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A nice youtube recording of the K-Horns in action.


Shiva

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14 hours ago, derrickdj1 said:

Nice system.  What are the big boxes next to the Khorns?

 

Yes, they are Altec A7, one of the several varieties of Altec systems known as "The Voice of the Theater."   There is also a small super tweeter sitting on top of the cabinets, perhaps the JBL 075 Ring Radiator.  A7s were probably too small to be used in a large theater, although even smaller Altecs (e.g. 604 E) were used in Art Houses.  My favorite Altec Voice of the Theater was the A1, used in some of the 3 panel Cinerama theaters.   Count the horn loaded 15" woofers!  As you can see, Voice of the Theater also had reflex ports to supplement the horns.  With Cinerama (7 channel), there were 5 of these units behind the screen, and 2 surround tracks got a set of smaller Altecs spread around the theater.

vottcatt1945.7.jpg

 

It was probably the A7 that Paul Klipsch measured for his La Scala paper (courteously not mentioning its name, but calling it a popular "theater type speaker") because it was the only one small enough to gracefully be used in most homes, therefore being competition for the La Scala.  I'll ask the history guys.  The La Scala did better, particularly in the very high frequencies.

 

When Mike Todd sought to develop 70 mm Todd-AO as an alternative for Cinerama, Ampex was commissioned to design the sound system.  They deferred to JBL to design and build the speakers.   The behind the screen boxes had 4 -15" woofers each, horn loaded.  Here is one of the speaker systems used in early Todd-AO [1955 - 1970s]; there were 5 of these units behind the screen, one for each of 5 channels.  There was also a 1 channel surround, switchable around the theater. image.thumb.jpeg.3684ab37c2b6c317e8a682973ecf79bb.jpeg

 

Of all of these, the Todd-AO/Ampex/JBL system sounded the best to me.  It was warmer, with great dynamic range.  The closest I could come to that in my Home Theater was with Klipschorns, a modified Belle center, and Heresy II surrounds ... and with some soundtracks, it's damn close!

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this is a sad story..of my local theater . and the demise of a pair

altec a4's.  2 of the 5 were use for

$100 worth of plywood..

I have a friend who recently bought a theater in central New York and there are a set of 3 Altec A4 speakers with horns that we dont know much about.

What was the msrp on these?

Reasale value? They sounded amazing hooked up to a Crown MT600 before being moved out of the theater.

There were 5 until 2 were disassembled so that the 3/4 plywood could be used elsewhere (doh!......)

I actually have the 4 Altec 515 speakers that came out of the 2 speakers that were disassembled. Could I build a cabinet somewhat smaller with these and have an enjoyable speaker at home? ( I have some Klipsch HeresyI that I love).

I am working with a couple of local resellers and am looking for whatever info/help I can get so as not to get burned. The money recieved from the sale will all be reinvested into the theaters restoration that they have come out of.

Thanks for any help 
http://www.audioasylumtrader.com/ca/listing/Speakers-Floor-Standing/Altec-Lansing/A4/VoTT-System-with-extras/59515
 
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On 10/30/2017 at 9:18 PM, YK Thom said:

Might be the mic or the room, but they sound a little boomy and harsh.The Khorns I’ve heard in person (only two different set ups), sounded detailed , balanced and smoother.

 

They sound smooth, not harsh (but "up front") and not boomy in a good, big room with good proportions and a high ceiling.  Minimalist acoustic treatments help (see Chris A's thread on corner horn acoustics).  In my 4,257 cu.ft. room they sound great, better than any other home system I've heard (all but one report say the Klipsch Jubilee is even better).  The YouTube clip shows a rather live room, probably too live for any speakers, IMO.  A few throw rugs and a few absorbers and diffusers would work wonders, IMO.

      
Back to the Altecs and other theater speakers: What did they use in the very early movie days, before Altec (and JBL, later Klipsch) were most often installed?  Westrex and RCA were popular, probably including the RCAs mentioned over on the history thread.  Below are, 1) a picture of an approx. 6 feet tall theater speaker used in 1941 for the (first feature length) movie with stereophonic sound, Walt Disney's Fantasia.  The large speaker shown is being placed in a theater "box," but my old audio instructor, in his youth, took part in the set-up of Fantasia in San Francisco in 1940, and he indicated that there were several of these monsters behind the screen as well.   Most "Fantasound" installations were only 4 track stereo, but a que signal directed those 4 channels to several speakers at a time, or moved the some of the sound around the theater, while some remained up front..  The Scientific American article the photos came out of (Peck, 1941) said there were 90 sound locations in the theater.  The two people in my parents' generation who saw it in Fantasound used the same word to describe it, "hypnotic."  2) the second photo shows some of the small speakers across the back.  Fantasia was the first film with what we now call "surround sound."  After Fantasia closed, both stereo in any form, and surround, disappeared from the movies, and didn't return until 1952, with This is Cinerama.  Please excuse the large blank areas around the pictures; my software double crossed me.

 

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nice vid but the reverb is totally awful.

sounds like a hospital hall and don't do justice to the speakers - though we hear the potential ;-D

the room deserves some acoustic treatment or just to be lived-in,  shelves on walls, paintings, rugs, whatever.

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