DIY Altec 2 Way Build ala JELabs - 802/32/414
- Thread starter marantzfan
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Do It Yourself
When I "rank" these late 40s WE speakers, I realize that I am ranking items that, for all intents and purposes, do not exist and most people will never see. I have insider access to a veritable Western Electric museum collection, the best collection on the planet. This is my payback for wasting my youth in audio, I guess. Can't complain.
The 753C is probably the most commonly "available" model. 757A is rather scarce, and the L9, L9 auditorium speakers were hardly sold in the US, if at all. Most were sold to theaters in ex-British colonies via Westrex,
Western Electric Export Corporation, and can be found in places like India, Pakistan, Australia, etc. There are not many in existence.
One thing different about the 753 is that it does not use the WE 728B/754A for woof duty. The 15" Jensens are decent woofers but the WE 12" is rather special device.
Here's the L8. Same phenolic 713 compression driver as the 753C but a WE woofer and a larger sealed baffle. This speaker really fills up a room and sound a lot better than its fugly looks. This pair came from Australia.
Aside from the WE 12", the 757A, L8, and L9 use the KS horns, which are pretty good, maybe better than the 32A. The KS12024 horn pictured above is actually a small multicell! I snagged a 3D printed pair from my bud
Chuck Michelin who discusses them here. Chuck is also a 32 horn nut...I fact I traced him a last iteration metal 32B for the printed 12024s. He also printed many variations of 32 horns.
https://electravolt.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-western-electric-ks12024-horn-in.html
We are fellow travelers in the quest for the good small horns. He also has some posts on 32s for y'all.
So, don't get me wrong, I 'll keep an eye out for 753Cs out on the curb for garbage pickup, but if I could pick and choose, I'd take the 757A with the WE 12" and aluminum diaphragm 713 diaphragm. That thing was the first dedicated studio monitor, I guess you could say. It is possibly the best speaker I know per cubic foot. Rare and worth a couple hundred thousand a pair, so I'm out.
I think of this incident at CES, blasting James Brown late at night on 757As. One of those special audio moments.
So, Salectric, which Jensen do you have? And which driver on that freaky YL horn?
The 753C is probably the most commonly "available" model. 757A is rather scarce, and the L9, L9 auditorium speakers were hardly sold in the US, if at all. Most were sold to theaters in ex-British colonies via Westrex,
Western Electric Export Corporation, and can be found in places like India, Pakistan, Australia, etc. There are not many in existence.
One thing different about the 753 is that it does not use the WE 728B/754A for woof duty. The 15" Jensens are decent woofers but the WE 12" is rather special device.
Here's the L8. Same phenolic 713 compression driver as the 753C but a WE woofer and a larger sealed baffle. This speaker really fills up a room and sound a lot better than its fugly looks. This pair came from Australia.
Aside from the WE 12", the 757A, L8, and L9 use the KS horns, which are pretty good, maybe better than the 32A. The KS12024 horn pictured above is actually a small multicell! I snagged a 3D printed pair from my bud
Chuck Michelin who discusses them here. Chuck is also a 32 horn nut...I fact I traced him a last iteration metal 32B for the printed 12024s. He also printed many variations of 32 horns.
https://electravolt.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-western-electric-ks12024-horn-in.html
We are fellow travelers in the quest for the good small horns. He also has some posts on 32s for y'all.
So, don't get me wrong, I 'll keep an eye out for 753Cs out on the curb for garbage pickup, but if I could pick and choose, I'd take the 757A with the WE 12" and aluminum diaphragm 713 diaphragm. That thing was the first dedicated studio monitor, I guess you could say. It is possibly the best speaker I know per cubic foot. Rare and worth a couple hundred thousand a pair, so I'm out.
I think of this incident at CES, blasting James Brown late at night on 757As. One of those special audio moments.
So, Salectric, which Jensen do you have? And which driver on that freaky YL horn?
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This is a more recent picture, taken last week, showing my Jensen 15" and Altec 802/32 in a vented cabinet on a Sound Anchors stand. The crossover is outboard mainly so I can make changes without having to remove the rear panel. The cabinet is a 3.2 cu ft bass reflex that I threw together quickly for testing purposes nearly 10 years ago. That's how all my projects go; when I try to do a careful job and pay attention to cosmetics I end up trashing it quickly, but the "temporary" test rigs hang around for years.
I shoved the open baffle speakers a few feet back to make room for the vented cabinets. The fronts of the cabinet no longer have the walnut grills. I removed them after the first couple weeks and thought they sounded slightly better without them. The back side of the speakers has many more changes: different tweeters, new crossovers with mostly different parts, Mills resistors for attenuation instead of L-Pads, and new wiring.
Joe, both the open baffle and vented cabinets use a Jensen P15LL.
It's funny that you mentioned Chuck Michlin. First, I was just reading his blog earlier this morning about his clone of the WE horn. I know he was using an Altec 32 a while back and he clearly thinks the WE is superior. My only contact with Chuck is he bought my GPA 414 woofers a couple years ago when he started on his horn adventure and I gave him the details of my vented speakers and crossovers.
It's funny that you mentioned Chuck Michlin. First, I was just reading his blog earlier this morning about his clone of the WE horn. I know he was using an Altec 32 a while back and he clearly thinks the WE is superior. My only contact with Chuck is he bought my GPA 414 woofers a couple years ago when he started on his horn adventure and I gave him the details of my vented speakers and crossovers.
I wouldn't be embarrassed, were I you!
FWIW, I've wondered about whether there are frequency dependent phase shifts in a bent horn relative to a straight one with the 'same' throat expansion. In my case, I think the problem is that I think I know more than I really do about the relevant physics -- i.e., I know enough to be dangerous! I.e., good question!
This thread has rather quickly become one of my favorites on this site! Thanks for posting all the pretty pictures, @Salectric
I blame Chuck Michlin for my latest audio impulse purchases. He doesn't know me from Adam aside from a couple of email exchanges we've had, but it's convenient to have a scapegoat.
I blame Chuck Michlin for my latest audio impulse purchases. He doesn't know me from Adam aside from a couple of email exchanges we've had, but it's convenient to have a scapegoat.
Here's a vid of the inside of a 757A I just spotted. The original 757As I've been inside have a bit more stuffing than these but it may have been added after the fact.
Paper product used is Kimsul, which is Kimpak with some sort of oily or bituminous impregnant and it was sold specifically as sound and thermal insulation material. NLA.
Crossover is a very impressive construction with banks of WE oil caps (4 ohm system impedance, I think like 2k xover frequency but I forget the exact figure)
I guess this can be considered the ancestral mother of the JE Labs 414/32 rig.
Paper product used is Kimsul, which is Kimpak with some sort of oily or bituminous impregnant and it was sold specifically as sound and thermal insulation material. NLA.
Crossover is a very impressive construction with banks of WE oil caps (4 ohm system impedance, I think like 2k xover frequency but I forget the exact figure)
I guess this can be considered the ancestral mother of the JE Labs 414/32 rig.
Still has more "imaging" than actual live music, like most speakers.
Definitely my inspiration!
I'm going to have to get a drool shield fot my phone. 
Wonderful pics of incredible gear.
Thank you.
Wonderful pics of incredible gear.
Thank you.
Here's more bad pics of KS12024 from the Joe Man. In situ upon the L8 and a shot of Chuck's Azzolina audio printed jobs.
Chuck cut these off at 1" for 802s.
Throat is approx 0.7" on the 713 driver and KS horns. This was crudely drilled out to 1" in the early Altec 32s. I guess it was cheaper to ream out the casting than buy a new mold! But then the horn was too long. This was finally corrected in the plastic 32, which has a shorter path length, cutting off the expansion at 1" diameter.
Chuck cut these off at 1" for 802s.
Throat is approx 0.7" on the 713 driver and KS horns. This was crudely drilled out to 1" in the early Altec 32s. I guess it was cheaper to ream out the casting than buy a new mold! But then the horn was too long. This was finally corrected in the plastic 32, which has a shorter path length, cutting off the expansion at 1" diameter.
And since I'm going wild posting rare pre-JE Labs 2 way renditions, here's the N2 crossover for the "L" series WE speakers. Its in the big metal box next to the L8 cabinet above. He man crossover.
Using autoformers, they get away with small caps despite the 4 ohm woofer and driver by stepping up the system impedance. Also, the L systems used various numbers of woofers and horns, so this allowed for an easy switch, say if you want to add another KS12024 or use the 2x12" L9 cabinet.
Using autoformers, they get away with small caps despite the 4 ohm woofer and driver by stepping up the system impedance. Also, the L systems used various numbers of woofers and horns, so this allowed for an easy switch, say if you want to add another KS12024 or use the 2x12" L9 cabinet.
Beautiful L8! I have a feeling they had those in smaller theaters in old downtown Manila. My bud Joey who practically bequeathed his unloved plastic 32 horns to me, has a pair of WE754As which he acquired from the estate of a local collector. Much of that collection went to Taiwan.
WE728Bs + 3D'd KS12024 + 802(?) = your set for a 21st century L8 system!
WE728Bs + 3D'd KS12024 + 802(?) = your set for a 21st century L8 system!
Since you mentioned autoformers...
I just wired this pair of Teramoto Finemet TVCs for a friend. I confess I don't know much about it as I told Nate in a PM. I also get lost in the SP list discussions, not as technically smart as you guys.
But after hooking/listening to this TVC in my system, I've been reading FAQs at Dave's Intact audio site.
I don't know if I should explore TVCs on the preamp or speaker end.
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This thread is the worst kind of hifi audio pornography.
I mean that as a compliment, in case that's not obvious!
I mean that as a compliment, in case that's not obvious!
