Currently reviewing the gorgeous Jensen Imperial from the 1950's era. They are HUGE & imposing, but what a fabulous satin Blonde Korina finish. Video: • 1950's speakers were e... Email: stereoniche@gmail.com
There is one overlooked advantage to large speakers with large baffle. Large cones, large horns and large vents emit large wave launches. The kind akin to what live instruments produce. Therefore I find many large speakers possess a sense of scale and realism that eludes small point source speakers. Well designed small speakers might offer neutral, precisely detailed sound but their scaled down tiny wave launches renders them as toy versions of the real thing. Scale and size is a very important aspect of musical realism that is too frequently ignored by audio fans and by people in the industry who should know better. It might be why winners of the "best sound" at audio trade shows are nearly always systems that feature very large loudspeakers.
Just a note about the large size of 1950's high-end speakers. Back then amplifiers were low powered, usually around 20 wpc and often even less. To give realistic SPLs, high efficiency was required. To give lots of clean bass, horn loading was used resulting in large cabinets. The success of smaller acoustic suspension like AR, KLH and Advent was partially due to more powerful amplifiers coming into the market. In the 1960's 60 -70 wpc was common, just 10 years later.
Sure, but the first AR 1 came out in '55, so it was a contemporary of the Imperial, Hartsfield, etc. Higher powered, lower cost amps absolutely helped pave the way for lower efficiency speakers, indeed.
By the end of the video, I was pretty disappointed there were no pictures of the back, inside, electronics, specifications, talk about the drivers used, acoustic design, etc..
By the end of your comment, I was thoroughly disappointed to find that you didn't watch the video with the audio playing. Had you done so, you would have picked up on my comments that the review video is coming next week! Go back and listen at 0:30 and 11:15 of the video and tell us what you hear this time.
Ooooh boy, I’m so looking forward to the Imperials review ❤… It will be great to see and hear more of them, thanks for this content! I remember when I was a kid and went to the movie theater, they had huge speakers at the front, kind of buried, you could only see the grills on the floor; man, those speakers sounded great. Keep up the great work! 😊
I'm of an age where I saw all of the progression from a child's perspective. Dad stated with one Jensen and a VM changer. My personal Mt. Everest is still Klipsch corner horns. Closest was a pair of E-V with an 18 inch woofer my friend found in an empty house. Each took four to move
Love bookshelf speakers, also vintage. My oldest is a Bang & Olufsen type m from 1963. My favorite vintage is the Beovox 1100 from 1970. Fortunately, they can be stored on the shelf 😊
I still use daily a pair of massive Wharfedale Airedales from 1958. 15" bass with a super 8 and super 3 facing upward for omni directional dispersion. It is amazing how transparent these old speaker are and they will clearly show the differences in source and recording quality. I love the big room filling sound they produce. Those guys back then had to use their ears rather than relying on computers. Briggs of Wharfedale had people like Paul Voigt to look up to. The Voigt domestic corner horn is still the most realistic speakers I have ever heard and was built back in 1934. When I first heard it at the Voigt museum on the end of a 4 watt Lowther amplifier I was in awe. Those Jenson's are lovely, please keep them, they'll never make them like that again.
I had some old Brit HiFi mags from the 60's 70's as well as Brit product compendium with weird chain store names like "Richer Sounds" and somewhere along the line I heard about sand fill, was it DIY? would seem to be more $$ to ship . How did you acquire them?@@alanrogs3990
Back in the 1980's Hershey Park had this cinema-vision thing and it was kind if a 3-d without glasses thing. They had these huge speakers up front I bet the woofer was more then 22 inches across. I later bought a set of 18 inch replacement speakers from Radio Shack when they went on clearance, built a box for them to go in the truck of my car. since they were so big I had a design of one firing into the back of the other, but setting in the opposite direction being vented into the back of the other, with the back side vented of that one. Well it worked better as a band pass with them firing against each, I assume due to the large mass of the cone and coils. I later sold them and the box that I made I had made enough parts to be able to be used as two boxes.
Looking forward to this review and especially the Hartsfield. Those are so pretty. Be sure to mention the LE 375 massive compression driver and the fact that it only plays up to 10k hz.
Wow, even more audio history! Universities are good places to buy used electronics because they need to spend their full budget or they won't get that money for the next fiscal cycle. My son bought some lightly used $3,000 projectors from a local U for 50 bucks apiece. Our company sold copiers and printers. The local U was selling $8,000 dollar copiers for 250 bucks. The AV department had Bose 901 speakers and these educated fellows had the 8 speakers facing forward and the single speaker facing backwards. I don't know how I ever kept my mouth shut. LOL
Yes indeed, Universities and local government agencies are great buys on occasion. I recall about 20 yrs ago, the downtown library, which was massive, was selling off their entire record collections. It was 10's of thousands of records and they went dirt cheap. And, for those professors, they coined the phrase "who reads the manual?" LOL
University published a book about speaker building! I have it somewhere! Lots of gigantic speakers featuring Wharfedale drivers. Some of them featured 18 inch woofers and long horn tweeters. Nice upload of what was the standard.
That finish was probably more appropriate for its use case in an auditorium of the period.. I don't remember too many auditoriums that had a dark theme to them.
Nice. Would like to hear those rare Jensen's! I have a pair of University Classic's. 3-way all horn loaded. Rebuilt the cross overs several years ago and added a titanium super tweeter. 1 watt drives each one to a more than comfortable listening level!
Many years ago, I obtained several sets of University drivers, the 15" woofer, mids/tweeters that came out of a movie theater decades earlier. I had plans to build some nice big cabinets for them using some original plans, but ended up selling them all in prep for moving. I didn't know at the time I would end up buying a home with plenty of space.
Growing up my mom loved Blonde furniture but I always hated it as a child. I personally still do. I think it's because I always hated the color yellow. Like my British friends would say it's not my cup of tea. 😂
Indeed, like anything, there is always a bit of subjective visual acceptance that we must embrace. If I were to line up all of my speakers, these would stand out drastically as it is a sea of dark brown.
Heard the AR3 or 3a at Harvey Radio, Pasadena, 1963, in a room with the JBL Paragon and Sovereign I and 4 KLH Nine ESL's panels. The JBL's were much better for me than the AR on jazz/rock/blues, but the KLH Nines were superb with opera and vocal music. Had the ESL's in the 1970's, now have C60 S8R's.
There was a lot of blond furniture for living room and dining room “break front” pieces. The shear size of these things is unreal. Altecs included too.
I somewhat recall seeing some blond furniture, but I have to think it was quite a small percentage of overall sales. I bet the average consumer back then thought it was so "bold" for the day.
Are you familiar with the Wharfedale SFB speaker? I have one only, always looking for a mate. It has a surprising about of bass for an open baffle design.
Damn, we look pretty close in age '47 Sure you remember the absolutely; gorgeous JBL Paragon. Remember when I first saw AR3's (?) they were still offering them as a mono when stereo came into fashion well a boon, sell two more $$$ for them. Here's a weird one, Allison speakers, fairly compact, around 48" and built to be placed in the corner. Only ran across some in-the-flesh (so to speak) pictures before. Didn't hear them though. I think the designer also designed halls, (Clowes Hall Indpls) and custom installs in homes specifically with in brick interior wall placement. Keeps my old frontals from dying out. Great! I'll hafta think of some more from the post gramophone era
Well, although I know of the fabulous Paragon, it isn't because I was alive when it was first sold. 🙂 I started life in '64, so a little later than yourself, but I am quite familiar with them. I have run across them, just not at a price point where I can obtain them. Allisons are on my list as well.
Didn't speaker boxes were that big and was thinking where's the other one, then ooh mono the 50s. I think there were orchestra and a Buddy Holly album in stereo, that was late 50s.
Most consider 1958 as the year stereo was widely introduced. I think some media was available mid-50's, but the vast majority of media hit shelves in late 1957. It probably still took several years for stereo system to outnumber mono though.
"The "Advent" of the acoustic suspension speaker". Well, the Advents came much later in the late 1960s and the first model was an excellent low priced speaker. But It was not nearly as good as the original AR-3 or the AR-3a. I have a pair of AR-3a speakers and also a cosmetically challenged pair of the AR-3 model. The entire AR line of speakers were excellent from the AR-4x, AR-5, AR-2ax, AR-6 and even the little AR-7.
The advent of acoustic suspension, as in the arrival of a notable thing. I'll soon do a review of AR speakers. I have most all of the early era models with exception of the LST.
@@stereoniche I look forward to your reviews. I am a fan of the AR speaker line and have owned several models including the AR-4x, AR-6, AR-7, AR-3 and AR3a. One fascinating thing is how closely these speakers sound alike. The differences are mainly low end performance and dispersion of the high end. I also liked the early KLH series and the Advents. KLH is now producing new acoustic suspension designs similar to their legacy speakers. I also wondered why most manufacturers no longer produce acoustic suspension designs.
@@swinde Part of the reason I have not done an AR review, to date, is that I am missing a KLH model. I was sort of hoping to find a good example to tie it in a little to the whole legacy story. I am not at all plugged in to the current manufacturing designs, so maybe someone with knowledge can chime in on the topic.
ooh i inherited a pair of ARs that look like that, but they are alphas (they have a lower case alpha pinned on them, I assume that's the model). My dad bought one in the 1960s, and when he got married he bought the other one :P
All that talking but you didn't say anything really about the speakers? What kind of cabinet design is it? What ate the drivers inside? What sort of crossover if any is in there? How about a look at the inside or the drivers?
LOL, all that listening and you missed the several comments that explained this was not a review video and the Imperial review is coming up next week? Clearly you didn't listen too long. 🙂
Many years ago I got what now I would not part with. A fellow audiophile knew I was looking for big speakers. To replace end tables that well went with the ex. He said he had a pair that were very big, went saw did not know how they would sound. They are a pair of Altec model 19's paid 1K$ best money I ever spent!
Thank you I almost did not get them I took a couple test records to his house to get a feel, one of the records was the largest theatre pipe organs, the bass extension was so low he did not want to part but he as a good man had given his word. @@stereoniche
Good video.Well at least the stuff you look for makes sense. Guys with really great cd playback; must really have to stifle a laugh at all these "Look what I just found" videos of people searching all over the place for vinyl. They must look at them and think "If only I could tell you that you can stop all your endless searches, the best pressings are conveniently located at your local store that sells cds". With maybe few exceptions. I would like to try some Impex and Acoustic Sounds lps. I can't get over how analog cds can sound. The best players don't give themselves away that they are digital. I was happy with my cd sound except for one thing. The strumming of acoustic guitars sounded better on vinyl and reel tape. It was like the last frontier. The last frontier has been conquered, and I don't even know how I did it. I did so many mods at once, I can't even figure out what did it. But the strumming of acoustic guitars now sounds in line with analog as far as delicacy and natural ease. If I ever change anything in my system, it will be with cd playback in mind. At least I can focus on that now.Which might involve tubes or vintage speakers. I use tubes sometimes now. So many modern speakers have such a thin analytical and forced sound. The designers back then, knew to design for more than just clarity. Tone and warmth was of utmost importance. They also knew that one speaker doesn't go with all genres of music. A boring experience playing rock through AR 3 speakers. But they were great on classical. From what I hear, as big as they were, speakers like the Jensen had much greater scale but not as deep a bass as early acoustic suspension types. Scale is the more important of the two I think.
Here is a fun idea, send a classic speaker of your choice to Danny GR research who does crossover modifications on loudspeakers and if you have two pairs, you can do a review of the before and after. Still waiting for the review Of the I MFTLS 80😅
Well, I am game, except, I'll let someone else send me their modified GR Research version to compare. I have no issue at all with GR doing their mods, I think they are providing a great service and education, but I just prefer to leave my items as close to original as possible.
@@stereoniche I get it, I sold hifi in the 70’s and early 80’s so I have some references , but I wonder how it would sound today. I did find a pair of IMF TLS 50 I got for a friend and was shocked had good they sounded. My system at the time were Vandersteen model 5’s with big VTL tube amps .
@@SuperMcgenius So you liked the IMFs over the Vandies? And, BTW, I would very much like to do a GR modded comparison. Maybe that can happen down the road, it is a great idea.
@@tomreidy1237 Yes, the Jensens were originally used in a University, but they were marketed to consumers. I assume they were probably used in a small venue given their look and finish. VOTTs were marketed for professional use like movie theaters, etc. and being essentially black boxes, were not expected to be seen.
Um, yes I did. Soo your just getting into them? Sort of thing? If that's the case I will be looking forward to it indeed. Do you look into vintage juke baxes as well?@@stereoniche
@@donaldfoley7581 Would you say more popular in home furnishings than speakers? I can only recall seeing the finish on some EV models and the Jensen Imperial.
Acoustic suspension is simply the original name for what we now call boxes that are sealed or closed There is * no difference in the scale or dynamics of sealed vs ported. any system can be made with 4 inch drivers or anything up to 18 inches. Driver size has no relationship to box type
Not quite. Acoustic suspension and infinite baffle are similar but not the same. Vilchurs Acoustic suspension relied on an extremely air tight cabinet, a very thin and light cone and a thin and light foam surround. The back pressure in the cabinet made the thin cone super stiff across it's entire surface and pistonic and the flexible surround allowed the resonant frequency of the driver to be very low, so when put in a sealed box it still produced amazingly deep bass in a sealed box. Infinite baffle speakers don't work that way and general have tight but not deep bass as the resonant frequency of the driver rises in the infinite baffle enclosure. That is why the Acoustic suspension was a game changer in small enclosures.
You are wrong. Large old ported speakers sound more dynamic than sealed low-efficiency ones. But maybe you don't hear dynamics. Good for you, that opens up more things for you to like.
A cheap ( and VERY effective ) way to add a powerful subwoofer to your system , is to cut a big hole in an internal house door and fit a 15 inch or 18 inch speaker .... This uses the adjoining room as a HUGE infinite baffle speaker system ! ! ... it is VERY important that this door has a heavy wood or MDF construction ( thin plywood doors are no good ) ... thus you get a HUGE ( 1950's ? ) speaker cabinet , without taking up ANY valuable room space ! ... the midrange and HF speakers can be in very small stereo cabinets , in the listening room .... walk in closets or wardrobes make good speaker cabinets in this way ... this is fully : ( tried - n - tested ) ................... DAVE™🛑
