Peterson Speaker Laboratories

Guys, I have a client coming over this evening to drop off a pair of Peterson 10" 3 ways for a complete driver replacement. Interestingly this will be the third set I've seen (and modded).

Apparently they were based in Adelaide and sold through Douglas Hi-Fi.

A net search reveals nothing except some second hand ebay sales.

Any clues?

Googling gave me this link Andrew:

http://www.acousticconcepts.com.au/index.html

Hello ajw056,

If they are the units I remember from the mid seventies through to early eighties, they need more than driver replacements.

Chipboard boxes (no bracing) and no crossovers to speak of either. Plastic covers that screwed around the speaker baskets. People sold anything in those days and made plenty of $$$$$$ doing it.

Suggest using the boxes as fuel for the next GTG barbeque. Start again.

Love to be corrected on this one ajw056 but that is the picture I have in my mind. One incarnation had tweeter and midrange attenuators on the front baffle as well.

Tony C

Thanks Tony..............and you are quite correct. I was trying to find out if they still existed before posting some details of these horrors. I would love to know what they sold for.

TODAYS prices on the drivers.........Tweeter $6.50, Midrange $6.75, Woofer $38.75

Crossover................2 x 30 cent bipolar electrolytics

Cabinet 12mm Chipboard..............zero bracing

Damping.............a piece of 6mm felt loosley stapled to the back panel which is screwed place and not even sealed.

The baffle isn't even rebated.............the drivers are just screwed into the back.

Yesteryears version of an Ebay special I suspect.

Are you sitting down.

Late seventies/early eighties around $500.00 a pair and of course the optional cabinet with the double hinged glass doors for the equipment that were magically the matching size as the speakers. Glass or timber laminate top

For the cabinet add $200.00

And between you and me I wish I had a dollar for every pair sold.

I still come across the odd pair where the vinyl laminate is still hanging on but hanging off at the corners.

I started in the industry in 1984 and these were the poor mans Cewin Vega's

Cheers Tony C

Ajw056.

Forgot to add they burn real good

Definately BBQ fuel material.

Tony C

Thanks Tony.....................so I reckon the drivers were probably worth around $15-20 all up at that point in time.

Nice little money spinner then.

A/

They weren't the ones which used a small light bulb as a tweeter cross over were they? Apparently if you pushed them hard the light would come on inside the speaker.

DS

Guys, I have a client coming over this evening to drop off a pair of Peterson 10" 3 ways for a complete driver replacement. Interestingly this will be the third set I've seen (and modded).

Apparently they were based in Adelaide and sold through Douglas Hi-Fi.

A net search reveals nothing except some second hand ebay sales.

Any clues?[/b]

G'day AJ

They were Melbourne based, they made speakers for the low and mid end of the market.

Low end stuff was simple and price based. Prices were determined (screwed down) by the retailers wanting them for all-in-one systems eg multiple pieces, same brand, in a cabinet with a glass lid. These low-end speaker components were mainly pioneer OEM stuff with bipolars for xovers. Built to a cost the retailers would pay.

This was their bread & butter stuff.

They also built better speakers, using better Pioneer OEM, Etone, Magnavox, RCF (italian), Plessey etc drivers, built well with real crossovers, hand wound air-core inductors, poly caps on PCBs etc.

In real boxes, double skinned & braced, hand stained veneers etc.

Obviously there was less of this stuff made. But was well respected as a local product.

There was even a review of a product in Australia Hi Fi (or similar) late 70s. Model 6 I think.

FWiW

The current discussions of local manufacturers trying to survive now, in a ruthless market was just as real then.

I don't know who made the money, but I'm sure it wasn't the small businesses like Petersons Speakers.

More likely it was the retailers and electronics companies eg Pioneer, Marantz etc.

Graham

I don't know who made the money, but I'm sure it wasn't the small businesses like Petersons Speakers.

More likely it was the retailers and electronics companies eg Pioneer, Marantz etc.

Graham[/b]

You're probably right mate.........the retailers got the lions share.

You're probably right mate.........the retailers got the lions share.[/b]

My first job back in the mid 80's was as a salesman for a now-defunct box-shifting chain. These chipboard-with-no-crossover speakers would land in our storeroom literally by the hundreds. They'd then be packaged up (in matching chipboard cabinet) with some cheapo electronics (Kenwood usually or Teac) and sold for sometimes two, three thousand dollars as a system. The markup was huge...commission would be paid on maybe eight hundred dollars of gross profit, even that is probably half of what they really made.

Didn't help them in the end though.

I'm not unscrupulous...really...just didn't know any better back then.

Cheers, Dave

Googling gave me this link Andrew:

http://www.acousticconcepts.com.au/index.html[/b]

Yes Neil I do believe they were something John Woodhead from Aranmar threw together back in the day.

Built down to a price for some retailers.

I believe Interdyn Speakers were also his work for Interntional Dynamics back in the day.

Oh Dear, I hope John doesn't revive the Peterson name as the link suggests Joz.

I just pulled apart the second one of these...........different brand drivers.........Lee Audio of Taiwan, the only thing in common is the sizes...........crossover caps are even different values.

I dread to think someone bought these as a matched pair back in the 70/80's.

My Dad grew up with the man who began Peterson Speakers. His name is Bob Peters. I remember working with Bob in the early 70s. He had a Hifi store in Centre Road Bentleigh (Melbourne) called 'The Sound Ranch'. If I remember correctly, Bob operated Peterson Speakers from that store and then later built the speakers in a factory in Fury Court, Oakleigh South. I think Randall Industries in Sydney built the enclosures for Bob in the early days.

Some of the speakers were very ordinary, but the 'Model 6' was quite good. All of the Peterson speakers were good value for money when compared to the Japanese speakers of the period.

It's funy to see this thread, I have a set or "Peterson Professional Acoustic Series" speakers that I bought with an aforementioned cheapie Kenwood system from Brash's back in the mid eighties. They are 3 way chipboard floorstanders that i recently pulled out of retirement to use for a while in our new house. Definately not audiophile material, but I kinda always liked the way they sounded. I've had a few sets of newer speakers since then that never sounded as good (to me).

Have a propper set of speakers on order now so these will be permanently retired :-)

Peterson speakers appear on e-bay all the time and I had wondered about the quality.Thanks for all the info.

As far as a good looking box with cheapo drivers goes, a mate of mine here in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne has the hobby of picking up every speaker cabinet he sees on the nature strip, bringing it home and stripping them.(He has a big open fireplace!)

I get to see the results.....

Sometimes it borders on fraud...fancy Danish cabinet, with small sticker claiming "cabinet MADE IN DENMARK"...notice the accent on the print size....and then a set of nasty Taiwan sourced drivers with inferior X-overs.

So that adage about "you get what you pay for" does not always hold true and lets not get too smug about the 70's and 80's.....methinks it happens today.

I have pair sitting in my shed that were my father in laws. My wife and her brother rave about there output.

I popped the covers off them yesterday and noticed the bit around the perimeter is falling apart.

I'd like to use them in my home theatre set up (watching movies) until I can upgrade.

Aslan where can I get 12 inch paper cones woofers for ~$36 each. Id be only too happy to pay that to get them operational again.

cheers rileyp

I have pair sitting in my shed that were my father in laws. My wife and her brother rave about there output.

I popped the covers off them yesterday and noticed the bit around the perimeter is falling apart.

I'd like to use them in my home theatre set up (watching movies) until I can upgrade.

Aslan where can I get 12 inch paper cones woofers for ~$36 each. Id be only too happy to pay that to get them operational again.

cheers rileyp

Rileyp, WES components at Ashfield.

I had a set of Peterson DB10's when I was 21 and worked at Brashes in Southland. [damn....thats 22 years ago:(]

They had 2 x 10 inch paper woofers one with a driver and the other one was bass reflex from the sealed box. The midrange was a 4inch paper and from memory it had a dome tweeter. They were sold and made to suit a vertical glass component cabinet with matching timber laminate veneer.

From memory they had a RRP of about $799 [inc cabinet] with about $200 GM.

Oh yeah...........real quality;)

Andrew - can we have some photos?

I can take a few shots of mine.

will upload shortly....

cheers rileyp

edit ebay have some...

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120631013586&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

oh nice, very sexy........erh not

These were all the rage. They matched the glass cabinets beautifully. Big and cheap just what the punter wanted

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Here are some shots of the pair I have in the shed...

and some more

more pics coming

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cheers rileyp

Not sure if this thread is dead or not, but I have an old pair of 4 ways that have been in regular use for about 18-20 years (can't remember exactly when I brought them from Brash's). They always have sounded and looked amazing. Some of the drivers have died. One is lacking tweeter and mid range and the other high mid range. But for a crippled old pair they still sound good. I'm very keen to restore them to their former glory so any hints would be much appreciated