This driver/woofer has been salvaged from another of our "a cut above the rest" ENERGY 3.1e bookshelf speakers that we had "on hand" from time to time in my audio post production business from the mid 1980's until 2010. These were used as client "listeners" although the audio is startling good, clean and quite neutral - we used Tannoys as near fields in the editing studio but the sound engineer also thought these sounded pretty damn good for NF too.
Ex ENERGY Model 3.1e bookshelf audiophile speakers which, although working great, were taken apart due to the sound engineer wanting to see what they used inside, then over time the front grille (cloth) became damaged and I looked at the cabinets and they are not great any longer - so out go the "interesting" parts for that high quality custom loudspeaker project or just a replacement if you have an ENERGY 3.1e system.
WTF? ENERGY?
Energy are based in Ontario, Canada and still going strong. The company was founded in 1973 and the theme that runs through all of their products is audiophile at a "reasonable" price point - depends what you call reasonable, at the release year these speakers were retailing for over CAD$500, that's 30 years ago so imagine the cost in "today's" money!
I don't think ENERGY pushed a lot of their product over to Australia, we had to hunt around before finally finding the 3.1e's but the search was well worth it. We had heard about these bookshelf systems through industry sources, so we had to get a pair to play around with!
This driver/woofer is Canadian made (not a 3rd party drop in although ENERGY have used Klipsch from time to time) ENERGY generally made their own loudspeakers or used high quality 3rd party products such as Klipsch.
ENERGY Loudspeaker
Driver/Woofer
Made in Canada
Usable/approximated frequency response (3dB points) 35Hz ~ 10Khz (don't forget that the tweeter looks after taking the "audio load" after around 3Khz up to 20Khz)
Type: 4DR51767-A (P94H3 - serial or batch number?)
8 Inch diameter
Power handling up to 100W RMS
Quadcentric design - (actually I think this is more about the cabinet design than this loudspeaker, the cabinet is multiple ported internally)
Opaque poly cone design with rubber surround. I do not know the material composition, it looks like a poly material and is definitely NOT PAPER based, is ribbed and is not smooth - little dimples all over it. Whatever the material is, it certainly can push around a lot of air effectively! nice sound.
Semi rigid cloth centre voice-coil dust cap
Nominal impedance: 6 Ohm
COSMETIC CONDITION:
Excellent
NO damage to the basket or terminals
Cone is without any damage at all
Rubber surround is undamaged
Standard male spade connectors
GENERAL CONDITION:
NO significant damage to any part of the driver/woofer
This unit has had the dreaded "oh there's a button looking thing in the middle, let's push it!" treatment from a client, this caused the voice-coil dust cover protective dome to collapse slightly (see the photograph)
This is a COSMETIC ISSUE! The function of the voice-coil dust cover is to prevent dust getting in between the moving voice-coil and the permanent magnet it surrounds! The voice-coil completely surrounds a permanent magnet with very tight tolerances - the voice-coil must move but never touch the permanent magnet (otherwise you will hear scrapping noises!)
It is critical to keep dust away from that air gap between the voice-coil and the magnet and that is the sole function of the dust cover. It provides no function directly related to the audio quality but does prevent airborne dirt/dust getting down in the tiny gap between the voice-coil and the permanent magnet.
The shape of the dust cover is immaterial, whether it is a dome or has slight unevenness or even severe deformity, as long as the dust cover keeps out dust all is good.
Just make sure your house guests keep their little fingers away from your speaker cones!
The speakers are supplied with a thin foam "mounting ring" - this is how ENERGY originally mounted them - all 8x screws were tightly screwed into the cabinet (really really solid mounting used by ENERGY) and the foam ring then place OVER those screws to hide them.
TESTING:
We have used the complete ENERGY 3.1E's for years, since we purchased them in the late 1990's, and the audio they produce is very good. Not bright or "coloured" just nice clean balanced audio across the spectrum from around 40Hz to the design limits of around 20Khz although very few (if any) human ears can hear effectively way up at 20Khz. Our sound engineer was known to put them in his editing studio to be used as NF's instead of the Tannoys or NS10's - he was quite intrigued by these speakers.
DC resistance of the voice coil has been measured as 4.0 Ohm - the impedance is not indicated (nor is the power rating) but I suspect this is either 4 or 6 Ohm impedance and the complete 3.1e loudspeaker system has a rating of 100 ~ 120W RMS each channel.
The loudspeaker rim has 8x equi-distance 5mm holes for mounting, each being 75mm apart.
Front - Back distance is 90mm
Magnet at the rear is 75mm diameter
In a final ritual before dismantling the 3.1e system, I have been using the set of 3.1E loudspeakers for the last week or so - no issues at all, just nice clean audio with NO scratching or rubbing sounds.
Once removed, I also double-checked both complete system cabinets, including this woofer/driver before packing them "face down" onto a stiff cardboard backing (to protect the cone) and then sealed in plastic to keep out dust. This is how they will be supplied.
NOTE: This advertisement is for ONE driver/woofer loudspeaker ONLY, the other woofer/driver has already found a new home. I do still have the tweeters, name badges and crossover network too ... look HERE to see the tweeters
