The original Westlake / Sierra / Eastlake monitor

[michaelg]

Do you have a pair of them at home?

Yes, I have a pair of LS/4s and several other limited production models.

Could the design be easily duplicated using current drivers?

I was actually about to debate Don McRitchie on that point; most of the current drivers that I am aware of are what we used to refer to as "sound reinforcement" products, not "studio monitor" grade. That doesn't mean that one couldn't attempt it, but they wouldn't meet our "internal" criteria. Fostex can still produce the H420 wooden horn design but it is only available in birch or laminate (~US$600+ ea), not solid teak. We were having problems even back then sourcing sufficient high-grade teak for the monitors and the prices were getting insane. I am unaware of anything close to the T825 diffraction horn super tweeter although I have seen a few rare units move through eBay. It might be a worthy exercise though!

I would love to get together with you over a cup of coffee?

I'd look forward to that if we can find a common date. We are doing a major house/kitchen renovation in June and will be traveling a lot. My son and I are flying down to Chicago for Clapton's second Crossroads Guitar Festival. I am visiting Wayne Jones in Beaverton Oregon to pick up a load of Ampex 351s and will be in Victoria for a wedding.

Have you stayed in touch with Bob Oliver?

Unfortunately, no. Someone told me he had retired from the college. I have a possible email address for him but haven't succeeded in reaching him.

Last year I exchanged some emails with Ted Telesky. He is well and living in Santa Barbra as you probably know.

Yes. Ted and I remain in constant communication. He is slowing down a little but has been spending huge amounts of time setting up manufacturing plants in China. He has been consulting on a Microslop Zone Player cradle out of Australia and some projects for Monster. I hope to see him this summer as well.

[spkrman57]

They sound interesting.

Ron

Yes, I have a pair of LS/4s and several other limited production models.

[michaelg]

Could you post pics here of the monitors?

There is a whole thread about them and other Fostex units elsewhere on this board.





These are representative of our "audiophile" offerings of the day:

[michaelg]

When looking for the Century 21 pix, we found a treasure trove of stuff I had forgotten about completely!

Here is a page of one of our old signal processing brochures which includes representative clients. The top right pic is Century 21's "A" control room. The two rack units above the engineer's head with the black meters were my products.

(The engineer is Jack Clements from Esterhazy Saskatchewan who later became an award-winning movie producer - he did one of my favourite aviation movies: "For the Moment" starring Russell Crowe and filmed primarily in Brandon. Jack died this spring.)

The others are CKY-AM (Winnipeg), Children's Television Workshop (NYC) and Little Richard in concert (I can't remember the touring sound company name!).

[michaelg]

Here's some really interesting stuff - I didn't realize we had these!

These are comparative plots of the Century 21 Studio "A" Westlake TM1 monitors relative to the Fostex LS/3 monitors in situ at the listening position at the console.

The Fostex are in the top row, the Westlakes in the bottom; the vertical increments are 2.5dB per division.

The Westlakes are tri-amped and third-octave EQ'd by Hidley. The Fostex are driven by a single amplifier with their internal passive crossovers driven flat from the console.

[michaelg]

Here are the lab measurements for our smallest "Laboratory Series" monitor, the LS/2 which was spec'd at 45Hz-20KHz, within 6dB. You will see that we were very conservative - that was a worst-case, 4π spec; in a 2π soffit mount, we could have actually spec'd the LS/2 down another octave to 23Hz!!

Note that above 800Hz the performance of all models was identical! Only the low frequency cut-off varied between models as they were scaled to properly integrate with the monitoring environment. No sense putting a 19Hz monitor in a room than can only sustain 50Hz!

[lfh]

These are comparative plots of the Century 21 Studio "A" Westlake TM1 monitors relative to the Fostex LS/3 monitors in situ at the listening position at the console.

/.../

The Westlakes are tri-amped and third-octave EQ'd by Hidley. The Fostex are driven by a single amplifier with their internal passive crossovers driven flat from the console.

I think it's impressive that you still have that data after all those years (and know where to find it).

Just to be clear: The Westies sat in their soffits, and the Fostex monitors were free standing, right?

In any case the FR of the Westies as installed there looks quite nasty... I bet Hidley didn't use the same measurement rig and mic position that you did What surprises me in particular is the large difference between L and R.

Oh, and clearly the Fostex look very well behaved! Very cool!

[eso]

The drivers appear to be in excellent condition. I don't have any other photos of the Gauss, but these...

eso

[Robh3606]

Wow Nice!

Rob

[Mr. Widget]

The drivers appear to be in excellent condition. I don't have any other photos of the Gauss, but these...

eso

That’s a good start, ideally you would have impedance plots, frequency response, and distortion plots as well. My first pair of TAD drivers were 4001s that I purchased from a studio in LA. They were a pair of NOS drivers they kept in reserve to replace the mains if an overzealous engineer blew them during a session.


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[eso]

Interesting reading through this whole thread.

I stumbled across these and am working on saving them from the wrecking ball. With the pot gone from the baffles I'm thinking these converted to bi-amped at some point but they have not been powered up for years.

Anyone have any idea of year produced on something like this? Drivers are Gauss X2 and TAD TD-4001.

eso

[Mr. Widget]

Based on the shape of the horn, I would say these are early Westlakes. If the drivers are still in good shape, they are certainly worth saving. If the drivers are damaged they are no longer repairable... at least not to original factory spec.


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