BEAUTIFUL Altec Repo 1505b WOOD Horns

[similost]

All I could do is drool over the craftsmanship in these horns... IMPRESSIVE!!! :drool:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ALTEC-1505B-WOO...ryZ73372QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I Wonder if they sound as good as they look.....

 

[Duffinator]

Sweet. I'm surprised they are not made out of treblewood.

 

[similost]

Sweet. I'm surprised they are not made out of treblewood.

LOL... I find it interesting he claims they are sonically dead... I wondered about ringing, but sounds like they don't... sure would love to give a pair a listen..

 

[speakerlust]

Incredible Craftsmanship!

 

[Duffinator]

LOL... I find it interesting he claims they are sonically dead... I wondered about ringing, but sounds like they don't... sure would love to give a pair a listen..

There's some speakers called Edgarhorn and they use wood. Very expensive stuff.

 

[similost]

There's some speakers called Edgarhorn and they use wood. Very expensive stuff.

I've seen the edgarhorn before.. really impressive stuff... I'm just blown away by what it must have taken to build a multi-cell horn out of wood.. damn is that a lot of angles... and curves.. one hell of a fine cabinet builder..

 

[similost]

Can't believe there hasnt been more comments on these.. would love to hear from a wood worker how hard something like this would be to build.. .

 

[westend]

I saw the maker's pictured construction techniques recently but can't find them again. Basically, the sectoral pieces are individually cut and shaped. The exponential sides, tops, and bottoms are easier once you have the proper dimensions. They state that there are 101 individual pieces to each horn. It is not an easy project. They are using basswood, which is an easy soft wood to carve. To me, this is something akin to the Chinese "Forbidden Stitch", beautiful to behold but impossible to do.

 

[ejfud]

I saw the maker's pictured construction techniques recently but can't find them again. Basically, the sectoral pieces are individually cut and shaped. The exponential sides, tops, and bottoms are easier once you have the proper dimensions. They state that there are 101 individual pieces to each horn. It is not an easy project. They are using basswood, which is an easy soft wood to carve. To me, this is something akin to the Chinese "Forbidden Stitch", beautiful to behold but impossible to do.

What he said!

I can't imagine doing something like this. A true work of art.

Here is a thread for a similar DIY horn.

http://audioheritage.csdco.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=13637&page=2

 

[similost]

What he said!

I can't imagine doing something like this. A true work of art.

Here is a thread for a similar DIY horn.

http://audioheritage.csdco.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=13637&page=2

I just drool all over something like that. Not so much because it's a horn, but the fact someone can make something that complicated out of wood, and it look so perfect, or like a work of art...

I am more impress by the original horn, because the sides of all the cells are curved.. then the fronts are joined so perfectly...

I'd hate to have to dust something like that. My wife was looking at them with me when I said that.. all she could do was just laugh at me... :saywhat:

 

[Tom Brennan]

Not art, machinery. The real hard part was the design, probably done by Stephens in the 1930s. Once somebody comes up with the notion and the design the building is often apparent and the skills needed while not commonplace are not exactly rare either.

As John Ford would say, a job of work.

 

[Ski]

Those look awesome.

 

[Arkay]

Nicely done, indeed! The key to this -- and the hard part to begin with-- is having accurate plans/drawings to work from, and an easy material to work with. The rest is just careful execution. The fact that they used basswood made it a lot easier; it is light and soft, and easy to shape. A little harder than balsa, about like pine without the grain issues. Also, because of its relative porosity/light density, it is acoustically pretty "dead", like the seller said.

Making that out of Palm wood or ironwood or blackwood would have been a nightmare ... and it would be resonant!

:scratch2: I don't see why one couldn't mold and cast these out of acoustically-inert plastic material. Could be cheap, and might sound good, if you chose the right material. Would also be lightweight, and could be done in much higher numbers than that painstakingly harnd-crafted wooden artwork!

 

[similost]

Nicely done, indeed! The key to this -- and the hard part to begin with-- is having accurate plans/drawings to work from, and an easy material to work with. The rest is just careful execution. The fact that they used basswood made it a lot easier; it is light and soft, and easy to shape. A little harder than balsa, about like pine without the grain issues. Also, because of its relative porosity/light density, it is acoustically pretty "dead", like the seller said.

Making that out of Palm wood or ironwood or blackwood would have been a nightmare ... and it would be resonant!

:scratch2: I don't see why one couldn't mold and cast these out of acoustically-inert plastic material. Could be cheap, and might sound good, if you chose the right material. Would also be lightweight, and could be done in much higher numbers than that painstakingly harnd-crafted wooden artwork!

It sure would be cool if someone would mass market these horns. Plastic, wood or even metal again. I wonder about patent infringement though.. especially since the guy that made these wood horns used the actual name Altec even though he said reproduced.