The GSA system follows Richard Long's Paradise Garage system design with Levan/Bertha subs, either Ulitima rear loaded horns with 15 inches or what appear to be side mounted JBL 4520 or something similar to Waldorfs (which was Richard's 2x18 larger version of the 4520) although the one in this picture appears to use 15 inch drivers with a larger mouth on the rear loaded horn, double JBL 2395 horns (copies?) with JBL or TAD drivers, and JBL 2402 or 2404 tweeters. The Levan is a hyperbolic horn expansion for shortest length to the cutoff frequency - though it's still not small - the trade off is the high frequency distortion increases faster than other expansion rates, but as the Levan horn only covered 2 octaves it isn't a big issue. The Levan (named for Leroy Levan the best known DJ of the Paradise Garage) was the mouth expansion of the bass cabinet which Richard called a Bertha. A single 18 half height Bertha was an Emerald ( i believe was first used at Emerald City disco in New Jersey).
The drawback to the system is it's horn loaded except for the 200 to 1khz range where it's a direct radiator ( done better in bigger systems by Richard) and the phase cancellation where the rear loaded horn is out of phase with the 15 inch direct radiator in the low mid band.
I don't know if GSA is using a crossover similar to the RLA 3000/ 4000/5000 but expect he is.
The drawback to the system is it's horn loaded except for the 200 to 1khz range where it's a direct radiator ( done better in bigger systems by Richard) and the phase cancellation where the rear loaded horn is out of phase with the 15 inch direct radiator in the low mid band.
I don't know if GSA is using a crossover similar to the RLA 3000/ 4000/5000 but expect he is.
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From further viewing of some GSA installation photos there is a GSA 3001 crossover which has the same functionality as the RLA 3000 - the RLA 3000 was build by Alan Fierstein of Acoustilog who did the room treatment of the Paradise Garage, and still services the RLA crossovers, but doesn't build new ones.
I finally was able to open up the back of the Bertha today. It has two large subwoofers. The numbers on both are 18016 and 67-8525. I want to thank you for your help but most of what you are telling me is way over my head. I'm not into electronics/music systems. I just happened to acquire these and am going to sell as a group. But I'm trying to gather information so I kinda know what I'm selling. Thanks again.
Yeah I know. What I meant was it was similar in some ways. Its not complicated. Its a very common folding method.
The Pioneer system is based pretty closely on the Paradise Garage speaker system.
Bertha, Levans, Ultimas, 2395, 2402
Richard went on to build even better ones in later builds at big clubs, but this was his most famous. GSA used it too. The Klipsch design is somewhat different. Richard didn't invent all of his designs, he did modify/extend comercially compromised products and researched early RCA, Western Electric, and JBL designs - his horns were bigger than what anyone dared to build and he thought on a larger scale for number of drivers, size of speakers, bigger than most were willing find the space for or spend for. In NYC if you didn't have an RLA system people knew....
Bertha, Levans, Ultimas, 2395, 2402
Richard went on to build even better ones in later builds at big clubs, but this was his most famous. GSA used it too. The Klipsch design is somewhat different. Richard didn't invent all of his designs, he did modify/extend comercially compromised products and researched early RCA, Western Electric, and JBL designs - his horns were bigger than what anyone dared to build and he thought on a larger scale for number of drivers, size of speakers, bigger than most were willing find the space for or spend for. In NYC if you didn't have an RLA system people knew....
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Hi everybody , it is me Bruno with Luc who get the previlege to work with Gary for many years until his death . We build Gary's enclosures during many years . Gary had a real good ears and he choice us because of our talent for making
loudspeakers and horn designs . We stay aways , we were tired of all the stories everybody told and few of you discover our work . If you open a old Gary enclosure and you see TR label on the back of loudspeakers , it was build form us .
loudspeakers and horn designs . We stay aways , we were tired of all the stories everybody told and few of you discover our work . If you open a old Gary enclosure and you see TR label on the back of loudspeakers , it was build form us .
Hi, I see you're quite knowledgeable about the old RLA systems...I've managed to get hold of some original RLA cabs...DD and P. I was told they originally came from Toronto, would you be able to help me figure out where they originally came from? Tried to send you a private message but this website won't let me...send me a message if possible, would love to speak to you about this. thanks.
Front end was 3 Technics SL1200 with modified speed controls
Bozak mixer, Video input from Sony pro video decks, Satellite feed, FM tuner
RLA 3000 cross over 30hz - 100hz Bertha 40 hz up to 20 khz was main system feed and 7khz To 4 of 2402 tweeter packs
Dorroughs 40 A peak/rms meters
2 Rane 1/3 oct eq
Main system 2 Rane 3 way crossover 250hz and 1200hz
digital delay to 16 background 12 inch 2 way speakers in the bar area
main system was 4 ten foot mouth Berthas - 2 double stacked
on each corner was 2 x BH500 double 2 x 15 inch EAW bass horns,
an EAW 212 mid box 2 x 12
2 x 2360 JBL horn with 2445 drivers
Bozak mixer, Video input from Sony pro video decks, Satellite feed, FM tuner
RLA 3000 cross over 30hz - 100hz Bertha 40 hz up to 20 khz was main system feed and 7khz To 4 of 2402 tweeter packs
Dorroughs 40 A peak/rms meters
2 Rane 1/3 oct eq
Main system 2 Rane 3 way crossover 250hz and 1200hz
digital delay to 16 background 12 inch 2 way speakers in the bar area
main system was 4 ten foot mouth Berthas - 2 double stacked
on each corner was 2 x BH500 double 2 x 15 inch EAW bass horns,
an EAW 212 mid box 2 x 12
2 x 2360 JBL horn with 2445 drivers
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The Copa used Haflers for tweeters and mids and Carver M1.5 for the cone drivers. We would have liked better amps , we bought bigger speakers and not such good amps. No limiters - they could never play the system at full output because of neighbors so no limiters needed
I built the same system 10 years later with 16 Bryston 4Bs and 2 Crest 8001 for the Bertha’s. 4 BSS 360 crossovers
I built the same system 10 years later with 16 Bryston 4Bs and 2 Crest 8001 for the Bertha’s. 4 BSS 360 crossovers