Baby Royds

[rog]

Had a couple of new arrivals this morning a pair of Royd Sevens in need of some TLC.

As you can see from the photos below they need refoaming and I'm told one of the tweeters is blown too but hey they were a tenner and new foam and a tweeter will cost little more than £25 to £30.

Hopefully that'll be the extent of the issues with these and it'll be a nice little project fixing them.

The cabinets are good and solid with hardly a mark on them and they even came in their original box.

Anyone got/heard a pair of these?

Anyone have any advice on refoaming drivers?

If all goes to plan I'll use them in my office

 

[Vinniemac]

God, that takes me back - I'd completely forgotten that I ever owned a pair of these! I had them for a couple of years in the late 80s/early 90s, before moving on to the Minstrels. They were very good little speakers. Hope you have fun fixing them up.

 

[the heretic]

just being pedantic but these are Sevens not A7 s. Great speakers but its getting really hard to find people to repair them unless you do them yourself. good luck.
Andrew.

 

[antinchip]

I have a pair in my office system. Originally bought for use as rear surrounds they have given years of good service. Still sounding good. I am sure you will enjoy them.

Cheers

Anthony

 

[RickyC6]

I have a pair of Royd A7 mk11s - preferred them to Linn Kans, which when you consider the relative secondhand prices, is a win-win.

 

[rog]

God, that takes me back - I'd completely forgotten that I ever owned a pair of these! I had them for a couple of years in the late 80s/early 90s, before moving on to the Minstrels.

Nice move - at some point Minstrels will deffo be on my radar!

They were very good little speakers. Hope you have fun fixing them up.

Thanks, fingers crossed

just being pedantic but these are Sevens not A7 s.

Ah quite right, will edit the first post to reflect that, essentially the same though are they not?

Great speakers but its getting really hard to find people to repair them unless you do them yourself. good luck.

Thanks Andrew, all the necessary parts are available (tweeters getting rarer but I've found a place in Europe that has them) and I'm happy to do the work myself; re-built my Planar 3 from bits, have fixed up and restored the cabinet and stands of my Ela Mk 1.25s and done repairs on my CD player so doing these seems like a nice extension of what I've already done and I'll be learning new things too which is good.

I have a pair in my office system. Originally bought for use as rear surrounds they have given years of good service. Still sounding good. I am sure you will enjoy them.

Thanks Anthony, I've heard they sound good. I have some Mission 780s in there at the moment, am hoping the Royds are better (although the Missions are decent speakers in a smaller room IMHO)

I have a pair of Royd A7 mk11s - preferred them to Linn Kans, which when you consider the relative secondhand prices, is a win-win.

Cool, never heard Linn Kans but good to hear (and I hope my ears would agree). I presume the price difference is more to do with the Linn name than anything else!

Thanks for all the comments guys, keep 'em coming!

 

[Mignun]

I had a pair of Sevens. Great fun speaker but the top end can get a bit ragged if you don't match them carefully. Probably down to that Audax tweeter - only Goodmans really managed to make it sing sweetly with the Maxim/Maxim2. I sold my pair not that long ago to a fellow PFMer so hopefully they're still singing away. They were minty and had no surround issues, so cannot advise on surround replacement. Good luck with that.

 

[the heretic]

I have both the Sevens and the A7s Mk2. Sadly the bass drivers on the A7s are beginning to rot, so if anyone can help on that I would be grateful. Hopeless at DIY so it would require so practical help.

The Sevens succeeded the A7s Mk2. They share many sonic similarities but they are different, IMHO. The Sevens are heavier and possess a considerably tighter bass response, making them much more rhythmic and enjoyable with foot tapping material. The A7s , on the other hand have a beautifully liquid midrange(which the Sevens can't match) that is as good as anything Royd produced in a standmount. I find the bass rather spongy and ill defined, though. Both are lovely speakers.
Andrew.

 

[rog]

I had a pair of Sevens. Great fun speaker but the top end can get a bit ragged if you don't match them carefully. Probably down to that Audax tweeter - only Goodmans really managed to make it sing sweetly with the Maxim/Maxim2. I sold my pair not that long ago to a fellow PFMer so hopefully they're still singing away. They were minty and had no surround issues, so cannot advise on surround replacement. Good luck with that.

Nice

I notice the grills have a badge on them, mine don't - any idea if some of them went out without badges? I ask because there's no mark on mine suggesting there was one and it fell off.

I have both the Sevens and the A7s Mk2. Sadly the bass drivers on the A7s are beginning to rot, so if anyone can help on that I would be grateful. Hopeless at DIY so it would require so practical help.

The worst bit so far is getting all the gunk and glue off, that's pretty time consuming because you have to be very careful not to damage anything. Will see how I get on with the rest and post photos so watch this space

The Sevens succeeded the A7s Mk2. They share many sonic similarities but they are different, IMHO. The Sevens are heavier and possess a considerably tighter bass response, making them much more rhythmic and enjoyable with foot tapping material. The A7s , on the other hand have a beautifully liquid midrange(which the Sevens can't match) that is as good as anything Royd produced in a standmount. I find the bass rather spongy and ill defined, though. Both are lovely speakers.
Andrew.

Good stuff

Were they the same Audex tweeters on both models?

 

[the heretic]

Thanks. Will be interested in how you get on with repairing the foam. I see the other pair shown on here have rubber surrounds. I'd be interested to hear how(or if) that has changed the original sound as they were all made with foam surrounds.

Pretty sure they are the same Audax tweeters on both, as it is the on the Sevens successor, the Topaz.
Andrew.

 

[lAmBoY]

Royds used to be made in my home town of Telford!

 

[Mignun]

Thanks. Will be interested in how you get on with repairing the foam. I see the other pair shown on here have rubber surrounds. I'd be interested to hear how(or if) that has changed the original sound as they were all made with foam surrounds.

Sorry, probably a poor photo. They're foam surrounds. Just they were in perfect condition (and original), so I guess they look a bit shiny like rubber.

 

[Thom PC]

I don't know if all Royds had the badge on the grilles, but I have owned several pairs where one badge was missing without any sign of ever having been there. My guess is that they fall off quite easily without leaving any traces.

In reply to:

(...)
I notice the grills have a badge on them, mine don't - any idea if some of them went out without badges? I ask because there's no mark on mine suggesting there was one and it fell off.
(...)

 

[brian2957]

You could try these http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5...0001&campid=5338728743&icep_item=360488402811
These little speakers are definetely worth repairing . My advice would be to get someone to do this for you unless you know exactly what you're doing . I tried to refoam a set of A7s and made an a*se as one of them 'rattled' and I thought I had shimmed them properly to centre everything before starting .
I was lucky enough to find a pair on Ebay which had been repaired using a rubber surround and they sound excellent . Good luck. This might help too http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=15492&highlight=royd

 

[rog]

I don't know if all Royds had the badge on the grilles, but I have owned several pairs where one badge was missing without any sign of ever having been there. My guess is that they fall off quite easily without leaving any traces.

Maybe that's what it was, I've seen a few around with just the one badge too. Might try to make a facsimile at some point ...

You could try these http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5...0001&campid=5338728743&icep_item=360488402811

Thanks, yup I have some on the way from these guys.

These little speakers are definetely worth repairing . My advice would be to get someone to do this for you unless you know exactly what you're doing . I tried to refoam a set of A7s and made an a*se as one of them 'rattled' and I thought I had shimmed them properly to centre everything before starting .
I was lucky enough to find a pair on Ebay which had been repaired using a rubber surround and they sound excellent . Good luck. This might help too http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=15492&highlight=royd

No worries, I'm going to try it myself, I'm reasonably handy with this sort of thing, have the time and if the worse happens will just have to undo what I've done and redo them but will report back on how it goes. Thanks for the link too

 

[rog]

Here are some more photos, taken as I cleaned the rubber and glue 'sludge' off the drivers. A rather unpleasant, sticky and messy job but necessary before putting the new ones on.

An 'in progress' shot:

Both speakers done (took a few hours all told!):

And a final one with the little Royds next to my Mk 1.25 Rega Elas - spot the family DNA!

There's still 'sludge' on the actual paper of the cones so I'll have to do a bit of research to see what the best and safest way to clean that off is.

After that I'll have to wait for the new foam parts to arrive, hopefully they'll come quite soon so I can get on with the job!

Plan is to then check the tweeters, I'm told one is blown and I'll see if that's the case then. Until I get the foam done I'm not plugging them in because I want to treat the drivers with kid gloves their being so rare - they move up and down nicely on a gentle push and there are no scraping noises so fingers crossed!

 

[the heretic]

Hope you succeed in getting them done. I think it's hard to get it right. My Sevens were refoamed by a company in Gt . Yarmouth but they seem to have lost interest in repairing domestic speakers and Wembley Loudspeakers refuse point blank to refoam or re-rubber Royds. Good luck.

 

[rog]

Hope you succeed in getting them done. I think it's hard to get it right. My Sevens were refoamed by a company in Gt . Yarmouth but they seem to have lost interest in repairing domestic speakers and Wembley Loudspeakers refuse point blank to refoam or re-rubber Royds. Good luck.

Thanks.

I can understand why they are reluctant; first off it's a nightmare to clean the old stuff off - took me the best part of the day. Secondly there's very little clearance in the drivers between the diaphragm and the centre so get it wrong and you're screwed. As I said above I have the time and additionally time isn't money (unlike a commercial company) so I can use that to hopefully get it right or do it a second time, hopefully not the latter though!

Where abouts are you, not in the Bristol area by any chance?

 

[deltaunit]

Have we stumbled upon another difference between the various early Royd models?

I had previously thought the mid/bass drivers were the same in the A7s and Conistons but it now looks like the A series might have had a foam surround whereas the Connies had the same pressed casket but with a rubber surround. The other differences between the various models being the tweeters, port arrangements and the caskets on the later upper range models.

I suppose there were some differences to the various cabinets too.

Does anyone know for sure?

 

[the heretic]

Wish I was nearer. Im in london