djk Posted July 4, 2009 Share Posted July 4, 2009 A pair of the original Olson bins with wings were stated by RCA to be ±2dB down to 55hz. The Audax PR17s are nice. While they made severial versions, the originals seem to be the best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted July 4, 2009 Share Posted July 4, 2009 This is the best I've seen at giving you a sense of scale. These are big ole horns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted July 4, 2009 Share Posted July 4, 2009 In watching movies on TCM his name often appears, well down the credits, as being in charge of sound. The bass horn is probably a small part of his work in audio. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Shearer Reading there, the guy had seven academy awards for sound and an additional seven in technology. He must have been a heck of guy. Reading deeper in Wiki the only person with more academy awards that I can find was Walt Disney with 22 actual and 2 honorary. Good company! Betty Davis, eat your heart out. Wm McD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hobie1dog Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 been working on the mid/high cabinets to mate up with the 105db Shearer horn. Got the two Audax PR170MO drivers and the Ciare 1.38 tweeter cabinet built...open baffle design I got from a guy on the Lansing Heritage Forum. Used some Honduras Mahogany I had left over in the attic for the sides and MDF for the baffle and the top and bottoms. Got the grille cloth frames in place and painted. Grille cloth installed on the frames. Felt installed on the top and bottoms. They'll do for use in the garage...now I have to wire in some inductors and some Solen caps for the tweeters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted August 27, 2009 Share Posted August 27, 2009 Here's the Wente-Thuras article on the 1933 systems used in the Philadelphia-DC experiment. It is long on theory and very short of any details on how the LF horn was built The construction was probably not very relevant to the authors; the theory and results were more important. Plus there only 3 of these made and it was never intended to be a commercial design. I have always wondered what became of them. In case anyone missed it, there is more info on the Phil - DC experiment from Milner's book here. At least on the listening end. http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/p/121377/1223437.aspx#1223437 Wm McD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klipsch4life Posted August 28, 2009 Share Posted August 28, 2009 Beautiful job! kg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hobie1dog Posted August 28, 2009 Share Posted August 28, 2009 Thanks for the kind words of support. These are the practice speakers for the garage system. I'm still looking forward to building Jamboree's for the Great Room one of these days.[Y] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Travis In Austin Posted August 29, 2009 Moderators Share Posted August 29, 2009 That is one neat operation, top to bottom, and beautiful work to boot. Travis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hobie1dog Posted September 27, 2009 Share Posted September 27, 2009 The other RCA bass speaker that was made in the 40's was the Ubangi model (named after the tribe that wears the disc in their lower lip) It is almost the same physical size as the Shearer. But it is a bass reflex design. I saw an ad for one on the Lansing Heritage Forum last week and it was placed by the Cinema Preservation Co. ( they go in and salvage video and audio gear out of the 33,854 theatres around the country). They had plucked a Ubangi out of a theatre in Stauton, Va and had it back at their warehouse in Asheville, NC ( 2 hours away ). So I bought it.[] Back side (fuzzy pic) mouth opening. I will have to load it with drivers , then compare the performance to the Shearer. I do think that both of them in my garage will finally give me "pant-leg flapping bass"[Y] I also was glad to see that it is 33 1/2" tall , so it will pass through my front door. Already talked with the wife about the possibility of veneering it and putting it under the 110" projection screen in the Great Room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted September 27, 2009 Share Posted September 27, 2009 Wow great collection!!!!!!! I am seriously jealous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hobie1dog Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 anyone good with Photoshop know to make the Ubangi look like mahogany with a reddish tint? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djk Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 The Ubangi's always sounded better than the Altec 210/211 and JBL4550 in the midrange, but they were all too big for having no real bass. I was always going to put my RCA Olson bins (Shearer) under a pair, but never got around to it (just a bit too big). I always wanted to hack off the excess cabinets of the Ubangi (like the Oswald Mills set as above) but never got around to it. I ended up designing a double 12 midrange box the size of just the horn section of the big RCA/Altec/JBL that ended up doing everything I needed it to do. They still proved too big for portable use and I had to design something smaller and lighter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djk Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 The top photos are of Michael Christ making some exotic veneered Ubangi, and all-wood multicell horns. Michael used to live in Cedar Rapids, and may have scored the other pair that came out of the old downtown theaters here. There were three Ubangi in the Paramount, one ended up in St Joe's church, the other two in my friend J.O.'s 24' x 48' workshop/garage. There were six Ubangi in the Iowa, four went to Five Flags (Dubuque), and I think Michael got the other two. The Iowa also had a pair of the Olson bins in storage. I got those, along with an eighteen-cell horn (like the Oswald Mills ones). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hobie1dog Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 The top photos are of Michael Christ making some exotic veneered Ubangi, and all-wood multicell horns. Michael used to live in Cedar Rapids, and may have scored the other pair that came out of the old downtown theaters here. There were three Ubangi in the Paramount, one ended up in St Joe's church, the other two in my friend J.O.'s 24' x 48' workshop/garage. There were six Ubangi in the Iowa, four went to Five Flags (Dubuque), and I think Michael got the other two. The Iowa also had a pair of the Olson bins in storage. I got those, along with an eighteen-cell horn (like the Oswald Mills ones). Thanks for the pictures and some more info on the output characteristics of these things.....I haven't made it yet to hearing either of my 2 RCA bins but getting closer and will do some more freq.response charts on the Ubangi too for comparison to the Shearer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hobie1dog Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 After many months, I finally got the whole system fired up and took some measurements. The Shearer is a mid-bass monster but won't handle, and doesn't like any real low bass at all ( below 40 hz ) and barks at you to let you know it. The Shearer is running the bottom end for now, until I get my sub built, and is crossed over at 400 hz to the mid/tweeter boxes through a BBE Max-3 electronic crossover unit. A Crown MicroTech 1200 watt amp is feeding the Shearer and a VSP Labs 110 w/ch amp is driving the mid/tw cabinets. This is the completed system frequency response chart with the mic sitting at ear level and placed almost at the garage door, so it's about 18 ft away from the speakers. NOTE: The bottom end of the response curve is not the actual response as there is an ambient noise floor down in the 30hz and below range. When the music is not going, you can watch as cars and big trucks go by and watch the response down there move around. But as you can see, I'm real happy with how flat it turned out ( after you get past the Shearer hump ). And with almost no EQ tweaking involved. Naturally being made for a theatre, and having matching 105db/eff top end speakers with it, needless to say, it will get VERY loud in my 18X20 garage We were measuring an average of 120db at the back door on music @ 80% volume level. You simply need ear protection to turn it up any further. But it is SOOO clean at that volume....really fun to have it beat on your chest so that you "feel" the music. The Shearer just needs help on the bottom end, so I'm designing a sub that will be the same height of the Shearer and the same depth, but narrow for (2) 18" drivers that will have 30 mm of Xmax(one way), custom built for me by a friend with his own brand of subwoofers. We will be tuning the box for a frequency around 20 or so hertz. I have a Crown K2 that can provide 2500 watts to them, so that should get us in the ballpark of where I want the system to be at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 Very nice. The shearer looks great. I dropped by the klipsch museum Thursday. The shearer is really big especially with the wings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klipsch4life Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 Ian, you went to Hope and didn't get my Shorthorn? Then you could have driven to San Antonio and picked up my Cornwall from Gilbert? What were you thinking??? [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheltie dave Posted July 10, 2010 Author Share Posted July 10, 2010 DJK and Hobie, thanks for reviving a very entertaining and significant thread. These mosters can really crank! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 Ian, you went to Hope and didn't get my Shorthorn? Then you could have driven to San Antonio and picked up my Cornwall from Gilbert? What were you thinking??? Sorry I must have lost my dam mind. [:^)] Didn't quite make it San Antonio : ) We are leavig Austin tomorrow. It has been a blast. Heading out for a micro brew right now : ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klipsch4life Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 So close... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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