KS-12027 is a small horn responsible for 1000-15000 Hz used in WE-757A.
The WE-728B is a full-range 12-inch woofer with poor bass ability, but like the WE-755, it is 4 ohm. So, when I saw that design, I thought the KS-12027 was a virtual coaxial for the main purpose of connecting two 4-ohm woofers in parallel. In general, the lower the ohm, the rougher the sound, so if you can get a 12-inch woofer of the same standard, connect it in series to make an 8-ohm woofer, and make the 1-inch compression driver for KS-12027 in the middle operate up to 20K at 8 ohm. I believe it will work quite well. However, the crossover is newly designed and the recommended compression driver is JBL D220ti. My idea is to keep only KS-12027 without using WE units.
I did not know what to think of these JBL'ish constructs, either.
I do agree they make good use of that special horn.
I call this approach, the "wall of sound" method. Like you mentioned– – there's a lot going on in the wire up – – of all these different components. Bozak (WECO alumni, and no fool) did it back in the 50s and 60s – – to pretty good effect. But you may need a lot more power in a system like this – – which puts you off at a disadvantage to start. Rudy Bozak liked 6dB crossovers, which are still not commonly used.
Low impedance, I feel is typically just a design tweak on the voice coil – – and intended to match up with certain output transformers. This is especially so in the case of the Western Electric 713C and as Joe was pointing out to me (great talk we had couple of years by phone) -- the WE755 and 728 were probably setup as 4ohm'ers to make nice-nice with the WE171C OPT.
In the end, I don't think impedance selection has a great necessary effect on T/S parameters. Low impedance might give an edge in efficiency – – which is what I suspect WE was thinking on the line of "Presence" speakers,,, in the end, I think it's like designing with tubes. Choose your parameters and do your best in your cabinet. A 4 ohm or "low impedance" speaker is just a good starting advantage but not necessarily the best thing for any given scenario.
On any given Sunday, Open Baffle is the cleanest and clearest, always.
I really think the fascination with the Western Electric 757 system in general is a little bit blown out of proportion to what the speakers original intention and overall capability. I suppose the problem is industry wide – – because naturally a lot of people think that the perfect studio monitor would be necessarily the perfect home speaker? Not necessarily I would say.
Despite the size, the 757 Is best considered an intimate point source speaker.
It's not going to make a live room, per say.
The Western Electric 757 could be best described as a much much better sounding (out of this world comparison, I know) Yamaha NS10 (an industry "accident" with it's own story) . It's original intention was very real-world very non-reactive, monitoring.. perhaps with a peak in the mids... which is very handy for mixdowns. It's absolutely a speaker that sounds realistic when you are in front of it but the realism is deep down in that box. And it's never going to lie to you.
One of my longtime friends who I would describe as having probably some of the best ears I know, uses WE757 for just this task, as a tool, for monitoring. He very accurately described the WE757 – – as unforgiving on many recordings. Having owned them several times in memory – – I think that is very fair. I also agree it's definitely not a bass reflex design and it's also not an acoustical suspension. It's much more primitive in execution than I think a lot of folks realize.
Arguably one of the special points of the system is the crossover... I think it's special mostly because it was built with off-the-shelf corporate components from Western Electric. And they took some liberties there. Same deal with the WE728.
The end, the reason the system is going to sound the very best is the 713 C. The special low ohm version ... It's also written up by Western Electric to have added sensitivity. Have had many of them over the years along with the A's and B's – – and I can definitely agree first-hand .. they are much better than the others. It's even better than a Western Electric 555 in every day use I would say. Can't go wrong with a 713C no matter what you do. Unfortunately they are priced as such!
From an hardcore engineer's standpoint – – comparing it to modern speakers – – I guess I could see your criticism that the 728 is "not good at bass".. The last unit I had through here – –
measured 59 Hz FS which I would argue is not bad at all for a 12 inch speaker that can play full range, from the 1950s! So it's capabilities for playing bass are well within the normality of the type of cabinet that the 757 is.
It is in general a very high performance speaker. It's able to do a very adequate job on low frequency reproduction. The argument I would make is that
it's not a cost-effective solution.
I've been throwing out the idea that you could do something similar with an Altec 412 biflex, for instance. The problem is the other 12 inch woofers are of lower in midrange detail and do not have the presence or resolution that the 728 is able to reproduce. This is somewhat negated by the fact that the speaker is wasted in the 757 cabinet and is also "choked down" by the aggressive crossover. Still these things are all analog.... so the superior low-mids quality of the WE728 slips by.... so that if you use a very good sounding 12 inch speaker like the 728 it's going to come through in effect no matter what.
So in the end... 757 system pulls it off in brute force with the very best sounding active components ever made. (The smooth performance of that 12027 helps as well).
I have at least a couple of customers either actively using the Lycan 12027 ... or planning to – – Not like a 757.... These will be used "set top" Similar to how the 12025 was used in the Westrex L8 build. Still waiting on results. But the pleasing "polite" nature of that horn.... I think can be utilized in other completely different in philosophy...Time will tell.