Evo malo istorijata iz prve ruke
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About Westrex speakers by Dave Fenner
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"...First in reply to others about origin, I should have said, it is fact that all the 2080 and 2090 drivers had transfer label 'Made in England'. I dont know where or by whom, maybe Vitavox or BTH or even Goodmans?
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"...The point is that this is not a bare diaphragm. Be that as it may, fact is Westrex's unit rating was 30 watts continuous and it is clean all the way. I suspect it would bust without the 'book' but wouldn't want to risk trying it (around £50 for new one, still available from Lansing!). I can assure you acoustic output is plenty high enough in a small hall (but probably wouldn't survive for todays pub gig levels)."
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"Westrex Book Radiator
I was a field engineer at Westrex, my patch was NW London. I left to set up my own company and Westrex were my main Distributor, so I was often in and out of the Works at Coles Green Road. The following paragraph is not for the squeemish.
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Most UK cinemas using Westrex sound and projection equipment were on a lease plus service contract, the gear was owned by Westrex. During late 60's cinemas were fast being converted to multiples, bingo halls or bowling etc, so masses of equipment was being removed. Having no storage space they put large skips behind the works. These were daily filled with 2040 40 watt tube amps (best ever), 2080 bass drivers and 2090 drivers and horns, and sold as scrap. Bass bins were broken up on site. Crying is allowed.
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One day when visiting I saw lying by the skip a 2090C driver complete with Book Radiator. I grabbed it and remarked to the warehouse manager (Mr Bill Diamond) 'pity there is not a pair'. 'Wait',we are having a clear-out' he said and went inside and returned with another, which was obviously a prototype, having a rough looking makeshift bracket for mounting but otherwise identical.
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I beleive these speakers as shown here were intended to superceed the original Acoustilens model, I cannot be certain but few if any were sold, in which case they are extremely rare. The only ones I knew of were owned by a very few of my fellow engineers. The guys that had them were the cream of the West End sound men, like Gorden Isaacs and Billy Bell. I heard them on a system consisting of a pair of 2040's, a Decca FFSS cartridge and tone arm. I never heard before or since such gorgeous quality from vinyl. But I must say the best systems I ever heard were the circa 1954 4 track mag Cinemascope movies with 3 Westrex bins with cellular horns. Its all gone backwards since. It is no surprise to me that efficient speakers sound far better, its the tight control by the huge magnets and small accurate gap, and stiff ouput of the transfomer coupling, damps overshoot and flapping around.
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Back to the Book Radiator; I do still own the original prototype. At one time I pondered copying the perforated sheild and the Book 'pages' and offering them as conversion kit for 2090A. Too old to bother now. I am not familiar with the type number 2390, my memory is fading but as I recall the original horn driver was 2090A (24 ohms) and 2090C (15 ohms and no phase plug) but I could be wrong.
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As you may know, if you put LF power to an unmounted bass driver, no loading to control it, it will likely bust the spider and surround. An HF pressure driver with no horn will do the same, fly to bits. Thats why they are tightly bolted up with a gasket. Failure of these drivers is often result of blown seal. If HF diaphragm was left bare with no horn load it would only be able to work at low level without damage. The name Book Radiator is the clue; you cannot slam shut a book however hard you push, you are working to push out the air. Thats what the leaves are for, to load the thing so it has some work to do. The perfotated shield holds the leaves in place and restricts overshoot.
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This may be likely reason crossover frequency of these units was raised to 1000hz (Acoustilens was 675 i think, cinema horns were 500)."