Thrift Store Speaker Unboxing: Realistic Optimus 1 

I enjoyed your video. Radio Shack used some good woofers here and there. The inverted surround is unique. The Nova 6's had that too. And apparently they last forever. Those same tweeters showed up in alot of their systems for many years. Great find and thanks for sharing.

Realistic's Optimus-1 "Acoustic Suspension 3-Element 2-Way Loudspeaker" was "New" in Radio Shack's 1968 catalog, priced at $79.95 each. This model was still available in Radio Shack's 1974 catalog. The following year, it was replaced by the Optimus-1b which the 1975 catalog claimed had some refinements. Thanks for your video review!

The woofers in these were quite good. They give reasonable deep bass, however they do boom a bit rather than a tight definition like a KLH. The woofer is supposed to be doped for good air seal. The tweeters are open back with a rounded back plastic cup. The cups don't seal well and there's a hole drilled through to allow the wire for each tweeter. I suggest you take the side of a cardboard box or a flat large sheet of cardboard. Cut a 2" or 3" round hole somewhere in the middle. You can take that cardboard and hold it over the speaker baffle. Allow one tweeter or midrange to be seen through the hole. You can hold your ear near the cutout and the large piece of cardboard will at least muffle or reduce the sound level to your close ear. When you hold the hole over one tweeter at a time, assuming there's highs in the source music, you will hear output through that opening.

I do believe some of the sansui surrounds have that rubber coating too. I have a pair of sansui PL 2000. I'm not sure they were tacky in spots hmmm ✌️

I bought a pair of Realistic Optimus 3's on sale for 2 for $300, reg price was $300 apiece a long time ago. These were the best speakers I ever owned, 15" woofers..Horn mid, and horn tweeter. Had them for over 20 years and I kick myself for selling them.

Without a doubt the best near field monitors you can buy, when found in mint condition (check), though I am going to recap them. Incredible crisp highs. Love these!

I just cover the drivers with my hand and remove a few times, pretty easy to hear if they are working or not usually.

High frequencies are rolled off . My fraternity brother had a pair. Probably 1977-78 and they sounded good with a cassette deck. Not worth fixing btw. Brings back old memories 😎

To hear individual speakers I use a paper towel cardboard roll I didn't throw away, TP roll will also work.

Is there any way to connect these speakers to a phone or laptop via an AUX ?

Realistic products were all low end and priced to match. Not vintage just old.