Legendary speakers..

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Salas

Salas

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One of the most commercially successful speakers that shaped rock ears, was JBL L100.
A speaker that participated in the majority of modern recordings is the Yamaha NS10. Discontinued now, and with known flaws , but omnipresent.
 

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Cal Weldon

Cal Weldon

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Jeff, I agree. Some of these "legendary" speakers Ive never heard of but I think everyone knows the white van speakers.

I'm wondering if we are confusing a high quality speaker with a legendary one. So far I have loved the idea of the Minimus 7, the Altec A7 and 604 series, the Infinity ref 1, the Bose 901, JBL L-100, the Yamaha NS10, the B&W Nautilus and the ESL's mentioned. Those, among others, are truly legendary. (in my world anyway)
 
tubewade

tubewade

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Many of these that are listed so far are legendary indeed, whether by their famous or infamous reputation. The Minimus Sevens are legendary and quite good for their size and price. The Mach Ones are legendary, too, but maybe for the opposite reason. I always think of Altec A7-500s, Klipschorns and Sweet Sixteens, but I can't believe no one has yet mentioned The Jensen Imperial. I attended an outdoor concert a couple of years ago and the low frequency system consisted of eight 18 inch woofers in four Imperial style enclosures. The ground very literally shook under my feet and you could feel the sound completely in your chest from some 40 or 50 metres away. After that experience I have resolved that one day I'm going to build a pair of these to use when I need really high SPLs. I think one of these used inside of a building could possibly damage its physical structure.

Best regards,

Wade
 
Scioneer

Scioneer

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The Mach Ones are legendary, too, but maybe for the opposite reason.
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You must have ran into the later model Mach Ones, maybe even the watered down variant called the Mach Twos.

The Mach Ones I've heard sounded incredible, not to mention the reviews I've read are mostly positive, with a few not so impressed people who encountered the later versions that were great, but not spectacular like the older ones.

The Mach Ones was a great design that suffered from the "Build it Cheaper" trend durring the eighties, which caused inconsistencies in quality among the different year models as the 80's dragged on. The best ones are the ones from the 70s, though I think the third revision which ferrofluid cooled the horns due to the fact the Mach Ones were often used for small dance clubs as PA sound systems( a job they originally weren't designed for), are also one of the better versions.
 
Salas

Salas

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pinkmouse said:


Anyone mentioned Auratones yet? :)
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You are right.

''The term 'nearfield monitor' was an invention of the early '80s. It just about predates the explosive rise of the home and project studio and was originally the term applied to auxiliary monitors that sat on the meterbridge in large commercial studios, and were supposed to reflect the sound of typical home audio or TV speakers.

One speaker originally defined the breed: the Auratone 5C. The Auratone was, and is, little more than a five-inch 'full-range' driver screwed into a small cube-shaped enclosure. It had little pretence to audio accuracy or wide bandwidth, and was simply intended to provide a reference for the likely sound of recordings when reproduced on an AM radio, or via a TV. So the Auratone was not really a 'nearfield' in the sense that we understand the term now, but it did set a precedent for auxiliary monitors, and prepared the ground for the second nearfield icon — the Yamaha NS10M.''
 

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D

DSP_Geek

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tubewade said:
[....] I always think of Altec A7-500s, Klipschorns and Sweet Sixteens, but I can't believe no one has yet mentioned The Jensen Imperial. I attended an outdoor concert a couple of years ago and the low frequency system consisted of eight 18 inch woofers in four Imperial style enclosures. The ground very literally shook under my feet and you could feel the sound completely in your chest from some 40 or 50 metres away. After that experience I have resolved that one day I'm going to build a pair of these to use when I need really high SPLs. I think one of these used inside of a building could possibly damage its physical structure.
Click to expand...

Nope. Been there done that with two 15s per cabinet, one on each side, driven by 800 watts. It was called a JBL 4520 instead of a Jensen Imperial, but most of the details were similar:

http://www.jblpro.com/pub/obsolete/Low_Frequency_Enclosures2.pdf

If you really wanted to cause structural damage, your best bet was Electro Voice dual 15" folded horns: the plans even came with a warning to keep people at least 10 feet away to minimize hearing damage, as 400 watts through a 25% efficient system would result in SPLs greater than 120 dB.


Returning to classic loudspeakers, I'll second sprucemoose's nomination of the Magneplanar Tympani. I first heard them sometime around 1975, driven by big Audio Research tube amps, and I was utterly gobsmacked. It was sound on a completely different level than I'd ever heard before; it was like hearing Hendrix for the first time, a revelation that Something Else was happening on a plane one didn't even know existed until then.


Francois.
 
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