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Thread: Vote for most important "Lansing" inovation

  1. #1
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    Vote for most important "Lansing" inovation

    OK, lets have your view of the most significant Lansing inovation that transformed the transducer market. Obviously, your choice can include Altec or JBL inovations or their predessessor or related companies (Bell Labs, Western Electric, etc.).

    I can't begin to list them all here but a few that come to mind might include these:

    • Cast not stamped frames
    • Alnico V magnets
    • Ceramic magnets
    • Titanium diaphrams
    • Edge wound voice coils
    • Multi-cell horns
    • Aluminum voice coils
    • Compression drivers
    • Horn loaded bass cabs
    • Bi-amped systems
    • Tangerene phase plugs
    • Foam surrounds
    • Machined pole plates
    • Du-Plex drivers (e.g., Altec 604s)
    • Phase aligned drivers

  2. #2
    Senior Member louped garouv's Avatar
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    how about industrial quality build specs?

  3. #3
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    Elliptical Oblate Spheroid
    Out.

  4. #4
    Senior Member demon's Avatar
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    jbl blue of course. very innovative!

    "i like!"


    mikey



    ps: ok, well. its not quite part of the transducerissue.

  5. #5
    Senior Member pos's Avatar
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    • biradial horns (2344)
    • charge-coupled networks
    • 2.1 concept (L212)
    • multiple subs concept
    • aquaplas for cones and compression drivers
    • horn lens
    • IET tuning (M9500)
    • resonant hipass at a low tuning frequency (B460 with Bx63)
    • 2.5 way speakers (4435) ?
    • asymetrical horns (4660/Everest)
    • digital filtering for studio monitors (DMS-1)

  6. #6
    Senior Member Hoerninger's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by robertbartsch View Post
    ... or related companies
    Do you mean speaker related or US related. Anyway, the following paper shows what was already known in the early days in 1933, very intriguing:
    http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/bell.l...erspective.pdf
    ____________
    Peter


  7. #7
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    I vote for the edge wound voice coil

    My first choice would be the edge wound voice coils.

    Back in the early days of high fidelity, low powered amps, many of which were tube designs with 10 to 25 watts of power, were the norm. The edge wound voice coils and strong magnets allowed Altec and JBL transducers to produce SPLs that were much higher than anything else in the marketplace.

    I beleive the edge wound VC allowed Altec and JBL drivers to dominate the high end consumer market and the professional markets comprised of movie theaters and live concert forums.

    I suppose the promotional materials of the time support this view as they definately emphasized the benefits of the flat wound voice coils.

    My second choice would be the advent of the compression driver which transformed the transducer marketplace. They helped produce effortless mid and high frequencey material that, IMO is, to this day, head and shoulders above conventiaonal cone drivers.

  8. #8
    Senior Member timc's Avatar
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    Was JBL realy the inventor of the compression driver?

    If so, ill vote for that.

    -Tim
    2213 + 2435HPL w/aquaplas + H9800 (Matsj edition)

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    Yeh, I read the Bell Labs papers from 1934... those cats were ahead of their time!

    I always thought the patents for the edge wound coils and compression drivers came from Bell Labs.... I'm not sure if Altec and JBL licensed these technologies or whether the original Bell Lab patents expired before these companies began commerical production of their speaker systems.

    The photos in the paper would suggest the systems were around before Altec and JBL got to viable post development stage companies.

    Anyway, I remember reading about the space-age technologies of the day in Altec and JBL promotional material with wonderment in the early 1970s. Now they seem simplistic but, at the time, they were revolutionary, I suppose.

    At the insistence of the Justice Department, ATT was busted up in the 1980s and the Bell Labs subsidiary became a separate independent company. I forget the new name now but their shares are selling for a few bucks now, I beleive.

    ...what a shame!

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    Quote Originally Posted by robertbartsch View Post
    At the insistence of the Justice Department, ATT was busted up in the 1980s and the Bell Labs subsidiary became a separate independent company. I forget the new name now but their shares are selling for a few bucks now, I beleive.
    Lucent

    Cheers,

    David

  11. #11
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    I'd put my vote in for the differential drive, used in some of the newer drivers.

    Allen

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    I thought SFG would have been high on the list

  13. #13
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    I thought Lucent was merged with a French company a few years ago so it no longer exists as we once knew it.

  14. #14
    Administrator Mr. Widget's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by timc View Post
    Was JBL realy the inventor of the compression driver?

    If so, ill vote for that.

    -Tim
    I don't think JBL or Jim Lansing invented anything on that list in post #1. Mr. Lansing did strive to build the finest examples of existing technology though. As for Altec's achievements I don't know. They certainly marketed their orange plastic phase plug as a radical new invention, but I have no idea if it actually was.

    I do believe that SFG and bi-radial horns are actual innovations from JBL... I am sure there are many others.


    Widget

  15. #15
    Senior Member WDJ's Avatar
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    Quality....

    I have to go with post 2; Quality.

    Not sure, but I think my L100s may well be the oldest things I own that still work at anywhere near "original performance". (Well, I have a Simpson 260 that's been through a few batteries..... )
    Share what you know, learn what you don't...

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