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Anyone here own Allison Acoustics speakers?

KxDx

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I sold the ones I had (CD9 and Ones) before I ever got into measurements but now I want to see what their in-room response would be like.

Wondering if anyone here had a pair in use and could take REW room measurements with them in their recommended locations.
 
No takers? I would also like to see this as I am being told that they are "more accurate and flatter in the 90Hz-400Hz range.
 
Yes, I have a pair of Allison Ones. They are quite good sounding loudspeakers. Not in use currently, but that can be rectified.
No REW capability though. If you're in New England and want to stop by some time, it could be arranged. ;)



"more accurate and flatter in the 90Hz-400Hz range.
More accurate and flatter than what?
 
In the 4th edition of Sound Reproduction by Floyd Toole, he discusses Allison’s work, but unfortunately, has no measurements of the Allison One. He does go on to discus the Acoustic Research AR-9, which” incorporated some of Allison’s adjacent boundary compensation ideas” and gives measurements from 200 Hz up from NRCC’s anechoic chamber.
 
I once had the pleasure of meeting Roy Allison, after he had moved his facility from Natick to Framingham, where Bose continues to have its headquarters. I bought a couple of replacement midrange drivers that Roy said were improved over the units in my 3's that were made in 1977.
 
I once had the pleasure of meeting Roy Allison, after he had moved his facility from Natick to Framingham, where Bose continues to have its headquarters. I bought a couple of replacement midrange drivers that Roy said were improved over the units in my 3's that were made in 1977.
The essence of that Allison mid range has always been the same.

Those improvements that Roy was referring to centered around the protection of the driver itself, with the metal screens and the flexibility of being able to use it in any of the Allison models that use the mid range driver, but may or may not have the push connectors on the outside of the cabinets.

Bill
 
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There’s a fairly active allison group on groups.io. Many knowledgeable long-term allison owners there. You might want to join.
 
There’s a fairly active allison group on groups.io. Many knowledgeable long-term allison owners there. You might want to join.
Thanks for the tip!

I’m a refugee from there…… Just looking around to see if there are other places. Ironically, it looks like the biggest forum is on Facebook, but I am not a member and not going down that road.
 
The essence of that Allison mid range has always been the same.

Those improvements that Roy was referring to centered around the protection of the driver itself, with the metal screens and the flexibility of being able to use it in any of the Allison models that use the mid range driver, but may or may not have the push connectors on the outside of the cabinets.

Bill
Actually, no. The replacement drivers looked exactly like the originals. The improvement was internal, and mostly with the glue! This is the complete story, that I was hoping to avoid telling. :) When moving into my first house, in '88, I had carefully boxed up the Allison 3's in their original cartons. The movers must have been less than gentle with handling them, however, as I discovered later. After I was able to hook up the stereo, one of the speakers sounded very wrong. Removing the grill, which wasn't damaged, I saw the paper of the mid-range driver had separated from the magnet! That was when I visited Allison Acoustics, conveniently located not far from where I worked. I explained to Roy what happened, who said some early production runs had a glue problem, and that he was using a different process, along with other refinements he had made. He suggested that a new mid-range wouldn't be a perfect sonic match for the 10-year-old driver in my other speaker, so I bought two replacement units from the same production run. Replacing just the failed unit at first, I could hear immediately that Roy was right about the difference in sound. The then-new drivers sounded a bit more forward, especially with vocals.
Allison 3.jpg
 
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Actually, no. The replacement drivers looked exactly like the originals. The improvement was internal, and mostly with the glue! This is the complete story, that I was hoping to avoid telling. :) When moving into my first house, in '88, I had carefully boxed up the Allison 3's in their original cartons. The movers must have been less than gentle with handling them, however, as I discovered later. After I was able to hook up the stereo, one of the speakers sounded very wrong. Removing the grill, which wasn't damaged, I saw the paper of the mid-range driver had separated from the magnet! That was when I visited Allison Acoustics, conveniently located not far from where I worked. I explained to Roy what happened, who said some early production runs had a glue problem, and that he was using a different process, along with other refinements he had made. He suggested that a new mid-range wouldn't be a perfect sonic match for the 10-year-old driver in my other speaker, so I bought two replacement units from the same production run. Replacing just the failed unit at first, I could hear immediately that Roy was right about the difference in sound. The then-new drivers sounded a bit more forward, especially with vocals.View attachment 374568
Stumbling over the timeline actually… The difference i’m referring to came in 1994 with the redesigned mid range that has the metal screen and the plastic bezel in 1988 the mid range still have the wooden bezel with no protective screen
Actually, in the late 1980s both the wooden and plastic mid range drivers were available until the inventory of the original wooden ones was rundown. By 1994 you could only get the redesigned plastic mid range drivers.
 
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Ironically, it looks like the biggest forum is on Facebook, but I am not a member
Neither am I. I'm currently restoring the pair that @mhardy6647 showed earlier. Woofer surrounds were shot. One midrange was dented. And I'm prophylactically replacing the crossover electrolytics. I'm greatly looking forward to hearing these once the restoration is done. Biggest challenge is finding a spot for them in the house; they may end up getting taken over to my cooking/drinking partner's place where there's more room.
 
One of the good things about these loudspeakers is that although the cabinets are built in shaped to match, ideally to particular room locations, it’s still hard to put them any place where they’re going to sound bad……(because they’re so good!)
 
Neither am I. I'm currently restoring the pair that @mhardy6647 showed earlier. Woofer surrounds were shot. One midrange was dented. And I'm prophylactically replacing the crossover electrolytics. I'm greatly looking forward to hearing these once the restoration is done. Biggest challenge is finding a spot for them in the house; they may end up getting taken over to my cooking/drinking partner's place where there's more room.
When you get them fixed and placed would love to see some measurements. I have had a fascination with both Alison and Larsen speakers for some time and like the idea of using the front wall and room in the design.
 
When you get them fixed and placed would love to see some measurements.
Absolutely. If I end up with them at my buddy's place, it will be CLIO since that's portable. At my place, full-on AP. I wish I could afford a Klippel, but my skill in picking lottery numbers seems to be inadequate.
 
One of the good things about these loudspeakers is that although the cabinets are built in shaped to match, ideally to particular room locations, it’s still hard to put them any place where they’re going to sound bad……(because they’re so good!)
By reputation, they do better on long walls, which makes things a bit complicated for my usual listening room. My current speakers (Quads and NHTs) are on the short wall, and the long walls are filled with bookcases (which double as acoustic treatment:cool:).
 
Absolutely. If I end up with them at my buddy's place, it will be CLIO since that's portable. At my place, full-on AP. I wish I could afford a Klippel, but my skill in picking lottery numbers seems to be inadequate.
I had a blast with my original pair of A1 from 1977.

From then right up to 2012 I had them in different rooms large and not so…… And even on adjacent walls for a period of time sounding fantastic in every configuration. I never measured them with anything except my eardrums, but that was OK

In 2001 I added a Velodyne HGS 18 Bringing the frequency response all the way down to 15HZ.
 
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I think kept out of corners and against or fairly near walls, they'll do fine. :)
This said, I have listened to them out in the room and thought they sounded fine like that, too. Probably give up some deeper LF, but I have never really been a basshead. ;)
I did not know one of the MRs was dented -- sorry about that! I doubt that there is much acoustic damage done by a dent, but of course it's still unfortunate. The treble and MR driver design (topology) Allison used was/is both interesting and (I would opine) effective. ;) As an aside, that Allison MR driver in particular is a rather beefy piece of hardware.

I am also still not entirely convinced that there's not one more spare MR and tweeter lurking in the shadows here someplace... but we may have to wait until the Loudspeaker Rapture before having a definitive answer to that mystery! :cool::facepalm:
 
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I think kept out of corners and against or fairly near walls, they'll do fine. :)
This said, I have listened to them out in the room and thought they sounded fine like that, too. Probably give up some deeper LF, but I have never really been a basshead. ;)
I did not know one of the MRs was dented -- sorry about that! I doubt that there is much acoustic damage done by a dent, but of course it's still unfortunate. The treble and MR driver design (topology) Allison used was/is both interesting and (I would opine) effective. ;) As an aside, that Allison MR driver in particular is a rather beefy piece of hardware.

I am also still not entirely convinced that there's not one more spare MR and tweeter lurking in the shadows here someplace... but we may have to wait until the Loudspeaker Rapture before having a definitive answer to that mystery! :cool::facepalm:
My Allison ones lived with adjacent wall placement for 13 years in my first house, which was a small high ranch with a finished basement…… Beggars can’t be choosers. The basement is where they resided, although it was finished and had a fireplace down there so some of those music sessions were quite nice, my sweet spot was a couch facing into the corner of those adjacent walls.

The corners eluded me because both speakers were too far away from either corner to take take advantage of those sidewall reflections. All being said still sounded pretty sweet
 
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