Lafayette SK-58 - anyone familiar?

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JayMX
JayMX Posts: 435
in Vintage Speakers
My uncle dropped these off today. He’s had them for as long as I can remeber. Terribly constructed cabinets. Not really loving the sound of them, they seem very... directional... But the drivers are interesting. Lambskin surrounds, automotive finish on the baskets. Maybe would work in an open baffle configuration?
Time to do some interneting and see what comes up. Fun stuff...
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Current Collection: Monitor 4a (Peerless), Monitor 5B (Peerless), Modified Monitor 7b (Peerless), RTA15TL (SL3000), SDA CRS+ (194’s), SDA SRS 2.3TL, R100's, R200’s, R300 🤩
Pairs that have passed through: Monitor 4b (Peerless), Monitor 5a (Peerless), Monitor 5b (SL1000), Monitor 5b (SL2000) (3x pair), Monitor 7b (Peerless), Modified Monitor 7c’s (194’s), Monitor 10a (Peerless), Monitor 10b (5x pair), RTA8, RTA8TL, RTA 11T, RTA12c (194's), SDA CRS, SDA 2 (2x pair), SDA 2a, SDA 2b, SDA 1b, SDA 1c, SDA SRS 2 (2x pair), SDA SRS 3.1TL (198’s) (2x pair)...and more to come, it’s a sickness.
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,029
    edited January 2020
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    Modest Japanese made coaxes; LRE sold 'em for a long, long time.
    I think they're Matsushita (Panasonic) OEM, but most of the Japanese OEMs of those days had similar products. LRE definitely sold some Panasonic OEM coaxes, but the SK58s are (to me, at any rate) still of mysterious provenance. :)

    11965936475_a75112707f_c.jpglafayetteSK-58 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

    some of the usual suspects:
    https://audio-heritage.jp/TECHNICS/unit/index.html
    https://audio-heritage.jp/CORAL/unit/index2.html
    https://audio-heritage.jp/PIONEER-EXCLUSIVE/unit/index.html
    https://audio-heritage.jp/FOSTEX/index.html

    You should go authentic and source a pair of Lafayette Eliptoflex (sic) cabinets for 'em! :)

    29582003490_caa0c03ae7_o.jpglafayetteelliptoflex66 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
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  • pitdogg2
    pitdogg2 Posts: 24,556
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    I'm giggling at the "sheepskin free edge cone mounting".... :D:D:D
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,029
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    pitdogg2 wrote: »
    I'm giggling at the "sheepskin free edge cone mounting".... :D:D:D

    Here's a great comment related to those surrounds from an old, old thread at AK:
    The surrounds on SK-58's are made from sheep.... and after a few decades they were very hard and stiff.

    We have horses, I own a nice synthetic saddle, my horse likes it, I like it, if it gets dirty I throw it against the side of the barn to knock off all the dirt. My wife on the other hand will only used a leather saddle, leather tack breaks and can get dirty in ways someone who has never owned a horse can't imagine.

    The missus has all manner of of stuff to clean and soften her various saddles.

    As the surrounds on the SK-58's were stiff and dry, so I used some of her leather treatments on those surrounds to soften them.

    Afterwards I played with test tones and found they were able to go from 24 htz to about 12k in room with a sharp roll off before and after. When I say 24htz I don't mean movie theater slam, but they were within 2db of the level I got at 1khtz. ...and I again must point out that this is in a room with what my wife calls a dorm ceiling and I call poor acoustics.

    https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/the-eliptoflex-project.437226/#post-5604529
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  • JayMX
    JayMX Posts: 435
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    @mhardy6647 the surrounds are actually very soft and pliable. The cones have a few stains that I’m hoping can be removed. I’ve always wanted to explore open baffle configurations and so these may become my test subjects. I’ve just come into a nice pair of Dynaco MK III's to drive them. Will be a fun project!
    Current Collection: Monitor 4a (Peerless), Monitor 5B (Peerless), Modified Monitor 7b (Peerless), RTA15TL (SL3000), SDA CRS+ (194’s), SDA SRS 2.3TL, R100's, R200’s, R300 🤩
    Pairs that have passed through: Monitor 4b (Peerless), Monitor 5a (Peerless), Monitor 5b (SL1000), Monitor 5b (SL2000) (3x pair), Monitor 7b (Peerless), Modified Monitor 7c’s (194’s), Monitor 10a (Peerless), Monitor 10b (5x pair), RTA8, RTA8TL, RTA 11T, RTA12c (194's), SDA CRS, SDA 2 (2x pair), SDA 2a, SDA 2b, SDA 1b, SDA 1c, SDA SRS 2 (2x pair), SDA SRS 3.1TL (198’s) (2x pair)...and more to come, it’s a sickness.
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,029
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    Mark IIIs... nice.

    Yeah, I'd try 'em on OBs -- try (IMO) the design documented at Joseph Esmilla's blog:

    http://jelabsarch.blogspot.com/2012/06/open-baffle.html
    http://jelabs.blogspot.com/2012/06/je-labs-open-baffle.html

    Feel free to augment with a subwoofer, too :)

    FWIW, and you may know this already, but there's a huge :p OB thread at audiokarma. I am not endorsing nor recommending anything about it, but it seems appropriate to note its existence. :|

    Rock on!

    PS I don't have any advice about stains on the cone(s) -- proceed with caution. :blush:
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