fun interview at Telex

[Randy Bey]

So here I am going to a company called "Telex" this afternoon for an interview. Being a consultant I get the "opportunity" of interviewing over and over and over and over....

Anyway I hear Telex and I think -- this dates me -- of the equipment we used before there were fax machines. People had these teletypewriter devices called a telex for transmitting the printed word at 110 baud! Whew!

So I walk in the lobby and see microphones, hearing aids, tape recorders and ... and, about 3 pairs of Electrovoice Patricians! I nearly fell over! They had all kinds of classic EV equipment, some about half the size of the Patricians, and it turns out that Telex bought EV a few years back. So now they do pro-audio as well as hearing aids (never did the teletype thing, that was someone else). I almost told them I'd work there for a pair of the speakers in the lobby.

Patricians are quite the imposing speaker up close. Taller and thinner than khorns, with (at least these) a beautiful wood finish, clearly not cheap. And they had a complex network in back, many connectors, etc. that I didn't have time to study but obviously capable of bi- and tri-amping.

Oh what I would have given for a pair of those. Hey who knows, if I get the job I might tell them I'd take a pair of them off their hands, save them the cost of throwing them away!

[justin_tx_16]

pick me up a set

------------------

-justin

SoundWise Tech Support

I am an amateur, if it is professional;

ProMedia help you want email Amy or call her @ 1-888-554-5665 or for an RA# 800-554-7724 ext 5

Klipsch Home Audio help you want, email support@klipsch.com or call @ 1-800-KLIPSCH

RA# Fax Number=317-860-9140 / Parts Department Fax Number=317-860-9150s>

[mobile homeless]

Take advantage of winter time sloth! Take over the company; stop messin' around!

kh

[John Warren]

Randy-

Telex bought EV from Gulton. I have a contact at the Cecil Ave plant in Michigan and he tells me that the leadership has flirted on and off with re-entering the high end consumer speaker market.

BTW, they still have all of the jigs and fixtures necessary to "re-introduce" the Patrician IV and ALL associated drivers.

[John Warren]

Mark-

EV "did" reintroduce the Patrician sometime in the 80's as a "Statement" system so your idea isn't that far fetched. It was not a folded horn but utilized the 30" woofer. It was called the Patrician II.

FWIW, Parts Express started selling the EV "Heat-Wick" LF drivers around the same time that my contact told me that EV was planning to "offer" some goodies to the HiFi DIYer community. These drivers would actually make good hifi woofers.

This message has been edited by John Warren on 03-09-2002 at 08:14 PM

[John Warren]

bet you didn't know that you can STILL by the Hartley 24" NEW!!! $750 each with 6 month wait (read story below)

Hartley was a boutique driver and system manufacturer which reached its height in the 60's during the heyday of JBL, Altec, E-V, and other legendary brands. Today, Hartley is continued as a labor of love by Richard Schmetterer in Wilmington, NC. The classic Hartley drivers are still manufactured by hand and still adhere to the same design principles as the original Hartley line. Hartley product line

All Hartley drivers share some common design features:

A lightweight moderately rigid cone built with a polymer-impregnated cloth base material.

The surround is built on the same cloth base used for the cone, and so constitutes an integral part of the cone's structure. The surround area itself is impregnated with a high-grade silicone rubber rather than other, more common rubbers.

Hartley's wide- and full-range drivers use dual voice coils - one copper and one aluminum - driving LF and HF sections of the cone respectively. The copper coil is driven directly by the signal. The aluminum coil (actually a single shorted turn) is driven by inductive coupling from the primary coil. This lightweight aluminum "coil" is free to move independently, being separated from the copper coil by a 4 mil thick compliant silicone separator. Underneath it all is the thin film iron structure of Hartley's magnetic suspension (see below).

Hartley's woofers all feature long multi-layer voice coils, wound in parallel to minimize inductance.

A cast aluminum frame.

A strong fiberglass spider.

Hartley's patented "magnetic suspension" motor which uses an exceptionally strong motor and a thin iron film embedded within the voice coil to provide most of the restoring force and damping of the cone. Hartley was also a pioneer in the use of motors with symmetrical flux, called their "EFM" (equalized flux module) technology.

Hartley's monster woofers also feature a protruding aluminum "snout" which looks like a malformed phase plug. It's actually a heat sink.

Hartley drivers look quite like conventional electrodynamic driver, but the magnetic suspension motor makes them quite unconventional and renders the Thiele-Small model inadequate to describe them. In a conventional driver, the suspension compliance and restoring force are supplied by the spider and surround. In the magnetic suspension motor, the spider and surround still contribute, but most of the compliance is provided by the magnetic circuit in the motor itself. This is accomplished by a thin film of iron within the voice coil structure. Obviously since compliance and the magnetic circuit are inexorably linked, not only is the Thiele-Small model rendered inadequate, but also the specific design falls into the realm of art versus science - in other words, exactly as with conventional drivers before the publication of the Thiele-Small model. Side effects of the design are that the magnetic field must highly symmetrical, resulting in lower distortion, and relative insensitivity to mounting orientation.

Another side effect of the magnetic suspension motor design is a relatively wide latitude of acceptable cabinets. All Hartley drivers are designed to work in moderate to large infinite baffle (sealed) enclosures. Their performance in a vented enclosure is hard to predict and such applications are not recommended. On the other hand, they are reported to work well in TL and TQWT systems.

Although the expected incremental improvements have been made over the years, the Hartley line today is essentially the same as it was 35 years ago. These drivers are:

The 224HS is a monster 24" subwoofer and, along with the 18" woofer listed below, forms the backbone of the Hartley reputation. As previously noted, it features a large front-mounted heat sink for improved power dissipation. view

The 218HS is the slightly smaller 18" stablemate to the monster 224HS listed above. As with the 224HS, it features a large front-mounted heat sink for improved power dissipation. view

The 220HS 8" woofer is the smallest of the Hartley woofers, yet still features the large front-mounted heat sink common to the other Hartley woofers.

The 220MSG is a 10" dual-cone full-range which uses the Hartley dual VC described in the introduction above. Unlike Many other full-range drivers, the 220MSG has a respectable Xmax of 9.5 mm. view

The 207MSG is Hartley's least conventional driver. A 7" wide-range, dual-cone tweeter, the 207MSG uses technology similar to the only slightly larger full-range 220MSG, however, its Xmax is only 1.6 mm. view

Hartley is only sold direct and has no web site.

[kenratboy]

Klipsch reslly needs someone to come out with a strong Klipschorn/Heritage compeditor. Klipsch is king of that class of speakers and probably isn'y doing much new R&D, it would benefit US to get Klipsch working and RELEASING (key word) some new Heritage stuff.

Whats the word on the street about Klipsch and the Heritage line, like new speakers, stopping production, etc.

------------------

Receiver: Sony STR-DE675

CD player: Sony CDP-CX300

Turntable: Technics SL-J3 with Audio-Technica TR485U

Speakers: JBL HLS-610

Subwoofer: JBL 4648A-8

Sub amp: Parts Express 180 watt

Center/surrounds: Teac 3-way bookshelfs

Yes, it sucks, but better to come. KLIPSCH soon! My computer is better than my stereo!

[WMcD]

This is trip down memory lane.

I did some teletype work out of law offices, long ago.

There were dial up services which would connect one's teletype machine to the recipient's. Telex might have been a sort of e-mail provider. I recall RCA was another. The hardware was standarized but you needed to subscribe to a provider.

In its time, it was fairly spooky. You could sit at a keyboard and dial up a connection to the recipient. You'd get an "answer back" signal to confirm the connection. Then you could type or reel off your message from a pre printed paper tape. Private Western Union.

On the other hand, the recipient could be at the keyboard, and you could have a conversation.

The spooky aspect was that whatever you typed on the keyboard, was being typed at the other end on a printer.

It was also possible to subscribe to wire services like AP.

TWX machines had a couple of extra bits, and so had a better keyboard.

Naturally e-mail was an outgrowth of this technology.

The ancient made this all work with vacuum tubes and stamped metal parts. Smart cookies.

The fax machine may have arisen because our friends in the orient dealt in picture-grams as a written language.

Gil

This message has been edited by William F. Gil McDermott on 03-09-2002 at 10:04 PM

[Colin]

great story, John, any pics of the heat sinks?

------------------

Colin's Music System Cornwall 1s & Klipsch subs; lights out & tubes glowing!

[John Warren]

Here are pics of the Hartley drivers.

The heat sinks is (obviously) the tubes that protrude from the cone apex. By sinking heat to the radiation surface of the tube, the voice coil can be made smaller.

(don't they look beautiful!)

This message has been edited by John Warren on 03-10-2002 at 03:10 PM

[mobile homeless]

Richard is three minutes down the road from me. I have known those Hartley speakers for years. Some strange drivers for sure and the absolute size of those big beasts is something to behold, especially when you see them in PURE white! Richard is quite eccentric and if very opinionated about what he likes and dislikes! Do not dare mention vinyl to him as he starts foaming at the mouth! heh... Ole Richard.

I wish I could say that I loved his speakers, or at least the latest incarnations. John's point of a Labor of Love is VERY true, however. He once did this custom install for a club downtown in Wilmington with those massive 24" beasts up the wall (along with other offerings). IT was a verifiable WALL of sound and a sight to see!

kh

Phono Linn LP-12 Vahalla / Linn Basic Plus / Sumiko Blue Point

CD Player Rega Planet

Preamp Cary Audio SLP-70 w/Phono Modified

Amplifier Welborne Labs 2A3 Moondog Monoblocks

Cable DIYCable Superlative / Twisted Cross Connect

Speaker 1977 Klipsch Cornwall I w/Alnico & Type B Crossover

system one online / alternate components / Asylum Listing f>s>

This message has been edited by mobile homeless on 03-10-2002 at 06:10 PM

[hanksjim1]

I know this is an old thread, but I am curious if someone is still running Hartley's in their systems.

 

I have a 24" Hartley in a TL cabinet the size of a small fridge.   I got it with a set of Beveridge model 2s years ago  (sold last year).

 

I thought about running it with my Klipschorns.

 

I look forward to any comments from the forum members.

[tbheels]

Replying to a long-ago thread, so I'm not sure if anybody will see this. I have those drivers in this sweet pair of Hartley Concertmaster VI, which I bought from the company owner (Richard). I had the cabinets restored in teak veneer. I'll soon be letting them go--it's time for me to downsize. Excellent speakers, and not just because of the woofer. These things have a 10-inch mid and a 6-inch tweeter. Production for my pair was October 1970. The company was still in New Jersey at the time. Rich later relocated to Wilmington, N.C. I went into his store to ask some Hartley questions and left with these.