Empire Grenadier 8000P

Hi timlub,
Thanks for your response. If I read the information I have found correctly, it should take you back to 1967 or maybe 1968. You are correct as they do have a 12" downward firing woofer and a midrange/tweeter plate that is shared with the Empire 9000, 9000M, 8000 and 8200. I removed the lower plate to clean out 50 years of spider webs and dust bunnies and to look at the surrounds on the woofers. They look good for 50 years of hanging upside down. I also removed the top (mine have the standard wood top as opposed to the marble upgrade) and neither on the top nor bottom do I see any other slot, opening or port. Just the ones on the back of which one system has four of the ports plugged and two open and one with 5 of the ports plugged and one open. If they are the ports used as a slot load, it sounds like they should all be open. One thought I had was that maybe these plugs were installed only for storage and/or shipping (maybe to keep out critters) and were meant to be removed upon unpacking and set up. The older gentleman I bought them from said he had never hooked them up or played them from the day he bought them. Maybe removing the plugs was called out in the owners manual as part of the setup, but since he never used them, he never took the plugs out. They are in unbelievably good physical condition for being 50 years old. The cabinets are nearly flawless. The wood is just dry and needs to be treated to bring it back to new luster. Maybe I'll try taking all the plugs out and running a few tests. Thanks again!

I've always wanted to hear those speakers. Have you listened to them yet?

Hi roxy54,
I did give them a preliminary listen to check to see if all the drivers worked. I had heard from some other folks that it was very common to find the tweeters and/or midranges nonfunctional due to an electrolytic corrosion problem between what they said were aluminum voice coils and the external interconnect. I don't know if that is true, but all drivers seem to work. My first test was a quick hook-up to a Pioneer SX-1250 I am restoring that I bought at the local pawn shop for $29.99! It was cosmetically beautiful and complete, but had a nasty 60 Hz hum on just the AM and FM inputs that was quickly diagnosed and repaired. They have a very 1960's sort of sound to them similar to the Harman Kardon HK-50 from 1969, but with more punch and power handling capability. I also want to check the crossover components as they are 50 years old now. After I complete the cleanup and spider web/dust bunny removal, the plan is to hook them up to the equipment I'll be using them with and give them a thorough listening too! So far I have been very pleased with what I hear. In addition, I really like the cabinet work and styling of the fluted column. I'm hoping that I might find the optional marble tops somewhere in the future as I think they would make these systems look even better!

You can go to a countertop shop and have them made. The originals were white marble but you can have any color and material you want! How about green quartz sparkle? Or black marble?

I did give it a thought to get new ones made. I'll have to check into the pricing and selection. A friend of mine suggested I get synthetic marble and then drill and inset a series of individual LED's around the forward edge making a digital power meter of sorts on the top of each cabinet, built right into the top! I'm not so sure about that idea, but it does sound interesting! :-)