Vintage Mind Blower speakers???

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

PS-We all knew that those speakers sounded great, but we didn't know why. It turns out Tenna had a patent for a push-pull amplifier driving a speaker with a split voice coil, which allowed for higher output with less distortion for a given wattage. See US Patent 4130725 (forum won't allow me to provide a link)

Did they make a true coaxial or just a "whizzer" cone?

Humans have very poor memory for intensity and quality of sound.

Yeah I know this thread is 3 years old, but it was fun the last couple times it was bumped.

 

[motorhead]

Did they make a true coaxial or just a "whizzer" cone?
Humans have very poor memory for intensity and quality of sound.

Yeah I know this thread is 3 years old, but it was fun the last couple times it was bumped.

The original Mindblowers were 'duocone', and the Mindblower II's were true coaxial's.

If you study that patent, you'll see that they did some innovative things that should have resulted in a good clear sound at an affordable price.

Since none of these speakers exist in the wild anymore to prove me wrong, I'm going to claim that they were the best dang sounding speakers ever made.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[LWoods]

Silverbullet your dad was right I had bought a set of mind blower speakers in 1977 put them in a 1969 mustang they was un real there is no speakers today that will touch them . I don't no where to get any but would love to have a set again to put in a 1981 corvette hope you find some

 

[SplAffair 10+ year member]

Thread is dead. It started in 2010

 

[Boomsday 10+ year member]

Nothing wrong with bumping an old thread if you have useful information

 

[SplAffair 10+ year member]

No useful info was given.

 

[supereikenator 10+ year member]

I like this thread.

 

[Milk Mayne 10+ year member]

Back in my day we had to pull start our car's engines and that was just AWESOME!! Seriously, you guys have no idea, there's nothing like it!

 

[Chan1980]

I know this is an old post but I have to chime in here. In 1978 a friend of mine had a pair of Mindblowers in an old Dodge Dart. The first time I heard them I couldn't believe I was listening to a car stereo. I'll never forget he was playing "you shook me" from Zep I , the sound was explosive to say the least. It wasn't long until I had a pair , 59.00 for the originals. I liked the originals with separate tweeters up front. I know Pioneer and Jensen were the big names back then but they didn't compare. When you hit the power plus switch , hold on. Mindblowers by Tenna anyday.

 

[RandomThoughts]

Anyone calling the old Tenna Mindblower speakers "junk" simply don't know what they are talking about. They either (1) Have never actually heard them (2) Had a crappy stereo system pushing them, or (3) Didn't wire them right.

I bought mine at K-Mart for $59.95 per set in 1978, hoping to enhance the Delco factory system in my 76 Grand Prix. I worked hard for my money and was trying to save a few bucks. The sheer power and clarity absolutely blew me away. Total strangers would follow me for miles just to ask what kind of sound system I had. Little rich kids would pull up beside me with their sports cars and expensive amps. I'd just flip the "boost" switch and watch their mouths drop open. Windows up or windows down, it didn't seem to make much difference. Whether it was by design or by accident, somebody got everything exactly right when they made them.

From a "charts and graphs" standpoint, I'm sure there are setups today with better technical clarity and more measurable volume. But Mindblowers had distinctive sound characteristics throughout the audio spectrum that I have never seen equaled. They just worked. The bass didn't make your ears flutter like some of the popular systems today. Rather, you felt it deep in your chest. Hard drum licks had an impact like somebody shooting a pistol in the car. And those squally lead guitar licks would make your hand inch toward the volume knob. It wasn't like being "at" a concert; it was like being IN a concert. Either that, or like having a concert in you. It was literally addictive, and I drove many thousands of miles to nowhere just listening to the stereo. The speakers themselves looked somewhat cheaply made. But as for longevity, I kept the car for several years before the front pair bit the dust. The rear pair sold with the car at 193,000 miles. I would gladly pay 10X my 1978 purchase price for another NIB set.

 

[erod 10+ year member]

This is ****** nuts lmao i just threw a pair away last year when my dad died we was cleaning out the attic and there was a pair in a box i thought it was straigjt garbage so in the trash can they went didnt even bother to test them out smh

 

[electricroo]

Ok, I realize this is an old thread, and yes I was just trolling the net and found this topic. But I have been searching for a schematic for those old mind blower speakers. I remember that the circuit was comprised of an input transformer, darlington transistors, and an output transformer mounted on an aluminum heat-sink bolted to the speaker magnet. Yes the simple darlington circuit coupled with the transformers were their secret. I would like to reproduce them. And yes they were clean. Had them in my 69 Roadrunner. When I killed that the speaker cones dry rotted sitting in the basement. So I removed the amp cahssis from the speakers and installed them on a better quality tri-axal set of 6x9's and stuck them in my 79 blazer. They even sounded better with a higher quality speaker. If anyone comes a cross these, even taking the plastic cover off and sending me detailed close up photos would be helpful, or even a broken set would be better.

Ron

Home

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Ok, I realize this is an old thread, and yes I was just trolling the net and found this topic. But I have been searching for a schematic for those old mind blower speakers. I remember that the circuit was comprised of an input transformer, darlington transistors, and an output transformer mounted on an aluminum heat-sink bolted to the speaker magnet. Yes the simple darlington circuit coupled with the transformers were their secret. I would like to reproduce them. And yes they were clean. Had them in my 69 Roadrunner. When I killed that the speaker cones dry rotted sitting in the basement. So I removed the amp cahssis from the speakers and installed them on a better quality tri-axal set of 6x9's and stuck them in my 79 blazer. They even sounded better with a higher quality speaker. If anyone comes a cross these, even taking the plastic cover off and sending me detailed close up photos would be helpful, or even a broken set would be better.
Ron

Home

I believe back in the olden days some of the Pyramid speakers was OEM'd by Eminence. Now Eminence is still in business and the largest manufacturer of loudspeakers in the USA. Any of you nostalgia freaks should try to contact them and see if any of the old-timers working for them can give you any information.

Also, it's likely that a patent exists somewhere for these which might be another avenue of research. Good luck and come back and post anything you find to this thread because it seems like once or twice a year someone finds this forum just because of this thread.

 

[jgreen123]

Yes I have four mounted in my 1971 nova that I installed in 1973 they still work great and they have a switch which u can activate if you want to use the built-in amp I wish they was still made r dad was right they were great speakers.

 

[RedHornet]

Folks I joined just because of this thread. My first set was in my '68 Camaro 327... Mindblowers? Yes, they're were that good. Everyone in school knew it was the best system in school. It was always the focal car on scene for tunes hanging out or just cruising.

We had no high power amps, 12" subs, tweeters, woofers or cones. It was a 20 oz magnet overdriven system or nothing if you didnt have a set of Tenna's MindBlowers. I had several sets through into the 80's and the MindBlower II sets were a bit clearer though did not the driving force the original sets had. Jensen Triaxe's came out in the mid to late 70's and were good sounding and they would rival sound, though not thump. MindBlowers would rattle the hood on every car I installed them in.

In the the later 70's I wound up installing around 50 different stereo units for friends and a couple of car lots that wanted clean professional installs and no muss systems. MindBlowers were my choice when folks would let me and never was there a complaint. The Jensen, Craig and Pioneer systems were always so, so after an install and the buyer had twice as much in that system.

For the cost They still could not be beat today. In 2013 I set up a show boat for the BassMasters Classic Expo in Tulsa, OK with Kickers latest version, 10" sub, 1000 amp, 6" quads, quad tweeters and four 6" cans on posts, all driven by a very dependable Sony 910 head unit for outdoor use. The sound was very good, though I really think today a set of original MindBlowers would have rivaled the system with a good head unit behind them.

Over the years we have installed head units and speakers by Kenwood, Clarion, JVC, Sony, Pioneer, ProSpec, Maxxima, Panasonic, and many more newcomers. We have done thousands of head units since those high school days and obviously feel we have some limited feel for what works.

I did a search looking for Tenna and this thread popped up. I think enough of the Tenna MindBlower systems still today that I would install them in what we do now. And we install about 200 stereo units annually today, opting for Sony 910 as we bought a years supply before they ended production, and Kickers with a Tweeter set for marine use. Nothing has had so much punch for the bucks spent then or now.

This thread obviously won't die and it shouldn't.

RedHornet