SABA Loudspeakers
SABA is a brand that has over a century of heritage in the audio-visual industry. When I searched online for vintage SABA loudspeakers I can across many articles DIY high end SABA green cone speakers. Sadly, this heritage has not been built on into the modern era. According to SABA's own words it is now a trademark licensing business.
The loudspeakers I have are labelled as the SABA EA6010 loudspeakers. To my eyes, they appear similar to the SABA REAL 2-CD loudspeakers that were advertised in their 1990 SABA catalogue. The SABA EA6010 loudspeakers are 3-way bookshelf loudspeakers, possibly from a midi-hifi stereo system. The SABA EA6010 loudspeakers have a rated power of 55 watts @ 8 ohms. This is a medium power loudspeaker that would have been aligned to the rated midi-amplifier power rating. There also appear to be serial numbers printed on a white sticker on the rear panel of the loudspeakers. My two SABA EA 6010 loudspeakers have serial numbers X311974 and X311975.
I picked these loudspeakers up from a local thrift shop. Normally they have an electrician test all electrical equipment before sale. I am not sure what electrical testing was done on these particular SABA loudspeakers as one of the woofers (large speaker drivers) was not working. I visually inspected the woofer and found that the tinsel cord between the chassis connection and the woofer wall was worn out and no electrical signal was making its way to the coil. This is a fiddly fix and I managed to reconnect worn tinsel with a small amount of solder to mend the physical connection.
The general construction is of an entry-level hifi cabinet. The SABA EA 6010 loudspeakers are constructed using 14mm thick particle board covered by black vinyl applied by heat glue. The drivers are directly screwed into the particle board but appear to still have a tight fit. The detachable dust covers consist of an MDF frame with black cloth stuck on by glue. Over the years, the black cloth has pulled off the back of the frame and looks a bit shabby. In my opinion, this is fairly typical of an entry-level hifi loudspeaker. These speakers do have some weight to them. My scales said that the SABA EA 6010 loudspeakers weighed in at 7.2kg each. This is a good weight for what is probably a big-box store purchase.
The drivers can be considered the engine of any loudspeaker system, and I still think that size of the woofer does count. The SABA EA 6010 loudspeakers are 3-way, meaning that there is an electrical divider circuit that separates the audio signal into low frequency bass sounds, mid-frequency drivers, and high-frequency tweeters. The woofers are 8" drivers with paper cones. The mid-range drivers are commonly described as improving the singer's voice response because there is a speaker driver dedicated to reproducing the human voice's frequency range. In the case of the SABA EA 6010, the mid-range driver is a 4"driver with a paper cone. The tweeters are the speaker drivers that reproduce the high frequency sounds, and are of a very large 3" paper driver. The fit and finish of the woofer appears very nice and I wish they were still working on my pair. The tweeters are a let down and I do not consider these to be of hifi quality. Again, visually the three drivers look good, but I would have preferred a smaller fabric tweeter to reach those delicate highs. I am keen to push these speakers through some basic audio tests to get a feel for any problem areas.
I connected the SABA EA6010s to my test kit and performed an electrical sweep. A sweep is where you send an electrical signal that sweeps from low frequency up to the high frequency limit. This is a general test that gives guidance on the performance of the speakers. The main discovery I found was the at the mid-range driver does not appear to have a high-pass, nor a low-pass filter. This means that the mid-range driver attempts to reproduce the low-frequency signals (bass) in addition to the low-frequency woofer. And the mid-range driver also squawks on top of high frequency sounds coming out of the smaller driver. This gives the impression that the loudspeaker is louder but at the expense of clarity. This is often the case where cost-cutting has been made with the crossover network. A true 3-way crossover network is very expensive to make and contains many parts. A very basic crossover circuit is not seen by the purchaser and there is no way to determine its quality from the catalog or visually in a bid-box store environment. In my opinion, the three speaker drivers look impressive but the electrical circuit is less than impressive.
SABA EA 6010 Photo Gallery
