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Galaxy Audio
Description
Galaxy Audio: By 1977, Superior Sound, operated by Brock Jabara and his partner Jim Pearce, had already logged eight years in the concert sound business. Banks of their cavernous black boxes flanked the stages of concert halls and arenas all over the country, providing sound for Aretha Franklin, The Bee Gees, Asleep at the Wheel, Janis Joplin, Sly and the Family Stone, Jean Luc Ponty, James Brown, and countless others. When Superior Sound outfitted a show, they supplied the equipment and the personnel. If something wasn't right, Brock and Jim heard about it then and there, they were the ones manning the board.
Superior Sound was on the road with Mike Finnigan, a noted side man (Jimi Hendrix, Crosby, Stills and Nash) who was launching a solo career. Being from the same city (Wichita), Brock and Jim and Mike went way back. But that didn't stop Finnigan from complaining on stage anytime something in the mix failed to meet his standards. Sometimes in mid song he'd stop just to gripe, "I can't hear the monitors!" Brock and Jim were like survivors of a shipwreck, stranded on their mixing console island in a sea of rowdy concert goers with the main attraction berating them from the stage. "I can't hear myself! Turn up the (bleeping) monitors!" Even with 100 watts of power being pumped into each of the two massive floor wedges positioned next to Finnigan's keyboard, every night was the same, "Turn up the monitors!" The boos and catcalls began to have a decidedly negative effect on the crew's morale.
The challenge was to produce a monitor that could be head above any din. During a mid-tour break, Brock directed speaker builder Larry Schneider, at Superior Sound's Wichita shop, to cram 5-inch drivers four abreast in an enclosure that could fit atop a keyboard or microphone (mic) stand.
Back with the tour it was business as usual except for a single change in the on-stage monitor array. One channel, 350 watts, of a Phase Linear 700, was alotted to the skinny plywood cabinet that rested about three feet from Finnigan's face. The house lights dimmed. Midway through the first set the point at which Finnigan would customarily begin his nightly tirade about the inadequacies of the sound system, he paused to ask, "Could you please turn down the monitor?"
The guys from Superior Sound knew they were on to something. Still, a few bugs remained. Overloading the speakers with eight or nine times as much power as their drivers were designed to handle sometimes produced surprising results: like the time one of the prototypes caught fire (actually burst into flames) during a show. Occasional pyrotechnics notwithstanding, the world's first personal monitors were an immediate hit with the musicians who used them. It was obvious that with some refinement the new products could fill a long standing void in the marketplace. Superior Sound began to metamorphose from speaker rental company to speaker manufacturing company. Galaxy Audio was born.
Galaxy's first order of business was to ask our original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to construct drivers capable of handling significantly heavier power loads than the 10-watt models then being used. The OEM added features usually found on much larger drivers: nonferrous and heavy-duty . With improved power handling capacity two drivers could do the work of four, and the size of the cabinet could be reduced by half. Performance and quality were further enhanced when we began manufacturing our own drivers. Later, cooling (a process whereby a metallic emulsion is used to speed the dissipation of heat from the voice coil) was adopted, a change that resulted in an increase in the 5-inch driver's power handling capability from an already impressive 60 watts to 100 watts. That made it possible for each 8 pound HOT SPOT to easily accommodate (get this) 200 watts. A new word was introduced into the English language, "SPLOWT," speaker's splowt states the relationship between its maximum SPL and its weight. The HOT SPOT boasts one of the world's highest splowts: 19.8 bB!
The material being used to build the cabinets had its own limitations (other than flammability). Plywood HOT SPOTS looked like the kind of stuff being cranked out in countless garages and basements. Cheap copies began to turn up all over the place.
The second generation HOT SPOTS were reinforced with Fiberglass, which made them more airtight, infinitely stronger, and nigh unto impossible to bootleg. After Fiberglass came molded ABS plastic and the trapezoidal shape that gives the present day HOT SPOT its distinctive profile.
Today more than 225,000 HOT SPOTs are in use.
Superior Sound was on the road with Mike Finnigan, a noted side man (Jimi Hendrix, Crosby, Stills and Nash) who was launching a solo career. Being from the same city (Wichita), Brock and Jim and Mike went way back. But that didn't stop Finnigan from complaining on stage anytime something in the mix failed to meet his standards. Sometimes in mid song he'd stop just to gripe, "I can't hear the monitors!" Brock and Jim were like survivors of a shipwreck, stranded on their mixing console island in a sea of rowdy concert goers with the main attraction berating them from the stage. "I can't hear myself! Turn up the (bleeping) monitors!" Even with 100 watts of power being pumped into each of the two massive floor wedges positioned next to Finnigan's keyboard, every night was the same, "Turn up the monitors!" The boos and catcalls began to have a decidedly negative effect on the crew's morale.
The challenge was to produce a monitor that could be head above any din. During a mid-tour break, Brock directed speaker builder Larry Schneider, at Superior Sound's Wichita shop, to cram 5-inch drivers four abreast in an enclosure that could fit atop a keyboard or microphone (mic) stand.
Back with the tour it was business as usual except for a single change in the on-stage monitor array. One channel, 350 watts, of a Phase Linear 700, was alotted to the skinny plywood cabinet that rested about three feet from Finnigan's face. The house lights dimmed. Midway through the first set the point at which Finnigan would customarily begin his nightly tirade about the inadequacies of the sound system, he paused to ask, "Could you please turn down the monitor?"
The guys from Superior Sound knew they were on to something. Still, a few bugs remained. Overloading the speakers with eight or nine times as much power as their drivers were designed to handle sometimes produced surprising results: like the time one of the prototypes caught fire (actually burst into flames) during a show. Occasional pyrotechnics notwithstanding, the world's first personal monitors were an immediate hit with the musicians who used them. It was obvious that with some refinement the new products could fill a long standing void in the marketplace. Superior Sound began to metamorphose from speaker rental company to speaker manufacturing company. Galaxy Audio was born.
Galaxy's first order of business was to ask our original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to construct drivers capable of handling significantly heavier power loads than the 10-watt models then being used. The OEM added features usually found on much larger drivers: nonferrous and heavy-duty . With improved power handling capacity two drivers could do the work of four, and the size of the cabinet could be reduced by half. Performance and quality were further enhanced when we began manufacturing our own drivers. Later, cooling (a process whereby a metallic emulsion is used to speed the dissipation of heat from the voice coil) was adopted, a change that resulted in an increase in the 5-inch driver's power handling capability from an already impressive 60 watts to 100 watts. That made it possible for each 8 pound HOT SPOT to easily accommodate (get this) 200 watts. A new word was introduced into the English language, "SPLOWT," speaker's splowt states the relationship between its maximum SPL and its weight. The HOT SPOT boasts one of the world's highest splowts: 19.8 bB!
The material being used to build the cabinets had its own limitations (other than flammability). Plywood HOT SPOTS looked like the kind of stuff being cranked out in countless garages and basements. Cheap copies began to turn up all over the place.
The second generation HOT SPOTS were reinforced with Fiberglass, which made them more airtight, infinitely stronger, and nigh unto impossible to bootleg. After Fiberglass came molded ABS plastic and the trapezoidal shape that gives the present day HOT SPOT its distinctive profile.
Today more than 225,000 HOT SPOTs are in use.
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Date
Aug 31, 2005
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Link ID
9838
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Today, the SoundField range enjoys a reputation as the ultimate microphones for recording both stereophonic and the new developing multichannel surround formats. These unique microphones employ a patented tetrahedral array of closely spaced and time compensated subcardioid capsules to capture the complete three-dimensional soundfield at a single point in space. This single point source pick-up principle avoids all of the time - or phase-related anomalies generated by spaced microphone arrays. Thus, surround recordings made with SoundField microphones can be collapsed to stereo - or stereo recordings to mono - without the phase problems that result in “comb-filtering” (phase cancellation) distortions. Furthermore, a single point source system is the only one that allows a truly phase coherent sub-channel to be derived. Spaced microphone arrays are unable to be reduced without introducing significant phase errors unless some of the microphone signals are discarded, which consequently results in loss of essential audio information.
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The Wunder Audio CM7 Microphone:
The Wunder Audio CM7 uses an original M7 capsule. You can can choose a 40-50 year old M7 capsule that is newly re-skinned to original spec. There is a choice of PVC or 4-6 micron Mylar substrate, thinner diaphragms are also available. Another option is an old M7 with its original diaphragm. This is, however, not recommended as the 50 year old PVC has hardened and would not sound as it did when it left the factory. But with that said, we have matched the sound of one customers old completely stock "Large badge" U47 from 1950. We can also offer new or re-skinned KK47 capsules.
The transformer is made in the US by an ex-Telefunken Germany employee who has the original plans and tooling for the U47 transformer. He uses a higher nickel content to achieve a better low end. The microphone rolls off at 22 Hz instead of the 30-40 Hz of an original U47. We can also install the early larger style U47 transformer that was used in the now legendary "Large Badged" U47's. These first couple of hundred U47's are very sought after sonically.
The problem with a vintage U47 is that the old transformer wire used PVC insulation. This insulation cracks over the years and depending on where, you can loose high or low frequency response. If the mic was stored in high humidity the PVC would of lifted up, bubbled, then cracked while drying out. If the mic were stored too dry the wire would simply have cracked ...
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