Another vintage speaker pick up.. [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

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thekid
01-04-2009, 07:49 PM
Came across a pair of XAM 3D speakers. the grill work pointed to 60's-70's. they were designed for and sold by EJ Korvette. The grills do not come off but shining a light thru the front I could see at least a 8"-10" woofer with a cloth surround. Sound is not too bad from my quick listen. Will post pics tomorrow.

Found the following item re XAM;

"Of note was E. J. Korvette's venture into the home entertainment business. The retailer established a rather out of context series of high-end audio salons within selected stores. Korvettes went so far as to market its own "XAM" brand of stereo receivers, amplifiers (some manufactured by Roland Electronics of Japan) and speakers. At a number of the retail locations the audio department was, on dollar per square foot basis, one of the more profitable departments in the store."

Mr Peabody
01-04-2009, 09:11 PM
Interesting, I haven't heard of them before, so good info and it looks like those could be good speakers.

Worf101
01-05-2009, 05:19 AM
I grew up in the city. Shopped at E.J. Korvettes in the late 60's. Long gone now. Probably a myth but I was told that the name stood for "Eight Jewish Korean War Veterans", but I'm not positive. As for XAM, never had a pair or even heard of em but I did have a pair of cloth surround curbside pickups once. They sounded absolutely marvelous. You must have some interesting thrifts in your neck of the woods.

Da Worfster

markw
01-05-2009, 07:51 AM
I got my start in audio selling for EJ Korvettes in Woodbridge, NJ in '68.

Trust me, don't expect too much from these speakers. They were low cost/high profit items that were essentially thrown in to complete a system, not unlike those penny cartridges of the day.

Their electronics were somewhat better. Along with name brands, some XAM electronics were made by Electro-voice, and they also sold a receiver branded "Rolecor" that was a primoridal Rotel unit which was excellent.

thekid
01-05-2009, 03:42 PM
Wooch- The Wiki entry actual addresses the myth around the name you mention. The EJ was the first two names of the founders and a class of ship. The chain was founded 3 years before the Korean War so pretty hard to be a vet befroe the war........

MarkW- I don't have real high expectations from an SQ basis. I knew they were older speakers and the cabinets were in decent shape so what the heck. I probably won't be able to give them a real try out for the couple of weeks because i getting ready to hit the road again.

thekid
01-05-2009, 07:18 PM
Here are some photos for viewing pleasure......

The woofer is stamped with the following;

3 E W 610

The tweeter

1ET/3ET
549

Not much of a crossover but a pretty well built basic cabinet.

Worf101
01-06-2009, 06:44 AM
Thanks for clearing up the "myth" about the name Kid. Dayum from the photo's those things are built like a tank. Cept for mucking with the crossovers and putting some modern posts on em, I don't see else you could do to improve em. Nice score.

Da Worfster