Jensen History

Jensen Loudspeakers is a company that manufactures speakers in many different models and sizes, originally located in Chicago, IL. They built a reputation during the 50's and 60's providing speakers used mainly in guitar and bass amplifiers. Though the American company is long gone, "reissue" speakers are currently made in Italy. Jensen Loudspeakers is now a brand owned by Audiovox.

The current Fender Twin Reverb amp uses two 12" Jensen C-12K speakers.

Jensen speakers used a model number that contained 4 to 6 characters.

The first character denotes the magnet type used.

FN = Field Coil

P = Alnico

C = Ceramic magnet

These are listed in the order in which they were made, with the P line starting in the 1940s and the C line starting around the 1960s.

The next one or two characters denotes speaker size (8 = 8", 10 = 10" and so on).

The last character denotes power handling. The codes are no longer the same as the original vintage Jensen models.

Currently:

K = 100 W

N = 50 W

Q = 35 W

R = 25 W

These aspects together make up the speaker's model number. For example: a Jensen C8R speaker is eight inches in size, has 25 W power, and has a ceramic magnet.

All Jensen speakers also include a date and manufacturer's code. Jensen's code is 220. Accompanying the company specific (EIA) code (220) is the last digit of the year and the 2 digits of the week manufactured, creating a 6 digit code usually imprinted on the speaker edge or the magnet housing. Thus a code of 220534 would denote a Jensen speaker manufactured in either 1955 or 1965 on the 34th week of that year. Most speaker (and other electronic component) manufacturers began adding the last 2 digits of the year in the 1970s, so the 6 digit code became a 7-digit code.

At one time, Jensen speakers were manufactured in the United States. The US importer for Jensen loudspeakers, CE Distribution, states that Jensen speakers are currently manufactured in Italy by Sica Loudspeakers.

Company information courtesy of their Wikipedia entry, which is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.