Identify Theatre Speaker for me?

[16hz lover]

Back in the small town I grew up in, the old theatre is still standing. I recently contacted a buddy to see if he would stop by and find out if they still had the same speakers in it that they had when I was a kid. I graduated from High School in '74 so I would bet they are 1950/1960 models? He did just that yesterday and the owner took him in the back and showed him this big horn system---1 speaker only. They had just recently shoved it over to the side and are wanting someone to take it out of there. It is one big bass bin that is about 7 ft tall and a horn array which has 3 rows of 4 cells in it. You can see in the dark pictures that there are two bronze colored compression drivers at the bottom of the horn. There is also a control box which you can see at the top of the RH side of the bass bin. He said there were very large cables going up to the top where the horn assembly was.





Anyone know exactly what it is?

Thanks

[Earl K]

- Steve Schell is the expert here for this vintage ( RCA ) stuff .

- First off ( IMHO ), you should make arrangements to obtain this stuff today / you'll regret a delay ( if I'm right about my assumptions ). Some of what I see is highly collectable .

- The horn appears to my eyes as an RCA multicell / the horn-drivers in the background are RCA ( field-coil types ) from the 1930s.
- They'll either be MI-1425(s) or MI-1428(s).
- The model difference ( I believe ) is mostly in the voltage necessary to energize the field-coils . In case you don't understand, the drivers have no permanent magnets / so without a charging voltage they won't work .

- The bass bin appears to be a Shearer horn from the same era . The woofers ( therefore ) are also likely to be RCA .

>< cheers

[16hz lover]

- Steve Schell is the expert here for this vintage ( RCA ) stuff .

- First off ( IMHO ), you should make arrangements to obtain this stuff today / you'll regret a delay ( if I'm right about my assumptions ). Some of what I see is highly collectable .

- The horn horn appears to my eyes as a RCA multicell / the horn-drivers in the background are RCA ( field-coil types ) from the 1930s. They'll either be MI-1425(s) or MI-1428(s).
- The model difference ( I believe ) is mostly in the voltage necessary to energize the field-coils . In case you don't understand, the drivers have no permanent magnets / so without a charging voltage they won't work .

- The bass bin appears to be a Shearer horn from the same era . The woofers ( therefore ) are also likely to be RCA .

>< cheers

Earl: Now you have me excited Would there be more than the two field coil drivers behind the multi-cell horn? So the box over to the side that had the big cables coming out of it provide the juice for the drivers?

[Earl K]

Would there be more than the two field coil drivers behind the multi-cell horn? So the box over to the side that had the big cables coming out of it provide the juice for the drivers?

- I don't honestly know if RCA made an adapter that allowed for 4 drivers to enter a single horn-throat .

- Steves' the man in the know about this stuff .


>< cheers

[Steve Schell]

16hz lover, it appears to be an RCA Shearer Horn type system that dates from approximately 1937 to 1941. The high frequency drivers are either type MI-1428B (13VDC field coil) or type MI-1443 (115VDC field coil). Mounted to the rear of the folded horn W bin will be two 15" field coil woofers type MI-1444 (115VDC) or MI-1432A (13VDC). The compression drivers used to sell for very little, but people have discovered their excellence and pairs have been bringing $4,000 on ebay. The woofers fetch around $2,500 to $4,000 per pair with original cones in good shape.

I can't tell from the dark pictures whether the 12 cell horns are the early encased style or the later cardboard cell variety. Most of the early ones had an integral, vertically oriented Y throat for the dual drivers, so this is probably a later horn... later being after about 1940. The 1400 series drivers disappeared from the RCA literature after 1942. They weren't made after the war due to cost considerations.

Good luck in your attempt to obtain this equipment. What, you're still reading? Go!

[16hz lover]

Thanks Steve for the quick reply. My buddy is going to contact the owner of the theatre tomorrow morning. It seems I must have contacted him at the right moment as he told my buddy they were going to "get rid of them" soon because they needed the space. I would have never thought while growing up there, that I was listening to these same speakers , watching my first James Bond movies, the Sound of Music, Bullett(Steve McQueen), etc.

The bass bins are going to be the big obstacle, getting them in and out of most doorways. Do they have a 40 or 30hz cut-off? I could have sworn that I also watched the movie " Earthquake " as a kid in that same theatre. I'll let you guys know if I acquire them...I just missed yesterday on the local Craigslist a pair of JBL L250 speakers for 40.00 (woofers needed new surrounds)., so maybe I'm due for a score on some speakers.

I have been trying to read up on these this afternoon on the web and found one site that showed a frequency response of a 1428 driver and it stated that it was good from 130hz up to 10K...is that right? I am interested in trying the 1428's mated up with the AG500 horns from Acoustic Horn Co., if that would be a good match?

[BigBusa]

-
- First off ( IMHO ), you should make arrangements to obtain this stuff today / you'll regret a delay ( if I'm right about my assumptions ). Some of what I see is highly collectable .

true dat!

You should have had your buddy go back immediately and pay for the speakers and tell the owners you'd get them out of there soon.

Waiting on anything like this always ends up the wrong thing to do.

[16hz lover]

true dat!

You should have had your buddy go back immediately and pay for the speakers and tell the owners you'd get them out of there soon.

Waiting on anything like this always ends up the wrong thing to do.

Uhh.....no sh#t Sherlock You live...You learn, then you die just about the time you finally learned what you need to know.

Believe me, I am tempted to keep the bass bin, but my current house and garage would be hard pressed to fit these in. I have only heard about the legendary bass( well, actually I listened to these many times as a kid), but I imagine you could obtain equal bass quality and quantity with a smaller current design....and you guys have said there's not much below 40hz out of these anyway....
Talk me into keeping this thing. Will this give me the midbass and realistic set of drums in my 22x18 garage? I'm talking about a set of drums on steroids, drums like a live rock concert, slamming my chest into a cardiac arrest type of bass? If so, then I'll keep it, as I kinda have a spot in my garage for it, over in the far RH corner, shouldn't be in the way....yeah, that's it.

UPDATE.....UPDATE.....just talked to my buddy and he was telling me that the woofers are actually inset into the back of the cabinet, so I could possibly put it really close to the wall, I thought that the woofers were mounted on the very back and stuck out beyond the cabinet.

OK, start your convincing,promotional talk now.