Allison Acoustics CD7 Speakers: Any Thoughts?

Recently a friend has wanted to upgrade his speakers but, having not a lot of dough, wants to find the best bang for his buck. Like the fool I am, I offered to scan around in my travels for something that would fill the bill without thinning his purse too much. He's no audiophile--he and the wife have a modest system--and, with two kids, also needs to find something sturdy enough that they can't destroy and can stand on the carpet.

I think I've found that pair, finally...for $300, a set of Allison Acoustics CD7's....thing is, I've never owned any Allison speakers, and was curious as to what others here thought of those they've heard or purchased over the years. I checked the net for info, came up with other models, but not this particular one. (One interesting bonus perfect for my friends: these connect underneath to the cables, not in the back as so many speakers do. Less likely to become detached by the kiddies).

I can, of course, pick them up and audition them here, but that would be a real pain in the rear....and I don't like messing and moving any of my equipment, once situated, for any reason(leave well enough alone has always been my philosophy).

Any advice will be appreciated!

 

Well, about the humour, Gary, keep working on it....the day is still young!

Thing is, I've heard of Allison Acoustics--they have a website--and have seen some older speakers around over the years....unfortunately, Stereo Review S&V hasn't worked hard on its archive database, so no help there, and I can't possibly go through all the years of back issues I have to track down this specific model....I may yet have to just bring them home and hook 'em up and test 'em myself, but hoped to avoid that....

 

Ed-
I have a pair of the Allison 7's. These were available for a few years prior to the CD-7. I don't know of the differences between the two- however I suspect it had something to do with relabelling back when "CD-Ready" everything hardware was all the rage! There may be some minor differences.

Supposedly- the speaker is to be FLAT against a wall with no more than a half inch space between it and the wall for optimum bass.

As time has marched on- the speaker grilles do not hold up at all. The top grille(round) is still available through the resurrected Allison in Kentucky- however- the Front Grille is not. My last source for these was in Sudbury Mass in the old Mill Village(he also sold Classical CD's), but he was burned out literally(it caught fire) back a few years ago.

Many units out there now will need a reconing of the woofer. The foam used to hold the woofer to the frame breaks up over time. These kits are available over Ebay for around $20.

It is also important to not that these are only 4 OHM speakers. I blew the outputs of an old Sansui-9090DB plugging these in and playing(rather loudly)! I was going to use these as my surround speakers when I got my new receiver, but the 4 Ohms just wouldn't work.

They are currently sitting in my living room with my old Yamaha 2 channel amp doing nothing. I never got around to reconing the woofers. BTW- "replacement" drivers are available through Allison, but they list many different models that the same "driver" is used for. It doesn't make much sense to me.


Chris(down the road from Ed)

 

Chris,

Good day! Long time no see! How ya been?

From what you posted, sounds like the Allisons are decent enough for what my friends need, but there may be inherent problems with the woofer cones, so before I install these I'd better check them out and see what(if any)degradation there has been(I'm familiar with this, it happened when I had my Epicure's...)

I noticed one of the top grilles of one speaker was slightly bent, but should be able to fix that. Fortunately, these two can be placed in their home against a wall, so that's not an issue...and, I hope, high enough so that the top grilles can't be readily seen. Should work, since they have small children and I can't imagine either of them blasting the sound up too much and at 4 Ohms, not a lot they can do without risking blowing something. Certainly not the kind of speakers most of us here would want...

Thanks much for the info! I'm surprised more haven't chimed in, since I figured if I knew about Allison speakers(if only by name), others would have, also, but not much response at S&V either, so I guess they may be out of fashion....

 

ED-

I've just been reading a few things- not participating in much lately at all.

I bought mine back in 1982 or 1983 for like $400. I REALLY wanted the 8's(which are the 3-way's), and my ultimate would have been the 9's, but those are/were HUGE money.

The 7's were good sounding units, but having only 4-ohms they really have their drawbacks. If I could find a source for the front grille- I would probably take the time to clean mine up and do the re-foaming of the cones. That is all that is keeping me from setting up my old stereo system out in the living room.

Chris