Rupp Arena's Big Bertha Takes a Final Bow

[@danielr4640]

Rupp Arena definitely has a lot better speakers than any other college basketball venues I know of

[@ikonix360]

And the Altec system when new was probably somewhat better than what they have now.

[@danielr4640]

@@ikonix360 exactly

[@RediffusionMusic]

Makes me quite proud to say Big Bertha took its final bow blasting out Sirius by Alan Parsons on my birthday :D if only I'd been there to hear it! Bet this system sounded so good.

[@ikonix360]

And now your Chicago Bulls.

[@damienlobb85]

In some ways this sounds better than the new system. The intelligibility for one thing, and the midrange.

[@curtvote1099]

Notice the sound deteriorates as it gets closer to the floor. What a beast!

[@jukingeo]

Wow! Now THAT is an amazing and impressive speaker array comprised of Altec Voice of the Theater components. That array would bring in a TON of money on Ebay. Sad to see something that impressive go as the Altec VOTT speakers still can hold their own today. I guess they wanted something that could handle more power. Still, I never seen an Altec array as impressive as this one. It must have sounded spectacular. Even through a tinny phone microphone it sounds pretty good. I could only imagine what it sounded like in person!

[@ikonix360]

They like most probably decided it was better to spend a lot of money replacing the whole thing versus repairing what was there.

[@ikonix360]

There's two ways to do it. Lots of power and inefficient speakers. Lower power and efficient speakers like the Altecs were.

[@jukingeo]

@@ikonix360 Indeed. The advent of bigger and more powerful amplifiers had speaker manufactures putting in larger crossovers and contour filters and heavier speaker cones, all to smooth out the frequency response, but all of that stuff eats power. The VOTT stuff was designed to be super efficient. Light paper cones, crossovers with large components with heavy wiring for low losses. Makes you wonder what era had better speaker designs. Originally, they had tube amplifiers and the Altec amps were less than 100watts each! So you really needed efficient speakers back then.

[@ikonix360]

@@jukingeo When speakers were real efficient more attention was paid to their design as any miniscule flaw would be easily revealed by the efficiency of the speaker. Modern speakers using heavier cones means more mass to get moving. A skating rink I go to uses four JBL 4520 cabinets for the bass. Sure they don't go below about 40Hz, but that's the cleanest most accurate bass I've ever heard.

[@jukingeo]

@@ikonix360 I was never a fan of JBL speakers and always thought Altec (JBL's cousin) was superior. However, the high efficiency design was paramount with the early Klipsch speakers and I am a huge fan of those. The engineering behind the Klipschorn is extremely fascinating. Thankfully, the old style speakers can still be bought from Klipsch as they are part of their Heritage line. Sadly, few people can afford them.

[@pomonabill220]

Too bad the phone's audio sucks by comparison!

[@johnj6003]

What were the amplifiers for all of that?

[@Billtexan]

altec monoblocks

[@raptorshook7175]

It is above it on the rigging grid, Rupp has a very very extensive catwalk with most of the amps being up there. I've been up there many times and talked to Merrill (the designer and head of facilities) about it

[@jukingeo]

@@Billtexan I kind of figured that. I know they had tube based 40 and 80 watt mono amps. Probably needed a dozen or so to push that many speakers. The good thing about those amps is that if they are well taken care of, they last forever.

[@ikonix360]

@@jukingeo Tube amps. No wonder it sounded so good.

[@jukingeo]

@@ikonix360 Most Altec installations used these: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pZjLeKmsm96Sn7s While it is doubtful Pratt still had these at the time of the removal of Big Bertha, it is very possible that when Big Bertha was new, these were the amps used to drive the speakers. This is the 80 watt version, and there was a 40 watt version. I believe there was a 200watt one too, but it is rarer as it required a lot of power and it threw off a lot of heat. The 1569 was rated at 80 watts 2% THD from 60 to 20k. That is a pretty respectable spec for a vacuum tube commercial amplifier. It used the EL34 output tube which is what Marantz and Dynaco used in their tube amplifiers. So it is a known good sounding tube. Who knows, if they had an 'old timer' that knew Big Bertha well, he might have insisted on caring for the older amplifiers. Now adays, I don't see find a 1569 for less than $800 on Ebay.

[@ikonix360]

I hope what it was replaced with at least sounds equally as good or better.

[@bigblueamusementproductions]

jmcinvale I went to Rupp Arena this past season for 3 UK games. The new jumbotron and speakers are awesome. You can see the video board very clearly and the speakers blast the music very well.

[@ikonix360]

Hawaiian Coasters 325 now days speaker setups are easier. Just fly a few line arrays and tweak it with some computer program until it sounds perfect. Give some of these newer sound engineer people the task of using these sorts of speakers with no ability to control anything with a computer and I bet they would be lost.

[@damienlobb85]

Reportedly it doesn't sound as intelligible.

[@timardner5277]

Since the new system has subs, that would most likely be better suited for rap music used during many basketball games.

[@ikonix360]

@@timardner5277 perhaps but these speakers would i bst have handled the rap just as good if not better. Most pro audio subs only go to about 40Hz unless you spend upwards of $5K per sub.

[@ggk7605]

Whats the second song?

[@FollowBolson]

Sirius by The Alan Parsons Project.

[@gmoney7818]

Chills