Vintage Horn Loudspeakers

[FrantzM]

Hi

I have read here some enthusiastic reports about DDk systems. Based on horns and one especially based on a Siemens Horn. Recently had the pleasure to listen to an Altec Lansing Voice Of the Theater-based system , everything in that system is vintage... The TT is a Lenco with a Lenco arm and cartridge is a Shure or something resembling a VIII.. Sounded very good and had all the jump and liveliness one associate with horns.

I know nothing about the Altec Lansing famed Voice of the Theater but it seems there are several models. Does anyone know anything about these speakers or other Vintage horns of distinction?

 

[bonzo75]

Hi

I have read here some enthusiastic reports about DDk systems. Based on horns and one especially based on a Siemens Horn. Recently had the pleasure to listen to an Altec Lansing Voice Of the Theater-based system , everything in that system is vintage... The TT is a Lenco with a Lenco arm and cartridge is a Shure or something resembling a VIII.. Sounded very good and had all the jump and liveliness one associate with horns.

I know nothing about the Altec Lansing famed Voice of the Theater but it seems there are several models. Does anyone know anything about these speakers or other Vintage horns of distinction?

Hi, which city did you listen to the Altec in?

The most common vintage horns are Altec, and the most famous are the Western Electrics. The owner of Hyundai spends 100k a year just to fly down various Western Electrics to Munich so that people can get a listen (he doesn't sell them). He is starting a museum in Korea with Western Electric rooms.

The one that you should listen to is the Western electric with GIP drivers (not the chinese Line Magnetic drivers, makes all the difference). The best to listen to are the 16A (which is metallic), and any of the 12A, 13A, or 15A, which are all wood.

http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showt...eipzig-Germany&p=321064&viewfull=1#post321064

 

[bonzo75]

These are the 12a and 13a. you can have either in mono or stereo, what he did was put up on one side one 12A for upper frequencies, one 13A for bass, and same pairing on the other to make it a stereo.

The Western Electric 300a valves cost around 15k each.

http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showt...t-hifi-speaker&p=267218&viewfull=1#post267218

 

[JackD201]

Hi

I have read here some enthusiastic reports about DDk systems. Based on horns and one especially based on a Siemens Horn. Recently had the pleasure to listen to an Altec Lansing Voice Of the Theater-based system , everything in that system is vintage... The TT is a Lenco with a Lenco arm and cartridge is a Shure or something resembling a VIII.. Sounded very good and had all the jump and liveliness one associate with horns.

I know nothing about the Altec Lansing famed Voice of the Theater but it seems there are several models. Does anyone know anything about these speakers or other Vintage horns of distinction?

Look East, Far East my friend. That's where DDK found his unicorns. AFAIK there is only one Bionor surviving in the EU and by one I literally mean one. It isn't a pair of them.

Prized vintage drivers (non-field coil) are Alnicos made by JBL, Altech and TAD. Many JBL and Altec Lansing models are beloved and you'll find a great resource in the Lansing heritage site. For those based on TAD drivers, the one that stands out is Kinoshita Rey. This company outfitted main monitors onto many studios around the world. They have a a couple of meter bridge monitors now that look very interesting as well.

If you want to really go nuts then there's ALE. Extremely low distortion drivers. Unfortunately.....the prices make my eyes water. I have heard horns using these. Very good indeed even if they looked like a huge steampunk project gone wild.

On a side note, I see many, many folks who are using very low powered amps on drivers from the 70's and 80s (or later). While it's certainly doable, in Japan and Germany at least, high power appears to be actually preferred there. TechDAS sends me a copy of the Japanese mags weekly. I very rarely see SETs used on the studio monitors from the solid state age. Most common are actually solid state amps. Ditto in the last two shows I attended in Japan.

 

[bonzo75]

I would love to listen to Rey and Kendrick.

 

[JackD201]

Me too. I wonder if anyone in Kenrick's shop speaks english.

 

[Robh3606]

Hello Frantz

There are many very nice vintage systems around. The only real issue is trying to maintain them. JBL was great at support until a few short years ago. They had re-cone kits for many of the vintage drivers. Unfortunately that has changed and they no longer support them. You used to be able to purchase driver cores for next to nothing and just put in factory fresh cones. I have a pair of 4344 monitors built that way. I will post a picture of them next to my Arrays clone. With the Altecs you have Great Plains Audio for re-cones which is a good thing because before Great Plains you could not get kits.

 

[Atmasphere]

There are essentially two versions of the Altec that are full horns, the VOT (Voice of the Theatre) which is a sort of bass reflex with the horn perched on top. Another version, the 820, uses two 15" woofers firing from a corner horn with the horn built into the cabinet with the woofers. The latter is the version that introduced me to horns.

One of the better horn systems is the Hartsfield which has been reproduced by Classic Audio Loudspeakers for many years. These days he equips them with field coil-powered drivers and uses beryllium (with Kapton surrounds) diaphragms for the midrange unit; they have no breakups in the audio passband. In recent years this has become a very impressive speaker, as full range horns (107db) that actually can play deep bass are rather rare (don't expect deep bass out of an Altec, for example...). John Wolff, the man behind Classic Audio Loudspeakers, prefers to run them with some power and so often uses a tube amp that makes 60 watts or more.

 

[tsaett]

For some vintage horns, this link may be of interest:
http://6moons.com/industryfeatures/japan1/1.html