A while a go i got given a pair of Canadian Paradigm Atom V5s very scruffy cabinets no idea what had hapened to them, but the drivers where good
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I had been wondering what to do with them so i thought i would try them out of thier cabinets and in my 1970s RCA console.
The speakers that where in there are ok but nothing to get excited about.
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So i stripped the atoms from thier cabinets including crossover board and spent a couple of hours making modifications to the spaeker boards on the RCA, being chipbaord it isnt a hard job, basically i had to remove some wood as the cone on the new speakers was larger than the rca ones.
Once completed i but the back on and pushed it back into its place and tried a Bert Kaempfert LP the track "Magic Trumpet" has a really low bass line at the start that the RCA wasnt able to catch with the old speakers.
The difference is amazing the bass will rattle the cabinet and the basement window and the treble is a lot sweeter, i can also crank the volume higher without the speakers distorting, the original RCA speakers didnt like going loud with bass.
This console is solid state but these speakers have made such a difference it blows me away.
I was taking a chance but the console was $15 the speakers where free so what did i have to lose.
im impressed.

I suspect those speakers are acoustic suspension where the cabinet provides crucial tuning for the bass driver. I think it would have been better to place the entire Paradigm speaker systems, scruffy cabinets and all, inside the RCA Victor console.

The better consoles (Fisher, etc.) were made with tuned speaker enclosures instead of open-back like the cheaper ones.

-David

already tried that they sounded awful inside the unit.

Yes, they would sound terrible if you merely place them inside, behind the speaker board. It would be necessary to cut away the speaker board in front of the entire Paradigm speaker. You could then hide it with some black grille cloth behind the existing grille cloth to preserve the original appearance.

That way, the Paradigm speaker would sound exactly the same as it does by itself.

-David

Maybe its my ears but i was never really impressed with the way they sounded inside thier enclosures and i tried them on a few
amplifiers, they never really drew me into the music but they are definately a good replacement for the rca aoriginals.
But as i said it cost me nothing to do the mod and im happy with the sound now.

All that matters is how it sounds to your two ears.

I am actually thinking of putting a solid back on the rca and maybe add ports, see how it sounds, done right it should sound even better than it does now.
Way i look it is this if i hadnt rescued it at $15 it would have been smashed up, with th speaker mods etc it is getting a new lease of life, turntable wouldnt even turn when i got it completely seized and the 8 track drive belt had turned to goo.
It all works now and it sounds better than it did when i got it.