I was lucky enough to own a pair of Altec-Lansing Voice of The Theater with the 801 horns. The definition, the low bass and the efficiency were all astonishing. To prove how efficient they were, I only drove them with just my preamp, no amp connected. That mV level was able to drive them. Amazing. The directionality of horns can be disconcerting for some, but the definition can't be beaten.
When I was 19 -20 (1970) I bought my first "stereo" the speakers I chose we Altec-Lansing Voice Of The Theater A-7 500-8 component system and my dad and I built the cabinets to spec. Horns mounted in cabinet. They were powered by a Kenwood integrated amp KA-7002 which I believe was rated at 50wpc. this sounded amazing especially when I'd take them to a outdoor party where they could flex their muscles, playing Led Zeppelin for instance around 3-4 on the volume and standing 50ft or more away sounded like a live band playing. I had those speakers for about 12rys and sold them for what I paid for the components which was $600 if I remember correctly.
Hi 👋, it is a pity that the person recording this was being picked up by the microphones, I am listening to this music 🎶 which was very good, on my recently rebuilt transmission line, loudspeaker cabinets, SEAS DRIVERS, 150w NAD Amp, Thank you for sharing, Phil from the moulin France.
If I knew where these horns lived, I'd buy the house next door. I'd continue to drop in and listen until served with a restraining order. On an unrelated note, I was looking forward to seeing Silbatone in Munich 2024 but it was a tiny booth and some other vendor took their place.
Oh those western electric TV-2 tubes are great. Yikes, I have a TV-2 from 1918. I've been crazy and have tested it on my TV-7A/U, the damn thing still works and is strong to this day....
I heard WE system when I was in Korea.. I had coffee in someone’s listening room. I didn’t know anything about audio system, I still remember that sound was amazing.. thank you!
@@thehighend4545 Remember they brought down the walls of Jericho with horns - ok, maybe the had little help from God, but just saying horns are efficient. You don't want too much power, you don't want your walls to fall down.
Wow, just found this. Amazing. High school friend had a pair of VOTT speakers. My late, and great "Uncle" had an amazing late 50's audio system (mono). I think it was a JBL speaker looking much like my mother's Telefunken console, to this day haven't heard its equal (and I'm not even sure what I'd be looking for). Obviously a labor of love here. Thank you!!!
Man this is great. Fill your your room with insanely big speakers. Why not? When someone questions your sanity you can always claim you feel nostalgic. Happy days
If Mr.Itoh Kitao, Legend man about Mr.Western Electric in Japan, would be quite surely glad to see this scene, who has been dead ten or twenty years. He was just the man of Western Electric Heart. He devoted all himself to the sounds of Western Electric. Never been married, he died in solitude.
I don't think it's possible to get a realistic impression of sound quality via RUclips. Looks like a spectacular (but not wife friendly!) system. One of my all time favourite records btw!
I helped pull some from skips/dumpsters many years ago and gave them a 2nd life..... that was ~ 20 years ago... some of this gear was shipped to Japan at the time.
i will love to have them, they are beautifull and special as hell, sounds amazing and natural..., i will love to play toccata and fugue of bach, some paganini, tarkus, echoes of floyd and some genesis from seconds out there...., so amazing!
There is an easy purity to the sound that I find engaging. More so than with today's box speakers, no matter how much money you throw at them. Sure, I'd prefer a modern Aries Cerat horn, but these are pretty nice.
WTF? Aries Cerat? Why? Are you just throwing random names around? These are nothing compared to the WE. Somehow they made a visually interesting horn and it takes so very little to impress a bunch of suckers.
@@westernelectricchannel I have some friends that told me amazing stories about the incredible desirability of these horns. I do have a question though, did you time align the drivers? Either by physical placement or processor to align time? They sound amazing through youtube for sure. :) Enjoy your music.
@@gavincurtis I chose the physical distance 12a horn 3.5m 13a is 4.4m, so 13a should be ahead of 12a, and the subwoofer is 1m back and spread out on both sides. It is placed at a similar distance from the auditory position.
Looks like we got audio right the first time as a species. What is this? 110 year old speaker system for a movie theater? I've messed with Jensen speakers from the 30s and yes they also required about 400V on the coil to engage the magnet. I have a Magnovox from 1923 that requires a 6v battery to be connected to the coils.
Hi hi, I am sure the WAF is close to zero for this interesting system. 😂 I appreciate the amplification, my guess is single ended something. SE sonically marks the pinnacle imho.
As a teen I was one of the first to bridge amps, and later I used to add about 4 tweeters per side. Great fir movies. Till I read the high frequency do the, down the road ? WHAT YOU SAID ? SPEAK LOUDER. LOL
I remember similar in an old Mono cinema I worked in as a youth. Mains energized coils. Silly efficiency, fed by a double push pull pair KT66 30 watt amplifier. Years later I measured the frequency range. Nothing at all below 100Hz or above 8kHZ. Fine for old optical mono sound. Did sound better than it measured, but a little boxy and quite colored sound. Typical for big old cinemas of its day. Not HiFi by any stretch of the imagination.
A rare and terrific turntable but these speakers are really colored by the entire horn/wooden parts. Yes they are efficient but mostly made for stadium use not for reproducing piano. Which is really hard for ANY speaker to get right. This recording seems to have artificial reverb. It could also be the effects of the horns I mentioned above. Looks cool but not accurate.
If you enjoy it fine. But distortion should be something you strive to eliminate not encourage. Getting closer to the source material or original sessions is what being an audiophile and a music lover should be. Why spend thousands and thousands of dollars on gear if not to get that much closer to the artist? I get the fun factor but none of this meets the above requirements.
Well it seems people hear and experience sound differently. If someone gets goosebumps and begins to shed tears when hearing such a WE (horn) system it’s for sure involving in a remarkable way, no matter if somebody else criticizes perceived distortions. 😊
a very complex and sophisticated audio system: for sure *just for listen a few songs, just a few melodies* whatta waste, while world of music is full of thousands of sounds and musicals, waste all this just for a few tones. it reminds me the PC Overclocking and GPU neon/water cooling/hybrid bla bla
@@thehighend4545why do you get offended and what's the reason why you defend this? I will repeat, even if you get angry can't front annother (and real) situation: this is a very complex and sophisticated audio system: just for listen *a few songs, just a few melodies, a very limited genres* _and you can't prove it is not_
All that sweet tube goodness and vintage speakers and runs through the yucky Behringer processor... lol I had several of those and replaced them all with dbx. Night and day difference in sound stage. A+ for everything else. Somebody has expensive taste.
@@thrvrflws I don't know either. I recorded it on my iPhone a long time ago and uploaded it, but I'm setting up a new audio room now. I'll set it up well and record it with a good microphone and upload it
@@westernelectricchannel just show us how youe system sound with japanese drum fire sound, that showing the limits of every system and not your slow soft shit
They should shatter windows with 1WPC! LoL. For anyone to even think of actually listening to this setup requires a large theater, open arena, or a band shell.
Antiquated industrial beauty! Absolutely intriguing. Tim Burton meets audiophile splendor.
More than intriguing my man: they reached a sound quality peak to which no one haven’t got even close
I was lucky enough to own a pair of Altec-Lansing Voice of The Theater with the 801 horns. The definition, the low bass and the efficiency were all astonishing. To prove how efficient they were, I only drove them with just my preamp, no amp connected. That mV level was able to drive them. Amazing. The directionality of horns can be disconcerting for some, but the definition can't be beaten.
When I was 19 -20 (1970) I bought my first "stereo" the speakers I chose we Altec-Lansing Voice Of The Theater A-7 500-8 component system and my dad and I built the cabinets to spec. Horns mounted in cabinet. They were powered by a Kenwood integrated amp KA-7002 which I believe was rated at 50wpc. this sounded amazing especially when I'd take them to a outdoor party where they could flex their muscles, playing Led Zeppelin for instance around 3-4 on the volume and standing 50ft or more away sounded like a live band playing. I had those speakers for about 12rys and sold them for what I paid for the components which was $600 if I remember correctly.
I have also heard about VOTTs being driven from the headphone Jack on transistor radios. Would like to see and hear this!
Your room looks like my idea of heaven on earth ! My ears would be in paradise to listen to this live ! Thanks for sharing. What marvelous speakers.
Phenomenal . Couldn't have these in my home as I would do nothing else but listen to them. Listening to them in person must be surreal..
As a long time audio fanatic I sometimes get bored and this made my day. Thank you.
After a bad day today I found this thank you I need it
The only way from the bottom is up. Peace.
Magnificent. I don't think the video does it justice or comes close to how it must be like hearing this in person.
Hi 👋, it is a pity that the person recording this was being picked up by the microphones, I am listening to this music 🎶 which was very good, on my recently rebuilt transmission line, loudspeaker cabinets, SEAS DRIVERS, 150w NAD Amp,
Thank you for sharing, Phil from the moulin France.
Anyone who would even try to put these in their home, - is my kind of cat. Kudos my friend.
If I knew where these horns lived, I'd buy the house next door. I'd continue to drop in and listen until served with a restraining order. On an unrelated note, I was looking forward to seeing Silbatone in Munich 2024 but it was a tiny booth and some other vendor took their place.
"audium" grand open
Oh those western electric TV-2 tubes are great. Yikes, I have a TV-2 from 1918. I've been crazy and have tested it on my TV-7A/U, the damn thing still works and is strong to this day....
I heard WE system when I was in Korea.. I had coffee in someone’s listening room. I didn’t know anything about audio system, I still remember that sound was amazing.. thank you!
Amazing sound, probably around 5 Watts, I remember seeing these type of speakers years ago at the Southern Theatre in Columbus Ohio.
These set ups are more like half watt, .25 watt. It doesn't take much at all on these horns.
@@thehighend4545 Remember they brought down the walls of Jericho with horns - ok, maybe the had little help from God, but just saying horns are efficient. You don't want too much power, you don't want your walls to fall down.
Experimentación pura, muy buen sonido, que de tiempo de limpiar 🧹 😉👍🏻
Wow, just found this. Amazing. High school friend had a pair of VOTT speakers. My late, and great "Uncle" had an amazing late 50's audio system (mono). I think it was a JBL speaker looking much like my mother's Telefunken console, to this day haven't heard its equal (and I'm not even sure what I'd be looking for). Obviously a labor of love here. Thank you!!!
That's a JBL...... What's it's name???
Edit: Paragon
There is some serious organic, natural sound there.
It's the time warp back to state of the art 1928 !
Man this is great. Fill your your room with insanely big speakers. Why not? When someone questions your sanity you can always claim you feel nostalgic. Happy days
It is just exquisite!!
This is absolutely incredible!!!
If Mr.Itoh Kitao, Legend man about Mr.Western Electric in Japan, would be quite surely glad to see this scene, who has been dead ten or twenty years. He was just the man of Western Electric Heart. He devoted all himself to the sounds of Western Electric. Never been married, he died in solitude.
I don't think it's possible to get a realistic impression of sound quality via RUclips. Looks like a spectacular (but not wife friendly!) system. One of my all time favourite records btw!
Sure it does, but the source just doesn't have the sound quality......
What a treat to see this.
wow so real gave me the goose bumps!
Amazing!
Dream of the dream system. I’d like to listen Arvo Part from front of this system. Music, it will hug my soul.
Talk about a flex. This dude is total showcase showdown.
WOW! Such a warm full sound! It was like being at the Amptheater House listing to the Chicago Symphony live! Thank You
Hahaha 😂 play vocal big mouth 👄 sounded the same/colored
That's not a symphony orchestra by the way... Arvo Pert.... For Alina/Spiegle I'm Spiegle.... For piano and violin....
Just to think how many of these fabulous horns were dumped into dumpsters when movie theaters “upgraded” to “new” speakers.
I helped pull some from skips/dumpsters many years ago and gave them a 2nd life..... that was ~ 20 years ago... some of this gear was shipped to Japan at the time.
@@CathalCoolkirky good you were able to rescue those speakers!
love this sound
Sounds wonderful! I am a huge fan of old horns. Do you find you get ringing in these old horns if pushed?
WOW 😮 ❤ THAT IS AWESOME
And my wife thinks my B&W floor speakers takes up too much space 😀
The main issue is the mic seems to be introducing distortion. I’m sure the sound is glorious.
I have never heard a system like this in person but I have a feeling I'd find it too bright sounding. I could be wrong though.
Something is not clean
do you have any time alignment between the horns and the driver in the mouth of the horn?
The ideal audio equipment for happy couples :*)👍
Sounds beautiful
The sound of a horn speaker is itself a musical instrument. Just like Stradivarius...
What about the problems with Time Alignment and Phase Disarray.
Such beautiful sound, but not in my living room, lol.
Going to try and find a pair for the living room ….
Just asked and got the WAF!😂🤣
i will love to have them, they are beautifull and special as hell, sounds amazing and natural..., i will love to play toccata and fugue of bach, some paganini, tarkus, echoes of floyd and some genesis from seconds out there...., so amazing!
I imagine that scene in the yard from Shawshank. You know which one. Different song, but coming from horns.
There is an easy purity to the sound that I find engaging. More so than with today's box speakers, no matter how much money you throw at them. Sure, I'd prefer a modern Aries Cerat horn, but these are pretty nice.
WTF? Aries Cerat? Why? Are you just throwing random names around? These are nothing compared to the WE. Somehow they made a visually interesting horn and it takes so very little to impress a bunch of suckers.
More of a Cessaro guy myself but the Aries certainly look interesting.
Need to hear Love Theme from Bladerunner through this. Probably reduce the building to rubble.
Amazing setup!!! Poor Wife acceptance Factor but who cares when it sound's magical! :)
-10/10
Good museum.
please play slayer
do you mean Slayer? as Sepultura or Pantera?
I need a bigger. House wow beautiful ❤️
Which is the soundtrack ?
Superb system, a dream
Arvo Part for Alina
Looks like some digital processing there, did you time align them? Sounds amazing through RUclips.
i phone direct recording
@@westernelectricchannel I have some friends that told me amazing stories about the incredible desirability of these horns.
I do have a question though, did you time align the drivers? Either by physical placement or processor to align time?
They sound amazing through youtube for sure. :) Enjoy your music.
@@gavincurtis I chose the physical distance 12a horn 3.5m
13a is 4.4m, so 13a should be ahead of 12a, and the subwoofer is 1m back and spread out on both sides. It is placed at a similar distance from the auditory position.
@@westernelectricchannel Nice! Now you just need the bigger listening space :) Awesome setup.
Looks like we got audio right the first time as a species. What is this? 110 year old speaker system for a movie theater? I've messed with Jensen speakers from the 30s and yes they also required about 400V on the coil to engage the magnet. I have a Magnovox from 1923 that requires a 6v battery to be connected to the coils.
Sound to me very woody and airy. I kind of like it.
(woody meaning having some dry wood resonance/tone - english is not my language)
The WAF must be outstanding !
I'm sure he keeps the wife in another part of the house - less cross-talk
Hi hi, I am sure the WAF is close to zero for this interesting system. 😂 I appreciate the amplification, my guess is single ended something. SE sonically marks the pinnacle imho.
@@henni1964 - no love for sarcasm?? We were having a bit of fun here friend.
@@steven8417 I got your sarcasm, that's ok and I totally agree on it. This is of course an amazing sytem but I guess, you can't have it all.
How big is your Stereo System ? You: Yes ! :D
Fine sound . I cringed when I saw direct sunlight falling on the paper cone .
What album is playing? I love it. This system sounds fantastic.
Arvo Part.. For Alina....
This is the short piece of music called "Spiegel im Spiegel" (Voice to Voice) by Arvo Part.
You can find the piece on many different albums.
Simple purity.😃
Hope his neighbors are hard of hearing. 😉 Does the bass have a tendency to cause enough vibration to disturb the needle on the record?
無敵的system
I regret getting rid of my giant RCA theater speakers from 1936.
I think this music way played in Andrei Tarkovskys film Mirror from 1975
How this is giant system would play Hard & Heavy and other Heavy metal?
As a teen I was one of the first to bridge amps, and later I used to add about 4 tweeters per side. Great fir movies. Till I read the high frequency do the, down the road ? WHAT YOU SAID ? SPEAK LOUDER. LOL
I remember similar in an old Mono cinema I worked in as a youth. Mains energized coils. Silly efficiency, fed by a double push pull pair KT66 30 watt amplifier. Years later I measured the frequency range. Nothing at all below 100Hz or above 8kHZ. Fine for old optical mono sound. Did sound better than it measured, but a little boxy and quite colored sound. Typical for big old cinemas of its day. Not HiFi by any stretch of the imagination.
But oh so much fun
The only thing is Frank, fun quickly runs out whereas sound quality lasts much longer.@@SLRNUT
A rare and terrific turntable but these speakers are really colored by the entire horn/wooden parts. Yes they are efficient but mostly made for stadium use not for reproducing piano. Which is really hard for ANY speaker to get right. This recording seems to have artificial reverb. It could also be the effects of the horns I mentioned above. Looks cool but not accurate.
does it matter? to some it does to most it doesn't.
If you enjoy it fine. But distortion should be something you strive to eliminate not encourage. Getting closer to the source material or original sessions is what being an audiophile and a music lover should be. Why spend thousands and thousands of dollars on gear if not to get that much closer to the artist? I get the fun factor but none of this meets the above requirements.
tubes and horn loaded speakers aren't known for low distortion and accuracy, you could argue that it's not the end goal with this system.
Well it seems people hear and experience sound differently. If someone gets goosebumps and begins to shed tears when hearing such a WE (horn) system it’s for sure involving in a remarkable way, no matter if somebody else criticizes perceived distortions. 😊
wow,,,,,,
Lots of echo room needs damping, of course windows…
слышны очень большие искажения на средних частотах/very large distortions are heard at medium frequencies.
Wish I could hear what it sounds like.
Headphones are a great invention!!
Somehow I was expecting Music for the Masses.
(No, I'm not complaining)
Reduce the weight of that cartridge by one half gram. Not shade, I'm a fan.
a very complex and sophisticated audio system: for sure *just for listen a few songs, just a few melodies*
whatta waste, while world of music is full of thousands of sounds and musicals,
waste all this just for a few tones. it reminds me the PC Overclocking and GPU neon/water cooling/hybrid bla bla
one mans cup of tea is another mans overclocked pc with neon/water cooling/hybrid,
and i would bet on this guy having more than one system.
WTF are you talking about? You think this is the only record he plays or some $#^t?
@@thehighend4545why do you get offended and what's the reason why you defend this?
I will repeat, even if you get angry can't front annother (and real) situation:
this is a very complex and sophisticated audio system: just for listen *a few songs, just a few melodies, a very limited genres*
_and you can't prove it is not_
Can't tell a thing from simple music
SOUNDS JUST LIKE A IPAD!
this is what happens when you get the bug (you loose your mind and $$$)...
😮❤🤩👌🤌🙏🏼
Silbatone!
The things they built when they only had a watt or two to fill a theatre
no te vendria mal limpiar un poquito todo ese polvo xD
Wow it sounds like a tiny phone speaker, on a tiny phone. Hmmm wonder why?😅
All that sweet tube goodness and vintage speakers and runs through the yucky Behringer processor... lol I had several of those and replaced them all with dbx. Night and day difference in sound stage. A+ for everything else. Somebody has expensive taste.
Big sound, no soundstage🙈
weia.
The LP is jittering and the playback is whining. Can't you hear that?
It's not a problem with lp playback, it's compression of video files
@@westernelectricchannel The LP jittering is because of the video compression? Come on...
@@thrvrflws I don't know either. I recorded it on my iPhone a long time ago and uploaded it, but I'm setting up a new audio room now. I'll set it up well and record it with a good microphone and upload it
for that slow soft music you can take simple small bose sepaker too that no performance to play that music 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Think about it. Do you think I only listen to slow, soft music with this speaker?
@@westernelectricchannel just show us how youe system sound with japanese drum fire sound, that showing the limits of every system and not your slow soft shit
😂Can you play Metallica on this?
No low end at all, very limited HF, rolls quickly above 8 Khz Good for voice in a large hall with low power amplifiers.
@@MichaelBeenyexactly 👍
They should shatter windows with 1WPC! LoL. For anyone to even think of actually listening to this setup requires a large theater, open arena, or a band shell.
残念ながら原音にある美しいバイオリンの音色と奥行きあるピアノの響きが失われ濁った平面的な音になってるようです。
High-End Equipment, but poor room treatment. It's useless, when your room is like this. Sorry.
You got a point there... Learned that lesson and once I did it was magical. Best upgrade you can do.
何を見せたいのか、何を聞かせたいのか。
まるっきり解らない。
나도 몰라
Na ! Sounds like music playing out a tin can
Very disturbing. Feels like hoarding place. How come anyone could listen to the music in such a mess? Just an opinion...
Such a waste of potential with this technology! Play the music of the late 20s.
Not all was good sound better....and this sound very bad......
yes! very bad sound. so many distortions in middle range...
@@thecynic62 It's the phone mic picking up the person filming. If you were there, you would be singing a different tune.
@@thehighend4545 I write about what I hear.