Ian's Saturday Soiree in LA

[saeman]

Rick

You would probably find most of the NY apartment dwellers have smaller Hi end systems populated by Passlabs Alephs which double as foot warmers in the winter. Where would they put a 4350? (according to Stereophile magazine).

I mean anyone who can afforded or be fortunate enough to own a $5mil+ apartment can afford to pick and choose.

I did notice some single bedroom apartments in a development over in Brooklyn last night going for $250K. I intend to check that out!

Ian

Hi Ian:

Happy Birthday!!! and lighten up - I was only pulling your chain about your walk thru the park (with or without shoes?)

[Ducatista47]

Guys, I hope you had a good time as it was surely a pleasure for me to host you for the day. Besides the music, booze and food we spent some time in my dust bowl garage looking over some of my current projects. Ian - I hope that you came away with a few construction ideas for your next project - vennering is easy so don't be intimidated.

Rick

Well, being neither the host nor the guest of honor, I have been hesitant to post a secondary report of the Chicago area meeting with Ian and Rick, but I really want to tell everyone what a great time I had with these two extraordinary gentleman. It was a pleasure indeed for me.

Rick and Ian are, without qualification, two great guys. I had a blast, one of the best days of my life. I listened and observed as attentively as my fatigued state would allow, for while I pick poor Ian's brain with some regularity, I had never met either before in person.

Rick is, to understate it, an awesome builder. He doesn't just do things, he has it figured out. Whatever he showed us, I can honestly say, "I know how to do that now." Rick, like Ian, is completely generous with his knowledge. And what knowledge! With no exaggeration I declare Rick a Master Builder. He is also a master host and friend.

I should point out that the photograph Rick posted looks a little dire and stiff because it was a five second time exposure. Imagine posing for a Daguerreotype and you see the situation. With no antique neck braces available, we had to settle into the best lean and most neutral expressions we could muster. At no other time were we less than totally animated with the excitement of the day.

Having given the host his due, I must repeat how wonderful it is to finally know Ian in person. As I have told him, I wish he lived across the road instead of across the world.

Glad you guys liked the Lion Stout and the Gjetost cheese. I'll try and bring some more next time, Rick.

Clark

[saeman]

Hi Clark and thanks for the kind words.

It was my pleasure to have you visit and I'm glad that you enjoyed the time spent. One day was not enough time and I'm sure we could have gone into the wee hours had you not such a long drive home.

I was quite pleased that Ian chose to make a short stop over in the Chicago area. He and I have only talked via the forum and it was truely my pleasure to finally meet him. I hope that our brief meeting will foster a continued and more frequent dialog and a long term friendship. It's too bad we didn't have another day as I too needed to pick his brain and there were some wood topics that I felt I could have helped him with.

Like other hobbies that I have had in my life, this JBL affliction of mine has introduced me to many many people, from all walks of life, from all over the world, who all share the same passion. I have a lot of people I call friends who I would have never met otherwise. As I told both you and Ian, building and listening to these systems is only half of the equation for me - the other half is sharing the knowledge and enjoyment with others who have the same interest. Having said that, you and Ian are always welcome and I hope to see you both again in the future. Until that day we can occupy ourselves with PM's and phone calls.

You give me too much credit as I'm just a regular guy. The forum is loaded with mad scientists of all disciplines who are constantly raising the bar and sharing their knowledge. If all of this stops I believe the forum will stop too.

When Ian returns home and has a chance to digest his entire trip, let's see what his impressions are. He spend a ton of money on his world wind JBL tour and I hope that each stop that he made was rewarding for him - good beer, good music, friendship and the desire to do it all over again.

See Ya - Rick

[Ian Mackenzie]

Hi Rick,

Yes it was not long enough but we had a great time.

It was a terrific day and I enjoyed your hospitality.

Ian

[Ian Mackenzie]

Now that the body clock in is the right time zone I will post more pics here soon including Breakfast in LA, Dougs tour of LA and Steve Schell's Lansing Museum.....not to mention Edgewound and Magnet3

Ian

[Ian Mackenzie]

.

Twenty minutes later, we're at Ricky and Ronnies, where Ian gets his Breakfast in America, a long stack of eight pancakes and a side of bacon, and a platinum blonde waitress with a tight, low-cut front who seems to like to bend forward. A lot.

All is well as we exit the place, driving past a gaggle of Porsches that appear to be assembling for a drive-in car show later in the day.

Ricky and Ronnies was my first taste of LA culture.

I actually had trouble figuring out how to order.

What was a "long stack" and all the side options. (we don't have these side options at home). I also found out what a wedgy is...LOL.

It was all good fun and gave me a boost for the rest of the day ahead!

Ian

[Ian Mackenzie]

I took Ian on a whirlwind trek through the southern portion of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. I think he got a lot of shots. We briefly stopped at Friendship Park for the view of the entire LA/LB harbor all the way to Long Beach; the Wayfarer's Chapel, where a wedding was in progress (my daughter was married there last December); and the Korean Friendship Bell at Angels' Gate Park in old Fort MacArthur. He got to see a wonderful part of greater Los Angeles that most visitors never see.

I must say Doug did a great job of showing me around.

The view and great and his narrative of the area was quite insightful.

Ian

[Ian Mackenzie]

It was a bloody hot day, but a number of us made it through the heat (even 90 at the beach) to the air conditioned comfort of Gladstone's in Long Beach. I stood outside with a Lansing Heritage sign, like some street hustler, and eventually we gathered

Steve
Ian
Dave (grumpy)
Glen
Todd (toddalin)
Ken (edgewound)
Debbie (Magnet3)
Doug (Titanium Dome)

We got some spinach and artichoke dip, calimari, and I introduced Ian to the Long Beach Lemonade and to the iceberg wedge salad.

After we ordered dinner, conversation flowed around the table, as did my camera lens.

Dave and Glen:

Well this was my first encounter with the LA Lansing Crew.

What a nice bunch of people. My impresions were the boys were decidedly conservative or reserved at least up until when Debbie and Ken arrived.

[Ian Mackenzie]

I have just been looking back at the earlier posts of our gathering at Steve Schell's home.

Earlier in the afternoon when I arrived I was simply blown away by Steve's wealth of knowledge on the earlier years of Lansing. As we talked and look at various Altec components stored throughout Steve's home it was as though I was swept back time while Steve articulated the history of Lansing and James B. Lansing's career in those early years.

Here we have a rare early pair of duplex drivers and the smaller Iconic. Steve fired it up and we all mighty impressed with the sound quality. It had warm tone and the bass conveyed a much large system for its size.

[Ian Mackenzie]

We stopped in briefly for some cooler air and a quick listen-up with a few of my JBL systems. First up were the S2600s, playing Neil Young's 48/24 "Prairie Wind" followed by a little more intense session with the Performance Series 7.1 set up.

On the Performance playlist:
Beatles "LOVE" in 7.1 pass through
Telarc/Kunzel/Cincinnati Pops "Time Warp" in digital stereo
Ray Charles "Genius Loves Company" Monster THX DTS 96/24 SuperDisc in 5.1 surround

On our way out through the dungeon/garage, we hit a few notes on the L250s, XPL200s, L7s, and SVA2100s. Not a fair sampling really, but he did hear the power of the Hafler Trans•ana/Trans•nova amps pumping out The KLF's "The White Room."

I think the S2600s won him over. He appeared to like the Performance Series, though he was being polite. The dungeon session wasn't much to go on about, except, he'd like to borrow a Hafler or two.

I have come back to this audio commentry as I have posting on a discussion on the Two way home thread thread.

http://www.audioheritage.org/vbullet...9&postcount=75

Pehaps Doug elaborate more on his wall of JBL sound.

Below we have Bo and his wife Suz.

Ian

[JBL 4645]

Ian

Nice assorted use of pictures there I did notice one practical locution that was used in sleeper back in 1995 “The Usual Suspects” as pictured here.

[Ian Mackenzie]

Something I nearly overlooked was Steve Schell's incredible horn based speaker system.

Here is the story.

When I arrived I could not just carry my bag in the front door. We had to lift it over what I discovered was part of one of Steve's bass horns.

Steve's horn system is floor to ceiling..its is enormous (WAF??) and it is a big sound. Even with 1.5 watts of SE Valve amplification.

The horn drivers and the horns are Steve and his partner Rich own design... Cogent drivers.

The are based on the original field coil drivers developed by Bell labs (hope I am right on this history). A lot of what we know of as compression driver design is based on this pioneering work. I feel very fortunate to have spent the afternoon with Steve and to discover some of this rare audio history.

Steve and Rich have spent a good while getting the design right. The backyard has some interesting conversation peices scattered around it....

During the afternoon Steve explained the whole story behind the field coil compression drivers. It was facinating. The machining of the phase plug is for example quite unique. There is also a Cogent bass compression driver. I will let Steve elaborate more on the actual details.

Later in the evening Steve played his system and I was surprised how much sound you can get from just 1.5 watts!! People talk about loudspeaker sensitivty. I mean Hello. Steve was not biamping with the DEQX on this occassion.

I think he wanted the purest signal path from his DIY SE power amps that had 45 volt battery bias (5 x nine volt batteries in series..very quiet). They sounded really nice. Very clean with a natural purity you only get with SE amplification.

This came though with the fine resolving power of transients. No power compression with these horns.

Biamping would probably help on loud bass passages but what the heck. Valves have that certain magic.

As they say if it don't Glow it Don't Go.

The mid range horn was what I fell in love with. Sorry Customs at the Airport would have a field day..excuse the pun. They are a large white conical horn with the massive (BIG) Cogent driver on the rear. It looked like the Crown jewels...large and expensive!

The horn and driver operates from about 300 hertz to 13 kertz. No that is not a mis print. It sounded rich, pure and very dynamic.

I hope Steve can post some pics. A visit to Long Beach is not complete without hearing Steve's horn system and the Cogent drivers!

Ian

[Steve Schell]

Wow Ian, thank you for the nice comments. What you heard was not quite the full-on Cogent system, as we weren't running the DS-1448 bass compression drivers on J style midbass horns. Instead, that part of the spectrum was handled by my old 35Hz. corner horns, the same ones I was hawking on these forums several months ago. Big horns, even ones that work, are a tough sell!

In the pictures, the tall "What the hell is that" device in the middle is our 15Hz. exponential flare horn subwoofer, running up to 40Hz. The corner horns cover 40Hz. to 300Hz., then a pair of Cogent DS-1428 midrange/high frequency drivers on (basically) conical flare midrange horns run from 300Hz. on up. My 45 SE DHT amp runs the two way systems, and a 60W solid scrape amp is driving the sub.

Yeah, the 45 amp really folded on the Bass Outlaws track. This amp does fine for all my daily listening, but runs out of gas on really bass heavy demo material when cranked up. I'm sure a 40Hz. high pass filter on this amp's input would help. What I need is a 10W amp that sounds as good as the 45 does when delivering a few milliwatts. I'm still looking...

My reference to the Bell Labs Fletcher Horn System concerned their use of a true bass compression driver (20" aluminum diaphragm!) on long exponential horn to provide response down to 50Hz. Sure wish we could hear one of those; it was the world's first high output, low distortion, wide band loudspeaker, capable of believable reproduction of a symphony orchestra for a live audience in a large hall. IMO a bass compression driver offers the ultimate in clear, dynamic, articulate sound through the bass region; I discovered this upon hearing an ALE system four years ago. Next time you visit I promise to have our DS-1448 drivers running on J style midbass horns.

I am always a bit nervous when we fly someplace and check our drivers in as baggage. To most people these 38 and 47lb. drivers would look like mortar shells disguised as land mines. Every time we reach our destination the boxes contain a slip of paper indicating that they were inspected by Homeland Security. It is actually unsettling to imagine their conversation... "Earl, have a look at this thing... what do you think?" "Oh, I dunno, it looks okay to me."

Any local Lansing Heritage folks who want to have a listen to my system are welcome here anytime- just shoot me a PM.

[Ian Mackenzie]

Nice way to finish off the thread Steve.

Ian