Pioneer CK-11, finally 100%

[Superduper]

Bought this from that fella in Spain a couple years ago. Costed me an arm leg and kidney, but luckily somebody else's body parts which I'm slowly paying back. I just had to have it.

But.... I have not been able to listen to it until just now. Because the speaker surrounds were all rotted from simple age. After all this time searching for a solution that I could live with, I finally got the drivers back a few days ago.

See the following related assists from these kind members:

PRIME: https://boomboxery.com/forum/index.php/topic/22894-prime/

JVC FLOYD: https://boomboxery.com/forum/index.php/topic/3650-jvc-floyd/page-2

They helped me make this immaculate set all 100% again, so I finally got a chance to listen to them. All I can say is that the highs from the ribbon tweeters along with the equalizer are uncomparable. The lows, I'm not sure about yet. They are deeper and looser but not nearly as tight as the other Pioner Flagship (from different era?) SK-900. The highs are much crisper and well defined than the SK-900 (just trying to make a comparison to something). As for power, well that is a whole something else. This massive pioneer amp is a friggen powerhouse. I did not dare crank it beyond 3/10. First for fear of damaging my surgically repaired ears and second, because I did not want to damage these freshly refoamed speakers, both (ears and speakers) of which are priceless, lol. Perhaps after they are broken in, I might try to ease a bit more power to them. Anyway, here it is. Complete with everything including all accessories, etc. which is soo very nice to have.





Soo Sad, BAD Speakers. Can't listen to this for 2 years...



Speakers drivers removed for restoration. Whoa, those are some serious caps. No cheapie bipolar electrolytic caps here. They are reminiscent of JVC M90 type caps.


Surrounds by PRIME, to save the day.


Freshly refoamed by JVC FLOYD:




All the accessories, Oh, the advantages of BNIB,


Completed! This thing jams!







Enjoy!

 

[blu_fuz]

I hope all that waiting really paid off with some kick ass sound! What does one of those even compare to? Cool to see the members here helping each other out.

 

[nz boom]

good to see her up and runing mate

 

[floyd]

killer! .

those speaker look great lol.

 

[SLO]

Man that thing is so NEW! Great job Floyd, those surrounds look great. Wow 2 years is a long time to wait, good to see you finally get to enjoy that beauty, congrats!

 

[Superduper]

If the surrounds were round instead of rectangular shaped, it would've been fixed ages ago. However, owing to the quality of this machine, and the rarity of having a new unit, I wanted to do the refurb the right way with an appropriate sized surround rather than a refitting of a round surround pieced and stretched to fit. This was the challenge. Unbeknowst to me, PRIME had already done just that specifically just for this application. He had a custom CNC cut mold made to his specifications. I'm not sure of the exact process but they turned out great, couldn't ask for anything else.

All I can say is this thing really pounds. I'm very happy with it.

 

[jimmyjimmy19702010]

You are a very patient man to wait 2 years to hear a box that cost you big $$$s.

Are they vents at the rear of the speaker cabinets? Did JVC include any acoustic padding inside?

Just wondering if the cabinets were sealed and padded, the bass might tighten up somewhat.

Congrats on a simply beautiful looking box.

James....

 

[floyd]

those cabinets are a type of aperiodic housing , meaning the flow of air is regulated through a membrane that provides resistance to the speaker cone , acting as a tuning device for the enclosure.

 

[jimmyjimmy19702010]

those cabinets are a type of aperiodic housing , meaning the flow of air is regulated through a membrane that provides resistance to the speaker cone , acting as a tuning device for the enclosure.

Wow, very interesting. Maybe the speakers/surrounds just needs some hours on them to begin to perform at their best.

 

[Superduper]

You are a very patient man to wait 2 years to hear a box that cost you big $$$s.

Are they vents at the rear of the speaker cabinets? Did JVC include any acoustic padding inside?

Just wondering if the cabinets were sealed and padded, the bass might tighten up somewhat.

Congrats on a simply beautiful looking box.

James....

The cabinets are vented as you saw, but there is some form of solid grey foam blocks that line the sides, that look like dense lava rock. It was my understanding that they help the bass, but I'm not sure. Those ribbon super tweeters might not be sealed and those would be expensive, if not irreplaceable so sealing the cabinet is not really an option. Last thing I want to do is blow out the tweeters from the pounding woofs. Anyhow, depending upon how you like your sound, you might fancy it, or not. I love the bass of the CP7 for example, but it's not the type of bass some folks might like. It's personal preference. All I'm saying is they don't sound as tight as some other boxes, but then they sound mellower....

Here is what those foam blocks look like:

 

[Superduper]

Wow, very interesting. Maybe the speakers/surrounds just needs some hours on them to begin to perform at their best.

Could be. They were brand new to begin with. Now they are brand new all over again, lol. In any event, the design is different than a bass reflex system so you wouldn't expect it to sound exactly that way. It has it's own type of sound, and if they can handle the power that the amp puts out, they are mighty little speakers indeed.

 

[Lasonic TRC-920]

Absolutely amazing...

I think I remember seeing a thread a very long time ago of the massive undertaking needed to refoam square speakers

It looked like a real PIA & kind of sketchy, glueing corners from round surrounds

That whole system looks fantastic. Looks like heavy cynderblock

Nice work Norm, good to see you checking radio's off your list...and cheers to the team effort. Great Work Guys!

CNC machining....I LOVE IT!

DIBS!

 

[jimmyjimmy19702010]

So how does this beast compare sound wise against an M90 etc.
With the Power Amp, is it AC only?

I still can't get over how awesome it must be to have such a power house NIB!!

I'm drooling over here!

 

[Sazeus]

I love this radio, been using one in my kitchen hooked up to a technics 1200 for the last year.

Yep they AC only but can come with an optional battery pack, which won't run the power amp anyway. Mine blows my M90 away, but then my M90 needs caps.

 

[Superduper]

So how does this beast compare sound wise against an M90 etc.
With the Power Amp, is it AC only?

I still can't get over how awesome it must be to have such a power house NIB!!

I'm drooling over here!

Compared to the M90? Well, lets just say that I CAN NOT turn this thing up past #3. It goes to #10! So power wise, the M90 can't touch it. The highs are also unmatched due to the ribbon supertweeter. According to a brochure I saw, these speakers have these specs:

Freq Response: 30 - 50,000 HZ
Impedance: 6 ohms
Sensitivity: 90db /W / 1m
Max input power: 100W

The lows right now are a little raw (not that accurate) but I'm suspecting that some break in time will be needed. But it definitely has bass.

There is a battery compartment behind the main unit as well as a power selector switch. I have not nor would I ever install batteries in this thing to make it portable (lift this thing and the reasons become immediately apparent). There are lighter boxes better suited for portable use, such as the M70.

AS for new in box, vs minty boxes -- I think I'm going to start a new thread about that topic since it's worth discussing. No need to complicate this thread with a separate topic.

 

[Mystic Traveller]

Nicely done!

I am wondering if there are photos of the interior parts of the cabinets -
curious how this combination of the flat diaphragm and the speaker itself with a round defuser
has been constructed.

 

[Superduper]

Nicely done!

I am wondering if there are photos of the interior parts of the cabinets -
curious how this combination of the flat diaphragm and the speaker itself with a round defuser
has been constructed.

Here's the inside of the cabinet but it's not really going to show you anything. Here also is the backside of the drivers but it's not going to show you anything either. The round portion is really a whizzer cone, that is isolated from the flat bass section via it's own surround. The only way to see how it's constructed is to saw the speaker in half. Interesting note: The flat woofer, by spanning edge to edge instead of losing real estate to the radius', is equivalent to approx 8.5" round woofer.

 

[Mystic Traveller]

Many thanks! Those pics shed more light on this construction.
BTW, those magnets are something.

 

[floyd]

i would suggest running white noise through the speakers for at least 24 straight . this will break in the suspension and loosen up the cones a bit . right now as stiff as the new surrounds are it probobly takes twice the power to move the cones until the break in period is over.

 

[Superduper]

........... right now as stiff as the new surrounds are it probobly takes twice the power to move the cones until the break in period is over.

I dunno know about that Floyd. With what little volume control throttle pressure I'm giving it, it's already a bit too loud for comfort,