One of many awards...
One of many awards...
Edgewound...JBL Pro Authorized...since 1988
Upland Loudspeaker Service, Upland, CA
Our gracious and generous hosts Sherwood Davies and Glenn Phoenix...Glenn says this is his "morning face".
Edgewound...JBL Pro Authorized...since 1988
Upland Loudspeaker Service, Upland, CA
Zen....the coil winding master. This craftsman winds all of the inductor coils by hand to precise tolerance.
Edgewound...JBL Pro Authorized...since 1988
Upland Loudspeaker Service, Upland, CA
Meticulous network layout...
Edgewound...JBL Pro Authorized...since 1988
Upland Loudspeaker Service, Upland, CA
Serious finished networks. Check out the size of some inductors.
Edgewound...JBL Pro Authorized...since 1988
Upland Loudspeaker Service, Upland, CA
Towers patiently awaiting assembly...
Edgewound...JBL Pro Authorized...since 1988
Upland Loudspeaker Service, Upland, CA
Stacks of JBL drivers. The collection of drivers here would give any JBL aficionado the shakes...
Edgewound...JBL Pro Authorized...since 1988
Upland Loudspeaker Service, Upland, CA
Glenn Phoenix say's, "Give me damping or give me death." Notice the thorough damping of all internal cabinet surfaces. This takes alot of effort, folks.
Edgewound...JBL Pro Authorized...since 1988
Upland Loudspeaker Service, Upland, CA
Even the drivers get damped. Note the peanut butter looking coating on the drivers. It's extreme attention to detail that makes Westlake monitors rise above the rest.
Edgewound...JBL Pro Authorized...since 1988
Upland Loudspeaker Service, Upland, CA
Final listening room. Technician's setting up the final listening test. Every speaker system undergoes a final listening test in this room. Not anechoic, but as you can see...highly damped. We spent nearly two hours listening to this system, and being introduced first hand to the effects of "P.E. Distortion". Glenn Phoenix is both a pioneer and a maverick in ultra high-end audio.
Edgewound...JBL Pro Authorized...since 1988
Upland Loudspeaker Service, Upland, CA
Edgewound(me, Ken Haerr), Sherwood Davies, Glenn Phoenix and Steve Schell. Ken Pachkowsky is behind my camera...after a fabulous day of experiencing the inner workings and philosophy of Westlake Audio Manufacturing. What a great experience. My thanks to Ken Pachkowsky for arranging this (and his personable company), Steve Schell for his gracious company and in-depth knowledge about audio history. I'm sure Ken and Steve will join me in thanking again Sherwood and Glenn for rolling out the red carpet for us at Westlake Audio.
Edgewound...JBL Pro Authorized...since 1988
Upland Loudspeaker Service, Upland, CA
Here is a closeup of the Zen Master at work.
It was in Zen's working area that Glenn began to quiz us, preparing for his introduction to PE. Consequently we have several shots of the coil winding area because the discussion lasted almost 35-40 minutes. I believe Glenn brought it up at this point because of proven interaction between stray magnetic/electric fields of each coil/component as well as everything else within and around the system. This realization has led to the birth of the ever developing phenomena of PE Distortion. Isolation, along with dampening is the rule of the day at Westlake. The rear baffle containing the nework is dampened to the best of their ability by the use of a Butyl type dampening material (black) that is highly absorbent in terms of vibration, thereby helping the baffle to float while still creating a seal to the enclosure.
I have included a couple of other shots as well.
Very cool..., wish I could have been there. I might even have made off with a few of those cool, custom port plugs, that I assume to be 4" in diameter. (Wonder if they sell those. )
Very interesting.
So Ken,
From what you now know having done the lavish Westlake tour why the need for all the elaborate passive crossover networks (inside the boxes) when they have SOA active crossovers?
I would be interesting to hear Glenn Phoenix reponse to this question.
Ian
IanOriginally Posted by Ian Mackenzie
A valid question but difficult for me to answer with any certainty as I am not Glenn. I would assume it has something to do with customer preference and the end result required.
I did pose the question "Was it my imagination or did the BBSM15's I heard last month sound as good if not better than my HR1 active system".
Glenn’s reply was the HR1 being a purely active system was much more difficult to setup and tweak along with being more susceptible to room and PE anomalies. I believe Ken and Steve would agree that he suggested a simple single or bi-amped system was more “Plug and Play” friendly in “any” given environment. In a round about way, I felt he was saying “you can’t drop a pair of 4-way active monitors with mutiple amplifiers into a room and expect the system to perform to its full potential without a great deal of planning and tweaking. That would include all aspects, from acoustic treatments to the signal paths between multiple amplifiers and other components. It is not considered a home audio system but more a system that a room is designed around.
You may recall when I first got the HR1's I was quite frustrated and went through a few months where I just was not satisfied with the results. After much tweaking/tuning, combined with some electronics changes I am very satisfied with the performance (does not mean I won't continue to experiment). I also picked up some great ideas to improve the overall system performance when we get to the new house.
May not be as definitive an answer as Glenn could give but I believe it’s somewhat accurate. Perhaps Ken or Steve could bally up and let me know if I am on the right track with my interpretation of your question and the answer?
By the way the picture in the middle of post #42 are prototype boards and not production boards.
Ken
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