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E-V Patrician 800 speakers - goody!


Woodog

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I scored a beat up pair (but not too beat up) for $74.20 (that's $70 with 6% KY sales tax)

backstory:

August of 2011 a coworker comes to me (the resident audio snob) and tells me they are renovating the theater in our building at Western Kentucky Universiry. He wants me to see something.

Takes me to where they are putting in a new sound system and shows me these great big boxes. E-V Patrician 800. hmmmmmm....

I poke around the internets and find out they are good. So I go to Charlie Pride (no kidding, that's his name) and inquire what will become of them. He says they will most likely be thrown away. Can I have 'em? Sure, he says. I don't need speakers, but great. I get to thinking and compose the following email to David Emerson and Charlie Pride on 8/27

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

From :Halford, Forrest

Subject: E-V Patrician 800 speakers

If you are planning to sell them, sell them here:

www.audiogon.com

or

www.klipsch.com (garage sale area)

These are both high-end audiophile speaker forums and the folks there will know what they are worth and treat them right.

Label them as Electro-Voice Patrician 800 audio speakers.

These are VERY high end units, when used (placed) correctly they outshine most everything out there, with the exception of the Altec Voice of the Theater, which you have down there. I do HOPE you will keep and use that unit somewhere. It’s the kind of system they use in eyemax theaters, for instance.

Forrest

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

Sometime in November I get to poking around the theater and see them still in the back. I go to Charlie Pride again and ask 'what's up?'

Charlie says they will be auctioned. Ok, I say, be sure to advertise properly so they end up in the hands of someone who knows what to do with them.

In the meantime I offer more $$ for them than I can really afford, and Charlie and David say no, they'll have to go to auction.

They ended up advertising them as 'Theater Speakers' in the local paper and Vintage Speakers in a staff-all email. That's all the advertising they did.

I figure if they weren't going to pursue due diligence... I went, I bid, I won.

Pictures (so far, haven't opened them up yet). Even if totally trashed, which I doubt, I've wasted more money on tobacco in a month.

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Hey Crites.... if you're reading... feel up to building a set of crossovers? [:D]

again, thanks to this forum, who have led me again and again to good sound.

Forrest

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Forrest,

Great story and a nice buy! Where have you been? I thought you had dropped off the planet...

Bruce

Nah, still around. Life changes and all that.

This place makes me want to spend money! when I hang out here I find myself wanting SET amps, expensive 12ax7 and long ago rare things from Western Electric!

to think I was a happy guy with Bose 901's and high power Onkyo amplification. Then I heard a pair of heresys... and then...

The reality is that the system I ultimately built is super sweet and satisfying. By way of comparison - I'm a happily married man and this is a college campus.

I did let Fini and Seti in on the score first, had to gloat to someone. :-)

I pop into this forum from time to time and find the conversations cyclical, like any community, variations on a theme if you will, an audio fugue. This place led me to audio ecstacy. Khorns with ALK crossover, an Ostby rebuild on my Scott amps (yes, for all the ornery - Hi Craig - the dude knows his stuff!) and Bob Crites crossovers in my Cornwalls. (yes, I'm sending you an email Bob... I've seen your name ALL over the place with regards to audio excellence, I see you are still smelling my old Cornwall crossovers in your avatar). that night was a revelation in sound!

My life these days is making music (church, my band, and i'm taking piano lessons again), riding my bicycles (I sold my car in 2008, so the bicycles are how I get around for the most part), working and thankful to have employment as the world is getting weird.

2007 rolled around and I found myself loved and in love after being single for 15 years. So far fewer hours in general to poke around the internets.

I'm excited to have a chance to bring these big ole babys back to sonic glory, if possible. I knew where to come! ;-)

I'm going to document the process which will involve the brain trust here and me with a soldering gun, screwdrivers and tung oil.

When you don't know your butt from a hole in the ground it's good to have folks around you who CAN tell you where you can find

a: your butt,

b: the hole in the ground, and

c: what to do with either.

peace,

Forrest

I tried to edit this (update, this is an edit try in IE, maybe? so it would come across in a more readable form (i.e. paragraph indentations, etc... but it's still a big block of text. Sorry about that)

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Got into the cabinets last night, looks like the attenuators are full of junk, which is why the speakers sound like junk. twisting them around brought all drivers except one - a T350.

The crossovers are not potted as was feared. All drivers are free of blemishes. The speakers appear to be some of the last manufactured as they were probably bought new in 1968 or 1969 when the building was completed. I'll take some pics this evening.

I took my Scott 299B out there and hooked them up. they will sound nice with a bit of care.

Not speaker related, but definitely music related... another purchase for me at the auction was a 1954 Baldwin Model L 6'3" grand piano. I haven't had an acoustic instrument to play on regularly in 20+ years. This one will reward study, which is why I'm signing back up for lessons! (I was a piano major).

Heya Colter! good to hear from you as well. How's the speaker museum coming? [;)]

peace,

Forrest

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Here's some pics of the innards.

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The three attenuators are housed in aluminum, and they are the reason the speakers sound like junk. Oxdized to the point of failure. thankfully the crossover isn't potted.

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The woofer appears to be made out of styrofoam. HUGE!

Forrest

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The woofer appears to be made out of styrofoam. HUGE!

Forrest, could you stick a mirror back there and see what model the woof is? It doesn't have the big bronze EV pot that I thought it would. Is it an 18"? Sure looks clean!

Larry

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Larry, Hi! Long time no see... hope the classical listening is going well!

The model is 30W, the 30' monster. I think these were some of the last ones made, being purchased new in 1968/1969. Also, the crossovers are not potted, which gave me (and Bob Crites) great relief. MUCH easier to rebuild.

From reading around the internets, earlier woofers had foam surrounds which would rot out. These have cloth surround and the woofer itself is styrofoam.

Forrest

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I scored a beat up pair (but not too beat up) for $74.20 (that's $70 with 6% KY sales tax)

I can't believe how fortunate you are!! The tax rate in California is around 10%!!!

I can't believe how thin you've gotten! How DO you find hats?

F

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also, the T-350 that I thought wasn't working was not working because of the badly oxidized attenuator. In fact, I'm pretty sure the atteuators are the reason the speakers sound like garbage. All drivers work. YAY!

The piano was the other thing I bought at the auction. :-)

Forrest

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