Drew Daniels Conducting Laser
Interferometry Tests at JBL in the Late 1970's
© Harman International, Courtesy Mark Gander and John Eargle

So you've read all about the vintage speaker systems on this site. You're beginning to long for the dynamics and visceral impact of those systems of old. You'd like to recapture that sound, but updated, without the bandwidth limitations and colorations that plagued the early designs. You're ready to rock, but where to start - you don't have a clue........

Here's Drew Daniels to the rescue. Drew was Applications Engineer at JBL Professional from 1984 to 1989. As Drew put it, "During this period, I fielded an average of 40 phone calls a day, and was the only human callers could reach for tech advice. Calls ran an average of 8-10 minutes, and there were about 5% of calls from old timers who seemed to want the vintage JBL sound they remembered from the 50's. In response to these latter calls, I wrote "The Ancient Audiophile's Quest for The Ultimate Home System"

Since then, Drew has updated the design for a system that embodies the concept laid out in that original article. He actually built and described a modified version in a 1990 article when he was Principal Electroacoustic Engineer at Disney. Some of the components described in the 1990 article are now obsolete, so don't start ordering material just yet. Drew will be providing a further update based on currently available equipment shortly. Until then, the first two articles are presented below to introduce you to the concept.

So here we go with Drew's perspective on building a system "that might deliver all the gut-thumping reality of curling up in a fetal position inside a rock-n-roll kick drum"

FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK .................well, you get the idea.

THE ANCIENT AUDIOPHILE'S QUEST FOR THE ULTIMATE HOME SYSTEM

CONSTRUCTION AND SETUP DETAIL FOR DREW DANIELS' HIGH-EFFICIENCY LOUDSPEAKER SYSTEM