The original Westlake / Sierra / Eastlake monitor

[glen]

Sweeet,
I finally figured out that there was a 1 inch driver behind the tiny horn(?) positioned under the big wooden Smith horn (for years I thought these were just 2-way systems)
Does anyone know exactly what that really short 1 inch horn/throat is?
Was there ever a set of plans available for these monitors?

[John]

Anyone know what year those were produced???

[Titanium Dome]

OK, Ken P., where are you?

[Ken Pachkowsky]

OK, Ken P., where are you?

Those are very early model's. I have no idea what circa. They look very similar to the mains we used at Century 21 Studios in Winnipeg (1976-1977)

As Glenn Phoenix pointed out, these are all custom made to the clients preferences. I find it interesting that many engineers picked Gauss/Cetec drivers over the standard JBL. I have not seen any Gauss compression drivers but several pair using 15's and 10's. I have never heard a pair of Cetec 15's but out of curiosity would like to.

Ken

[John]

Hi Ken I have heard the Gauss-Cedec 15's in some 4350,s and they kicked ass Nothing was missing

[Ken Pachkowsky]

Hi Ken I have heard the Gauss-Cedec 15's in some 4350,s and they kicked ass Nothing was missing

Interesting, I understand it was a scenior exec from JBL that help start Gauss-Cetec.

Ken

[scott fitlin]

Gauss woofers KICKED, and sounded great. Many guys loved em, their 18,s moved alot of air. Gauss was a bit of a different sound than JBL bass, but, very visceral, really THUMPED ( long excursion ), as opposed to JBL being TIGHT and PUNCHY! The extreme bottom end really roared through Gauss woofers and the transient attack of low end notes was SCARY. We had both JBL and Gauss in my place, and at the same time,. and I loved both. Gauss is a company I wish was still around.

The Gauss compression drivers were also liked by many, the Gauss HF-4000 was said to be sweeter sounding than the JBL 2440/2441. I used to hear the Gauss midrange at a very famous nightclub, The Paradise Garage, and they were in fact really good. Better than JBL? Dont know about that, but they were good. The diaphragm of the Gauss driver was the same type of half roll aluminum surround as the JBL 2440, and had the higher pitch tonality, actually very similar to the 2440.

Then, there was the Gauss Big Tweet. We had these in a club I worked at, really nice, and sparkly top end, but, they were too easy to blow.

It was Edmond May who went over to Gauss in the 70,s and designed their woofers.

[Ian Mackenzie]

Scotty,

Well put.

Years and I mean years ago I went to a JBL distributor over here call The Music factory for some drivers and he impressed upon me what you descibed about Gauss.

They were also used for woofers exclusively in the Reflection Arts Monitor System over in the U.K. But in those systems the JBL 2121/2123 was the only choice on the mids while they offered Emilar/Coral compression drivers. We also know Eminence provided drivers for some of the Urie systems and we see Tad used selectively in some systems.

I think its well known in the industry there were/ are plenty more robust drivers around than JBL but few had the same expressive finesse qualities, some more so and some less so. Its a matter of taste, application and budget.

Frankly I find this type of discussion more useful and valuable than what has become "JBL Talk". Those who close their eyes to whatever else was and is around can never claim to fully appreciate what a JBL driver is really about.

[ralphs99]

Hi Glen,

Thanks for the lovely pics!

The 'horn' on the 2420 compession driver is not really a horn at all but just a diffraction device. It's just a piece of ~1/4" metal with a 1" hole on one side to mate with the driver throat and a 3/4" hole on the other side. That's it! I've no idea of the actual dispersion characteristics.

The only Westlakes I've heard were all JBL; 2231A's, 2440's & 2420's back from around 1978. Loved the bottom end, but the Westlake horns always seemed to have very vague localisation and a poor sound stage.

Cheers, Ralph

[glen]

They look very similar to the mains we used at Century 21 Studios in Winnipeg (1976-1977)
Ken

Hi Ken,
Were you guys bi-amping (or tri-amping) these back then?
What kind of power amps/crossovers were you using?
Thanks for sharing your knowledge,
Glen

[Ken Pachkowsky]

Hi Ken,
Were you guys bi-amping (or tri-amping) these back then?
What kind of power amps/crossovers were you using?
Thanks for sharing your knowledge,
Glen

They used a Westlake designed combination active 2 way and passive for the 3-way system. We used Luxman M series amps in both control rooms. As I recall they were M4000's and M2000's. Does that sound right? They were Luxman's for sure. They sounded great.

Ken

[michaelg]

We used Luxman M series amps in both control rooms. As I recall they were M4000's and M2000's. Does that sound right?

Studio B was a Luxman driving (I don't remember) but Studio A had Altec passive third-octave EQ and electronic crossovers feeding industrial-series Crown amplifiers driving the Westlakes. I helped install the gear and was there when Hidley tuned them.