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In the Forum: Horn-Loaded Speakers
In the Thread: Munich High End 2010
Post Subject: L-9=>Closed boxPosted by Joe Roberts on: 5/17/2010
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The Western Electric L-9 in Munich was/is an infinite baffle design. The 754B woofers are in a sealed enclosure with a front horn. There is no possibility of cancellation between front wave and back wave of speaker, so I wouldn't call it an "open baffle" in any way. Don't be fooled by the wings.
We were always clear to point out that this is a "second class" WE theater speaker. The Alnico components are quite good (although I am suspicious of the cast aluminum KS-12025 horn). The HF driver was the phenolic 713 good to 13k which sounds better (smoother) than the aluminum diaphragm version. The earlier field coil stuff is in another league entirely but this system is very interesting.
The goal was to provide something from a different age and mindset to listen to and also to destroy the mini-monitor market. The presentation is so far from magazine audiophile expectations and guidelines that this demo had tremendous shock value. If you survey show reports many called it the best sound there...and this coming from a 62 year old speaker.
A lot of people remarked in amazement on the thin original wire which looked like it came from an old doorbell system. Pretty funny since we had tens of meters of Audio Note Litz and Nordost silver around the room on the speakers we were not playing. This is not the thing that would jump out at me but obviously people are wire-mad these days.
I occasionally heard a slight edge to the sound depending on listener
position, how loud it was turned up, and how many people were in the
room to absorb reflections from the hard side walls and glass. On the whole, I would say it erred on the
side of being overly soft and creamy rather than harsh. It was a success in musicality and impact rather than ultimate refinement and sophistication.
Most of all, the idea of bringing this old speaker was to get people thinking. It was a subversive plot.
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