Jensen Imperial TOTL speaker from the 1950 era that competed against the JBL Hartsfield, etc.
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- čas přidán 17. 03. 2024
- An overview of the Jensen Imperial and other speakers of the 1950 - 1960 period. Speakers of this level would cost $20,000 or more today. Examples like the Electro-Voice Patrician, JBL Paragon, Altec Lansing Laguna, Klipsch Klipschorn, Tannoy G.R.F. and many others.
Video: • Jensen Imperial TOTL s...
Email: stereoniche@gmail.com
Test gear:
McIntosh MC2105 amplifier
Pioneer Elite C-90 preamp
Pioneer Elite DV-46AV CD player
Denon 62L / DL103
Very interesting. Nice to see your attention to old horn loaded speakers. My first DIY speaker building book was "How to Build Speaker Enclosures" written by two Altec engineers, Alex Badmaieff and Don Davis. The book has two sets of plans for the Imperial, one for a freestanding speaker and another for the speaker built into a wall. Imagine a pair of these babies built into a wall, that would make a nice home theatre. Jensen sometimes used the Imperial cabinet with their famous G-610 triaxial driver, in that case the cabinet was used upside down with the driver at the top and the horn exit at the bottom. I use Altec 604Es made in September 1967, they're in Barzilay cabinets.
Someone reached out directly that they found a set of Imperials about a decade ago that were "hidden" behind panels in a high end home of the day. They were actually mix matched cabinets, a mahogany and blonde, and a third single unit in the dining room. Not in-built though, that would be something on a different level altogether and would be quite cool. I am hoping to some day get a set of the G-610, would VERY much like to hear them. The coaxials of the day are still quite awesome, the Altecs I have are great fun, punchy speakers.
I still have that great book since 70’s. I built the altec a-7’s in HS and was the beginning of my live sound career for 45 years culminating in EV X2 line arrays. Selling off that business. Home stereo is a pair of Model 19’s. Full circle.
Excellent Scott loved every minute of this video, nice touch to have a look inside as well. Very much hand built and crude by todays standards but that is just the beauty of these and others of that era
Thanks Michael! It is quite amazing how rough looking most all speakers look once you get under the "skin". :-)
Great video, the Imperial PR-100 in blonde are gorgeous. Just wanted to mention that, "L.E.E" speakers were designed by Lee Catenoid out of Washington, DC. His cabinets were beautiful and licensed Paul Klipsch's corner horn tech. The nicer models are often loaded with quality Jensen drivers of the era. They are not very common these days but do pop up on the east coast once in a while.
Thanks for the comments and information about "L.E.E." speakers. I have yet to run across any, but will certainly keep an eye out going forward.
I’ll say, these are not only beautiful and sturdy, they are actually hi-fi works of art and craftsmanship 😍… I hope one day I have the joy and privilege of seeing and hearing them live. Is there such a thing like a hi-fi museum with showrooms where you can listen to vintage equipment live? Anyway, fantastic video, thank you so much for going into the details of the construction and performance of these amazing speakers. Keep up the great work! 😊
Unfortunately, I am not aware of any hi-fi museums. I often joke I am going to turn my collection into a museum one day. LOL
@@stereoniche that would be incredible! 🤩
.Varnish still shines! The folks that built them were probably making one or two dollars an hour and could raise a family on one income. These would have been like totally out of the reach of common folk. But as now the rich or institutions purchased these. But these are stunners. They look new. Probably run on ten or fifteen watts.
Indeed. I wasn't trying to capture that in the beginning, but after the video I realized it was almost a mirror reflection. Quite amazing for 70 year old speakers. And yes, they only need 10-15w of power to get them rocking.
I find it funny when speakers now say rated at 500 watts or something and people think well if my speakers can handle 1000 watts I can get them real loud. Yep. Those old glorious speakers from way back sound great on just a few tube watts. Even if you look (and I'm sure these could have been used for that) at advertisements of the day or state of the art from the 1930's for theater speakers and amplifiers they were usually rated at like 5 to 60 watts. And those were designed for a huge auditorium - like a movie house.
Although come to think about it, talking about the sound and the era - I have an old Grundig tube radio, that has a oblong speaker in it, say 5 inches wide by 8 or 9 inches long and that one speaker sounds great. The radio does have a separate tweeter, but they could do some amazing things with tubes and speakers back in the day.
I had to watch this video! Jensen Imperials... Wow! I listened to the video with my dad's 1955 or so JBL C38's with D-131 woofers and 075 tweeters. The woofers are pre-1955 flatbacks. They still sound great. Bass is their weakness, but a Velodyne ULD-12 subwoofer helps cover that issue.
Thanks for watching! Adding a small sub can very much bring up the bottom end.
In say 1985ish, I purchased some jbl speakers. I never saw a model number as I think they were custom made. They are very pretty birds eye maple. They have 16 ohm components, a 15 inch woofer, potato masher midrange and bullet tweeter with 2 cross overs. They sound great and look great. The other components I purchased with them were made in the 1958 - 1961 date range, so I'm guessing the speakers were made around then. To me they have plenty of bass. I think part of it depends on your own individual ears. And I tend to like my music a bit bass heavy. Although as I get older I am using more treble - but I think I can still hear plenty of high notes, I hope. ha ha ha. I've got some nice Goodman 12 and 15 inch triaxiom speakers I need to hook up and rock out............I've got a wide range of speakers......from the 1920's up to small kitchen jbl speakers.
@@kfl611 They might be custom cabinets. Many bought JBL components and installed them in bespoke enclosures. Ejoy!
I love your channel..right to the point..and you cover interest of the past ..interest that sparks the audiophile memory lane as I am a baby boomer..greatly appreciated this post..keep up the great work !!!!
Thanks for watching and chiming in here. So much fun and so much more to cover, stay tuned!
Faacinating to see and hear about such old high end loudspeakers Scott. My guess is that even someone with top equipment from 1969, who still has his old KLH 9 speakers and his Citation or Marantz tube amp with his old reel to reel tape deck, still has sound quality that's way better than almost anyone today has ever heard. I can picture someone in the late 50's sitting back & listening to some Elvis, Chuck Berry or Fats Domino on those Jensens and thinking, this is SO good; so realistic sounding! In the days before TIM distortion, switching or notch distortion was ever born, that thin edgy grainy sound that transistors ushered in, not long after. Or maybe I CAN'T picture someone listening to Elvis on reel tape. There are certain artists that they didn't put on reel tape. I'll have to check. Maybe someone listening to an Elvis lp on the Jensens with an Ortofon SPU phono cartridge. Oh the crazy warmth that would have.
How about original pressing Miles Davis albums or 2 track RCA reel to reel releases?
No Atmos sound then ! Can you imagine a 12 channel atmos Imperial speaker system? I guess that would be a bit over kill.
Presence of large horn-loaded speaker hard to beat. Love the grills also. I keep the grills on my Tannoy Westminster, probably the only one who does.
Yes, you probably are, they are too gorgeous to hide. :-)
Love the power ratings of some of these full size speakers circa 1950's. I understand its intended to be class A power, just funny to see big boys like these with a 30w rating.
Interesting right? Given the amplification of the day probably ranged mostly from 10-25w, the speakers were mostly going to be quite efficient, but agree, a bit odd to see such a huge speaker only need a handful of watts. I plan to include some details around specs, etc. in the upcoming JBL Hartsfield review.
@@stereoniche A big speaker can easily push a high volume of air easily and horns are super efficient. Did you ever see how big the speaker is that was one of the first theater speakers to fit behind the movie screen - Oh I want one of those so badly - I'm sure it did not use very many watts
czcams.com/video/nFX392pNeiA/video.html
Thank you for more great audio history! Wouldn't you like to be the person that thought up all of these great names for these speakers? Your Jensen's are awesome. They even have the original stickers! I have a nearly mint 1936 Silvertone radio that once belonged to my grand parents. The outside is walnut veneer with fluted corners and accents and inlaid contrasting walnut accent strips. The inside, especially where the electronics are mounted is crappy plywood. LOL
Oh yeah, I assume the good stuff was quite expensive, so they built the interior with the lower cost stuff. But boy, they were quite the craftsmen in building these things back then.
I get your set looks wonderful and no doubt sounds nice for what it is and when it was built.
Add folded horn design which I believe Klipsch invented still sounds the best today
Thanks
Good masterclass!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Loved to see this video ....I have a set myself ... You don't see that many for sure...I would love to show them to you
Greetings fellow Imperial owner! LOL Where are you located?
Costa Rica... pretty far from the factory... crazy story
@@robmora7 Yeah, I doubt I will be in the neighborhood anytime soon. Feel free to send some pictures to stereoniche@gmail.com Maybe I can incorporate it into a future video.
@@stereoniche love it... thanks..I would love to know more about my set as well... information is limited on line .. thanks
Those are great looking speakers. I would love to hear them.
Ignoring their size, the blonde korina REALLY sets them apart from the sea of dark brown vintage speakers in my collection. And they sound equally great as well.
These are a piece of the HiFi history 👍🏻
I may need to change my name to the HiFi Preservation Society. :-)
@@stereoniche With your "astounding" collection, you should!
Great video. I fully agree with to appreciate the quality of top of the line back then. And I'm sure this Imperial set outperforms most modern day speakers, yet it might be that the taste these days is a bit different. And the old Alnico magnets, they do sound better than modern ones....
Primarily, physical appearance of speakers have changed for modern speakers. Many want them to be heard and not seen these days. Long gone are the days of speakers being part of the room decor like they were from the 70's and prior. Top quality vintage speakers can certainly hold their own to newer models, in my opinion, but there is a sound signature difference between say a folded horn and an electrostat. Both are great sounding, but have different characteristics.
Where's specifically were these speakers at the University, an open air stage? Or at a movie theater type seating? What kind of power would they have used on these speakers back then? Were they abused too much power or too much volume ? What is the DB efficiency of the speakers? What type of crossover did they use back then? How far apart should the speakers be to get the balance of the soundstage of these speakers? Are you saying these speakers won't reproduce a modern rock and roll s o u n d? What is the power rating for these speakers? Just curious I really I really enjoy your presentation and content of vintage audio. Keep up the good. ..
Greetings! Lots of great questions. On their origin, I did not get that much detail only that they were from a University. Given their nice look, I will assume it was probably a smaller, nicer venue. A large auditorium would probably have used more industrial looking gear, but all speculation. Most often, we only get small tidbits of history and have make wide assumptions on the in between years. As for abuse, we really have no idea. They may have only been used once a month or a handful of times annually. No idea. Efficiency. Pretty safe to say that about all speakers of this era are efficient as tube amps were typically 10-25 watts or thereabouts. They can certainly play any genre, but some speakers are better at specific genres than others from my perspective. I will go into a bit more of that in the next JBL Hartsfield review coming up soon.
Remember in the days when these and other large volume cabinet speakers made--efficiency,efficiency,efficiency instead of the realtors saying of “location,location,location. In the early days of high-fi we had only lower power tubed amps. Then when the lower cost higher power solid state amps came out the large volume cabinets fell out of favor. These and other speakers of the time had a good “wife acceptance “factor. They were fine prices of furniture-hence why they were well taken care of.
Please review some Bozak concertos and some Frazier speakers
There is a review of the Frazier Concerto available. Bozak speakers will take some time.
Have you considered replacing the crossover capacitors or at least testing them to see if they are close to their original values? Obviously it's impossible to know what they sounded like when they were new.
Nope. Firstly, they sound fine to my ear. We will never be able to compare them to new, of course. Secondly, replacing the caps in this era of speakers is not easy as the caps are potted /encapsulated in wax/resin, etc..
I want a set of Jensen Patricians, before I croak. It's on my bucket list, but it may never happen. Sigh...............The blonde finish is not my favorite but these speakers are really beautiful. I'd take a pair any day.
The Electrovoice Patrician is also on my short list as well. I have a pair of EV 30" woofers to go in them, but that's all I have at the moment. LOL
What about Beveridge Electrostatic model 3 or 2SW-1 Acoustic Transducers over 6 feet high and 250 pounds or so each.
I assume you are referencing a point I made in the video around size. Bev Model 3 are 6.5' tall, but do not actually take up as much floor space. They are equally cumbersome to move around though.
I’ve been looking at your video about Jensen Imperial. Very interesting. Is that Jensen company the same as Jensen Sound Laboratories? I’ve got a pair of Jensen Model 50. It seems to be quite rare. On the web I can only find a few pictures and hardly no information whatsoever. Do you know anything about this.
In looking at the logo for Jensen Sound Laboratories, it does not appear to be the same company.
Beautiful! What does it weigh?
About 200 lbs
The cost of living chart would indicate dollar for dollar value today. But there is high end vanity pricing and nostalgia gouge now. Those JBL L-100's made in Mexico are priced at a ripoff $4 grand. Those classic speakers would easily be more than 20 grand on todays market. $300 in 1958 is $3,255.17 in 2024. That being said, due to boutique pricing, it would be $20-$30 grand in todays market. If made in Asia, probably $10-$15,000.
I didn't know that those speakers cost so much at that time compared to today. Right now, I'm trying to find another JBL 4647 to make it a pair sooner or later. Those 4647's are harder to get.
Quite surprising to me as well they were so expensive. Now a JBL 4647, and a single at that, will be tough to find. Your best bet will be to monitor Reverb as it focuses mainly on pro type gear.
@@stereoniche I can't wait to you review the JBL Hartsfield speaker. It's amazing how we came a long way from 60 years ago.
Why were the LPs on the wall replaced?
So they could get to the other side! 🙂 I change them periodically to keep things fresh, plus, I want to listen to them.
As of right now, a pair of those go for $30,000 on eBay. Yikes!
Well, asking it not always getting, but that is a stunning set.
Purchasing a set of speakers at that price would demonstrate a degree of ineptitude that borders on the imbecilic. In simpler terms, and even if you have the money or not, a pair of home speakers shouldn't cost that much.
@@jukingeo Not even Wilson Audio?
@@billdang3953 Never heard of them.
Them speakers as big as American is it might be possible to run across some at a flea market or yard sale for around a hundred dollars. I mean people who have no idea what they have. Just like vintage TVs. Some were in a old dusty and abandoned werehouse. America is huge.
HUUGGGEEEE! Always keep an eye out, you just NEVER know where something cool can pop up.
A difference is that unlike an old NTSC tube TV, speakers like this Jensen are still competitive with modern speakers and superior to many of them. I use Altec 604Es from 1967 in a hi-fi with modern digital sources and modern SS amplification.
@@tombrennan6312 Tannoy HPD series co-axial speaker drivers also sound pretty good with the right amplification and program material.
I bet the bass from them is phenomenal 😅
It is not room shaking like a modern sub, but it is very nice. Would be better in a corner which is a test I hope to do when I build the temp walls for a corner area.
@@stereoniche yeah nice warm sounding bass what amps are you driving them with I love to know
@@user-lx3th5on8l Mostly, I use my McIntosh MC2105 amplifier which I find quite nice, but I also used my Fisher X-101-B integrated tube amp. I found both to be wonderful.
Outstanding speakers, it always amazes me how sound hasn’t changed much. Today speakers would be pressed to get anything that sounds much better. Paul Klipsch really got people thinking. I am using a pair of Klipsch k horns with a set of Belle’s playing together. Unbelievable it fills my room . Very life like , hair standing up on your arms ! Your right it takes up room but you need that size to reproduce music accurately, in my opinion.
It is a bit magical isn't it? Add a few quality watts and some great tunes and the toes start tapping. :-)
@@stereoniche I’ve got money out of my Klipsch after 40 plus years. My Marantz is 2325 and probably no does need a re-cap . I blow it out with my air compressor every few years. The Klipsch are so easy to keep up, no problem ! Like you turn it up and a whole new world is waiting. I’m old to . I love what you are doing, keep up your good work. I remember most those speakers.
Wilson Audio's higher end speakers are also pretty sensitive. I myself have a pair of Tannoy Ardens which sound great driven by an Accuphase E202 amp.