wtf big horns

[pierce]

was at a local pro sound rental place the other day, in the back room they had some gigenormously huge horns, I mean like over 6' long, mouths were like 4x5', with maybe 2x3 cells, made from heavy black fiberglass, they had a more normal sized large horn inside of them.

in the back of the big horn where you'd expect to see the driver, there was this huge clamshell of fiberglass that looked like it could have had a 15 or 18" woofer inside. the lady laughed and said those were JBL, they use them for PA'ing really really big outdoor spaces where they need to cover from 500' away or something.

anyone have an idea what these are so I can read about them to slake my curiousity (meow!).

[10 Watt Street]

Probably JBL HLA.

[pierce]

I don't see anything in the HLA series of big flying arrays that looks even close to this. I'm going to have to take a couple pictures when I go back to this sound rental place to pick up my refoamed woofers, and ask them what its called.

[loach71]

Those are Community Light & Sound Leviathan bass horns.

[doodlebug]

You must have been at Santa Cruz Sound close to Capitola, right? I know the old man died a few years back and the place is being run by the family members. They were known for years as a big-time PA rental and sound engineering company. I don't recall his name but he made plenty of cabinets for bands over the years as well as doing many installations around the Northern California area.

I never got into the back but did see my share of old, NLA recone kits when I dropped by for a quote on some Altec 604s plus plenty of good-looking recording gear.

Cheers,

David

[pierce]

Yup, Santa Cruz Sound. they are still doing quite well, by all appearances... When I waved my hand at the warehouse area half full of big stage boxes, the lady running the place said 'hah, half of our stuff is out already', and while I was there, they were loading a bigass(!) soundboard and several big sets of speakers onto a bobtail for another rental.

the 'kid' (ok, he looked 30-ish) who's the repair tech said he'd done plenty of JBL woofers (I was dropping my 2214H's off to have them refoamed), so I decided to let them do it.


re: Community Leviathan, phew. Closer than anything else I've seen yet, but, I haven't found anything that looks like this one at SC Sound. I'll be going back to pick up my woofs, I'll find out more. I'm almost positive the lady said that it was a JBL (although she could have meant it had a jbl woofer inside the big 'bubble' on the back)

[lowpoke]

Is this it?
http://www.cuk-audio.com/RLEVIATHANII.html

[pierce]

Is this it?
http://www.cuk-audio.com/RLEVIATHANII.html

no, it was proportionally much longer than that, and quite a bit thinner towards the back proportioned like a 'normal' horn, with a 'saucer' on the back end where you'd expect the driver to be. the front of it -did- look like those, however.

the mouth was maybe 4x5', and it was at least 8' long, maybe longer. the 'saucer' driver thing looked big enough to have a 12 or 16" woofer inside. the thin part of the throat was maybe 10" x 10" ?

I will take a much closer look when I go back, hopefully remember to bring my camera

[Paul D]

Sounds like some type of Altec horn.

Could it be one of these?

[Paul D]

Oh wait,
They must be these!

[pierce]

those are closer. the one on the ground next to the guy in the first picture is wood, this one was fiberglass. the driver pod was round, and shaped like two 18" bowls clamped together.

[pierce]

ok, turns out it WAS a Community horn, but not a Leviathan, it was a unamed one-of from the 80s, a bass horn with JBL D130 as the driver (!) and a nested mid horn with a 2" throat and a JBL driver (I forgot the PN). I didn't have my camera, so I didn't take pictures.

[originaltubino]

Is this it?
http://www.cuk-audio.com/RLEVIATHANII.html

The high frequency section of the Leviathan II is compromised of two EM282 2.8 inch exit compression drivers mounted to a single PCD Focused Array 40° x 20° horn.

Heh.

[johnaec]

I remember way back in the early 70's going to a Jefferson Starship concert at an indoor coliseum, and all they had for P.A. was a HUGE bass horn, similar to one of the pics above) on each side of the stage. I don't remember if the mids and highs were coaxial or outboard, but was *totally* impressed by the output and clarity obtained from a single big horn on each side. And this was a fairly large coliseum, 10,000 - 20,000 caoacity.

John

[Sounds4cc]

EV has some huge stadium horns. Some with 4 x10's and 2" drivers all funneled into one throat. The brand of drivers (if original) should get you the manufacturer and then narrow down to model.