How far have we come in the last 100years?

[Rajiv]

Hi,

Links to a couple of interesting threads(to me at least) on DIYAudio and the Lenco forum.

From one of the posts in the thread linked below.

"The demonstration by Silbatone, of such a WE-system at the HighEnd 2012 in Munich has probably resulted in not only visitors, but also one or the other exhibitor, questioning their believe in the alleged progress made, where music is often shredded into tone-scraps, ignoring the musics inner cohesion"

http://www.lencoheaven.net/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=vl1soajjnk88ebv27hbr1n7ja4&topic=7616.0


Western Electric 1928 - How far have we come in the last 100 years? - diyAudio

A couple of posts use the term "heuristic" and imply that Western Electric designed product was not designed under modern principals or should not be judged with any modern objectivist criteria.

Everyone should take a look at this:

http://charm.cchcdn.net/redist/pdf/m...d_harrison.pdf

It gives a good glimpse into the thinking of Western Electric at the time. Specifically it details how they designed the electrical disc recording method and the Orthophonic Victrola playback units. (1925). Note that these were directly used in the first cinema talkie systems as the Vitaphone process. Large 33 rpm discs were played in sync to the film. Sound on film also existed but the quality of discs was initially superior. Later WE cinema systems follow the same design principles and were developed by the same team.

They start with stating the goal of sound reproduction: "perfect reproduction requires that the components of the reproduced sound reaching the ears of the listener should have the same relative intensity and phase relationship as the soundreaching the ears of an imaginary listener to the original performance".

From here they move into studio acoustics (quoting Sabine reverb times), then move into electrical equivalent circuits for solving the modeling of electrical record cutters. For reproduction of the discs they cover the reproducer (essentially a compression driver diaphragm minus the voice coil). They describe the Orthophonic horn which is A 115 cycle cutoff exponential horn folded much like a WE 15.

They finish with an acoustical response curve of the full phonograph vs. A previous generation victola. It is fairly flat from 115 to 5000 Hz vs the narrower band, less flat, Victrola.

All good objectivist engineering in the modern mold. So why do we insist that Western Electric product shouldn't be judged on objective terms, when clearly the designers of the products did just that?

Very interesting read.

http://charm.cchcdn.net/redist/pdf/maxfield_harrison.pdf


Maybe someday my system will look like the ones in the pictures below.

http://www.lencoheaven.net/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=vl1soajjnk88ebv27hbr1n7ja4&topic=7616.420

Recently a similar system with all original WE drivers/amps.etc to the one linked below was pulled out from a theater in Calcutta and sold from B'lore.for $$$$$$$$

http://www.vintageaudio123.com/item16/index.html

Regards
Rajiv

 

[viren bakhshi]

Hi Rajiv,

Western Electric 1928 - How far have we come in the last 100 years? - diyAudio

This is one of the most interesting and stimulating discussions I've read in a long time!

Thanks,
Viren