BEFORE YOU COMMENT: I know the sound is bad. I filmed and edited this at the last second.

Great score on your Nova-7Bs! They look fabulous. Note that they are not 3-Way, but actually 2-Way speakers. Earlier Nova-7 (no "B") is a true 3-Way. Its two upper frequency drivers' cones look alike but they have different part numbers. They're fed by separate filters with individual "Midrange" and "High Freq." rotary level controls. Your Nova-7B 16Ω mid/tweeters both have the same 0705Ae part number, are wired in parallel to each other and fed by the same high pass filter with a single switched level control (see 5:45 and 6:03). They work in tandem producing the exact same frequency bandwidth. Ironically Radio Shack contributed to the confusion. Nova-7B was introduced in the '75 catalogue with "3-Way" description lifted from the prior model. Marketing finally got the memo after 3 years and made corrections for the 1978 and 1979 catalogue listings.

@AudioThrift

27 күн бұрын

Yeah, I based my description on their description. It's interesting that the marketing team missed such a critical detail and nobody from the engineering department was immediately calling and yelling at them about it. lol

I bought a pair of Nova 7B's when I was a manager at Radio shack in the 70's. I used them for many years. They are great speakers for easy listening music, not for hard rock. When Quadrophonic came out (yes I'm that old), I bought 2 Realistic Mach One's and the 7B's went to the rear channels. My 7B's were stolen in a burglary at my apartment. They left the Mach Ones. I guess they were too bulky. They also got the Marantz Quad receiver. All Radio Shack speakers were good values, my favorites (I have 6 pairs) are the Minimus 7's.

@AudioThrift

4 ай бұрын

Yeah, you know I hear the Minimus is a pretty great speaker.

I've got a pair of Nova 8b's that I bought probably 6 or 7 years ago from a vintage audio repair store and they kick ass, still. Never got around to re-capping them like I was planning and yet honestly I haven't felt the need to, they sound fantastic all through the range, and they have good enough bass where you don't even need a subwoofer, really. Fantastic speakers, especially for the price, and they match with my also 70s Realistic Minumus 7W bookshelf speakers that I use at my computer. 70s Realistic stuff is really the best kept secret in vintage audio.

@AudioThrift

4 ай бұрын

Yeah man, I am amazed how solid their stuff is. I'm not gonna claim they're the best audio quality on the market but you could drop 'em off a building and they'd still work. Bulletproof.

the texture is likely to stiffen the cone and help with breakup. Also to perhaps add a bit of mass effectively lowering the Fs and raising the Qts a bit.

@AudioThrift

4 ай бұрын

Can you elaborate on F's and Qt's?

@MrFlemmingjensen

3 ай бұрын

Exactly . Just my words :)

@ShazeemKhan

26 күн бұрын

Fs. This parameter is the free-air resonant frequency of a speaker. Simply stated, it is the point at which the weight of the moving parts of the speaker becomes balanced with the force of the speaker suspension when in motion. Qms, Qes, and Qts are measurements related to the control of a transducer's suspension when it reaches the resonant frequency (Fs). The suspension must prevent any lateral motion that might allow the voice coil and pole to touch (this would destroy the loudspeaker). The suspension must also act like a shock absorber. Qms is a measurement of the control coming from the speaker's mechanical suspension system (the surround and spider). View these components like springs. Qes is a measurement of the control coming from the speaker's electrical suspension system (the voice coil and magnet). Opposing forces from the mechanical and electrical suspensions act to absorb shock. Qts is called the 'Total Q' of the driver and is derived from an equation where Qes is multiplied by Qms and the result is divided by the sum of the same.

Love your channel sir. Your aesthetic is great! I'm using my dad's old, tall, wood grained "Soma" brand speakers, which I think were a Canadian manufacturer. Stuff is as old as I am, so 40-ish years old. My intro to music was one these speakers. Thank you for sharing!

@AudioThrift

4 ай бұрын

Thank you. I appreciate that. It's fun to have a connection to early days with stuff you use now.

LIKE number 3 which I did with glee. Paying only $4 for those Realistic Nova 7B's is amazing! :)

@AudioThrift

4 ай бұрын

Hey, that rhymes!

@TorontoJon

4 ай бұрын

@@AudioThrift, yeah, it's one of my rhyming catchphrases I often use on KZread. Another one is "LIKE number 5 and that's no jive" or "LIKE number 6 and learning new tricks", etc. Haha! :)

Just found your channel from an unrelated google search. I love finding channels in this niche with similar size! I love what you're doing!

@AudioThrift

2 ай бұрын

Thank you! I appreciate that!

@MattDealy

2 ай бұрын

You're most welcome! I just restored a pair of these Nova 7Bs for a friends office setup who is getting into HiFi and he loves them! $4 is an absolute steal!@@AudioThrift

@AudioThrift

2 ай бұрын

That's awesome to hear. The deals I run across here in the desert are... just insane.

These are great speakers. I have a pair here that I've been using every day since the 1970's. Love them.

Dude! You're almost at 1k Subs. Very nicely done.

@AudioThrift

4 ай бұрын

Thanks! I'm stoked!!

My vintage speakers were built in the early 1970’s in Silver Spring, MD - about 30 minutes from my house. They are Ezekiel Model 2, a three-way speaker built by Loudspeaker Design Corp. I picked them up at an estate sale about six years ago for $15.

@AudioThrift

4 ай бұрын

Fifteen bucks. Nice! Gotta love a good deal. :)

I came across these almost a decade ago. I gave them to my uncle alongside a Pioneer SX-3600 for his new place at the time.

@AudioThrift

4 ай бұрын

That's a cool gift!

I'm running a pair of OP5"s big brother to the Nova 7's 12 inch woofers 2 midrange and a tweeter. Run them with my Realistic 2100D. Bought them brand new, and will stack them up with comparable speakers.

@AudioThrift

2 ай бұрын

Nice. I have to say, I like Realistic stuff. As I tell everyone, they haven't done me dirty yet.

I love a lot of the Nova series, they always clean up real nice and are great speakers for someone to jump into vintage gear. I used to flip a bunch of gear I picked up from the same places you do. I would always match up a receiver/turntable/speakers and sell them on facebook/CL. Nova speakers were one of my favs to use because they would clean up so well. A little Howards Feed-n-wax rubbed in with some steel wool would make them shine. Sound was always good for a first system. All that flipped helped pay for a awesome record collection.

@AudioThrift

3 ай бұрын

Ooh... I'll look into that Howard's stuff.

Glad this video showed up in my feed! I dig your style! Subscribed!

@AudioThrift

4 ай бұрын

Thank you! I hope I don't disappoint. lol

It's quite possible that the components on the crossover are not functioning as intended so the switch may not be as effective as it was from new. Really nice find, I used to have a pair of these in the 80's and they were brilliant

The blue haired lady at the front desk just looking on impassively as you're clapping for echos really sent me. Watched your little montage 3 times.😂 Anyway, there isn't much you couldn't do to these. Seen people really go ham with the crossovers in these and similar Realistic/Optimus speaker sets. I don't know if you're familiar, their Optimus Minimus line were die cast aluminium boxes with a 4 1/2 inch driver, with a 1 inch honest to God silk dome tweeter, with an absolutely massive magnet on the back of it. So if you aren't already, be on the lookout for those little gems. If you really wanted, a pair of those tweeters would go well alongside the midrange/tweeters in your Novas.

@AudioThrift

4 ай бұрын

Thank you. She's our piercer. You know, I think I actually see those little Minimus speakers once in a while. I'll grab them next time I see them.

@jameslaidler2152

4 ай бұрын

@@AudioThrift Do! They are considered to be a surprisingly high quality little speaker not many people realised were pretty good. Also, I'll let you have fun sorting put the slightly different models which had a vent out the back and not. They all came in standard black/grey, white, and even a painted wood grain ala your grandma's 1987 Buick Roadmaster. In the early to mid 90's they made a slightly larger model using a 5 1/2 inch driver with a foam instead of rubber surround (WHY!?) and a dipole dual mylar ribbon tweeter, as well as a small dual midbass woofer tower using the same tweeter.

Awesome video ! My main speakers are a Pair of Polk Audio SDA-1C’s (original owner) I recently Acquired a Pair of JBL L-150’s. A Pair of Polk Audio Monitor 70ii for home theater. With CS10 center and TSi100 surrounds. 5.1 system with PSW505 powered sub. A friend back in the early 80’s had a Pair of Pioneers that looked like those. Powering those was a 60wpc Pioneer receiver. Not sure what model number it was. HE, eventually got a Pioneer SX-1980 to power JBL L-112’s. Was my first exposure to good audio components. I’ve been hooked ever since.

The Hard Surface on the woofer does three things. The surface add upper midrange the weight adds lower bass and it stiffens the cone for lower distortion. 3 things from one coating

I just picked up a pr today from a thrift store. Totally surprised with their sound. Eventually I'll recap but for now just giving the cabinets a.cleaning and polish.

I am running a pair of early model vintage Pioneer CS-53's that I bought from a thrift store a few years ago for $40 for the pair. They are being powered by a Pioneer VSX-D466S Dolby Surround receiver from 1997 that I also bought from a local thrift store. I got it in a package deal that came with a basic Sony branded dual cassette deck, a Pioneer PD-F906 101-cd capacity carrousel cd deck and a Pioneer PL-570 turntable for about $100 for everything. It even came with the Pioneer branded component cabinet but it's a bit rickety since it's just made of particleboard. Otherwise it's all there, I just have it stored in a building outside as I have no space to set it up in my room. I originally just bought the package deal for the cd deck but I've been getting more use out of the receiver than anything. I just don't have the space to hook up the rest of the system components. It may not be a valuable sought after piece but it's not often you see a carrousel cd deck that holds 101 cd's anymore. :)

Nice, for $4 in that condition that's great! Just looking at that setup brings back the memories, takes me back to my high school days, I never had a set myself but two friends each had the "little brother" to this speaker, the 2 way with 8" woofer, one of them having a setup with a nearly identical looking Realistic receiver, but a few years older and only tuned FM--I really had to do a double-take seeing that receiver and speaker setup! From what I remember they weren't the greatest for detail nor the most efficient but still sounded great and being acoustic suspension the bass was tight and DEEP, you could feel it as well as hear it! Wanted a set of these back then but only found one pair for sale used and it slipped through my fingers. In 1989 after a lot of looking and listening I finally bought a set of then-new KEF C55's which for $800 were a LOT of money for me at the time, but I still have them and love them!

@AudioThrift

4 ай бұрын

Oh nice. I have a pair of KEF's that have some loose wires, which will be a video eventually. It's cool yours still work.

I have some pretty good desktop speakers and the difference in the switch positions was pretty apparent, so gudonya there. I still have 3 or 4 pairs of Realistic Minimus 7's Adda small sub to those and you have a pretty doggone hi-fi system for a smaller room.

I believe the texturing is to help stiffen the cone.

@danielknepper6884

3 ай бұрын

Pioneer did the same thing on the HPM 200. It is meant to lower the resonant frequency of the driver.

Nice speakers mate! Great price. I run a pair of Dahlquist DQ12 on my main rig & use a passive Image Dynamics ID12 for sub duties. Greetings from Trinidad

@AudioThrift

26 күн бұрын

Thank you!! I bet that sounds great!

The Nova 7B was a decent speaker, and they sold like hotcakes. Then went on sale for half price once a year at $64.97 each. The Optimus 1B was the same speaker without the fancy grills. Replacing the crossover cap does wonders for them.

Helpful video 👍 I have a pair of the 7B siblings, the similarly styled model 8B speakers, in fine working and physical condition. These 8B have two e.q. switches on the back of each cabinet. So, should I expect to find two capacitors inside? I've been wanting to recap these for awhile now simply to freshen them up closer to original sound and specs. Either way, this video was a good motivation for me to put these back to better use.

@AudioThrift

4 ай бұрын

I'll be honest, I don't know the answer to that. But switching them out should still be really easy even if it's two instead of just one like the 7B. Good luck!

@montag4516

4 ай бұрын

Yes, I've since watched a video on the 8B. It appears to actually have three capacitors for it's crossover. Routine task for me to swap them out, was just trying to verify what values/how many I would need before going inside. Thanks.

I purchased a pair of Pioneer CS-66E 40 watt, 8 ohm speakers in 1971 at the Navy Exchange in Yokosuka, Japan. I had also purchased a Pioneer SX-770 receiver at that exchange to power up the speakers. My SX-770 still works fine and there are no bulging capacitors and no hum or other distorted sound. I do need to clean the pots because they are making popping and scratching sounds. My CS-66Es look nearly identical to your Realistic Nova 7Bs, except mine don't have RCA input jacks and there are black clips to hold the lattice work together. I have not recapped the crossovers, because the speakers still sound fantastic after 50 plus years. I clean and inspect the speakers periodically. All the speakers look fine in the front. I've never inspected the crossover circuits. I'm currently listening to them through a Yamaha HTR 5930 AV receiver, which was manufactured around 2006. I bought it for the whopping price of $3.00 at a yard sale! Anyway, you made a good find. Interesting channel. I subbed and liked.

@AudioThrift

4 ай бұрын

Three dollars is great!!

@Bob_C

3 ай бұрын

@@AudioThrift Yes it was. I bought Yamaha HTR 5930 at my village yard sale in 2013, or thereabouts. It was in perfect condition, and everything worked on it. The only bummer is that there was no remote control with it. Also there are no HDMI ports, of course and no phono preamp. But what can I expect for only three dollars. I use the digital input from my CD player and use an external phono preamp. I managed to program it with the front face buttons. Thanks for your reply.

Nice that the surrounds are rubber, instead of foam. I had to refoam my Infinity Concerto tower speakers. Not a big deal, but it would have been nice if they hadn't rotted

New Subscriber. I like the review of the 7B's - I'm a treble head, so I'd be accentuating the highs as much as possible. Back in 1991-92 I worked in and managed a Radio Shack Store in NY. At that point, we didn't have anything like Nove 7B's. We had pressboard with vinyl veneer crappy towers and had just gotten in the BOSE AM3 (Acoustimass 3). Our most popular speakers were the Minimus 7's (those small metal (or wood - 7Ws) that everyone seems to have owned and gets nostalgic for). I currently own a pair of the Linaeum Pro LX-5's (Radio Shack) I'd like to someday score some Mach One's (also Radio Shack). Realistic stuff from the Golden Age (1977-1982) has a cult following and is NOT cheap. Currently, I try to find and buy PSB (made in Canada models), B&W (Made in England models), older Polk Audio stuff, and Pioneer stuff designed by Andrew Jones. Of these, most current Bowers and Wilkins stuff is well out of my current price range. I'd like to get some really nice 800-series some day. I'd also like to get and have room for a pair of Polk Audio SDA speakers (but they'd have to be towards the upper end of the range). On my various systems in my house right now, I have smaller B&W speakers connected to each of them. I think they sound perfect to my ears. Thanks for the video. Cheers.

@AudioThrift

4 ай бұрын

Yeah, I'm admittedly a fan of Realistic. They haven't done me dirty yet... which is more than I can say for some higher end brands.

@Kane26510

4 ай бұрын

@@AudioThrift I also have a soft spot for Realistic stuff. I used to look at Radio Shack annual catalogs the way other kids would look at the Sears Christmas Wish Book.

$4?? Nice find! Not sure about the lattice grilles, do they not affect the sound quality?

@AudioThrift

3 ай бұрын

Uh... it might. But if I'm honest, my ears aren't good enough to discern the difference. lol

The Shack was sometimes ok with there speakers ! Im trying to track down one of there older horn designs

I've always been curious- Audiophiles always say to use large (gauge) speaker wire between the amp and the speakers. Yet, the wiring inside the speakers is almost always like dental floss. Wouldn't it be prudent to change the wire between the crossover and the drivers to larger wire?? Does it matter?

@ModelA

3 ай бұрын

Oh, and congratulations on 1K subs!

@AudioThrift

3 ай бұрын

That's a good question. I really don't know.

@ModelA

3 ай бұрын

@@AudioThrift Care to take an educated guess? Haven't you ever wondered that too?

@AudioThrift

3 ай бұрын

I would think that as long as the wire allows more current than the limit of the speaker itself, it shouldn't matter. But I have a feeling someone might have a counter point to that.

@AudioThrift

3 ай бұрын

And thank you!! :)

Need to point out that electrolytic capacitors in crossovers have to be bipolar (aka nonpolarized). Usually you can tell at a glance because they don’t have minus or plus markings and in my experience the metal casing is crimped at both ends instead of just one.

@AudioThrift

3 ай бұрын

Ooh. Good call.

Added fabric probable delivered better sound when testing. Wonder how they would sound with port hole drilled in back.

@AudioThrift

4 ай бұрын

I could probably try that by just unscrewing the little back panel and leaving it down in the case. Interesting idea.

@terrybeavan4264

4 ай бұрын

Probably not the best thing to do, from my experience way back when working on a friend's set of the smaller Novas in the same range with the 8" woofer, it has a pretty loose suspension meant to be used in a sealed acoustic suspension cabinet. The 10" woofer would be similarly designed and the woofer and cabinet are designed to work together, so adding a port could actually make the bass performance worse and could even have the speaker bottoming out on the suspension without the air in the enclosure giving back pressure--bad news there, could damage the woofer. You could try it by removing the back panel, just be careful and be easy with pouring on the power and especially the bass as you see how it does!

@johncoops6897

4 ай бұрын

​@@terrybeavan4264- correct. These speakers are designed to be sealed, and it will cause bad sound and potentially damage the woofers if you run them in a ported or partially ported enclosure.

I think my mom had these when I was a kid. shout out mom

@bloryblummers

3 ай бұрын

why is my username just a bunch of gibberish???? well anyway you just lost the game

@AudioThrift

3 ай бұрын

DAMNIT!!!

I have polk audio rt600 tower speakers, a denon s650h receiver with a velodyne ct-150 subwoofer

Do not replace the cap with an axial lead cap. They are like 10 times the price. A regular cap will work fine and the legs should be long enough. But even if they aren't, it is trivially easy to just J-hook the leads to make them longer.

@AudioThrift

3 ай бұрын

Good advice.

I run a JBL pro PA system suitable for a small club. I own my house; my neighbors all rent. Can't beat that. (:

@AudioThrift

3 ай бұрын

What do your neighbors listen to? Whatever you're listening to. haha

@ardiris2715

3 ай бұрын

Yup. (:

"Recapping" - replace the electrolytic with polypropylene

@VicariousAdventurer

3 ай бұрын

Just because the maker was cheap in massive economies of scale does not mean that you have to. Better speakers spring for polypropylene.

@VicariousAdventurer

3 ай бұрын

Also, cheap carbon resistors add noise (not as much as in the feedback network of an amp) Metal film...

They probably sound better than those garbage speakers that people sell out of the back of vans

@AudioThrift

4 ай бұрын

Depends what kind of speakers they stole, I suppose. lol

@terrybeavan4264

4 ай бұрын

HAHA I had some shady looking guys approach me in a parking lot many years ago trying to sell me some "fantastic" speakers literally out of the proverbial white panel van--sure, hey, not a brand name I recognize and buying them without even being able to hear them first, what could go wrong? 🤣 My coworker with me said he couldn't believe I walked away from such a "deal" LOL! And yeah I suspect these old Novas of this era are not just better but way better!

@Kane26510

4 ай бұрын

Of this I have no doubt.

These were a knock-off (cosmetically) of the old Pioneer CS- series. I used to own a pair of the CS-99A's for a number of years.

@AudioThrift

3 ай бұрын

I just learned that last night while looking at reddit. I wished I'd known that before the video so I could have said it in the intro.

ALOT OF THESE WERE MADE BY HITACHI

The texture is a dampening disc.

Realistic speakers suffered from being too accurate. Yes, they'd made speakers that were actually technically good which made them less popular. People don't like the sound of accuracy as much as they like the sound of boosted bass and treble. It's like eating strawberries or strawberries with sugar on them. Yes it still tastes real, but better.

@AudioThrift

4 ай бұрын

Now that you mention it, they do remind me a little of the studio monitors my friend uses, sound wise... though obviously not as precise as his.

Moist

are you growing your hair out

@AudioThrift

3 ай бұрын

Yeah.

@bloryblummers

3 ай бұрын

@@AudioThrift well it looks great

@AudioThrift

3 ай бұрын

YOU look great!

if you paid $4 for these, how do you still have $4 to record this????

@AudioThrift

3 ай бұрын

Because I started with 8 dollars. Didn't Mikemike teach you math?

@bloryblummers

3 ай бұрын

no he never did@@AudioThrift

@AudioThrift

3 ай бұрын

He's let us both down.