Lansing Iconic lives on

[jph-22]

Has anyone noticed that one of the great (audiophile) loudspeakers in the world right now is an updated Lansing Iconic ?! It's the Shindo Latour and it hails from Japan. It's been discussed on audiophile webzines and the listening impressions have been stellar, to say the least.

Horns in general are coming back to hi-fi. Shindo Labs is one but there are at least 16 other co. making true compression-based designs right now, at least in the audiophile market. I don't know about the pro audio market. Exciting !!

Many "best of show" (CES) awards went to another rear-loaded horn co. last year - Sunny. These are now used as a reference by some serious audiophiles !! And Klipsh's new Palladium series looks very promising as well.....

Just thought I'd share my findings (as an audiophile) on this forum. Thanks !!

JPH

[Paul D]

Very interesting design!

Looks like they are using a built in diffraction lense in the horn. Also looks like an old school rear mounted Altect woofer in a contemporary cabinet.
Very similar to designs on this photo web site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/audiovo...nloudspeakers/

[Steve Schell]

The Shindo La Tour is IMO a very worthy product, a fearless attempt by an audio designer with good ears to really get things right. It differs from the Iconic mostly in the use of a larger bass enclosure (which probably goes considerably lower), and a large format h.f. driver based on the 288 tather than the Iconic's small format driver. The horn is a copy of the old Westrex London 20/80 horn, and may sound more open than the Iconic's multicellular H-808.

I recently made measurements and tweaks for a friend to his system which had been assembled from vintage Lansing and Altec parts. He works professionally with 50+ year old recordings and likes to listen on equipment of the correct period. It used the Iconic bottom end, but a 287 h.f. driver on a tar filled H-805 horn and 500Hz. network. It is really remarkable how good a system like this sounds... not old fashioned at all.

[Ian Mackenzie]

Hi Steve,

I still recall hearing those Iconics at Your home.

They are actually quite a reasonable loudspeaker all things considered.

With few exceptions I think loudspeaker design has been about commerical and consumer acceptance ever since.

Edit: typo

[stephane RAME]

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/m.../roadtour.html

[Ian Mackenzie]

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/m.../roadtour.html

Sounds like a visit The Widget needs to report on.

[stephane RAME]

The Widget ?????????

[Tom Brennan]

48 grand for a 15" 2-way with horn treble. In other words a 6 Morons approved L-200 or Valencia.

Yeah, right.

[scott fitlin]

The Widget ?????????

Our very own Mr. Widget who also happens to be in `Frisco. maybe he can go give em a listen!

[scott fitlin]

48 grand for a 15" 2-way with horn treble. In other words a 6 Morons approved L-200 or Valencia.

Yeah, right.

[JBLRaiser]

48 grand for a 15" 2-way with horn treble. In other words a 6 Morons approved L-200 or Valencia.

Yeah, right.

now they are reduced to $199.95.

[Steve Schell]

LOL Tom, that should allow for a bit of profit, right? To be fair though, I've seen much less value from any number of more traditional hind end products. At least this fellow is buying up the Altec drivers, shipping them to Japan for rebuilding and conversion to field coil operation, building a beautiful box, horn, network and field supply from scratch, shipping the whole mess back here and allowing someone a margin to sell them. I haven't heard them but my guess based on their pedigree would be that their performance would embarrass most of the salon stuff.

[Tom Brennan]

To be fair though, I've seen much less value from any number of more traditional hind end products......... I haven't heard them but my guess based on their pedigree would be that their performance would embarrass most of the salon stuff.

No doubt, no doubt at all.

[jph-22]

Steve:

I am one of those persons who patronize salons...and I must say there's nothing like the Latours, anywhere !! Like I said before, rear-loaded horns are (slowly) invading high-end audio. And the direct radiating / planar co. that dominated our sector for the past 30 years are starting to eat crow. They know - or will know soon - that their designs were based on a lie.

It's just a damn shame that it took so long for this to happen. Even more so that it was the *Japanesse* who triggered the interest, at least in popularizing field coils. Americans haven't been left out totally, however. John Wolf (Classic) started updating classic horn designs in the late 1980's and is now getting assistance from Bruce Edgar. Their latest effort (link below) shows that the Shindo might only be *the first* of many attempts at modern field-coil design.

Here come the horns !!

JPH


Scroll towards bottom here:
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Iss...wards_2008.htm

[scott fitlin]

LOL Tom, that should allow for a bit of profit, right? To be fair though, I've seen much less value from any number of more traditional hind end products. At least this fellow is buying up the Altec drivers, shipping them to Japan for rebuilding and conversion to field coil operation, building a beautiful box, horn, network and field supply from scratch, shipping the whole mess back here and allowing someone a margin to sell them. I haven't heard them but my guess based on their pedigree would be that their performance would embarrass most of the salon stuff.

Hey, no doubt that we are seeing many more horn designs than a mere 15 years ago, and I agree, horns are still credible, and still make outstanding sounding systems.

I screamed years ago, NO DON'T TAKE AWAY MY THIS OR THAT. The companies did it anyway. Steve, your a LIVING Encyclopedia, a real source of information on the really vintage unkown things. I learned alot from you.