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Thread: I am pleased to announce [tour of Westlake]

  1. #16
    lfh
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    Hi Ken, All,

    I wish I could join, but... One final question sprung to mind:

    10. When did the famous Westlake Studio A open for business?

    Given the already large number of questions (sorry!) - and I figure more will follow - I volonteer to help transcribing the answers (provided that you bring some kind of recorder).

    Fredrik

  2. #17
    RIP 2014 Ken Pachkowsky's Avatar
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    Westlake Tour This Thursday or Friday

    The tour will be Thursday morning early (9:00am till noon). Edgewound, myself and Steve Schell are going. We have room for 1 maybe 2 more people? We are meeting at the crack of dawn and will all ride togther from the 605/210 area to Westlake. We want to finish up and get back to East side of LA before rush hour. For those of you who know I-10 you will understand.

    We will take many photo's and post the interview results on the site. Should be a great morning.

    Ken

  3. #18
    Senior Member edgewound's Avatar
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    I'm looking forward to this...should be a great time. Thanks for arranging this, Ken
    Edgewound...JBL Pro Authorized...since 1988
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  4. #19
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    Hi Ken Please don't forget what we talked about?

    Oh And you guys all have a hell of a time now "Ya Hear"

    Wish I was there but will be in Oklahoma. picking up some JBL,s

    The next best thing!!!

  5. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken Pachkowsky
    The tour will be Thursday morning early (9:00am till noon). Edgewound, myself and Steve Schell are going. We have room for 1 maybe 2 more people? We are meeting at the crack of dawn and will all ride togther from the 605/210 area to Westlake. We want to finish up and get back to East side of LA before rush hour. For those of you who know I-10 you will understand.

    We will take many photo's and post the interview results on the site. Should be a great morning.

    Ken
    Would love to join you but have a conference call on Thur.

  6. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by lfh
    10. When did the famous Westlake Studio A open for business?
    Fredrik
    I had 6 TAD 1601A woofers that came from Westlake Studio A, or perhaps B or C, I don't remember. I bought them from some sort of storage facility or perhaps liquidator in CA, it was off ebay, and they haven't sold much since. They had the cabinets too. Dual 15".The shipping boxes were factory TAD and had Westlake's address all over them, like they went back and forth to TAD's facility, perhaps for reconing. The backs of the drivers had stickers on them calling out studio A soffit etc. These drivers introduced me to the pitfalls of heavily used woofers, the cones had sagged into the frames slightly. My Hit Factory 1601's were in better condition.

  7. #22
    lfh
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    Quote Originally Posted by trekman
    I had 6 TAD 1601A woofers that came from Westlake Studio A, or perhaps B or C /.../ My Hit Factory 1601's were in better condition.
    Hey, that's a neat collection of famous studio monitor parts! Did you buy the ex Hit Factory drivers last year when they closed? (BTW, I have some Westie-parts from a famous studio myself - will post about that later. )

    Fredrik

  8. #23
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    Westlake Tour Was Today

    Steve Schell, Edgewound and I enjoyed a good part of the day with Glenn Phoenix and Sherwood Davies at Westlake. Having met Steve on several occasions I have always enjoyed his company. This was the first time I met Edgewound and must say I can think of many members that would enjoy his company. After seeing his picture Julie suggested we invite him for dinner, not sure what she meant by that?

    The highlight of the day was auditioning a pair of BBSM15's that also included a custom bottom enclosure that housed 2x18" Tad drivers per side. This particular system was inspired by a request from Will Smith who had purchased a pair. Westlake was so pleased with the results they are introducing the system in the regular product line. The 4-way system used a 2 way active system crossing over at 45hz at which point the rest was a high level passive design. The system consisted of 2x18" Tad's; 2x 15" Tad's; 1x 2122H JBL's and finally a JBL 2426 on a Wood Horn.

    Between Edgewound and me we took a bunch of photos and will post some here.

    I simply wanted to wet your appetite before Steve uploads the initial overview of our impressions. Edgewound and I will add our 2 cents afterwards. I will post one photo of the above system with a couple of more to come.

    Ken
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  9. #24
    Senior Member edgewound's Avatar
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    Westlake Tour

    Here's a teaser shot of the crossover network for a BBSM....well, ok, not really a teaser, it is a crossover network for a BBSM(corrected: TM3 VF)....and they use Solen capacitors to boot!

    It was truly my pleasure to spend the day with Ken Pachkowsky and Steve Schell on our trek to Westlake Audio Mfg today. There was not a quiet, awkward moment the entire way there and back...constant conversation and quite a few laughs. These guys know their stuff. I wish more of you could of joined us. Hey Ken, who told Julie I can cook?.... . The sheer attention to detail that Westlake employs in the design and manufacture of their products is really something to behold....a rarity in today's business world. More to come later.
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    Last edited by edgewound; 01-20-2006 at 02:01 PM. Reason: misstated model number
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  10. #25
    RIP 2014 Ken Pachkowsky's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by edgewound
    Hey Ken, who told Julie I can cook?.... .
    I have no idea, apparently it has something to do with women's intuition. She took one look at your picture and mumbled something about "He Cooks" .

    I don't know, but with a last name like Pachkowsky, you know I am challenged?

    PS: I will correct you though, the picture above is the high level crossover for the pair of TM3 VF's we photographed by the back door.

    I have included a pic of the completed network for the other cab.
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  11. #26
    Senior Member edgewound's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken Pachkowsky
    I have no idea, apparently it has something to do with women's intuition. She took one look at your picture and mumbled something about "He Cooks" .

    I don't know, but with a last name like Pachkowsky, you know I am challenged?


    I'm flattered....and you're definitely not challenged!!

    I got that network wrong because I was too blown away to be paying 100% attention
    Edgewound...JBL Pro Authorized...since 1988
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  12. #27
    Senior Member Steve Schell's Avatar
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    We had a really great time today. Ken Pachkowsky and I met at Edgewound's home at 6:30AM, to get a jump on the morning traffic and drive the 75 miles or so to Westlake Audio in Newbury Park. This strategy proved successful, as we had time for a quick breakfast before arriving at Westlake at 9AM.

    We were greeted by Sherwood Davies, Westlake's Sales and Marketing Director. He took us on a quick tour of the offices in front, then we were introduced to Glenn Phoenix, Westlake's President and Chief Engineer. Westlake was founded in 1971, and Glenn joined soon after, in 1972. Glenn studied electronics in the Air Force, before joining 3M in Camarillo and working closely with John Mullin for seven years on tape recorder electronics designs. Glenn has, for some time now, been developing his theories behind what is termed "The Phoenix Effect", or "PE Distortion".

    Much of what Glenn has discovered is proprietary, but it involves the cumulative effects of interferences from many sources that corrupt the audio signal at various points in the audio chain, both in recording and playback. He has developed a number of methods of combating these effects to the extent possible, in an attempt to restore the signal integrity and dynamic range that is potentially available from equipment but seldom realized. Current Westlake products benefit in many ways from techniques to minimize PE.

    We walked out into the production area and met a gentleman named Zen. He winds all of the inductors used in Westlake crossover networks, laboriously and by hand using a small machine with a hand crank and a turns counter. While we spoke with Glenn, Zen worked nearby for what seemed like a half hour winding a small coil, compacting the windings, dressing and tinning the leads. A worker brought a tray of completed inductor assemblies which Zen began to carefully measure and mark. Other workers assembled complete networks; test equipment and solder pots seemed to be everywhere. Glenn explained that Westlake could buy inexpensive complete networks from offshore, but the quality of their products would suffer. Westlake obviously goes to extraordinary lengths to optimize their crossover networks.

    Sherwood walked us around the production area. There were many racks stacked with new drivers, each carefully coated on the rear with a damping compound. Workbenches were covered with tall, slender cabinets from their Hi Fi Series speakers. They had received treatment of their internal walls with damping compound as well. The emphasis seemed to be on careful hand work and attention to detail. We then visited a room that was lined with shelves and stacked to the ceiling with new boxed drivers from JBL, TAD and other manufacturers. Some of these drivers are kept in stock to repair older Westlake products in the field, or for custom ordered products.

    We were then taken to the audio test / listening room, where Glenn played the new monitors shown in Ken's picture. Glen demonstrated some of his techniques for combating PE, and we could really hear the results! The monitors with the subwoofer cabinets beneath them sounded fabulous in the heavily treated room.

    We could have sat in there all afternoon, and almost did, but finally said our goodbyes to Glenn and Sherwood about 1:45PM. These fine and I'm sure very busy gentlemen had taken the major part of their day to show us around and treat us like VIPs. I am very grateful to them for this, to Ken P. for setting the whole thing up, and to Edgewound for driving us out there in his new stylish GMC SUV.

    Okay guys, let's have some pictures!

  13. #28
    RIP 2014 Ken Pachkowsky's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Schell
    We had a really great time today.

    Glenn has, for some time now, been developing his theories behind what is termed "The Phoenix Effect", or "PE Distortion".

    "we could really hear the results!"
    I will second that. At times they were beyond subtle. Glenn developed this theory around the year 2000 and is challenging his peers to acknowledge the legitimacy of his theory. His logic and analogies, combined with real world listening tests made a believer out of me (us)?

    So we don't get a pile of duplication here, I will wait for Edgewound to upload his photo's and then fill in with mine. I will post one I don't think he got?

    These are HR-7's part of the Tower Series.
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  14. #29
    Senior Member edgewound's Avatar
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    Westlake Mfg.Tour photos

    I will concur with Steve and Ken on the phenomena of "P.E. Distortion". You must fully experience it to really understand, but it actually makes perfect sense in the world of electronics around us.

    Sherwood Davies and Glenn Phoenix went out of their way to make us feel at home. At the conclusion of our meeting, tour and listening session, I felt like we were all old friends just enjoying our interests....we were welcomed to stay longer, but L.A. traffic is something you can't argue with .

    Here's some more photos:

    Front door...That's Ken Pachkowsky
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  15. #30
    Senior Member edgewound's Avatar
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    Westlake tour

    Front lobby. This is a relatively small, highly specialized operation.
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    Edgewound...JBL Pro Authorized...since 1988
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