1928 Western Electric cinema speaker

This is authentic Western Electric cinema speaker from 1928, as presented by Mr. Joe Roberts of Silbatone Acoustics at the 2011 High End Show in Munich, Germany.
From Wikipedia: "It is a wide-audio-range horn loudspeaker estimated to be nearly 50% efficient, thus allowing a cinema to be filled with sound from a 3-watt amplifier. This was an important breakthrough in 1929 because high-powered audio valves were not generally available back then."
We feel truly fortunate to have been able to listen to and enjoy this magnificent piece of audio history.
(Note: This is authentic in-room sound as recorded with a Sony handycam; no enhancements used.)

[@ZatsuneMikuWorld]

More than 80 years have passed and it's still amazing!!

[@factoryfear]

I was allowed the experience of listening to a pair of these a few days ago at the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting in Minnesota. Words can not describe how good they sounded.

[@anmolsingh8700]

The Old Cinema speaker system was wonderfull invention . Todays cinema speakers have high quility sound low / high frequencies but ... Thw dwepth and natural sound and heavenly melodious sound was only can feel from these speakers

[@Malkmusianful]

boy, 1928 speakers were really incredible sounding I want four of them for my hi-fi

[@TheCinemasound]

Of course large horn speakers, are brilliant. I remember going into an old cinema in Wales UK, and the Mirrorphonic system was still in there complete, this was many years ago when items such as this would be classed as junk, but now I wished I had taken it out, I also wished I had kept several Western Electric cinema amps now. BGW JBL and others just do not sound the same, all very interesting

[@carltonmasteur1]

Western Electric was the research and manufacturing arm of AT&T (Bell System). They invented so much stuff still in use today from the transistor, fiber optics, satellite communications etc.

[@darkgreenambulance]

I wonder how much power was put into that wonderful loudspeaker - I bet it was only a fraction of a Watt! What a lovely treble response!

[@adolpholiverbush2]

At 240p, authentic sound, lol! Honestly, that sounds pretty amazing, even with the craptastic 240p and camera mic. With that front end, tho, I'm pretty sure anything would sound okay.

[@sbsumanth]

great classic. godfather for all audio experts

[@brianscott4960]

Absolutely beautiful.

[@beatleme2]

shame our Gov made Western Electric go out of business , great sound and nice, thanks for posting ;)

[@59seank]

It sounds wonderful. Thanks for posting this.

[@matkovicha]

Wow! That sounds excellent.

[@jeffcats88]

Impeccable. This is the least amount of coloration I have ever heard from a system. Wow.

[@CherrysPicks]

The tweeter horns are made out of metal (steel, I think). Also, there are 2 additional woofers on both sides of the cabinet (although the original 16A was marketed as a full-range movie horn back in the day). More pictures available on our website (sorry, YT comments do not allow links but the web address is at the end credit of the vid).

[@asterkao5598]

That sounds excellent.

[@sweetsweatyfeet]

Nicely voiced.

[@bryanparnell9326]

you dont need rap to get low end lows, all you need is some good later jazz and an equalizer, but this system is too valuable to even risk putting too much bass through

[@jzannieri]

Boy, I can see why the theater owners wanted them. Sounds great, but I can'f figure out if it is just those small compression drivers making the sound or if there is an additional woofer somewhere inside cabinet. I also see what appears to be 2 tweeter horns on the sides. Is shaped horn made out of wood or metal? Overall, good sound, and Handicam sound recording is not the absolute best, but a really cool item. I would like to see front and back of speakers.Thanks for posting!

[@NorthernPhonePhan]

is it the same western electric that made telephones for the bell system?

[@ruiborgesturntables]

wonderful

[@user-ip5wv1vm9c]

Nearly a century.

[@obiessen]

much colloration of metal horn,strings sound like metal not open,Its realy old pre war cinema sound.

[@longde]

It really looks impressive, but you can't judge its sound by listening to a youtube video with lossy audio compression of an audio track taken from a cheap camera mike !!

[@Teleman01]

Why does the Western electric stuff sell for 10's of thousands for just a speaker?? Ive seen tubes go for 10K. Why?

[@steveducell2158]

I don't know if I can explain it to your satisfaction but; Back in the day, Western Electric was similar to Apple today. Speakers had to be ultra efficent to work in conjunction with the amplifiers of the day . Amps were tubes, maybe 10 watts ( ? ), these speakers had a sensitivity of 103 db / watt ( in other words, 1 watt could permanently damage your hearing after an hour ). And yet, a number of folks, love these speakers, not for their loudness, but for their ability to reproduce tiny nuances of a good recording. If you dig around the Klipsch website, you will find that Klipsch still sells their Klipsch Horn, a speaker developed back in the mid 50's........someone must be buying them

[@PlatinumEagleStudios]

Try plauying a nice rap song with very low end bass. I want to hear those thing pound. I hate videos were they don't really show hoe well old speakers do. Ok, this video show's their amazing high end, but I want to hear their low end. Play some rap on these. Why rap?? Rap has low bass notes. Some even go down to 20HZ. These sound like they will get that low.