Piaf wrote:

The S120’s have a booming bass, that is at BEST muddy and the upper range is WAY WAY WAY too crisp for my taste.

I had a pair of S80.2's that sounded a bit like that. Turned out that somebody had "fixed" foam rot by throwing away the original woofers and replacing them with something else (and even bothered to scrape off the stickers so I couldn't make out what they were!). They became acceptable with a little tone control and are now at use at my girlfriend's.

But try a different amp before giving up, you may just be much more critical than I am.

Sounds odd! My S120s are really very good as are the others I have heard. Check the cross over before doing anything else. I never found the bass booming - my S75s were far more guilty of that , though in my youth this always seemed rather attractive! I agree with the thoughts that these may have been tampered with.

Thanks Mika and Peter for you commentaries and suggestions.

I rather doubt that these speakers, judging from their overall pristine condition have been “fooled with.” Certainly the speakers themselves almost certainly are correct and if they were ever re-foamed, it was properly done.

My B&O guru buddy in California says that “the last of the S series units were visually creative, but the units themselves were clever bass reflex designs with only one or two drivers and simple crossovers. The S120 is pretty much a 2-way speaker, bass reflex with a clever passive radiator, something JB Lansing also used to enhance bass.”

He goes on to state that they really need to be two feet above the floor not their current six inches.

My favorite speakers remain the McIntosh ML-2’s with their two 12” woofers each, 8” mid-range, and collection of small tweeters. The upper range is lacking, but the bass is truly impressive.

The Mac’s are followed by the Linn Isobarics, of which I admire their accuracy, although the bass is woefully lacking and I find the upper range a bit too bright for my taste….. not at all unlike the 120’s. However play a recording of a guitar or harpsichord and the Linns are truly brilliant.

The S75’s would be next as just a good and well balanced speaker.

Perhaps with better placement the S120’s will move up on what is totally my subjective rating list.

Jeff

Hi Piaf,

I have those same S120-2 speakers and they do not sound at all like what you describe.  Mine, driven by a 3300, I would describe as very smooth and true.  Good bass, but not at all booming and very even mid and high.  My suspicion would be the cross over network rather than the speakers themselves or the amp driving them.  I also have a pair of S45-2 which are a bit brighter with less bass than the S120-2.  I have an 8000 system on the way that includes a pair of the larger M100s and four of the P series speakers.  I will report back on what I perceive as the differences between these four types of speakers once I get a chance to test them in the various configurations with the 3300, 4500 and 8000 amps.

Jerry

I'm also owner of a pair Beovox S120 in white.

They were located in the east and Dillen got them for me. The natural rot was present so Dillen went through them.

Since then they have played very good. They do give a bit more bass than my S80.2 but they are great for listning and fits the matching white Beomaster 6000 very well.

My S80.2 also white sounds just as great. I have recently moved to a new flat with is much bigger and I'm a bit surpriced how good they sound compared to my Beolab 8000 system which is in great working order.

There is something wrong with those S120 speakers if they don't sound desent enough with the Beomaster 4500.

Jeff,

I agree, they shouldn't sound like you describe.
They are usually quite well balanced soundwise.
Any chance you can post photos of the drivers and maybe the crossovers ?

Martin

Hi Martin,

The odd sound doesn’t bother me nearly as much as the terrible distortion at higher volume.

My first reaction was the Beomaster 4500 was suffering once again under excessive load, BUT it didn’t cut back the volume as it did with its speaker plugs shorted out and powering three sets of speakers. No, the BM 4500 just kept powering away unperturbed.

The speakers are also clearly in wonderful shape, so now I share your suspicion that there is something wrong with the drivers or crossover network.

However, as usual, I have no idea where these two items are located and how best to get to them.

I tried to copy and paste photos, but it didn't work.

Jeff

If you have another amplifier (or a neighbours/friends etc.) you can test the speakers using that.
Maybe that will confirm if the problem is with the speakers or something else.

You can take a photo showing the front of the speakers with the cloths removed.
This will show us the front side of all the drivers and often be enough to
tell if something is not original here.

Six (I think) screws down some of the cloth grill holes hold the composite
front to the wooden cabinet. Careful when you lift the front off, there are two leads
to the DIN socket at the back and they are not very long. The front is (normally)
quite heavy because of the speaker drivers large magnets etc. and it can bind
to the cabinet so laying the cabinet on its side will sometimes ease the task
and the front won't fall out as uncontrolled.

The crossover will be visible as a circuit board and taking a photo of the
backside of the drivers and the crossover is now possible.

You should be able to insert a photo into each post, maybe not by copy/paste but by
uploading using the little icon in the tool bar when writing a post.

Martin

Hi Jeff,

Have to agree with the others and have a look at your crossovers. 

When I first got my current S80s, I found that with certain 'bassy' tracks that the speakers took on a boomy character and while obviously not as disturbing as you have described I decided to check out my cross overs and found that they were the original capacitors. After changing the caps the speakers became very well balanced,  as it became apparent that the treble was lacking previously.

Martin can help you out with a kit to change these. To check them, open the speaker by unscrewing the resin face (holding the drivers), the screws are concealed in the holes for the speaker frets.

Lastly, you say they are 6" above the floor, mine on the stands are 10" off the floor, could these be not original stands, and could this be contributing to the problem I wonder?

Hope you get to the bottom of this problem, I'm thinking of getting some S/MC120 myself!

Laurence.