American Signal Clarity | Alert (with smoke) | Richmond, KY 

Given the fact this unit appears to be smoking (see the video description for more info), I don’t know how long this unit in particular will last. Only time will tell, but I’m sure it’s just a kink that’ll have to be worked out with the Clarity, as it’s still a product with hardly any installations. The T-128’s on the rest of the system should last a while though.

@@stampycatfan01lol Yeah, considering that the previous systems, the 2900s, and the modulators before them, they only lasted about 10-15 years at the most. I think this system should last much longer.

@@tunneltrain96 I want to say that before the 2900s was actually a system of EOWS sirens, but I could be wrong. With the 2900 series still being made and maintained by Whelen, though, I could see some of those going to other towns as a relatively modern secondhand unit that’s still able to be maintained fairly easily. Whether that’ll actually happen or not is something I don’t know though.

@@stampycatfan01lol Yeah, letting other towns use them would be a good idea. As for the system, the whelen system came in around 2007-2008. Before that there were modulators (all 5020s). I think the EOWSs did come before that, but ofc the only ones left are on Bluegrass Depot grounds, so it's hard to confirm.

@@tunneltrain96 Ah, that would make sense.

The worst part is, these sirens are literally brand new

With a T-128 recording.

its smoking that za okay.🔥🔥🔥

The reason why it sounds so bad over time is because the recording itself is garbage and gets pretty garbled towards the end. The E-Class sirens in Oak Lawn, IL use the exact same recording. I compared the two and everything from the pitch to the little pop at 1:02, probably where they spliced the recording, lineup with the one Noie recorded a while back. The crackling sounds appear to be part of the recording and come through much more on those horns than with these. While I don't have any faith in the longevity of the drivers since they are being pushed with the tones they are using, it apparently hasn't done enough damage to their system to force them back to stock alert tone. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pNs9mscZQwo.html I don't know what the folks at ASC were thinking when they did this. It's like they used an old recording they had laying around on a cassette tape from the 90s or something. It doesn't sound quite as bad as Oak Lawn's, but I guess that's because the little dinky horns don't have as low of a frequency response as the DKTec ones. What bothers me about this is they could have use regular alert tone and just move the wires on the controller to the low side if they wanted them to sound like the Whelens. It's like when the FS dealerships put recordings on the UV for custom Modulator installations. Why do that when you have a whole tone generator at your disposal?

@@DJ2226very well said

It was last year I think, they did a demonstration video on Facebook

Way smaller

Yeah, ok bud, whatever you say…

You ever worked on one?

Those tiny horns are designed for midrange-tweeter use in the upper hundreds-1000s hz range. They are in no way ideal for a lower tone siren like this.

@bluegrasssirens1938 whether or not I've worked on one is of zero relevance. I'm talking about the performance, not the maintenance. Something tells me working on a whelen head is a tad easier than this thing, anyways. I also know plenty of people who have heard these in person, and seen plenty more distance recordings over video. The performance of these sirens is definitely something to write home about.

I wouldn’t call a 2904 one of the best sirens on the market, but at least they don’t blow smoke on the third test.

That’s my concern as well. Surprised this replaced a WPS-2904 as well, which is apparently one of the better electronic sirens on the market.

The head can easily be replaced by an E-Class head if they need to supply a replacement. There should be monitoring of the state of the speaker drivers by the amplifier module (measuring voltage, current) that could report if a problem exists with a speaker.

​@@stampycatfan01loldamn straight

@@Acoustic_Theory Very true. Not saying ASC is bad in any way (in fact they’re pretty good themselves from what I’ve heard), but I have my doubts about this installation in particular. I should note that this is probably one of the very first Clarity installs out there, so there will obviously be some issues they’ll work out over time, whether it’s with the product itself or just this one installation. Driver monitoring definitely sounds like a good idea to implement for sure if it isn’t implemented already.

Yes. Their newest model

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Oh cool

It’s possible it’s a custom tone and that they normally sound like the E-Class does.

It's a recording. They sound like typical ASC electronic sirens when running normal alert tone.

They are using JBL HM17-25 horns, or at least horns similar to what they produce. They are super tiny, but they do accept standard 1-3/8". They are going to take a huge hit in SPL, but the tradeoff is straight horns will give much better clarity, hence the name. The drivers are most likely the same DKTec DKU-100Ns the I-Force and E-Class use. Hoermann and a bunch of European manufacturers use the same drivers and drive them at 125 - 150 watts, so they seem to be pretty stout.