What Are The Great-Looking (Westrex, maybe?) Speakers In This Video?

[Gang-Twanger]

Here's a video of what appears to be an old Neumann cutting lathe and a beautiful pair of large-sized speakers that kinda' look like the Altec 19's rich uncle from out of town. I believe they're old Westrex studio speakers from around the late '50's, but I'm curious on the model (Hard to tell from the video title/info). My kind of speakers...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=2o3Ydpsx59E

 

[westend]

Ha, "rich uncle from out of town", I don't know..... but here's a link to the Wetrex acoustic lens, which are in those speakers.

Westrex was the export division of Western Electric, IIRC and their monitors are still in use in recording studios. A few guys have been lucky enough to use them in a hifi application and they must do a good job. They sell for about 10x what a pair of W-90's go for.

 

[Pandovski]

Westrex Acoustic Lens 20/80 (UK) speakers

 

[eurasian]

It looks like that guy is also using a Neumann cutting lathe as his turntable. Cool vintage system.

 

[Gang-Twanger]

Westrex Acoustic Lens 20/80 (UK) speakers

Thanks... I knew the old Westrex monitors were supposed to be some incredible thing to behold. That guy on YouTube must have worked at an old mastering studio back in the '50's. The room is packed full of old record-cutting gear such as the Neumann lathe. Man, I dig that stuff. It's like the old JBL's they used at studios in the early '60's, or those big, unobtainium tweeters they used at Decca back in the day. Love that kind of stuff.

Thanks for the help, guys.

 

[Jeffery]

Gives a whole new meaning to "needle drop"

 

[Dan ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ]

Yeah, no kidding. Loved how he plopped the tonearm down in the middle of the record. :nono:

 

[bd1886]

The Brits did (and do) a lot right that effects listening to this day. God Save the Queen.

 

[Gang-Twanger]

Yeah, no kidding. Loved how he plopped the tonearm down in the middle of the record. :nono:

Yeah, I caught that. Not something I do either, but perhaps he spent so much time CREATING vinyl that he decided it was time for a little payback and is now destroying some for a change...

 

[Gang-Twanger]

The Brits did (and do) a lot right that effects listening to this day. God Save the Queen.

Yup, they sure did. They also made (and make) many of the greatest stompbox effects ever created for guitar-players. There was the Arbiter [and later Dallas-Arbiter] Fuzz Face used by Hendrix, the Vox Wah used by EVERYBODY, the Sola Sound Tonebender MKII Professional used by both Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, the Colorsound Overdriver/Powerboost used by Beck and David Gilmour, the Dallas "Rangemaster" treble booster used by Eric Clapton, Billy Gibbons, and others, and even the Hornby-Skewes treble-boosters that Ritchie Blackmore used throughout the '60's and '70's (some with germanium transistors and some with silicon trannies). I have hand-built, all-analog replicas of the above pedals using cherry-picked NOS transistors (except the Hornby-Skewes boosters, although I do have the same Rangemaster replica that Billy Gibbons has been using for like the last 10 years in place of his shelved, original Rangemasters). The Brits seem to know guitar-tone. Marshall, Vox, Hiwatt, Orange, etc, etc...

Don't mind me... I'm a total gearhead when it comes to analog guitar effects, and I LOVE the old Brit stuff. And yes, I'm quite-enjoying my British-born W90's as well.