job you have in mind.

ohskigod

might want to talk to the guys at www.audiokarma.org. if i am not mistaken, there are some fans of this speaker on that sight who will probably have all the insight you need.

SDA SRS 1.2

Bought a pair of CS-99A's through eBay last year to replace the wife's old Pioneer speakers whose woofers' surrounds had rotted. They're rated at 80 wpc and 97dB efficiency and sound pretty good considering their age. Beautiful real wood cabinets and grills. A great den/study/bedroom pair of speakers.