A subwoofer for you Hi-Fi "Fans"

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tolivac

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Saw this in another forum-on cinema equipment-but the product is designed for home Hi-fi and Home Theater use-And could it even double as an attic fan-presenting the Eminent Technology rotary Subwoofer-it looks like and sort of acts like a propellor fan-but a diffrence-a voice coil is incoporated into the hub of the fan connected to the blades-as they turn and the coil energized by your amp-the blades vibrate and change pitch transmitting the sounds to the air and into your listening area or home theater.The frequency response is pretty amazing-and the efficiency and ability to reproduce below 20Hz-just what pipe organ 'fans" are looking for-but that price---$12,900.They are also working on an automotive version-you can out thump and boom your friends car!

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Sounds like a nifty design. My only gripe however looks like the rotary woofer will have "standby" noise. A fan, while it's running usually produces a little bit of white noise when the blades chop up the air. I would think one would experience a low level amount of white noise as the rotary woofer spins during it's operation no matter if you have a signal going to it or not.

...then again, I live with the whir of the cooling fan in my DLP projector, and the one in my Mackie power amp, so I imagine another fan in the room wouldn't be that much of a distraction!
 
Its an interesting device-with 5Hz,you will FEEL it more than hear it-but for pipe organ freaks such as me-you could actually "hear" and "feel" 32'and 64' pedal notes-still not with the same intensity as the real thing-but good non the less.
The rotary (Thigpen woofer) named after Bruce Thigpen the engineer that designed it.the woofer is installed in an attic or basement-an opening in the listen ing room or theater room routes the sound from the unit to the area where its needed.On the theater website-they jokeningly referred that it could blow the dust off the back of the screen--keeping the sound perfs clear.It would be interesting to use these in a theater-the Soundtrack for "Earthquake" could be reproduced in its full glory-and you could truely expereince the sound and feel of helicopter rotars and plane propellers.Imagine what the Thigpen rotary woofer could do for Star-Wars spaceship sounds!!-and the swings of lightsabers!!I want one-but will have to wait for that price to come down-.I would figure when no sounds are reproduced by the unit-the fan sound would be there-but when its reproducing the low sounds-the "fan" noise wouldn't be noticed.It would sure go well with the DLP projector and the Mackie amp!!The outfit I work for has some Mackie equipment-their portable sound mixer consoles for broadcast 'feild" jobs.they work well.Other radio stations use Mackie gear-and its very RF resistent.Could be used at a transmitter site.
 
Rock with Mackie

Cyber, How many watts does it push and what kind of speakers do you have?

When I was in a band, we had Mackie powered loudspeakers. Beautiful clear sounding and loud is an understatement.
 
Tolivac...if you might remember...

I have a phobia about fans especially 'whole house fans'. Now you have to show me this.

My skin is crawling and now I have to sleep!
 
Oh I forgot-sorry-The transmitter site --we are sorrounded by high powered fans and blowers to cool the transmitter tubes.Just keep away from the blower rooms!!These are strong enough to exert some suction-and the doors are hard to open when the fans are on.Its now to the point the blower sounds are comforting to me.But the snakes are not--they love the heat in the blower and pump rooms.Mr Thigpen would love to convert those to subwoofers!!
 
Petek: I would LOVE to have a pipe organ in the house-but my home is not big enough.At one radio station I worked at-the owner had a home big enough for one and be bought 2 of them-one was stored at the radio station transmitter site-set up a few of the pipe racks and tried "playing" it with a vacuum cleaner(the white-yellow) Kenmore canister served as the "wind" source-was kinda fun-I don't play though-would love to-have a large collection of organ recordings.I did some work on the organ the radio station manager had-was kinda neat-I didn't get tohear it though-his daugther played and since I was non-Morman-wasn't invited into his home-other folks at the station were and loved it.I did feel sort of left out since I did a little work on it,his Whole House Hi-Fi,and wired all of his TV sets with "lock-out" switches so his kids could only watch at certain times-he had 21 tv's!!One morning I came to the transmitter for my shift and all of those sets stacked there with a package containng the lockswitches and a memo to install them.Kept me busy that day.I know the "mechanics" of the organ and how they work-even was going to work for an organ company at one time-the pay was lower than another job I accepted instead-would have been interesting and fun.Was the Louis and Hitchcock organ builders in Vienna,Va-In the Wash DC area.Most major cities have at least one organ builder.They are fascinating devices-the "Engines of Music"
 
Well you shouldn't be depriving yourself and go out and buy a second hand organ. You can find them so cheap nowadays because people just get rid of them from lack of interest. I always loved classical organ music especially Bach. Calgarys home to the worlds organ competition every four years. Gets all the big names

 
I have been thinking of a used elctronic one-they are more practical to put in a regular home-Yes-the pipe organ would be so cool-but it requires lots of space-a room just for the pipes,another room for the blower,air resevior,and the tracker system.The organ blower--even for a small one-may need 220V power.The blower motor could be--for a small one2-5 hp.I'll have to save the pipe organ idea if I could move into a mansion.fortunately-the electronic ones don't require much more space than a console Hi-fi set.I will have to move around some of my vacuums--.You know-a very vintage WELTE self playing roll organ would be REALLY nice-those were built into mansions.These were custom built into people homes(well to do) at the turn of the century.Some are still around and played.You can play rolls on it-or play the keyboard by hand.WELTES were equipped with Keyboard-pedal boards and the roll frames.
 
I'm always on the lookout for a used Gulbransen. They made a very nice small spinet called the Paragon and one a bit larger with the curved console called the Theatrum I believe, which is the one I'd really like. They had what I always thought the most true to life voices. Of course most of todays digital midi keyboards can mimic them even better but you don't get the keyboards and pedals plus the couplers etc really get the full organ sound or fun.
 
I have looked at -and listned to the digital keyboards at BB,Circuit city,Etc-but they just don't send me-would rather listen to the organ recordings.Their tiny speakers and amplifiers just don't do justice to their voices.You would need to jack them into a separate amp and speakers for better sound.Its an idea though-since those instruments are inexpensive and compact.A console organ would be better-they are harder to find-would have to look in a piano store here to see if they carry them.
 
petek & tolivac and home organs

Hello Gentlemen, I know that there are several brands, but
I have seen Wurlitzer, Hammond, & Conn's frequently @ Salvation Army. They range (at least in appearance to a non-
player ) from looking very basic and bol to rather extravagant,and TOL. As a matter of fact, today in SA I saw a rather nice looking Conn. I guessed it to be in the midlevel
range. It appeared to be of an early to mid 1960's vintage.
Would either of you own one of the 3 brands I mentioned? For a long time I have wanted to get one of the older, I guess they remind me of my Grandmother, she had a Wurltizer in the
mid 60's. The one I saw today was priced @ $75 it will drop 25% in 16 days and another 25% in 30 days. Thanks for your feedback
 
Any of the above could be a good buy but it also depends on the model, if all the features are working, is it a tube or transitor model etc. Knowing if it's working like it's supposed to can be difficult if you're not familiar with electric organs and/or don't play one. Obviously you can turn it on and see if all the keys make music and none are "dead" but you have to try the expression pedal "volume" etc to see if it's smooth, does it have a slide switch in the pedal, most Hammonds do as well as others, which gives that Hawaiin guitar sound. You also have to try each "voice" individually on each key to see none of them are dead. When you get into the fancier models it can get more confusing as to what does what with a plethora of buttons and switches.
If you want at decent real organ sound, either church or theater you'll want at least a middle of the road Hammond/Wurlitzer type with a built in Leslie rotating speaker along with a decent bass and mid ranges. The smaller Hammonds without the slide bars are more geared towards beginners or people who can't play but want auto chording.
The key though I would say is make sure it has a Leslie type speaker, that's what gives the sound life in a smaller unit.
 

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