Members bikehorn Posted December 30, 2003 Members Share Posted December 30, 2003 this was a design that began life as a 50's-era hifi box. it was designed to have extended bass response, which, i guess was hard to come by back in the day. they were sold as kits or completed hifi speakers for quite some time. apparently the design also made its way into sound reinforcement and bass amplification. my first encounter with this design was on the Plexi Palace Hiwatt board. someone had just bought a DR405 and he owned a Karlson with a Gauss speaker in it that he powers with a Sound City B150. he says it sounds great with his bass. i found out from him that they were used on an ealry 90's Sting tour as well as by Lee Sklar on tour. whether they were for bass, or as FOH subs, i don't know. later, i came across a pair of Karlsons on eBay which a guy had made himself. they were in PA spec, with carpet covering, an Eminence Deltalite 15" speaker and all the usual things you find on a PA box. in the description he mentioned how he found the design in a speaker book and built them because the design intrigued him. also said he had a friend with a DJ business, who field tested them and was quite satisfied. my research on these things indicates some people in the SR field absolutely hate these things, while others think they sound great. some people like to add a horn to them to make them full-range. they look like this: the funny looking thing on the right is the Karlson. what is the deal with these? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bikehorn Posted December 30, 2003 Author Members Share Posted December 30, 2003 this site here is the definitive source for info on Karlsons. http://home.planet.nl/~ulfman/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ezstep Posted December 30, 2003 Members Share Posted December 30, 2003 If I am not mistaken, I remember that Gauss made their bass cabinets like that well up into the '90's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted December 30, 2003 Members Share Posted December 30, 2003 The slot-aperature acts like a very shallow acoustical low pass filter... TOA used the slot aperature on a few of their cabinets. It was also very common on large horn loaded bass cabinets to eliminate phase interaction off the cone face at higher frequencies when a higher crossover frequency is required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bikehorn Posted December 30, 2003 Author Members Share Posted December 30, 2003 Originally posted by ezstep If I am not mistaken, I remember that Gauss made their bass cabinets like that well up into the '90's. i have had a hard time find much out about them. do you know much about these things? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bikehorn Posted January 1, 2004 Author Members Share Posted January 1, 2004 help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members w1nn1e Posted February 6, 2013 Members Share Posted February 6, 2013 These enclosures are as efficient as a 40 foot horn. They can be used to create ambient sound that seems to have no directional source. Great for bass, organ and piano. They are huge but not heavy. Some hi fi types get either snobby or giggley over them. I hve owned a pair since the 1970's. Mine were made from plans, but I have also owned some original enclosures. I sold them because they were too large for stereo applications as I didn't have a warehouse sized home to crank them up in. That's all I know... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Pro Sound Guy Posted February 9, 2013 Members Share Posted February 9, 2013 I believe Acoustic Bass amp company used the Karlson cabinet design back in the "day"I think I saw Stanley Clark using that cabinet on Yous Toob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members spottyaudio Posted February 9, 2013 Members Share Posted February 9, 2013 i use a pair, in a way to small room, loaded with electrovoice 15 trxb coaxial drivers. this is my main stereo listening rig, they sit atop large subs and the stacks totally dominate this poor little room. they are big, but as stated, not really heavy. mine are orriginal cabs in ok but not great condition, really could use a new layer of vineer. they were fitted with the same slot in caster holes that guitar cabinets use, but i dont have wheels in them. there bass response is really nothing to write home about with todays bass heavy modern music. i'm crossing mine over at 55 ish hz to the subs and they really sound great like this. the drivers used are extremely efficient, 3 watts of tube power can get damn loud, with dynamics that can really surprise the unprepared. as for pa use, i dont think i'd bother. much smaller cabs can get just as loud with todays cheap lightweight power, and while not as cool looking as the carlsons, a lot of venues justdont have the space to do these things right as you'd still need foh subs and thats a pretty goodsized footprint to take up in a cramped bar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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