Coral 8CX-30

Here are a mint pair of Coral 8CX-30, vintage late 1960’s early 1970’s coaxial drivers that have almost no information published about them online. As far as I can tell mine are the only pair around, and I purchased them still new in their boxes, complete with an original sales sheet from 1971!

These are very fine coaxial drivers, with a published sensitivity of 98 db/wm. Like all of the Coral from this era, these drivers are superbly made. They are optimized for a bass reflex or large sealed cabinet, but of course they were mounted in my Telefunken open backed cabinets, where they performed very well indeed. I don't think they are quite to the specified sensitivity, but they played loud and clear with 1.5 watts of single ended 45 nevertheless.

Being coaxial drives, with a center mounted horn tweeter, these 8 inch drivers cover the entire range without anything sounding out of sorts. The response is nice and smooth, very easy to listen to, with good details but no in your face over-treble. Bass was also good, but not extreme. Again these drivers were not made for an open backed cabinet, but did fine. My drivers came with plans for 2 factory recommended cabinets, and I would be willing to bet they are quite the performers in one of those boxes. I’ve never seen these before, and probably wont again, but if you can find a pair they are worth your time.

These drivers came with badges, mounting screws, and some really cool Coral literature.

I don't normally like horn tweeters, but these were a pleasure to listen to. Coaxial drivers are a great way to have your cake and eat it too, and these are among the best coaxial drivers I’ve heard, maybe just a hair behind the performance of the superb Electro Voice 12TRXB.

I'm including the specs and cabinet drawings for these 8CX-30 just for posterity, since this info really doesn’t seem to be available anywhere else. I would love to hear from someone else who has these drivers, so if you are reading this and have a pair drop me a line and share your impressions.