Speakers for cinema's used at home.....

[DSJR]

Ok, I'm being totally bonkers here - far more than usual, but after going to our small local cinema last night, I was impressed with the recently refitted screen and sound system, which sounded different depending on the source used, either CD before the presentation (Herb Alpert in his 60's Tijuana days :eek:), the niosy optical soundtracks on some interludes and the main film soundtrack (Prometheus in this case).

Bear with me chaps... I wanted to see rougly what kind of system might have been used since the venue is a small local triple-screen seaside "complex" with a bingo hall where the stalls would have been. I looked on the JBL site and came up with these -

http://www.jblpro.com/catalog/general/Product.aspx?PId=84&MId=1

Fantastic efficiency, the treble horn may be a fidelity issue but would have been properly modelled I reckon. The 130db max sound level would cause pain if utilised in a domestic setting, but bearing in mind the wondrous horny things made DIY or bought for mega bucks by horn-lovers, I wonder if a smaller speaker system designed for cinemas could actually be used to great effect "at home?"

[SPS]

my 15"s and the vitavox horns came from a cinema, to me they sound just fine with a couple of clean watts i fitted the super tweeter and the 18 sub/bass drivers to supplement them at the top and bottom.

the pa forums i tend to look in, laugh at most home fi set ups, with our high distortion speakers etc etc

lets face it some PA set ups are fantastic things.
just a little on the big side..

[Reid Malenfant]

I wonder if a smaller speaker system designed for cinemas could actually be used to great effect "at home?"
Why not :) One massive advantage as Steve pointed out is that at just about any volume level you'd care to listen at, distortion would be vanishingly low compared to just about any hifi speaker :D

Those you linked to admittedly may well sound better if they were a tad more rigid, 450L is pretty big & 55Kg isn't very heavy for something that large.

Give them a solid enclosure & I'm sure they'd not only scare the pants off of you, but they'd probably sound superb :eyebrows:

[realysm42]

So what's the downside to these badboys, given there's no such thing as a free lunch with speaker design?

[Reid Malenfant]

A pair will take up well over 1M³ of your living room (just the bass/mid enclosure holding the two 15" - not including the treble horns), they are a tad on the large side :rfl:

[DSJR]

There's also a small :lol: one with one bass unit and a horn loaded tweeter.........

[RichB]

incorrigible rogues you are...

still I love that you'd even for a moment consider it. Only on AoS i reckons.

[DSJR]

:cool:

The thing is, the prices, without fancy bling boxes and audiophool cachet, are quite low for what you get. A plain lightweight box can be damped or re-inforced if necessary and the sound of some of these systems, even at legally modest levels, seems very good indeed and nothing like as coloured as you'd think.

[freefallrob]

I really wish folks wouldn't post links to JBLs website, I'll never get any work done!

I'd love some bigish JBL's....Mmmmmm.

:)

My Dad and I used to to 'discos' in our spare time for charity and friends etc. We used two modified Peavey mid/tops, 10" lower midrange and something like a 4" square double loaded horn uppermid/treble and 15" DIY bass cabs.
Suitably driven it sounded bloody brilliant, with awesome slam and dynamic openness.....

[DSJR]

I nearly bought some 4412A's a few years ago - rather wish I had now..........

[daytona600]

best system i ever heard was based on 1920s western electric cinema speakers & amps by silbatone/gip labs at munich hiend show 2011 ,300b amps with field coil speakers
using orginals Mono & new copies , only problem cost same as a couple of bentleys
sublime sound , beat every other room by a large margin , if you have the money and the space

[Macca]

Not that cheap really, at £1140....

[SPS]

best system i ever heard was based on 1920s western electric cinema speakers & amps by silbatone/gip labs at munich hiend show 2011 ,300b amps with field coil speakers
using orginals Mono & new copies , only problem cost same as a couple of bentleys
sublime sound , beat every other room by a large margin , if you have the money and the space

goes to show how far things have really come, 300bs from the 30s
field coil speakers, all showing 2011 systems the way

must say thats exacty what i have found too. my system uses H frame open baffles, but the same HE pa drivers in boxes would need to be massive, and tend to loose something that way too.

[Marco]

best system i ever heard was based on 1920s western electric cinema speakers & amps by silbatone/gip labs at munich hiend show 2011 ,300b amps with field coil speakers
using orginals Mono & new copies , only problem cost same as a couple of bentleys
sublime sound , beat every other room by a large margin , if you have the money and the space

Indeed... Such systems are stunningly awesome, and really do show how little progress we've made in audio, in terms of out-and-out sonic performance, since the 'great days'!

Marco.