Jump to content

Heil - oops - Ohm - you guys remember these?


D-MAN

Recommended Posts

Thanks for posting these, however...These aren't Heil patents, they are related to the Walsh (Ohm) reproducers.

The Heil was the Air Motion Transformer (AMT) which was pretty good,

although sheer economics finally doomed it. Compared to other

transducers, it was just too expensive to build in a commercially

viable manner. Ohm is still making a variation of the Walsh driver,

although it has gotten very little critical attention lately.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Brings back memories. I think it was the "F" model? I saw them & thought they looked VERY cool & came close to buying a pair just because of that.

(this is where the memories come back) I also had some bookshelf sized speakers that sounded very nice as I recall, that had the Heil AMT tweeter.

I think I used those Heil speakers in my car... [:$]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, that does bring back memories of the Ohm F (walsh) drivers.

As I remember, there was a big to-do over the sound field. Supposedly, the sweetspot was just about the entire room. They sounded pretty good when they were loud. At this time the Carver-designed Phase Linear amps were quite popular. That was the combination that I remember

Ahh memories,

-Tom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tom, you're right, they needed alot of power to get them off the ground and Phase Linear was there at the right time.

The unique thing about the Walsh "F" is that the sound is in-phase with 360 deg. coverage, not to be confused with planars which are 180 out of phase and have at best 180 deg. coverage.

Bose is still infatuated with the technique... they introduced a 180 degree semi-omni speaker for PA use. Don't ask me why. However, a friend of mine reports that it fills the rather large hall of their church very evenly, to my great dismay. Granted, it's crap, it has to be; it's Bose.

Here is a pic of the dreaded Bose object of which I am speaking.

DM

post-13458-13819276252576_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Back in 1978 I traded in my ESS monitors (6 ohm speakers) for my K-horns. The ESS had a Heil Air-motion Transformer for the high and midrange sound and a 12" bass with a passive radiator for the low end. The highs that the HAT put out were excellent but the lower midrange and bass were a little week. The speakers were capable of biamplification but I never got that far. The dealer I dealt with had a policy that you could trade in your speakers in the first year you owned them and receive full value against a set of speakers costing at least twice as much. Bye bye ESS, hello K-horns.

78 Khorn

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Heil also made a full-range AMT briefly. The regular AMT, when scaled up, had severe cavity resonances. The bass AMT was this weird contraption of clear plastic disks driven by carbon fibre rods. The reviews were not enthusiastic.

A long-ago ish of Speaker Builder featured a homemade AMT coupled to a horn. An interesting and commendable project. Paul told me once that the AMT was a good transducer if operated in a unipolar manner (with the back enclosed) but he still felt traditional horn drivers were the way to go.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Back in 1978 I traded in my ESS monitors (6 ohm

speakers) for my K-horns. The ESS had a Heil Air-motion Transformer for

the high and midrange sound and a 12" bass with a passive radiator for

the low end. The highs that the HAT put out were excellent but the

lower midrange and bass were a little week. The speakers were capable

of biamplification but I never got that far. The dealer I dealt with

had a policy that you could trade in your speakers in the first year

you owned them and receive full value against a set of speakers costing

at least twice as much. Bye bye ESS, hello K-horns.

78 Khorn

In 1978 I had a roomate with a pair of these and thought they

sounded great. When he moved out I ended up with a pair of (Heritage

clones) by North American Sound and never looked back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In 1971 or so, I had large Advents and was hot to get something better. My local dealer showed me Quad electrostats and KLH Nines (also estats but huge) but neither would work in my college room. The only workable option was B**e 901s so I ordered a pair. Fortunately, before they came in, my dealer got his first two pair of the ESS Heil AMT-1 speakers. These were the first AMTs on the US market. 10" woofer and big AMT. They were much better than the 901s in my opinion so I bought his "extra" pair which turned out to be intended as demos for their other store. I never looked back and never owned any B**e.

A friend in Switzerland builds speakers commercially using a newer version of the AMT. The driver has its charms.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Bose is still infatuated with the technique... they introduced a 180 degree semi-omni speaker for PA use. Don't ask me why. However, a friend of mine reports that it fills the rather large hall of their church very evenly, to my great dismay. Granted, it's crap, it has to be; it's Bose."

I heard these in a PA application a few months ago. Mike Keneally was demonstrating Taylor guitars and he had 2 of these and a small processor/amp instead of the usual PA setup. They sounded clear and clean but his bass player needed a sub to play his acoustic bass through.

Have fun, Bryan

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I, too, remember the Ohm F. In '74 or so I took a pair home to demo. Through the mist of time, they had a wonderful, even soundstage. Nice frequency balance, too. Sounded good from everywhere in the room. And $600 a pair.

They also red-lined the living daylights out of the Marantz 32 I was running at the time. 60 wpc was not nearly enough.

But I was young and stupid and instead of upgrading my amplification, I stayed with my Rectilinear mini-IIIs.

Things worked out though. Shortly thereafter I encountered my Klipschorns and never really looked back.

Jim

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think you should try this ion tweeter on one of your systems. No

moving parts, other than the arc, and that isn't really a 'part'.

ACAPELLA ION TW 1S (Ionic Tweeter)

The Acapella ion tweeter Ion TW 1 S is a perfected and sophisticated

loudspeaker chassis, whose exceptional performance and qualities can

only be enjoyed completely if used properly.

It was designed to reproduce the harmonics of the music as detailed as

possible. To reach this goal, a design with the smallest possible mass

had to be developed. Relative to its function the Acapella ion tweeter

has no mass! To carry out this project, a very unusual kind of design

had to be created.

High voltage within the unit produces a constant arc. This arc is

modulated with the musical signal (flame oscillates with the time of

the music). This is the reason why the number of electrons within the

arc varies. A larger or smaller amount of electrons requires similar

space. Due to this variable need of space the surrounding air molecules

have to dodge the more or less quickly. This evasive action or bumping

of the air molecules generates over-, resp. underpressure and,

therefore, sound. In this way, the Acapella ion tweeter is able to

reproduce sound without membrane and without mass

Regarding transient capabilities and phase stiffness, the obtained

sound quality cannot be realised by using conventional tweeters.

Comparing the ion tweeter with other tweeter systems, its unobstrusive

sound image will attract you. This kind of reproduction is to be

attributed to the lack of harmonic and transient distortions.

Technical data

Sensitivity (aktive Tweeter): 1,5Volt / 0 dB

Impedance: 600 Ohm

Sound pressure level: max. 110 dB - 1 m / 1ms

Slope Input filter: approx. 12dB/octave

Frequency response: 5kHz - >50kHz (variable crossover frequencies )

Mains voltage: 234 Volt / 50 Hz Standard

Optional 110 -, 117 -, 227 Volt / 50 - 60 Hz

Dimensions H x W x D: 150 x 300 x 260 mm

Weight: 15 kg

post-7149-1381927642039_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...