Monday, December 22, 2014

Traffic to Seventies Stereo has doubled since I posted the first cat picture (now removed…it wasn't a good photo). Don't worry, I'm not going to  make it a regular habit.

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Luxman MS-10 loudspeakers

  Here's a description from The Vintage Knob:
  The MS-10 is a very beautiful looking bookshelf of modest dimensions and modest power i/o but made with a refined structure and original parts. Being a real bookshelf, it can be used in several positions - or at least upside down and downside up : woofer up or woofer down.
  The bass/mid driver uses an Aramid cone : a mix of multiple plastics meshed up together, chemically coated and heat treated. Aramid was the answer to the equation : rigid but lightweight. One of the possible answers, that is, but a new and high-tech one in 1979. Aramid is also used for the driver's damper supporting the diaphragm. A further polyurthane coating of the cone's edge helps further lowering of the remaining resonance while the specially designed aluminium diecast frame helps back venting. (Frank Fabian tells me this driver was made for Luxman by Cambridge). The basket is cast magnesium.
  The high driver is a 2.5cm polyester dome covering the 3Khz to 20Khz range but able to go down to 1Khz ; its large 11,000g magnet and nomex bobbin allow good power handling.
  The crossover uses a sharp 18dB/octave slope with select metalized film caps and low DC resistance coils.
  The enclosure uses very high density particle board and LUX's own Multi-Vent Controlled Speaker System : small holes at the back of the enclosure makes for a moderate venting system giving advantages of both acoustic suspension and bass-reflex routes, sans the problems of either system.




  This is quite a nice sounding system. The quality of the woofer is immediately apparent. I think that the tweeter is the (relative) weak link. Cymbals are a little brash and less than realistically metallic sounding, therefore the midrange is a little less natural than I think it could be with a different (Audax,Vifa or Seas) tweeter.