I just picked up four 'Højttaler' speakers for almost nothing at the flea market.

The label says 'Højttaler' '3-5 ohms' 'Type M'. Nothing else. They are two-way.

Does anyone know anything about these? I have not had a chance to listen to them yet. There is no access to the actual speakers from the front so I cannot see their physical condition. Are these speakers worth refirbishing?

They are ok on lo power applications, I think they can take around 5or 6 Watts.

For that you get quite a bit of sound as they are fairly efficient.

The backs come off quite readily, you will need to wear some long sleeved gloves or you will be itching for a week from the rockwool filling.You will need to remove the rockwool filling, it's glued in but it may have come loose over all these years.If not, use a spatula to get under it and lift it. Yoiu will need to glue it back in place when you finish the whole job.

You can then get the front off, the screws holding it in place are on the inside, I used a vacuum once I had the rockwool out, just to get the remaining fibre dust out.

The replacement capacitor does make a significant differance to the sound, but ultimately you wil not get true hi-fi sound of of them but they are pleasant enough.

You can detach the speaker elements and very simple crossover in one, the capacitor will need replacing.

To clean the front cloth is not easy, because if you wet it too much then it will come unstuck from the backing board. I did this and has to stick the edges down with imapct glue, and I also had to staple it down tight so that it would not ruckle up when pushing it back into the main case.I suppose you could use that car interior cleaning foam, but I an not keen on the idea as it has lots of chemicals in it, its quite aggressive.

I used ordinary soap which lifted out the nicotine colouration and it left me with a nice new looking set of grilles.

I have listened to them now. There are two pairs, all the same model but with slightly different cloth fronts. One pair sounds strange, there is definitely a problem. One of the two sounds rough and scratchy while the other is dull and muffled. Two different problems?

The other pair sounds quite good. You're right, they are not as 'hi-fi' as my S45s, but still nice. Efficient, yes, louder than the S45s at the same volume. And they look very good. Always beautiful, B&O.

I will try the cap replacement on the good pair and will also open the bad pair and see what I can see. I wonder if the drivers have foam or rubber surrounds.

You may well find the scratchy sound is because the paper cone on one of the larger elements has worn through.

These things are all paper cones, and over time they flex and wear out, especially if they are driven hard, and its not difficult to overdrive them, since they are such low power speakers. These can be repaired but you have to wonder about the cost/value - I did it with some Type K's and some Type S, and the truth is that in terms of value...........well sometimes you do it despite the cost if you are a Beophile I guess.

I was a little concerned that you were comparing them to S45 as these type Ms can only handle a fraction of that power. Even the Beomaster 1000 has too much for them, you do have to be very careful not to overcook them.

The speaker cones are all paper, no rubber surrounds, and they have to be repaired in a differant way as a result.

It sounds very much like the edges of the cones have given way, the paper flexes and literally wears out. They can be repaired by someone like Wembley loudspeakers but you then have to decide if its worth it.

These are such low power speakers that they are easily overdriven, and this is likely to cause the cone surrounds to give way, you really can't put much through them.