The Plant Studio's soffit mounted speakers... Vintage!

[Ethan T.]

Slutz,

About 12 years ago The Plant Sausalito remodeled "The Garden". I'm not sure what the room was called before it was remodeled. This is the room where Sly Stone basically lived. Anyway, during the remodel they threw away the old soffit mounted speakers. Well, I have a friend who worked there at the time as a second engineer and he asked if I wanted them, so I said sure.

I'm wondering who made the radial horns/cabinets. The horns are really beautiful sculpted hardwood affairs. Each cab has 2 JBL 15's, a JBL mid drivers, and this beautiful radial horn.

The cabs were fairly trashed in the demo, so I threw them out after I got dimensions from them. I still have all the speakers and faceplates with horns attached. So, I'm considering my options with them. Maybe I'll rebuild them or maybe I'll extract the horns and mount 'em to the walls a art....

Your opinions?

[Etnier]

Westlake Audio would be my guess.

[dbbubba]

What you are describing sounds like a bit like JBL/Augspurger designed monitors.

Are the two-way or three way?

Augspurgers were two 15s (JBLs but later TADs) a mid horn with a wooden lens and then a JBL tweeter.
They were a three-way speaker although they were not a true three way design because the mids and highs were crossed with a passive JBL crossover.
In their true and original form they used a White 4000 EQ for room EQ and to actively cross between the lows and the mid/highs.
White made a crossover plug-in (a REAL plug-in) and the lows went to one amp and the mids/highs to the JBL passive crossover which crossed the mids and highs.

What you need to do is to research what the monitors actually were and then find EXACTLY how they were crossed over.

[Ethan T.]

Danny,

Yes, what you describe is exactly what I have. The JBL crossover is there too. And, it's wired as you describe.

All components are JBL: Each cab has 2 15's, mid driver, a tweeter, and a crossover (with a three position switch). And it's wired for a bi-amp setup. The wooden "lens" is the part I found exciting.

I mastered a record with George Horn at Fantasy Studios about 10 years ago and he had the same speakers in the mastering room there.

Thanks for the info. Now, what to do???

[wwittman]

the original Plant, when it was still Record Plant Sausalito, indeed had Tom Hidley designed original "Westlake" monitors

almost certainly, that's what you have.

and they're terrific, in my opinion

[Ethan T.]

Yeah guys, looks like they are indeed "Westies". TM1 to be exact. There are pictures of them all over the web. Now I know..... what to do??? They're too big to soffit mount in my place. I guess I could build cabs for them and...

[Fletcher]

Augspurgers had yet to make an appearance in US studios [can't say if they had or hadn't in Europe] during the time when Sly took up residency at "The Plant"... and "Hidley" rooms were all the rage... so by doing that math, Westlakes are probably the ticket.

If I'm not mistaken it isn't difficult to get a set of drawings for those... then again they were never my favorites... especially outside of a Hidley room [inside I didn't find them to be a picnic in the park either... but outside, they were generally REALLY terrible].

For that matter, I have seen a couple of very cool cabinets built for bass amps that used those drivers... might be a better investment, who knows.

Peace.

[dbbubba]

Yeah, something about the oiginal description made the set up NOT sound like Augspurgers which is why I described them in such detail.
Then again, there were not that many ways to "skin a cat" and have monitors that would produce that SPL.
The Westlakes sound pretty close to the Augspurgers from the description.

Off hand, I'd have to see them, but if you know that they are TM1s then that's what they are.

There is a good description of the Augspurgers if you dig around and the Lansing Heritage website.

FLETCHER... I am pretty sure that the Augspurgers would have appeared in the US well before they were ever in Europe.
George Augspurger worked for JBL (in L.A. at the Northridge Plant) and I believe that the history told on the Lansing Heritage website is that the first were built for one of the big LA rooms (I forget which.)

Interestingly, my friend's room down here in Texas is a 100% intact Hidley room and has what I guess are the same monitors.
I don't dislike them at all, but the room sounds quite bright to me.
By "bright" I mean VERY sizzling in the extreme top end.
I don't mind it, but I always wonder where that top end cones from when I hear my work in that room.
I certainly don't push the top, so it must be inherent with those monitors.

I just missed getting a full set of Augspurgers from a studio I used for years when it was demolished.
The previous studio abandoned them and the oriental man that bought the building had no idea of their value.
I also know where some gutted Altec Big Reds hang along with a pair of JBL 4430s.

As an aside... I'd have those Westlakes restored and up and running regardless of what anyone thinks about how they sound.
You could do MUCH worse than them even if they are "supposed" to be soffit mounted.

I have a pair of 1961 vintage JBL S38 Baron monitors that are ancient technology, but I love them for what they are.
They are 100% restored/reconed with re-built crossovers.
I even reference mixes on them.... 075 bullet tweeter and all!
I even have a pair of more modern lenses for the tweeters, but I leave these monitors stock.

[Harvey Gerst]

Originally Posted by dbbubba

FLETCHER... I am pretty sure that the Augspurgers would have appeared in the US well before they were ever in Europe.
George Augspurger worked for JBL (in L.A. at the Northridge Plant) and I believe that the history told on the Lansing Heritage website is that the first were built for one of the big LA rooms (I forget which.)

George came to work at JBL when we were on Casitas. I'm not 100% sure, but I think he started Perception before the move to Northridge.