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3-Voice of the Theater A5

Midwest Theater said:
In a town as small as we are, movies will not pay the bills to get the doors open.
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Billy:

That situation even applies to larger cities as well. We have nearly 100,000 residents in Roseville, CA and playing movies could not keep the doors open for our two historic theaters. The bright side is that both are thriving playhouses now, giving local adults and children seperate venues for performing.

Here's a link to the theaters: Magic Circle Theaters

You may want to check it out. The couple that runs the both of them are nice people and may also give some helpful advise.

Fred
 
Nah, those aren't A4s, those used the 210 cabinet, these look like 211s.

They might not be "A anything" but a custom sort of rig designed around 211s and large format drivers and horns. Or maybe they're Simplexes. I'm not sure.
 
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Well , here is a Picture of a Simplex Box that is mounted on each speaker. I know in the Mid-50's they went from the RCA amp & pros to the Simplex, i was guess this box was from that change, maybe ? The funny thing is that they went back to the RCA in the Early 80's and we used the RCA untill Jan of 2003 when went to a new pros & amps. it was a sad day to see them go.
We still have quite a few spare tubes, that i need to dig out and get sold or something, but that is a job for another day.
 

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Simplex used to supply turnkey projection and sound systems to theatres. They used Altec speaker components and would be branded Altec but Simplex had a couple of different twists on the bassbins.

Michael Christ shows some Simplex VOT bins he owns on his website.

Ahrgh. I just looked, the site is gone.
 
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You know, I don't think these are A4's. The A4 has 2 woofers alright but the horn is flared in the vertical axis and the bottom slots are also vertical. So these would be in the wrong orientation even if they were turned 90 degrees on their side. In fact, there are no "A" series horns/cabinets that have the slots oriented parallel with the bottom of the horn edge. The 210/410 cabinets pictured in the outdoor backstage setting in the post way up near the top of this thread are the descendents of the axxx models.

I agree these are 211 cabinets. see this picture:

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Here's the measurements:

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With this information, you should have enough to figure out what you have.

regards,

Bart
 
Mech---Yeah. But on the other hand what made me think they're Simplexes (before I looked at the crossover photo, smacking forehead) was the sorta triangular shape of the boxes, some Simplexes I've seen were shaped like that.

Anyway dig those tar-filled multicells, those are great horns, perhaps the best.
 
I think they may be 817 cabinets.... unsure though

http://www.lansingheritage.org/images/altec/plans/1970's-lf-plans/enclosures10.jpg
 
Alright already, who cares what they are, they're cool as hell!! Here I thought I was the only one screwing around with old theatre's?? We found the same issue in our small town, movies alone won't do it, local acts like the Elvis show, the Phoenix players, and fashion shows draw the masses!! Speaking of restorations, isn't that the purpose of Loewes Landmark theatre's??
Some of you might recognize the Loews in Jersey City from the Trans Siberian Orchestra Christmas DVD, Dave.

Loews Jersey City Virtual Tour


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Nice speakers... if you weren't so far away I'd be interested! Like I need even bigger speakers...

Nothing wrong with selling them to fund a larger idea, but it sure would be nice if you could keep them intact instead of parting them out. As you've gathered, these certainly shouldn't be thrown away! There's got to be somebody on AK with the money and space for these!
 
Damn!! No money or space for these, and what makes it worse is that I am only a couple of hours from them :sigh:.

-j
 
If you do plan on showing films as well, why not place the Altecs on rolling platforms and move then when and as needed? Surely you still need speakers for the roll down screen...
 
I don't have much use at all for Hit & Runs asking prices so they can ebay stuff.
I guess I would also prefer that members ask here before they "Junk" stuff.

Might be some of us were a bit rough at the beginning of this thread!
There are ways of stating the desires with out chasing new members away.

I think a vast majority of us started here asking questions before reading the themes of these threads.
It would break my heart to see three A5s at the landfill being crushed by a bulldozer!

OH YEA-- Did anyone mention the guy who said JUNK them is a complete MOORON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gary
 
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I'm with Outlaw. They could be utilized on moveable platforms...perhaps even displayed in the lobby as part of the historical side of the Theatre.
V
 
Vitavox said:
I'm with Outlaw. They could be utilized on moveable platforms...perhaps even displayed in the lobby as part of the historical side of the Theatre.
V
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Excellent idea V, "The Strand" in Paw Paw, MI did that very thing with their old projector, put it in the lobby, what a sight!!! Dave. :yes:
 

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dgwojo said:
Excellent idea V, "The Strand" in Paw Paw, MI did that very thing with their old projector, put it in the lobby, what a sight!!! Dave. :yes:
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Seeing the photo of that projector brought back memories of the 20 years that I ran a pair of those. An exact match, by the way. That machine has a brinkert lamp house, a Simplex picture head, an RCA sound head and a genuine "CinemaScope" lens. We had them on rolling platforms which plugged into the various changeover, sound and power outlets. In a matter of minutes I could change one or both out for 16mm machines, using the same changeover and sound system. I custom designed and built my own changeover system. It wasn't uncommon to run a double feature, one 35mm, the other 16mm. I could do a direct changeover from one to the other as long as I could mark the 16mm film with cue marks. The reason for the rolling platforms was the the booth was very narrow. Just enough room for 2 35mm machines side by side. By the way we drove a pair of Altec A7's with them.

At my theatre, we only had 16mm film equipment so after they were removed, they are now on display in our balcony lobby. Better than stashing them away or throwing them out since they are too old to get repair parts any more. In case you are confused, the 35mm operation was at a second job.

Clyde
 
We still run a Simplex with optical mono sound and one 55 watt mono amp for the 180 seat theatre, can you say speaker efficiency is paramount?? Those film platters are awesome, it's 2006 and you still have to splice every film together!!! :no:
 

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dgwojo said:
We still run a Simplex with optical mono sound and one 55 watt mono amp for the 180 seat theatre, can you say speaker efficiency is paramount?? Those film platters are awesome, it's 2006 and you still have to splice every film together!!! :no:
Click to expand...

Bah! If you're not changing reels every twenty minutes (and looking for cue marks), you're hopelessly MODERN!
 
Appologies for side-tracking this thread, but have you guys ever seen an IMAX projector system?

Wish I had a picture because it's very impressive!

Russ
 
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