That is correct. This is a horrible photo but you get the idea.
I think it's a FANTASTIC photo! The lighting is sublime. I LOVE the backlight.
Beautiful woodwork on the horns seen on the front-lit photo.
That is correct. This is a horrible photo but you get the idea.
If midrange is your thing, the Western Electric 16A is supposedly the cat's meow. There are reproductions in the works that will be made available, but that project has been stymied for awhile because the factory was flooded by saltwater during the storm that hit NYC.
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It is hard to tell by the photo I found, but the unit is nine feet wide.
Doesn't GIP in Japan make an exact copy, including the horn and the compression driver? I am fascinated by the antiquarian stuff.
That thing is perfect for a NYC apartment.
Win- i was kidding about the NYC apartment thing. Yeah, I get it on the old stuff, I'd love to hear one of those things. I think Line Magnetics also copies the snail shaped WE horn. There was a listing that sold on ebay in 2011 for a pair of 16a at 30k plus WITHOUT the drivers. Unfortunately, I don't think the modern copies are much cheaper. GIP claims they make exact copies of the old WE drivers, but use modern materials that are 'better.' i dunno, there's something pretty cool about a speaker that survived since the 30's and still makes music. From what I read, the 16a was a stop gap design for the transition from silent to sound - there wasn't much room to put speakers behind the screen, thus the 16a, while wide is apparently shallow in depth. I know Jeffrey Jackson is wild about this kind of stuff, and Audio 16, who was posting here, I think, had a set of 15's (I think) hung in his living room. These things are very collectible in Asia, and i think the prices reflect that.It's a lot bigger than it looks in the picture, so it may be a bit oversize for most apartments. Anyway, we often overlook items from the past, and there are a lot of real gems there. Even companies like Bogen had some real killer pieces. That quest for the best leads most people down the path of currently made products, however. It's a good thing for those who do explore antique equipment because I can't imagine how much a speaker like the 16A would cost if everyone knew about it. It's is 35-50K as things stand now. I'm just glad I found my RCA LC-1A speakers when I did because all the old stuff that sounds good will appreciate in value to unprecedented amounts before too long.
"Beam me up."
What are the tubes (cylinders) on the far side that look like they have no opening flare?
If midrange is your thing, the Western Electric 16A is supposedly the cat's meow. There are reproductions in the works that will be made available, but that project has been stymied for awhile because the factory was flooded by saltwater during the storm that hit NYC.
It is hard to tell by the photo I found, but the unit is nine feet wide.
bass modules Don, check their website via google.
Yep, Jeffrey is wild about Western Electric stuff. Anytime I'm around him, WE always comes up.
There are quite a few companies out there that copy one or another WE horn, but no one to date has built one that beats the original item, and most probably don't equal the originals, either. Companies like Western Electric had the R&D money and the manpower to do things that most companies today can only dream about. I know that various people have been surprised by the complexity of the bends that they discovered in many Western Electric horns when they started mapping them. They seem to be deceptively simple, and that level of sophistication only enhances their mystique. They only look simple.
Win maybe you can tell us more what is going on here http://www.hifiheroin.blogspot.com/2013/11/middle-section-left-channel.html
I know this was not addressed to me, but I took a look at the photo. Horns for the low, low levels of bass are huge [monster size]; therefore if this is horn construction, it must be very low bass.
zz.
I agree, for very low bass they will need to be enormous. I'm wondering if that basement foundation is part of the horn system.
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