Cath PM 110

Cath PM 110 This is an inexpensive 3-way bookshelf speaker (W:26 H:44 D:21.5cm with covering) with 20 cm woofer (lacquered paper cone, foam surround). Midrange driver and tweeter are also cone drivers with (however unpainted) paper cone. The aluminium surrounds of the midrange and bass drivers add some value to the speaker. The bass driver and its aluminium surround are actually fixed to the wooden cabinet with metric screws and an internal drive-in nut. This is a sealed cabinet speaker with the individual drivers connected in parallel. There is no real crossover, but midrange and tweeter are separated by an upstream capacitor each. Inside there's a rear panel decorated with walnut foil and instead of damping wool a kind of painter's fleece. The front panel is made of 16 mm chipboard, the side panels have a thickness of 12 mm.

They were distributed by Cath-Lautsprecher GmbH in 8756 Kahl around 1990.

In an internet forum it is claimed that Cath loudspeakers were manufactured in the VEB Funkwerk Kölleda, i.e. in the GDR around 1988 and were intended for export (see: http://www.hifi-forum.de/viewthread-55-7041.html). This is indirectly confirmed on http://rk7.de/9465.html. The interior (see above) corresponds to this.

The speakers were sold in 1989 for 89,00 DM each, which could be considered very cheap at that time, considering the prestigious exterior. At the same time, a version with dome tweeter was offered with the Cath PM 130 for 99.00 DM per piece.

Loudspeaker data according to label:

Rated/music power handling: 70/110 Watt,

Impedance: 8 ohms,

frequency response: 35 - 22000 Hertz

Weaknesses
The biggest weakness of this speaker is the foam surround of the woofer. It decomposes in the course of the years. However, you can save the speaker for little money by replacing the surround with a suitable new one (preferably a rubber surround). The new surround must have an inner bead diameter of approx. 152 mm and an outer bead diameter of approx. 179 mm. You can find corresponding instruction videos on Youtube.