Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

To: Paul R.; Pollard

An aside, a bit OT, but Pollard will love the last part:

I finally pulled out a set of small speakers to try out for TV use on a “non-critical” 24” TV in my shop. “Non-critical” as in I’d like to have at least “mid-fi” sound, but at this point I don’t care about deep bass for this one: Just reasonably clean sound above 100 Hz or so will do. (The TV’s sound is awful.) The brand of the speakers is “ONN” - Wal-Mart’s brand. My brother left them behind when he passed - I’m guessing he intended to use them for computer speakers. They appear “NWB” (new” without box).

So, they seem decent enough, with a rubber roll driver about 2-1/2” diameter, the speakers play respectably loud and are not too obnoxious once I back off the bass — bass “up” they are otherwise rather honky around 200 Hz as many of these small speakers are. Mids sound slightly hollow & boxy, but, are not awful. But... the tweeters both seem dead. Looking under the non-removable tweeter grills more closely, they seem to be just flat diaphragms. Some sort of piezo tweeter, perhaps?

Curious, and noting it appears the front panel should come off the rest of the enclosure after removing a couple screws, I went ahead and, with some difficulty, pulled one speaker apart. The little 2-1/2” driver looks good (substantial) from the rear too — more so than I expected. BUT, the supposed tweeter is fake - it’s just part of the plastic molding of the front panel, with that 1” “tweeter grill” glued in over it.

This sort of fakery in products is of course not exactly new, but it sure gave me a chuckle. Buyer beware! I wonder how many people bought these and never realized they were NOT getting a 2-way speaker system?


403 posted on 05/12/2025 8:15:59 PM PDT by Paul R. (Old Viking saying: "Never be more than 3 steps away from your weapon ... or a Uriah Heep song!" ;-))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 396 | View Replies ]


To: Paul R.

Speaker systems?

You and Mr. FF would get along just fine. He’s an industrial engineer by occupation, but he loves sound engineering. In a secret life, I think he’d want to own a recording studio.

As it is, he has a very nice setup that he loves to tinker with if it stops performing exactly the way he wants it to. We move from vinyl to digital without much difficulty. We play something from our vinyl collection almost every evening. We totally love it. Revert to digital if things get a little wonky.

This kind of talk is all way beyond my expertise. I enjoy the benefits of all his hard work. It is probably his true passion, but doesn’t pay the bills as easily as his day job.


414 posted on 05/13/2025 7:13:15 PM PDT by FamiliarFace (I got my own way of livin' But everything gets done With a southern accent Where I come from. TPetty)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 403 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson