I'm repairing a set for a friend and decided to look for opinions on these very well made and obviously expensive spkrs! I noticed that no one has mentioned the 3 position cut/n/boost switch for the tweeters! It would be hard to comment on the efficiency of these spkrs without trying the switch! As to how much bass they can produce, I'm fairly sure your neighbours could tell you! These spkrs are built for listening to quality music, well recorded and featuring more complex instrumentation than the usual din of hit parade top 40! I'm sure there are better spkrs, but you might require a 2nd mortgage to afford them! I'm quite envious of those of you who have paid less than $500! I've been inside quite an selection of boxes full of assorted parts, these are way up the artisan ladder!

I am no audiophile, and some may be offended by my hooking them up to a 55" Mitsubishi HD 1080 large screen tv. I developed my own surround sound system, using a Denon POA-1500 and a Denon PRA-1000, along with an assortment of other speakers, including a Community Light & Sound 15" speaker and horn, along with six small desktop speakers of unnamed origin. All I can tell you is I love them, and reading about them makes me love them all the more. I feel truly fortunate.

I am concerned when my wife watches old classic horror movies on DVDs because the screaming actresses sound too real. I am worried my neighbors will one day call the police, or worse, believe I am beating my wife.

I aways wanted a pair of decent speakers, but I never wanted to pay the price. You can imagine my elation when I stumbled into a pair of Allison Ones in excellent condition at a local charitable donation shop. The price was right at $120.00 for the two. Three of the four covers were in excellent condition, but the fourth was missing. Sold!

Similar Products Used:

The Allison Ones are much smaller and immensely more attractive than the Altec 1281A speakers I used to have hooked up to the tv. I am clearly no audiophile, but I do like a good sound. If owning thes

GREAT looks Great sound even at low volume great bass, the woofers are close to the floor for amazing response. the two tweeters are placed hi in the unit so it can get tinny in some high notes BUT my carver 4000 takes care with supression. AND OH WHAT A VALUE $150 for both speakers and NO cracks on the grill.

the weekness was with my toyota MR2, I had to balance the speakers on the rear motor cover to ge them home, so remember DO NOT travel with them on A Toyota MR2 no other weakness nada zip zero

READ THIS.. I wondered into the local donation center (the plae you drop off cloths and buy old lady hats for $ .25) I saw a MINT pair of allison ones hooked to a radio shack piece of garbage tuner pushing an emense 10 watts BUT the sound comming form the speakers was amazing, I bought them for $150 and the lady said they were taking up space and had been her for 6 months LITTLE did I know what they were untill last week. the grills are MINT the wood is Like fine furnature there my pride of my speaker collectio

Similar Products Used:

zero I deverted the POLK powered towers to the surround and fed the entire CItation 16 power to just the Allsions and the sound is fantastic

I've always been a big Allison fan, having owned the Fours, Twos and now the Ones. I never tire of listening to them with all kinds of music. Their plusesare neutrality, un-boomy bass and clear highs. These speakers don't call
attention to themselves and seem to play well with most music.

They're not a great speaker for rock and are a little laid back in the mids and
highs. I bought the Ones for $550 and are a bargain compared with todays prices.

Getting parts may be a problem since the last time a contacted the supplier was
about 5-6 years ago in New England.

This speaker does alot of things well but I think there are better ones (of course for a lot more money!)

Inherent clarity in the high end with an exceptionally smooth yet defined bass presence.

Speaker grills - times wears on them and they become almost brittle, breaking easily. They are no longer available and rarely come up on the used market in good condition. Very frustrating.

My father bought these speakers in 78 at wholesale prices. They've been in the family ever since and still reside in the same living room where I grew up. Before everything is said and done every child in our family (my two older brothers and I) will all have a set of Allison Ones.

I have recently learned that Allison Acoustics has been purchased by a group of audiophiles and businessmen (their words) to re-start production of the Allison series. Though I may not agree with their pricing, I still hold true to these wonderful speakers. They've even smoothed the edges of the enclosures themselves and I'm sure they'll offer a variety of nice wood finishes. To an Allison lover it's at least worth a look at the website www.allisonacoustics.com.

With these new ones (no pun intended) on the market, what am I searching for? Another original 70's set of Allison Ones, of course...

Similar Products Used:

Allison Three's & Five's.

The Allison Ones are approx. 10 yrs. old.They have two 8 in. woofers, two mid's, two tweeters in each cabinet.
They usually sell for approx. 200@. They need power to really preform.
They are an against the wall speaker, and the sound fills the room.
The sound is smooth,clear. Turn up the volume it stays smooth and clear
there is just more sound, not distortion.
They are probably to large for an apartment(unless you own it) but alright
in my livingroom 14x20.
It's very little money for a lot of sound,if you have the room. I hope that
my information will be of help to someone looking for low dollars/great sound.

Multi-directional sound

None

I bought my Allison Ones as demo models in 1978. They are easily the best speakers I have ever seen. Certainly, nothing available in today's market of plastic junk can come close.

I had already become a convert to the idea of multidirectional speakers when I found the Allison Ones. I also own a pair of EPI 250's and a pair of Epicure Twenties. The EPI 250's are a rectangular box, 15"x15"x25", with speakers on two adjacent sides; they can be located in corners to face forwards and each other at the same time. The Epicure Twenties were actually designed to have their two active facets facing forward and upward, but it was a simple matter to remove an attached base, lay them on their sides, and suspend them from the ceiling so they face forward and inward. Even the little nameplates were easily rotated 90º.

When checking out Allison Ones, Twos, or other multidirectional speakers, the thing to do is to walk around the room and listen to the sound from EVERYWHERE -- and audiophiles typically need to be told, since they are accustomed to sitting in a particular spot in front of and exactly between speakers. From any point in a properly arranged listening room, you can hear multidirectional speakers -- both of them -- with excellent clarity.

Anyone who has never listened to multidirectional sound is likely to be unimpressed at first. What really upsets people is when they get home and listen to their own systems again and realize just what normal speakers sound like -- like a person speaking through a megaphone directly at you. Multidirectional speakers sound like the megaphone has been removed, the person is standing there speaking to you.
Unfortunately, audio reviewers tend to review these type things badly. Maybe they never get up and walk around the room. Maybe they're too busy looking at the gauges rather than listening. I actually have read more than one review that refused to even compare the sound to other speakers, instead merely commenting that they had "nonstandard stereo imaging".

BTW, multidirectional speakers should not be confused with direct/reflecting, a la Bose. As soon as you get into reflecting, you get into phase delays -- which Bose carefully crafts to give the acoustical impression that you are in a large listening hall rather than your living room. Some people may like this, but I'd personally prefer my speakers produce the sound the recording artist intended without special effects.

In two decades of casually watching the market, I have only found five models of speaker that I would consider buying. I own three of them -- and all three will get a five star rating from me. The ones I don't own: the Allison Two, obviously similar to Allison One -- I talked my foster father into buying a pair of those. And the early model DCM TimeWindow, before they screwed it all up with a plastic housing and funny ports on the back.

I live in Florida where it's humid and the foam surround rots in only a few years. I have replaced the woofers in my Allison Ones twice -- once with genuine Allison drivers, the second time with a pair of Jensen 10" woofers intended for auto audio. Auto audio drivers can be found in 4 ohm, which is what is needed in the Allison One/Two models. The Jensen is actually a SUPERIOR driver to the original, providing cleaner bass and a slightly lower response range as well as more power handling. I opted for regular woofers, which optimize bass clarity but reduce the "warmth" found in the original Allisons; for those who wish to maintain the sound as close to original as possible, I suggest a set of "low Q" subwoofers instead. Low Q subwoofers have additional weight in the cone to lower the frequency response and smooth it out. The original Allison woofers had this extra weight in the form of a ring of lead built into the cone; modern low Q woofers are often far more advanced, using the extra weight to beef up the cone and make it extra rigid. Jensen makes a set of low Q drivers that will work excellently in the Allison Ones; I don't know what their model number is, but they are available from J.C. Whitney (!), 1-312-431-6102 or www.jcwhitney.com, catalog number 81xx4266N for $49.95 each. These will make your Allisons respond down to 22 Hz and handle 300W RMS (plus the power going to the midrange and tweeters!) each! Remember that you will need four to restore a pair of Allison Ones to its former glory.

The Allison tweeters and midranges should last forever. I blew all four tweeters early on, apparently due to a defect in design, and Roy Allison replaced all four gratis with a revised design tweeter. No problems there since. I also blew a crossover network once, apparently due to crankin' it too much.

By the way, Allison recommends some MDX 2-amp slow-blow fuses. These were great 20 years ago, today not so good. Back then they consisted of a lead block that melted slowly. Today they contain what looks like a spring holding one end of the fusible element. This spring acts as a choke coil, and will adversely affect the high-end response of your speakers! Take those fuses out of the circuit, and learn to control yourself with the volume knob.

Similar Products Used:

EPI 250
Epicure Twenty

Overall musicality; relaxing sound; bi-amplification option; relatively small footprint; non-wearing grilles; all drivers available from Allison Acoustics; RESALE VALUE; COLLECTOR'S ITEM

Require one "hot spot" position for best audition and sound perception from all four panels; highs a little rolled-off; not efficient enough; risk of easy damages to the midrange and tweeter drivers if the grilles are mishandled

I purchased one pair of 1984 Allison One speaker system about six months ago from the original owner (among the last ones made, discontinued in 1985, with no boxes and no owner's manual) being basically curious how these new speakers for me would exactly perform in my system (Revox B795 turntable; JA Michell ISO/HERA phono preamp; Jeff Rowland Consummate line stage preamp; Krell KST-100 power amp; Niles speaker selector) My Allison Ones are the "black model" (most wanted) Also, I was confident in making this investment knowing that I could easily resell the speakers that are genuinely considered a "Collector's item" (I partially agree with this as being true, in the sense that one can hardly find them for sale) I only had to do the following in order to bring them up to near mint-mint condition: thoroughly clean all four grilles; replace the foam surrounds to all four woofers (although this was not absolutely necessary); polish the wood. The speakers look now close to new condition. I am not a "professional reviewer" (who is, really?!), therefore please accept my apology if you won't agree with my personal point of view. My opinion on the Allison One is as follows: the overall sound should be acceptable to anyone, music lover and/or audiophile; relaxing, not requiring concentration (you just listen to music - this is definitely a positive feature); sometimes the bass is not quite punchy and heavy, as you might expect in a certain musical context, but merely integrated with the music material (I've heard better bass reproduction in other speakers); midrange sound is liquid, accurate, quite natural and effortless; the highs are just a little bit rolled off (but, again, integrated with the music material, such as described above for the bass section) In conclusion, the Allison Ones put out an overall musical and relaxing sound, hard to be found in other similar speaker system within the same or close price range. However, and this is strictly personal, the sound is not transparent and dimensional enough, this compared with all electrostatic speaker system I know, and in direct reference compared with Acoustat Spectra 2 I use as main speakers in my system. The most adequate music material for the Allison Ones would be folk, blues (acoustic music in general), some classical, jazz and country-western, but not recommended for heavy and hard rock. Unfortunately, compared to other speaker system that would definitely deserve five stars (such as Legacy Whisper, Eggleston Andra, Martin Logan Statement, Sequerra top model, Infinity IRS Beta top model, Dynaudio top models, Cello top models, Tannoy top models, Wilson top models, JM Lab top models, and a few more), I cannot grant five stars to the Allison Ones - just due to this reason. I strongly believe that from practical reasons it is always imperative and a good thing to do is to evaluate and grade speakers by comparison, not just considered by themselves, since if we would be doing this we would definitely be biased and very subjective. Musical value is one thing and objectivity, correct and unbiased appreciation is another thing. I believe that evaluating and rating an audio component such as speakers relates a lot with the reviewer's hearing qualities (for instance, if that person has "critical ears"), the musical background, and area of expertise (that would rely on how many valuable speaker systems one would have known and heard until the review was made) I know from my personal experience that this is a very sensitive issue, and I've read so far too many inappropriate reviews and incorrect ratings made by co-called "reviewers" working for audio magazines. Since I am not exactly sure about keeping my Allison Ones in the future, if someone is really interested in purchasing my pair of Allison One, please contact me using my email address est54@juno.com. Listening tests and inspection can be arranged (at my place in Hartford, Connecticut) As a final recommendation: if you will ever find a pair of Allison Ones in near mint or mint condition, you can buy them without hesitation, since I believe you won't have a major reason to regret this move or investment (musically and financially speaking) Thanks for reading my review, Emil - Hartford, Connecticut, USA

Similar Products Used:

Dozens of other speaker system since 1963 (heard or owned)

I bought my first set of Allison 3 speakers in 1977. They were designed for corner placement only. As a matter of fact when placing two 3's together they form an allison 1. The sound and impedance will then be identical to the model 1. I remember auditioning the no 1's in Westchester, NY. The salesman put on the Organ Symphony no.3 in C minor by Saint-Saens. That demonstration won me over immediately. The sound was phenomenal and within my budget at the time. Allisons were not exactly cheap. I still own this pair of speakers, albeit with a few new drivers off course. Enthusiastically I later bought the models 4 and 6 . The 4's were unique in there own way, but the 6's were something else, just a small 12" cube. When they were on the wall in my living room they reproduced such a rich sound and an unbelievable low end. I'm sorry to have sold them. I also still have two electronic subwoofers that were included with each pair of speakers. This also extends the lower frequencies. By now you probably realized that I'm some sort of a bass freak. Be that as it may, I'm just fascinated by a small box reproducing prodigious sound. The dome tweeters, being almost non directional, were another of the Allisons virtues. One can place a speaker almost any where against a wall within reason. Three feet of unobstructive wall must be available on either side. That's the only way all Allisons perform well. Today I use a pair of Rogers Studio 2 in our family room with a Sunfire subwoofer to augment the low end. These speakers are so very directional and one has to sit in a particular spot to appreciate them. Two entirely different perspectives here. What is the better way-who knows? Just am rambling on with my experience with the Allison speakers. Oh gosh, did I tell you about the RDL speakers with the woofer firing vertically against the wall in my living room.......

I owned a pair of A1's for many years, and while I had them I considered them to be among the best speakers available. All during that time, I employed an Allison Electronic Subwoofer to equalize the low bass smooth and flat right down to 20 Hz. (In that respect, the combination was very close in performance to a Velodyne F1800 that I am using with my current systems.) My first book, High Fidelity Audio Video Systems (McFarland, 1991) has a picture of the A1, and there is a fair amount on Allison speaker systems and their design in that book. I am sure it does a good job of highlighting the basic principles, because Roy Allison helped to proofread that book.
All Allison systems were configured to be placed in specific locations in relation to room boundaries, and the A1 was designed to be placed up against a wall, so that the floor/wall junction generated a smooth, suckout-free coupling of the mid-bass to the room. Models like the A2, Allison 9, and CD-9 were designed to work the same way. Yes, you could pull these systems out from the front wall to supposedly enhance imaging and clarity, but the reason this happened to work had more to do with getting the speaker closer to the listener than to any reduction in wall bounce. (You can get similar clarity-enhancing results simply by not moving the speakers at all and, instead, moving the listening position closer to the speakers.) And, of course, pulling them out would defeat the idea behind the midbass "stabilized radiation" design that Roy Allison put together with those systems. The whole idea was to keep the midbass smooth, and the way to do that with his systems was to position them the way they were supposed to be.

The bookshelf models (Allison 4, 5, 6, and 8, plus the CD-5 and CD-6) were designed to to have their woofer systems against one room boundary (front wall), and at different distances from the other two (side wall and floor), as measured from the center of the cone and directly, by the shortest route, to any of those boundaries. Other models, like the Allison 7, CD-7, and CD-8, were essentially bookshelf systems mounted on integral stands, and should have been positioned similarly to the way the regular bookshelf models would have been done, but with their bases on the floor. The later LC and AL series, which had the woofers on the front, conventional style, but a bit lower down than some competing brands, worked in much the same way, but they were designed to be pulled out from the front wall, and the main close-up boundary would be the floor. In each case, the woofers of those systems would be close to one boundary, and hopefully positioned at unequal distances from the other two. While this kind of positioning with the two-way models would not result in the very smooth boundary coupling possible with the bigger Allison models, which had their woofers close to two boundaries and therefore did not have to deal with multiple secondary boundaries at moderate distances, it would usually result in smoother midbass than what would be possible with two- and three models that had their woofers mounted high up on cabinet fronts, at often similar distances to two or even three boundaries.

Note that the positioning of the Allison woofers was designed to work with the laws of acoustics, rather than against them. The woofers of the larger systems were positioned so that any cancellation effects from the very close boundaries would exist at frequencies above the operating range of the woofer(s). The midrange drivers of the three-way models were positioned in such a way that their cancellation suckout, at least for all but the front-wall boundary, would exist at frequencies below their operating ranges. (Because of the positioning of the midrange, the CD-9 probably had the smoothest overall response of any Allison models.) Nifty design, and one that was guaranteed to allow the systems, if properly positioned, to deliver flat input to the listening room. Note that doing this is different from delivering flat input to anechoic environments. Allison was interested in real-world performance in real-world listening rooms.

I will also briefly note that Allison also designed and built his own midrange and tweeter drivers (at least for many years, until financial conditions began to force him to use outside sources in some cases), and those drivers employed a design that had them simulate the radiation of pulsating hemispheres. Because of this, they had a uniformity of dispersion that is still not matched by any other forward-facing drivers. This design allowed them to radiate nearly as strongly at 60, 75, and even 90 degrees off axis over their operating ranges as on axis, which greatly reduced the tendency of the systems to display notching at the crossover points. This both insured a uniform radiation pattern and flat power response. I am still mystified that so many, so-called "high-end" speaker companies still cannot manage to design and build their own drivers. Doing that insures that a serious company will be able to have its in-house design parameters best adhered to. Most high-end speaker companies are just box stuffers.

After many years of owning Allison Ones, I sold mine and purchased a pair of Allison's flagship IC-20's. That system had a double woofer like the A1, but they were mounted in a larger box and voiced to go somewhat lower in frequency. In addition, they were mounted push-pull (with one woofer facing inward, but wired out of phase, so that it moved in concert with the other woofer) to reduce even-order harmonic artifacts. The same tweeters and midrange drivers were used (well, almost the same, because these later designs had somewhat different bezels and also had wire screens over them to protect the domes), but each panel had twice as many of them as the A1. Each vertical mounting was an MTTM array, to reduce ceiling and floor reflections, without, however, generating the rather large comb-filtering effects that long line sources exhibit. As such, the IC-20 put out a rather half-cylindrical wavefront that resulted in a very clean first-arrival signal, coupled with flat power and uniform radiation over the horizontal axis.

I also used the ESW with these speakers, and the result was a mild elevation in the 20-Hz range, that I found to be quite workable. I used this combination for doing the sound-quality record reviews in my second book, High Definition Compact Disc Recordings (McFarland, 1994) - a book that John Eargle gave a good review to in the October, 1995 issue of Audio Magazine.

Roy Allison has retired to Florida, and has earned a well-deserved rest. I believe he exemplified the best in audio, in terms of design expertise and overall business integrity. One of the last audio-related things he did before retiring was to assist in the proofreading of my third book, The Home Theater Companion (Schirmer, 1997). He had help this time, I will note, from Tom Nousaine and Fred Davis. If you are interested in reading a bit more about speaker/room interactions, as well as checking out assorted theories about surround sound and home theater in general (Dolby Digital, DPL, and THX principles are analyzed, for example, and, of course, assorted video systems), you might want to give the book a lookover. It got a good review by Mike Riggs, in the October, 1998 issue of Audio, and an Internet review can be found at:

HTTP://www.ambiophonics.org/ferstler.htm

Regarding the duribility issue with Allison speakers that some of you are concerned with, I will note that Roy has told me that the tweeter and midrange drivers should last a very long time. The only problems I have heard of with the midrange that was not excessive-power related (thermally, the midrange can handle more long-term power than an Allison woofer, so excessive power levels would have to be extremely high) involved the connectors on the old, fiberboard-bezel versions. They can sometimes work loose; but all you need to do is inject some glue around them and they will be fine. You also have to be careful that you do not overtighten the mounting screws with those older models. Other than possible damage to the dome from a wayward finger, or excessive power burning out a voice coil, the tweeter should work good as new for decades.

The woofer surrounds are foam and even under ideal environmental conditions they will show deterioration after 15-17 years. I suggest that you contact one of those outfits that sells replacement surrounds and purchase replacement kits. You see ads for assorted products in the back pages of Audio all the time. (I have used Simply Speakers and although the curve radius of their replacements were smaller than with the original woofers, they seemed to work OK.) Roy once told me that although foam was not as durable as solid rubber, it did result in woofer performance during the workable life span of the woofers that was superior to what he measured when he tried using butyl rubber. This was particularly true with the two-way models. The foam surrounds should be the only things on the woofers that deteriorates to any serious degree, so properly repaired woofers should be nearly as good as new.

Hope this short review and discussion will be of assistance to other Allison product owners.

Howard Ferstler
ferstle@ibm.net