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  1. #1
    lfh
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    Parts from famous custom monitors rescued

    At the risk of making you guys green with envy , I must share this:

    A couple of weeks before Christmas a colleague of mine told me that some wooden horns were lying in the hallway in the basement of the office building. Being a 2397 and Westlake fan, I of course got carried away: "Hmmm... Wood. Could it possibly be... Nah, of course not..." Needless to say, I rushed down immediately to look at them and to find out what was going on. Maybe another audio company was moving in somewhere in the building?

    To my great surprise four Westlake-style Smith horns with remainings of baffles from a soffit installation were carelessly threwn on top of a pile of junk (old CRT monitors, books in bad shape, a pair of slalom-skiing boots, ...)!



    Obviously someone was moving out, and reflecting the way those things were handeled, it seemed likely they were about to be thrown away! Hence I called the janitor, and yes, he was cleaning out a store room that had belonged to a consultancy company that moved out years ago. Sure, I could take whatever I wanted, it would just make his life easier. Wow!



    So I carried the precious horns to our store at light-speed and started to examine them: Two of the baffles are partly covered with light veneer, and there are holes for tweeters below the horns, so I figured it should be possible to identify them. In any case there are not that many studios in Sweden that had Westlake/Eastlake designed rooms, in particular not with two such control rooms, so my thoughts went in a certain direction immediately...


  2. #2
    RIP 2013 Rolf's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by lfh
    At the risk of making you guys green with envy , I must share this:

    A couple of weeks before Christmas a colleague of mine told me that some wooden horns were lying in the hallway in the basement of the office building. Being a 2397 and Westlake fan, I of course got carried away: "Hmmm... Wood. Could it possibly be... Nah, of course not..." Needless to say, I rushed down immediately to look at them and to find out what was going on. Maybe another audio company was moving in somewhere in the building?

    To my great surprise four Westlake-style Smith horns with remainings of baffles from a soffit installation were carelessly threwn on top of a pile of junk (old CRT monitors, books in bad shape, a pair of slalom-skiing boots, ...)!



    Obviously someone was moving out, and reflecting the way those things were handeled, it seemed likely they were about to be thrown away! Hence I called the janitor, and yes, he was cleaning out a store room that had belonged to a consultancy company that moved out years ago. Sure, I could take whatever I wanted, it would just make his life easier. Wow!



    So I carried the precious horns to our store at light-speed and started to examine them: Two of the baffles are partly covered with light veneer, and there are holes for tweeters below the horns, so I figured it should be possible to identify them. In any case there are not that many studios in Sweden that had Westlake/Eastlake designed rooms, in particular not with two such control rooms, so my thoughts went in a certain direction immediately...

    With humble regards to "the eldest".... I say this:

  3. #3
    lfh
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    The picture

    Here they are - covered with dust and cobweb, but beauuuuutiful:
    Attached Images Attached Images  

  4. #4
    lfh
    Guest

    The origin

    After googling for a while I finally found the pics I was looking for (there just had to be a few of them on-line):

    Polar Studios, Studio A, 1978

    Polar Studios, Studio B, 1978

    More pics

    I don't think there's much doubt about it: The horns must come from the famous ABBA studio that was designed by Eastlake, and opened in 1978.

  5. #5
    lfh
    Guest

    Bastard designs?

    Upon close inspection, it seems that the upper pair in my pic comes from Studio A (reflecting the color of veneer and the tweeter holes in close proximity to the horns), and the lower pair from Studio B (notice the remaining sector of the left side 15" driver hole, and the absence of hole for the tweeter immediately below the horn).

    BTW, are those tweeters E-V T 35:s? :shock: (I'll check the mounting hole dimensions.)

  6. #6
    norealtalent
    Guest
    WONDERFUL SAVE!!!!...In order to continue being an LHS Member, I have decided that being jealous is not as bad as being envious ...

  7. #7
    lfh
    Guest

    Polar Studios today?

    Sadly, Polar Studios closed in the summer of 2004. Rumours had it that the new house owner raised the rent by a factor two... Adding this to the diminishing customer base the entire business sees due to the home recording boom, it was simply impossible to continue to run such a studio.

    The web page is still on-line, though: Polar Studios Homepage

  8. #8
    Senior Member glen's Avatar
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    Great Save

    Looks like someone realized the horns were special when the sutio was being dismantled and, not-so-carefully, removed them from the rest of the cabinets to save them, and then later tossed them.

    So glad they fell into good hands!
    glen

    "Make it sound like dinosaurs eating cars"
    - Nick Lowe, while producing Elvis Costello

  9. #9
    Administrator Mr. Widget's Avatar
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    Congratulations!!!

    It is wonderful that someone who cares about these things found them instead of them going to the local landfill.

    Now, it seems you will have a project on your hands.
    Quote Originally Posted by lfh
    BTW, are those tweeters E-V T 35:s? :shock: (I'll check the mounting hole dimensions.)
    I'd bet that they were the bigger brother the T-350. The T-350 is actually a decent tweeter. It is a significant step up from the T-35/A.


    Widget

  10. #10
    pelly3s
    Guest
    im with widget on the tweeters..... the T-350 is pretty sweet sound tweeter.

    great find on the horns its rare for things like that to turn up.

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