[macrojack]

I bought this pair yesterday at the "Save the Kitties Thrift Store" for $7.00 plus tax. Does anybody know anything about them? According to an old Orion book I happen to have, they were $280 each in 1977.

[lonewolfny42]

Seven bucks....wow Tom !!

http://www.allisonacoustics.com/four.html

http://www.epinions.com/content_4661354628

http://cgi.ebay.com/ALLISON-FOUR-STEREO-SPEAKERS-REPAIR-PARTS_W0QQitemZ120148921651QQcmdZViewItem

And an Allison board....here....

[macrojack]

Wow!!! Looks like a hunch paid off this time. I guess I better hook them up and see what I have. They are very dusty.

[mdconnelly]

Allison has made some innovative speakers in his time.   I had a pair of Allison Ones a long time back and loved them.   His approach was to design speakers that would couple to the room via room boundaries.    If they work, me thinks you got an incredible deal.

[macrojack]

I started to clean them up and discovered that both woofer surrounds are disintegrated. So I haven't checked to see if the tweeters work. I'm not much for DIY stuff so I'm going to ask an audio friend if he wants them and then probably auction them on Audiogon if he says no. The grills are there and the cabinets are very nice except for the tops which appear to have been used as coasters.

Come to think of it, I have other speakers to sell. Anybody want Cambridge Audio or Celestion? I'll get the model numbers if you are interested. The Cambridge is a three piece setup including passive sub. Both pairs are computer sized, desktop sort of things.

[Ferdi]

Hi, I've done a similar thing not too long ago, buying a pair of Pioneer HPM-900. Same condition: all looks OK but woofer surrounds rotted away. Fixing that is not too hard or expensive. I've gotten a repair kit from Simply Speakers (they have instructions etc.) but you can go even cheaper if you look around a bit both here and on Audiokarma.

Of course, if this was just an impulse buy, they may end up in the way, working or not.......

[woodsyi]

I still have a pair of Allison 3 speakers somewhere.  They are actually pretty good sounding speakers.  The problem with them were with the tweeters.  I believe Roy Allison had some proprietary gooey coating on the dome and they disintegrated in time.  I thought the new Allison speaker company was going to sell replacement drivers. No?

[Doublej]

I still have a pair of Allison 3 speakers somewhere.  They are actually pretty good sounding speakers.  The problem with them were with the tweeters.  I believe Roy Allison had some proprietary gooey coating on the dome and they disintegrated in time.  I thought the new Allison speaker company was going to sell replacement drivers. No?

Isn't the gooey substance just doping compound? In your case it sounds like the tweeters disintegrated.

I own a pair of Burhoe speakers that have doping compound on the tweeters. After a decade or so the compound vanished from the tweeters, so I took them to the local speaker repair shop and had them re-doped.

[woodsyi]

I still have a pair of Allison 3 speakers somewhere.  They are actually pretty good sounding speakers.  The problem with them were with the tweeters.  I believe Roy Allison had some proprietary gooey coating on the dome and they disintegrated in time.  I thought the new Allison speaker company was going to sell replacement drivers. No?

Isn't the gooey substance just doping compound? In your case it sounds like the tweeters disintegrated.

I own a pair of Burhoe speakers that have doping compound on the tweeters. After a decade or so the compound vanished from the tweeters, so I took them to the local speaker repair shop and had them re-doped.

I will check again.  May be I just need a dope or two. 

Tom,

Call these guys and see if your speakers are worth the bother to recondition.  They not only refoam but also carry replacement drivers for Allison speakers. 
http://layneaudio.hypermart.net/repair.htm

[USAudio]

FYI - Looks like replacement parts are still readily available from Allison:
http://www.allisonacoustics.com/parts.html

[woodsyi]

FYI - Looks like replacement parts are still readily available from Allison:
http://www.allisonacoustics.com/parts.html

Those are for the new Allisons.  I am not sure if they are drop in replacements for the original series. 

[macrojack]

Looks like it will cost about $500 to buy 4 tweeters and two woofers for the Fours, if I need all those drivers and I buy them from Allison. I would also need to refinish the cabinets. If I did all of that, what would the speakers be worth?

Woodsyi, I'll call Layne next week and see what they say.