Thread Number: 58777  /  Tag: Member Selling Item(s)/Non Professionally
1920s Vtg Antique Movie Theater Public Address Cinema Speaker Horn 5’10” Large 		[Down to Last]

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Post# 813631   3/12/2015 at 14:11 (3,329 days old) by sarahperdue (Alabama)        

This post has been removed by the member who posted it.




Post# 813723 , Reply# 1   3/13/2015 at 03:10 (3,329 days old) by tolivac (greenville nc)        

Oh Geez,why was this taken down-I wanted to see the antique horn cinema speaker!Too many electronic and movie theater equipment collectors-these horn speakers have high value!And esp if the amp racks come with it-Western electric made these.Then RCA made sound equipment-somewhat like what you see today.RCA used the folded horn Bass speaker enclosures-sort of like the Altec VOICE OF THE THEATER systems.

Post# 813770 , Reply# 2   3/13/2015 at 09:41 (3,329 days old) by firedome (Binghamton NY & Lake Champlain VT)        
folded theater horns

 firedome's profile picture
from the '20s and '30s are SUPER valuable, most have gone to collectors in Japan. Generally made by Western Electric and RCA using large compression drivers and huge wooden horns, driven by tube amplifiers also made by them. James B. Lansing got started with WE's All Technical Services Division which became AlTec when spun off and he later founded JBL. I'd also like to see the pics - someone may have gotten one heck of a deal if the seller didn't know what it is!

Post# 813779 , Reply# 3   3/13/2015 at 10:40 (3,329 days old) by ovrphil (N.Atlanta / Georgia )        
SARAHPERDUE WHERE ARE YOU?

ovrphil's profile picture
Not to sound like "Car54, Where Are You?" but, if you see this, please repost for a few others to see again.


Thanks,

Phil

Post# 813855 , Reply# 4   3/13/2015 at 19:02 (3,328 days old) by ovrphil (N.Atlanta / Georgia )        
Just for fun - check this speaker out

 ovrphil's profile picture
someone is posting in CL - "Looking for Old/Vintage Audio/Stereo Gear! Working or Not!!! - $1000 (Atlanta & Surrounding)"

I've never seen speakers like this.

  View Full Size
Post# 813932 , Reply# 5   3/14/2015 at 11:59 (3,328 days old) by firedome (Binghamton NY & Lake Champlain VT)        
pretty sure that's a Photoshop job...

 firedome's profile picture
but there actually was a guy who made a horn out of concrete that was so big that the opening into the house took up a whole house wall and the rest was outside in the yard! pics in probably High Fidelity in the '50s.

Post# 813937 , Reply# 6   3/14/2015 at 12:26 (3,327 days old) by RevvinKevin (Tinseltown - Shakey Town - La-La Land)        
OK......

 revvinkevin's profile picture

 

 

Here are some cinema speakers that haven't been photoshop'd.

 
  Photos...       <              >      Photo 1 of 5         View Full Size
Post# 823283 , Reply# 7   5/13/2015 at 18:39 (3,267 days old) by sarahperdue (Alabama)        
Confessions...it was me

 sarahperdue's profile picture
Hi guys,

Not sure why I deleted the post. What a teaser. And deleting it makes no sense since I want to find a home for this thing!

It is very, very big and appears to be made of masonite. I found a similar one marked RCA and cannot find it now.

So, without further ado, here's the speaker horn in question



  Photos...       <              >      Photo 1 of 3         View Full Size
Post# 823329 , Reply# 8   5/14/2015 at 02:19 (3,267 days old) by tolivac (greenville nc)        

Nice---but you will need the "driver" to make it work.(the part that contains the voice coil,magnet,and diaphragm)Speakers of that era used eltctromagnetc feilds-a power supply unit energized the magnet coil.No PM speakers were available then.Cool find,though.

Post# 823363 , Reply# 9   5/14/2015 at 09:06 (3,267 days old) by sarahperdue (Alabama)        
found...

 sarahperdue's profile picture
a picture online of an RCA one.

and yup, I know that this is the horn only and requires a driver to work. I don't know much at all about vintage audio, but I've been selling on eBay for a while. I bought a large lot of vtg radio and jukebox parts for a buyer in Colorado, and this is one of the parts left over.

Sarah


Post# 823479 , Reply# 10   5/15/2015 at 01:01 (3,266 days old) by tolivac (greenville nc)        

RCA and Western Electric supplied the early cinemas with sound equipment for the early "Talkies" movies.Horns were highly efficient-becuase the single ended early tube amps were very low powered.And the horn was good at "forcing" the sound thru woven or perforated screens.Still to this day-esp the mid and high frequencies.Most of the early cinema sound system were pretty much voice response only.And no subwoofers in those days.Those old horns may still be lurking in the basements and behind the screens storage areas-esp the older theaters.Often when those were replaced with newer equipment the older speakers were put in the basement and forgotten.Good that they can be discovered later!The horn could be made from metal or even plaster.The plaster horns were very rare becuase they can easily be broken.The Western Electric horns kinda look like a "french" horn musical instrument.And they were VERY large-the mouth was like 3-4 ft square.And the amps used with the horn drivers-often the whole sound racks are desired by audio gear collectors or collectors of early theater equipment.And they make the old stuff work again!It is early technical history and should be preserved.and think of the early,famous actors voices heard over these items for the first time!Before the "talkies" folks NEVER actually heard their favorite actors voices!

Post# 823501 , Reply# 11   5/15/2015 at 06:30 (3,266 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)        

The Howard Theater in Washington, DC still has the Vitaphone speaker above the screen. Most people don't know what the Vitaphone process was, but it was a record that was synchronized with the reel of film to give the effect of talking motion pictures before the sound carrier was added to the film to make real "talkies." I learned about it in the Bible of motion picture theater history The Best Remaining Seats by Ben M. Hall.

Post# 823581 , Reply# 12   5/15/2015 at 16:18 (3,265 days old) by CircleW (NE Cincinnati OH area)        

The Vitaphone system was originally developed by Western Electric, and acquired by Warner Brothers shortly thereafter. Warner used it until sometime in '31, then switched to the RCA Photophone optical soundtrack, which was also used by RKO and some other studios. Warner continued to use the name Vitaphone for many years thereafter for releases with optical sound.

The sound on disc system had obvious faults that made it unwieldly to use. The most well known titles like "The Jazz Singer" were converted to optical sound, but many of the lesser known ones were not. Many of these have the film elements in the studio vault, but the sound discs are missing. The Vitaphone Project has located the discs for quite a few of them.

The earliest sound films had mostly music and sound effects, with little or no speaking by the actors.

Post# 823659 , Reply# 13   5/16/2015 at 01:05 (3,265 days old) by tolivac (greenville nc)        

There is a good desription about the Vitaphone and Photophone systems on the "Film-Tech" website.And yes,some projectors at that time were equipped to use either system.The projectionist had to manually throw a switch on the projector to use the Photophone soundhead or the Vitaphone TT.I do remember when someone on that site commented about folks attending talkie movies that did have some parts where the actors did have dialog.And of course was very funny if the Vitaphone disc wasn't properly cued.The discs were marked with Q-marks so the projectionist could properly Q the disc to the film.The discs also had limited playback life-often only twenty plays.There was a box on the disc that the projectionist wwould check each time the disc was played.And the stylus in the player had to be replaced often,too.
In the last days of film--we had DTS sound-the soundtrack of the movie was recorded on a special CD.A sync track on the film cued the film to the CD player.The DTS CDs won't play on a standard CD player.


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