A Uni friend of mine was having a party in Poitiers - a mere 300kms away...- and asked me if I could produce the hardware for the sound sytem. He would organise the software, and provide us with travel money, accomodation and cost to build/rent the hardware. It was going to be a huge affair in a large reverberant hall at the Uni in Poitiers.
I can't remember what amplification I got my hands on, but I can remember visiting the factory of Pierre Clement, and imploring them for a "loan" of their new tangential arm turntable, and guess what, they agreed!
Now that I think about it, I believe they also loaned me a Shlumberger Broadcast amp destined to the ORTF. For more info on this product check this excellent website (time to sharpen your French...)http://www.audiofolia.com/clement.php
Most readers would know that Sclumberger gobbled up Pierre Clement soon after
I suppose it is a case of "follow your passion" and it will take you anywhere...
The next step (and time wise, it was the first one) was to build 20 identical speakers. I had in mind that if I could make these speakers in raw MDF, I could them finish them to any finish and sell them afterwards. Some ended up lacquered in white, or black or red. (remember, we were in 1972/73...)
They were designed to be a cube of 30cm when fitted with a grille (always black) on top to hide the tweeter.
Equipment was a full range 17cm from SIARE, and a TW8 from Audax of Elipson's fame- aluminium dome, apparently good up to 40khz. The filter was a simple 2.2uF capacitor for an 8KHz cut-off frequency. The tweeter was time aligned to the main driver.
So, here I am with a very expensive turntable and amp (probably six months of my salary at the time...) 20 speakers (sans tweeter to save space and risk of destruction) , the GF of the time, all to be fitted into a Peugeot 205 Convertible, and torrential rain in a 6 hour drive (no freeway past the outskirts of Paris then)
We arrive in a fairly angry/exhausted mood to discover that accomodation was going to be a very bare student room, and too late for dinner.
We managed to get a good breakfast the next morning and by mid afternoon, we set up the whole system, and it worked fine all night and the fact this was all in mono did not bother any of the dancers.
We dismantled after the party, packed everything in the car and managed a good night sleep before driving back to Paris the next day.
I ended up selling all these speakers, including a few pairs to a vinyl pressing factory that used them as monitors in their QA department, because of their amazing image and detailing.
I am afraid I don't have any photo of this early design. If you happen to have one, or think you have, get in touch, please!
I can't remember what amplification I got my hands on, but I can remember visiting the factory of Pierre Clement, and imploring them for a "loan" of their new tangential arm turntable, and guess what, they agreed!
Now that I think about it, I believe they also loaned me a Shlumberger Broadcast amp destined to the ORTF. For more info on this product check this excellent website (time to sharpen your French...)http://www.audiofolia.com/clement.php
Most readers would know that Sclumberger gobbled up Pierre Clement soon after
I suppose it is a case of "follow your passion" and it will take you anywhere...
The next step (and time wise, it was the first one) was to build 20 identical speakers. I had in mind that if I could make these speakers in raw MDF, I could them finish them to any finish and sell them afterwards. Some ended up lacquered in white, or black or red. (remember, we were in 1972/73...)
They were designed to be a cube of 30cm when fitted with a grille (always black) on top to hide the tweeter.
Equipment was a full range 17cm from SIARE, and a TW8 from Audax of Elipson's fame- aluminium dome, apparently good up to 40khz. The filter was a simple 2.2uF capacitor for an 8KHz cut-off frequency. The tweeter was time aligned to the main driver.
So, here I am with a very expensive turntable and amp (probably six months of my salary at the time...) 20 speakers (sans tweeter to save space and risk of destruction) , the GF of the time, all to be fitted into a Peugeot 205 Convertible, and torrential rain in a 6 hour drive (no freeway past the outskirts of Paris then)
We arrive in a fairly angry/exhausted mood to discover that accomodation was going to be a very bare student room, and too late for dinner.
We managed to get a good breakfast the next morning and by mid afternoon, we set up the whole system, and it worked fine all night and the fact this was all in mono did not bother any of the dancers.
We dismantled after the party, packed everything in the car and managed a good night sleep before driving back to Paris the next day.
I ended up selling all these speakers, including a few pairs to a vinyl pressing factory that used them as monitors in their QA department, because of their amazing image and detailing.
I am afraid I don't have any photo of this early design. If you happen to have one, or think you have, get in touch, please!
RSS Feed