[SteveRB]

check this ad:

http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/rch/msg/2631074273.html

interesting?

[Æ]

50 year old paper cones are probably brittle like a cracker and the surrounds are probably all stiff and cracking, unless the drivers were kept in a hermetically sealed environment. If they are really worth anything, put them up on eBay and get more for them, but I doubt it.

[Rudolf]

I have 45+ year old Isophon Alnico speakers with paper cones, either with paper accordean surround and cloth surround. They all work wonderful -haven't been sealed off for a quarter century. Is your comment about "brittle like a cracker" specific for the drivers offered?

[Æ]

I have 45+ year old Isophon Alnico speakers with paper cones, either with paper accordean surround and cloth surround. They all work wonderful -haven't been sealed off for a quarter century. Is your comment about "brittle like a cracker" specific for the drivers offered?

Paper is strongly affected by the environment. It is easily damaged by high humidity and temperatures, which hasten its chemical deterioration. Ground wood pulp paper deteriorates especially rapidly because of the chemicals it contains—principally acids and lignin—and soon becomes brittle. The widespread use of ground wood pulp paper, with its short, weak fibers and high acidity, causes serious problems for libraries and archives having to preserve materials that rapidly become brittle and unusable. Paper made from chemical wood pulp or even from rag can also deteriorate because of the use of harmful bleaches and sizing materials such as alum-rosin combinations.

[Russell Dawkins]

...I guess different paper formulations give different results. The paper on this strange old 1934 driver is still seemingly perfectly flexible, including the surround.

[Æ]

Interesting pictures, but even if that driver is still flexible it isn't in anywhere new condition! Looks like trash!
I guess it depends on the environment. My biggest problems are usually rotting foam surrounds, but I've salvaged some older paper cones only to find they were brittle, especially the voice coil former, which was paper too. All the years of voice coil heating cooked the former drier than toast.

[neffer]

I am using Jensens TR-10 Triettes which are alnico speakers from the mid 50s with my vintage Tube integrated amp. To my ears they sounded better than my GR Research AV/1+ or my fav speakers for a small bedroom the Polk Monitor 5jr (single woofer). I have not tried my Spicas yet a tubes other than with a tube buffer. Just my opinion only but its a matter of what source the speakers are connected to, and what type of music you listen to.

[panomaniac]

I have several Jensen, Philllips and SABA drivers that are over 50 years old - Alnico and paper - they work great.
Also an RCA field coil in a big radio from the 1930s that is still going strong.  All pretty amazing, when you think about it.

[roymail]

OP, the link in your post is dead and was removed.