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My custom ElectroVoice Patrician 800


Guest newjerseybt

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Guest newjerseybt

I built these Patrician 800s back in 1978 with the help of ElectroVoice (Engineer Bob) and a draftsman friend of mine. They took over 400 hours to complete as the design was from scratch. The interior cabinet volumes, horn sled angles and acoustic materials are specified from the original Patrician 800 blueprints which EV provided.

The X1835 crossover took quite a bit of time to redesign as EV did not sell the speaker components in a 16 ohm version in 1978. All components are 8 ohm. They include the 30W, EVM12L, 1823M w/8HD horn and T-350 tweeter. Also installed is a ElectroVoice tweeter protector (STR) for the T-350. The speaker can also be bi-amped at the flip of 2 switches. The passive crossover points are 100, 800 and 3500Hz.

To accomodate the 8 ohm components, the original coil values were halved and the capacitance doubled. The non-polar 560ufd capacitor for the 12DB/Oct 30W was difficult to find. All air coils were hand wound with the aid of a electronic bridge.

The cabinets weigh well over 300 pounds and are mounted on casters

hidden by a skirt. The cabinet is 1" AC plywood and is veneered in two contrasting types of pine. The top is 1 1/8 inch solid pine and is supported in the interior so it is not modulated by the 30w. The EVM12L is enclosed in a 2 cubic foot vented cabinet which also houses the T-350. Only the 2 cubic foot cabinet has acoustic padding as the

wavelength at 100hz exceed the length of the cabinet and acoustic padding is not necessary.

The original AT38 level controls were replaced with heavy duty controls by Violet which was marketed by Radio Shack. The rear control panel was milled in my machine shop during "off hours" where I worked as a Technician for Sperry Corporation.

The front grill mimicks a double door that can be removed by four screws. The screws are hidden by 4 brass hinges.

The 30W is currently bi-amped at 80 hz using an 18db/oct electronic crossover.

Another major hurdle was discovering that it was necesary to drive these speakers with an amplifier that was capable of driving 2 ohm loads such as the Crown DC300 or a Kenwood M2A. If you use a classic Marantz 4300 receiver for instance, the amp will clip severely. The M2A is what I am currently using. It is over 200wrms/channel with a dampening factor of 1000.

The sound from these earth shaking speakers is breath-taking. I am still looking for a speaker that sounds better.

The future of these classic speakers is uncertain at the moment as the new house that I bought will not easily accomodate them.

http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/dc/user_files/875.jpg

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Guest newjerseybt

>Hi Bill;

>

>All I can say is WOW!

>

>Beautiful work of art.

>

>Would I love to hear, "Also Sprach Zarathustra", on your

>system.

>

>Or should I say, "feel"?

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks Vern...

It is funny, I thought of every detail except FUSES! lol I hope they melt before the voice coil on my 30ws!.

I have that recording along with the Telarc 1812 Overture. It is scary! I ran a signal generator once to test the absolute lows. The doors in the house were rattling but there was no audible sound ...<20Hz.

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>>Hi Bill;

>>

>>All I can say is WOW!

>>

>>Beautiful work of art.

>>

>>Would I love to hear, "Also Sprach Zarathustra", on your

>>system.

>>

>>Or should I say, "feel"?

>-------------------------------------------------------------------

>Thanks Vern...

>

>It is funny, I thought of every detail except FUSES! lol I

>hope they melt before the voice coil on my 30ws!.

>

>I have that recording along with the Telarc 1812 Overture. It

>is scary! I ran a signal generator once to test the absolute

>lows. The doors in the house were rattling but there was no

>audible sound ...<20Hz.

Hi there again;

The very first time I heard, or should I say felt, Also Sprach Zarathustra, I was feeling sick to my stomach with the 32 hz tone.

That was with only a pair Quads and one AR-3 woofer with a Dynaco Stereo 70 amplifier.

Over the years I only read about the 30W woofer and its low bass capabilities.

I did read in an old, Popular Mechanics?, that the military were testing low level sound to use as a weapon, but I guess they wouldn't have been able to protect the friendlies.

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  • 9 months later...

I actually Googled Electrovoice Patrician to see what would pop up. This page did, and it has evoked a memory that shall be with me until the day I die. It was sometime in perhaps 1957 or 1958, I attended the WDOK (pre stereo) HiFi Fair at the Statler Hotel in downtown Cleveland. Electrovoice had a room, and, visiting it, I heard a sound with more color and fidelity than I have ever heard since. The Patrician 800 uttered Leroy Anderson's "Plink, Plank, Plunk." The price was, as I recall, $1,500*, which put it far beyond my 15/16 year old budget. The woofer was a massive 30" wide. Over the years I have tried to replicate that sound, but never could, using BBE sonic maximizers and MB Quart speakers. All attempts have rendered a sound that is one-dimensional and flat as compared to the musical holograph that that Patrician spoke--at least in my memory. It truly was a case of "how ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm after they've seen Paree." The Electrovoice 800 rendering Leroy Anderson was for me the sight of Paree--one I shall never forget.

------------------

* the price of a new Chevrolet then.

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  • 1 month later...
Guest newjerseybt

Update on my Patrician 800s. They were sold in July of this year..sniff. They went to Tokyo. No room for them in my little retirement house. I miss them. I still have not heard a better speaker. If I had the room I NEVER would have sold them but the house I bought is way too small. The good news is that the little house has gone up enough in value to buy 12 pairs of Patrician 800s.

I also received the Original Patrician 800 Blueprints back from my friend recently.A Patrician 800 Plan copy recently sold on E-Bay for $75 on a "Buy it Now". Little did the seller know that I was offered $500 for my set of original Blueprints but I kept them instead of E-Baying them. (you never know) Now the plans should multiply like rabbits and be dirt cheap.

Yes the sound of those speakers were awesome especially since they were bi-amped. A way to improve these speakers would be to have the grill cloth removable. I tried them witout the cloth and the sound quality is noticeably better. Obviously it would be better on ANY speaker with the grill removed. The sound would also be better if you removed the bug screens but I didn't want to butcher rare T-350s and 1823Ms.

After setting the level controls on back of the speaker to adjust for room acoustics, I found that a 12 band equalizer would not improve the flat setting I already had which mean't there were no peaks or valleys between 23hz and 16Khz (my hearing range)

I would constantly be amazed that these speakers would play fairly

loudly with just 1 watt! Amazing what a corner horn can do!

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  • 9 months later...
Guest edleblanc

Hi I am looking for a Gauru of these speakers because I can not find info....because it is old...or to rare. Can U please help me.

1. I have just purchased a factory patrician that appears to be in great shape for $1,000.00 (I know it is a good price). I now and have for 30 years owned a pristen set of K horrns that were updated my Klipsch in 1995. I have a dear friend and decided to sell it to him.

I went to a guy in NASA , Texas who has a single Patrician and it is in bad condition,....at least cosmeditcly. All he had to demonstrat it was small boom box. From that I feel that MAYBE the high and mids sound better than my K horn....)I know I could be wrong). Anyway it was a way to justify selling my K horns to a dear friend that will not be with us much longer. So he wanted $3,900.00 and that was way too high according to the market and he will never get it.....unless he finds someone that just wants a big speaker and has lots of money....although he was a very nice man from Vietnam. So I went home and located a very nice one for $1,000.00 and purcgased it. Now I must find another....and so for that has not been easy except for a guy that wants $15,000.00 for a set....but I have been thinking (a little painful)....I have heard that the Georgian and the Patrician were exact the same exceept for the woofer. I am using them for a theater....anyway my mind woundered if that is true and having 2 indentical speakers except for the size of the woofer (if this is a true story about the specs)then maybe the 15" would play to a certain point and the 30" to another.....I know it sounds a little funny....but hey. *I would like to find another Patrician...but I am not young and I do not want to miss out on some great music and movies. So I assume U have all the knowledge I need to know. ....so can U help me? Oh yes I am looking for a EV Streon for the center speaker of this 7:1 theater. Does that make sense?

My e mail is ed10@cebridge.net. Please advie IF U feell U are qualified! I am also looking to buy a sub woofer for the movies

Thanks

Ed

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  • 6 months later...
Guest DaveL

Speaking of reminiscing!

Back in 1966, when I was selling high end audio at Sea-Rad in Seattle, Bob Carver and I brought the world's first "super amp" to the store. Bob and had recently built it on three large chassis at our home in Lake City, Washington. It had a dozen RCA 6550s per channel. The most powerful onsumer amps prior to this amp had a pair of 6550s or equivalent per channel. We disconnected the pair of mono Marantz Model 9s (the most powerful consumer amps up to that time, at about 75 watts RMS each, and were, at that time, considered more powerful than necessary!) that were hooked to the Patrician 800 speakers, these speakers were the model with the arches in the front, built of cherry, and had the 30" horn loaded woofers.

After we hooked the huge amp to the Patricians, we heard the Patricians "worked" for the FIRST time. That is, they really came alive with a rich, realistic sound. The power gave character to the sound, allowing the large bass drum on a selection to actually sound like a real bass drum. Instead of a soggy boom we heard before, we now heard the "slap" of the leather of the large drumstick on the drum head and could identify the sound as coming from a real bass drum, like the one used in parades (the selection was of parade music). Before, the drum lacked enough character of sound to be able to tell what kind of drum it was.

After that, Bob resolved to build a consumer amp that would "leapfrog" the power of any consumer amp, as this amp did, but use transistors instead of tubes. The result was the Phase Linear 700A, by far the most powerful consumer amp built up to that time and was tested by Hirch-Houck laborators for Audio magazine. Julian Hirsch admitted being astonished that prior amplifiers had inadequate power even though he had believed they had more than enough, and admitted that even Horowitx at the piano needed all that power to approach the actual accoustic energy of that piano! From then on, Phase Linear sold a lot of amps and other powerful amps were put on the market. Bob later founded another company, Carver Corp, and after that, Sunfire, which he recently sold, remaining as a consultant. Nowadays, even car stereos have a lot of power, more than necessary considering the environment.

So, the Patrician speakers have a very warm memory for me!!

Dave Ladely, Snohomish, WA

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