Anyone heard of Knight speakers?

I was at the thrift store this evening and found a pair of old Knight Speakers. No model numbers or anything... just "Knight KN" on the bottom right. They're in wood cabinets, have a brilliance control on the back, and two connectors for the speaker wires.

The tag said that they were 12" speakers inside. I couldn't make out what else would be in there without taking off the back. They were heavier than my Sherwoods...

I did a little Googling, and found that Knight/Allied was bought by Radio Shack. These seem to predate that merger. Definitely have a 50s /60s vibe going on.

Any info on these puppies? They're asking $50 for the pair. I was just going to buy them, but I had forgotten my wallet (doh!). I couldn't even take a picture, because I had left my cell phone charging at home.

 

Holy Cow! There's a name I haven't heard for a very long time. Wish I could help you Keith, but I don't know diddley about them. They sound pretty though from your description.

 

I vaguely remember something about a "Knight Kit" which was something similar to Heathkit, but was offered through one of the big electronics retailers of the 60's, like Radio Shack, Lafayette or Allied. Yep, since you mention Knight/Allied, that must be where I first heard of it--Dad had an Allied catalog, and I was contantly drooling over the stereos in there that I could never afford.

 

Yeah, I saw a few references to Knight speaker kits on Usenet. Something tells me that these are not kits, but who knows?

Some info from rec.audio.tubes newsgroup:

Then I saw this one...

So maybe they are made from a kit?

I think I'll pick them up tonight. I'm sure I can find a home for them if I don't like them.

 

Ok, they seem to look a bit like these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3069794665

Differences that I remember: there was only 1 knob on the back of each speaker (either brilliance or presence knob?) and the paper stating model and other information was missing.

Similarities that I remember: I couldn't see well through the cloth front, but feeling around in there I noticed the long rectangular chambers, which were probably for horns if this image is any indication.

I don't know how I feel about speakers with horns... I haven't really heard any, but from comments I see elsewhere, they can sound a bit harsh.

Now I'm having second thoughts. True, they're only $50, but are they even worth that? I may be able to sell them for profit though.

I think I'll take some speaker wire to the thrift store tonight, so I can hook them up to a receiver and make sure they work. I'll take a screw driver too... maybe they'll let me take the back off.

 

I had a pair of gigantic Knight speakers that I picked up at a thrift store a while back. They did indeed have a large midrange horn, along with a "Sono-Dome" tweeter and a 15" woofer. The drivers for these speakers were all made by Jensen. The good news is that even though I wasn't too thrilled with the sound, I was able to make a nice profit by selling the drivers on eBay. Those old drivers are pretty decent and seem to have a following.

 

I like the description of those, especially this bit:

"THEY SOUND FINE, KNOB ON ONE MY NEED TWEETING. "

Ummmmmmmm.........OK.

Heathkit sold speaker kits. Not sure what's inside, but my grandfather had a pair that were large in height and width, but very shallow. I know they probably didn't make the drivers, but they sold all the parts as a kit to assemble the speakers.

Shucks. I'm still kicking myself for not grabbing those old Heath electronics from that old stereo cabinet he had. I think my uncle hauled all that stuff out to the curb. There was a tubed integrated amp in there.

 

Well, if you snooze, you loose.

I couldn't make it back to the Salvation Army until today. It's been one of those weeks. Needless to say, they were gone.

 

Jensen drivers can garner big buckaroos for stuff from the 40's through probably the very early 60's before they stopped making the big horns and woofers...

 

I have a pair that were my grandparents that are still in great condition. I did some research and spoke with a guy who was very knowledgable on them and told me that Knight made mostly mid to lower end speakers but at one point were using Utah Speaker components which at the time were of a better quality. I've heard they used Jensen components as well. Here are mine. I was told these were some of the ones that had Utah speakers components.

 

I had a huge pair with stands that I gave to my brother in law. They were quite nice but I got tired of hauling them around. Wish I had them back now!

 

I picked up some on a whim, $15. They don't sound very good, but they look great.

 

Utah was an Indiana company that made pretty inexpensive drivers - those would have been in low end speakers that Allied sold. Allied caried a huge variety of drivers from manufacturers like E-V, University, JBL, Jensen, and others appeared in their catalogs. E-V Patricians and Georgians were available in all manner of custom finishes - take a look at the late 50s/early 60s catalogs chock full of McIntosh/Marantz/Scott/Dynaco/Knight (house brand with some interesting looking amps): http://www.alliedcatalogs.com/

The 1958 catalog has a great variety of hi-fi items (ever see a Klipsch Rebel speaker?) - there's some truly rare items illustrated. Tube hounds might want to check pgs 100-101: Mullard matched pair EL-34s, Amperex, Genalex KT-88 pairs - looks like Allied was a great place to shop...

 

The Knight speakers I owned years ago were re-branded Electro-Voice.

 

I gave away a pair of big Knight speakers I inherited some years ago. Very well-built old cabinets. Sound was very tight and dry.

 

I spent many hours poring over Allied Electronics catalogs in my room as a kid. I picked out many killer systems that I would buy as soon as....

 

I had a pair as a kid. I think it was the Knight 15" coax with the tweeter in the middle. They were in homemade cabinets. I found them in the local Penny Saver for $50. Probably around 1980.

 

I have a pair of these, got them as new in the box a few years back. They have very unusual bass response to say the least due to the very shallow box they had to make the port tube in an L shape. Funny they don't show that in the picture.

 

Ah, here it is, the ducted port, which is "tuned like a fine musical instrument":

 

I've fooled around quite a bit with those speakers for garage use, adding, subtracting insulation in the box, Making a stiffer back cover, many changes with placement, all in vain, the bass response is all over the map on those 2281's.

 

Yes, it was.