Hello Pelanj, yes and picking them up this weekend. Curious to see what’s hiding in the cabinets and give them a listen once I have all the specs. Haven’t found much information about them, besides what is linked on this forum and the company’s old website. Did see a post with something like them 3D printed.
Yes, it was me who made them, the STLs are available in this thread on the first page, in the archive with other K-Tubes: 3D printed audio stuff (with STL files)
If I get detailed pictures and exact dimensions, I will model them and share the files here for anyone who may like to try. I was not very impressed by my version, but the HF dispersion looked promising for a tweeter.
If I get detailed pictures and exact dimensions, I will model them and share the files here for anyone who may like to try. I was not very impressed by my version, but the HF dispersion looked promising for a tweeter.
hi HIU- - that's a super cool discovery and assume Alan Weiss had something to do with them. Is that a 2 inch format lens on the right? - or a 1.4 inch to 2 inch conic adapter feeding the larger lens?
There was a crazy story which I missed about "the mob" sabotaging Alan's theater speakers at Job Ulfman's Karlson speaker forum.
The blurry image below was from a set of home theater speakers sold by Alan years back - I think they were sealed 2-way with Eminence Beta 8A plus Eminence CD8 driving the klam tweeter. There was a 12 inch driver Karlson subwoofer - perhaps with an external vent for the rear chamber.
There was a crazy story which I missed about "the mob" sabotaging Alan's theater speakers at Job Ulfman's Karlson speaker forum.
The blurry image below was from a set of home theater speakers sold by Alan years back - I think they were sealed 2-way with Eminence Beta 8A plus Eminence CD8 driving the klam tweeter. There was a 12 inch driver Karlson subwoofer - perhaps with an external vent for the rear chamber.
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Acoustic Reality, Inc.
I’m thinking template or mold for exact dimensions would be cool. I’ll play with them this weekend if I have enough time and energy after driving 10 hours to get them and a few others. If you didn’t live so far away, I would drop a pair by for you to measure build and compare. 😀 I’m assuming what it’s made from would affect the out come slightly.
I honestly don’t know if these are the exact same as their patent, but can assume they are from his company. Thank you for posting all this great information! It’s been helpful with trying to learn and understand more about these speakers and their unique history . Jeff
I’m thinking template or mold for exact dimensions would be cool. I’ll play with them this weekend if I have enough time and energy after driving 10 hours to get them and a few others. If you didn’t live so far away, I would drop a pair by for you to measure build and compare. 😀 I’m assuming what it’s made from would affect the out come slightly.
I honestly don’t know if these are the exact same as their patent, but can assume they are from his company. Thank you for posting all this great information! It’s been helpful with trying to learn and understand more about these speakers and their unique history . Jeff
Attachments
"Acoustic Reality" = Alan's Company. He also sold an 8 inch klam loaded with the Radio Shack version of Pioneer's B20 "BOFU". I get the idea one of the small klam lens was used in a 3-way speaker intended for movie theater use. There was one story where the 3 way speaker was taken for an audition and rejected as "sprayed highs everywhere" vs THX standards of controlled directivity.
Here's a picture of Alan Weiss's "Rocket" Speaker. The late Martin Poppe who wrote "The K-Coupler" paper as a thesis said Alan was an assistant to John Karlson in Karlson's last days. The Rocket was made of MDF (I have a pair)
Here's a picture of Alan Weiss's "Rocket" Speaker. The late Martin Poppe who wrote "The K-Coupler" paper as a thesis said Alan was an assistant to John Karlson in Karlson's last days. The Rocket was made of MDF (I have a pair)
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Here's Alan Weiss's Patent *expired"
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/6f/f7/f8/6865aa5fd0da26/US5943431.pdf
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/6f/f7/f8/6865aa5fd0da26/US5943431.pdf
Karlson had a line of "asymmetric projectors" which he claimed exhibited a "clam shaped sound pattern. Those were an offshoot from using the little KR5 "Rocket" speaker turned 90 degrees from its regular configuration. I used to have a KR5 ad where it spoke of Karlson as a NASA consultant but guess its host deleted those two images)
A pair of John Jarlson's AP100 (loaded with a 15 inch Altec 421 and a K-tube compression driver tweeter) were installed at Radio Music Hall, That same speaker was marketed by John's good friend Jess Oliver as the "Magni-Clam". I'm pretty sure the speaker baffle had a round vent hole or holes, damped by its speaker cloth.
I spoke one time on the phone to Jess Oliver about that speaker - at that late point he had one in his garage. Jess told me that he and Karlson took a small projector to Yankee Stadium - but both he and John were terrible salesmen
Karlson's first X15 speaker had a wooden mini-klam which used a 3 inch cone speaker. Subsequent X15 employed a slotted metal tube with compression driver.
Here's a view of that ultra rare 1965 mini Klam - those two pressure relief holes remind me of what seen later in some Irving Fried speakers.
From a 1965 Karlson "X15" cabinet.
The open back frame 3 inch cone speaker used a coffee cup as back chamber
A pair of John Jarlson's AP100 (loaded with a 15 inch Altec 421 and a K-tube compression driver tweeter) were installed at Radio Music Hall, That same speaker was marketed by John's good friend Jess Oliver as the "Magni-Clam". I'm pretty sure the speaker baffle had a round vent hole or holes, damped by its speaker cloth.
I spoke one time on the phone to Jess Oliver about that speaker - at that late point he had one in his garage. Jess told me that he and Karlson took a small projector to Yankee Stadium - but both he and John were terrible salesmen
Karlson's first X15 speaker had a wooden mini-klam which used a 3 inch cone speaker. Subsequent X15 employed a slotted metal tube with compression driver.
Here's a view of that ultra rare 1965 mini Klam - those two pressure relief holes remind me of what seen later in some Irving Fried speakers.
From a 1965 Karlson "X15" cabinet.
The open back frame 3 inch cone speaker used a coffee cup as back chamber
In case anyone wants to try the X15 klam tweeter with say, 3FE22m the owner of that tweeter klam said its 3.75" wide, slotted aperture 6", remaining side 4", two 1/2" holes at the bottom of the wings. 6mm Baltic birch plywood or particleboard would probably work well.
A description from 2001 posted at Job Ulfman's Karlson Speaker forum
Date: 02/3/01 03:51:16 PM
Name: David A. Young
Email:
Subject: Re: Karlson X-15 1972 Model Organ SPKR.?
I have a data sheet for the X-15 as well as plans drawn from
one of Martin Poppe's cabinets. I have heard the X-15 in a church
with Ann Karlson playing the organ. From what I can remember it
sounded very good. Martin's sounded strong in the lower midrange.
I still have one of the X-15 copies left. In the early eighties
I built 6 and sold them to Bass Guitar players. Great dispersion
and a fat bass sound. The original used a 15" stamped basket woofer with a 54 oz. square magnet, 2" voice coil, straight cone,
and doped 4 roll cloth surround. Kustom Electronics used a similar
speaker in its Bass Amplifiers. It is also similar to a Klipsh K-33. The tweeter had a 3" cone with a styrofoam coffee cup on
the back. The tweeter coupler was triangular and 3 3/4" wide.
The front was 7" long, the back was 4", and the tweeter panel
was 3 3/4". There was a 1/2" hole on eighter side of the coupler
at the base. The slot was radial. The tweeter was fastened to the
baffle at the upper edge of the woofer cutout. The reflector above
the baffle was elliptical and made up of three panels. There is a
short shelf on the rear of the first reflector parel. The port has
a board with 42, 3/8" holes in it. The box was 27 3/4" High,
19 5/8" Wide, and 14 1/8" Deep.
Dave
A description from 2001 posted at Job Ulfman's Karlson Speaker forum
Date: 02/3/01 03:51:16 PM
Name: David A. Young
Email:
Subject: Re: Karlson X-15 1972 Model Organ SPKR.?
I have a data sheet for the X-15 as well as plans drawn from
one of Martin Poppe's cabinets. I have heard the X-15 in a church
with Ann Karlson playing the organ. From what I can remember it
sounded very good. Martin's sounded strong in the lower midrange.
I still have one of the X-15 copies left. In the early eighties
I built 6 and sold them to Bass Guitar players. Great dispersion
and a fat bass sound. The original used a 15" stamped basket woofer with a 54 oz. square magnet, 2" voice coil, straight cone,
and doped 4 roll cloth surround. Kustom Electronics used a similar
speaker in its Bass Amplifiers. It is also similar to a Klipsh K-33. The tweeter had a 3" cone with a styrofoam coffee cup on
the back. The tweeter coupler was triangular and 3 3/4" wide.
The front was 7" long, the back was 4", and the tweeter panel
was 3 3/4". There was a 1/2" hole on eighter side of the coupler
at the base. The slot was radial. The tweeter was fastened to the
baffle at the upper edge of the woofer cutout. The reflector above
the baffle was elliptical and made up of three panels. There is a
short shelf on the rear of the first reflector parel. The port has
a board with 42, 3/8" holes in it. The box was 27 3/4" High,
19 5/8" Wide, and 14 1/8" Deep.
Dave
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Picked them up yesterday. As well as several JBL 4675 and EV XEQ 504 Cinema LCR speakers. Don’t know when I’ll have a listen. Did open one up and took some photos before putting them in climate controlled storage. Sorry I didn’t have my micrometer calibers handy for measurements.
Here is what I found:
15” Eminence (OEM) Speaker
151371
1997
8 ohm
G1
Eminence Tweeter
02093
1997
8 ohm
G2
EV DH1A Compression driver
81256
1997
8 ohm
Tried several times to upload photos, but not working on this end. Will try again later.
Here is what I found:
15” Eminence (OEM) Speaker
151371
1997
8 ohm
G1
Eminence Tweeter
02093
1997
8 ohm
G2
EV DH1A Compression driver
81256
1997
8 ohm
Tried several times to upload photos, but not working on this end. Will try again later.
Acoustic Reality, Inc. Model WB 15
Photo upload worked this time.
Photo upload worked this time.
Attachments
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3326ACA9-E1D9-468B-8EC7-96D57DFAC207.jpeg -
05F43750-E6AF-4AEF-92FD-E7D6FD639581.jpg -
916B9D86-8C4F-4484-A1A7-255F03E39460.jpg -
9ECEB938-868A-4DAA-85C7-325A37D361B1.jpg -
96EC09E2-55E5-477F-8C5C-FB6AED8A4887.jpg -
D74C88E4-51EA-4618-B50C-B75F36EB6060.jpg -
293BC05F-42A8-4AAE-B50A-6E90B72144E2.jpg -
52A07058-E6A3-46D1-B8C7-58C825D9B72D.jpg -
B59C2778-4106-4D56-9511-C411B9A7D0DB.jpg -
99BA69F8-E5AB-40B1-89F8-9F997C209F10.jpg
very interesting - other than the lack of a K-front aperture, its built very close to John Karlson's X15 cabinet -but more like Fig.6 in proportions per Karlson's final "Acoustic Transducers" patent. Does it show any signs of once having an aperture up front?
It appears maybe the small mini-klam could fit in the central rectangular slot. -- On either side of that central hole are de-Q-ing vents as Karlson often used with X15. Likely that hole was also part of the vent as it appears there are terminals above the crossover which could feed either of those klam lens HF units.
You could add cleats to the front and rear parameter and add a K aperture plus do some bracing. Perhaps the Eminence woofer
Alan used sounded better sans K-aperture - ?
If you get time, it would be nice to have the outside dims plus enough inside dims to describe the baffle and 3 panel reflector
Where there any notes or verbal lore passed down with these speakers ?
It appears maybe the small mini-klam could fit in the central rectangular slot. -- On either side of that central hole are de-Q-ing vents as Karlson often used with X15. Likely that hole was also part of the vent as it appears there are terminals above the crossover which could feed either of those klam lens HF units.
You could add cleats to the front and rear parameter and add a K aperture plus do some bracing. Perhaps the Eminence woofer
Alan used sounded better sans K-aperture - ?
If you get time, it would be nice to have the outside dims plus enough inside dims to describe the baffle and 3 panel reflector
Where there any notes or verbal lore passed down with these speakers ?
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Karlson's X15 speaker (introduced in 1965) often but not always used a distributed vent system and the late Martin Poppe (who wrote the "K-Coupler" paper as a thesis at MIT) said Alan worked along side with Karlson in later years, so it looks like Alan absorbed some of John Karlson's ways of dealing with hings.
Johny Holiday's X15 central vent flanked by de-Q-ing holes. I believe there were 8-0.75" holes on this cabinet with one out of view on the top reflector panel.
My X15's vent system
One X15 seen on Ebay with single large vent and upfiring horn - I think this one
would be the direct precursor to Transylvania Power Company's cabinet and others such
as Ernst Beck's BEC, Acoustic Control's 115Bk/BC2, KK-Audio, Westwood and another company
who all pretty much simultaneously introduced the same cabinet.
Johny Holiday's X15 central vent flanked by de-Q-ing holes. I believe there were 8-0.75" holes on this cabinet with one out of view on the top reflector panel.
My X15's vent system
One X15 seen on Ebay with single large vent and upfiring horn - I think this one
would be the direct precursor to Transylvania Power Company's cabinet and others such
as Ernst Beck's BEC, Acoustic Control's 115Bk/BC2, KK-Audio, Westwood and another company
who all pretty much simultaneously introduced the same cabinet.
Hi HIU - here's a patent application mentioned in Karlson's open end waveguide which fits with your find
Espacenet -
Bibliographic data
1944
Espacenet -
Bibliographic data
1944
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