Pioneer CS-R700

Although more recently known for video matters such as Laserdisc, DVD or flat displays (now dead but originally bought from NEC), Pioneer made all of its early business between 19381938 and the 1950s with loudspeakers - drivers only to be exact.

Before the famed (and still going strong) TAD division was formed out of the research on the HPM-150 series, Pioneer, like Onkyo or Technics, made loudspeakers aplenty and in all manners of shape, sizes and styles.
The CS-R700 appeared at the end of that era, when Pioneer started to build high-fidelity loudspeakers that first looked as such instead of loudspeakers that camouflaged as furniture pieces.

The CS-R700, however, wasn't high-end but shows in retrospect some of Pioneer's typical formulas being attempted at and where the concern of all manufacturers were then getting focused on : fine-tuning and new materials, especially in the bass department.


The 30cm bass cone is of the Free Beating type : a carefully selcted pulp coated with a special lacquer which made it less sensible to air leak and resonances.
"Free beating" is described in a november 1971 french ad advertising for the CS-E700 as "chewed animal fibers that make a 2x as rigid and 1x lighter material" than normal pulp... chewed animal fibers, really ?

The edge of the bass cone is made of foamed polyurethane for excellent movement linearity plus good resistance to heat and moisture. But maybe not long-term time.

The same 30cm cone has an extra-long edge-width voice coil, an aluminum bobbin, a large ferrite magnet, a pure copper shielding cap over the center pole and an impedance compensation circuit (a cap and resistor linking the driver's + and -) to flatten the impedance curve - a very TAD-like combination.

The two mid-high and super-high horns are more conventional, for 1972.

The CS-R700 was a CS-R70 in Japan.


This post was possible thanks to the donation by Willem Fabrie of an USA Pioneer Sales Manual printed september 1972.