Who designed the original SP-3? I think it is unique and great

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peteleoni
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Who designed the original SP-3? I think it is unique and great

Post by peteleoni » Thu Dec 03, 2015 6:42 pm

As titled

peteleoni
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Re: Who designed the original SP-3? I think it is unique and great

Post by peteleoni » Sun Dec 06, 2015 11:51 am

Bump
Anybody????

Marty McCann
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Re: Who designed the original SP-3? I think it is unique and great

Post by Marty McCann » Sun Dec 06, 2015 12:41 pm

Peavey Transducer Engineering.

peteleoni
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Re: Who designed the original SP-3? I think it is unique and great

Post by peteleoni » Sun Dec 06, 2015 5:03 pm

Well. Thanks Marty. I am intrigued with them as every time I have ever heard them or used them I have done a double take. So I found some in pristine condition with the Eminence 15's and 22a's. What I need are the "deep" specs. Volume of cab tuning of the cab (it's convoluted in there) and T.S. parameters of the Eminence woofer etc.
I intend to convert them to hifi use, something I think they are ideal for.
Thank You and please direct any peavey speaker design heroes here!

peteleoni
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Re: Who designed the original SP-3? I think it is unique and great

Post by peteleoni » Sun Dec 06, 2015 5:13 pm

Also, it is a very interesting short horn cab. One that must have cost a lot to make actually. I wonder if the short bass horn was inended more as a wave guide to get the crossover to blend to the horn or actually to horn load the woofer. Looks to me like Peavey knew a hell of a lot about constant directivity long before those words were "cool" in the audio world. In fact and in general Peavey does not seem to get the credit for innovation that it deserves imo. My sp3's being a prime example.

peteleoni
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Re: Who designed the original SP-3? I think it is unique and great

Post by peteleoni » Sun Dec 06, 2015 8:15 pm

Calling kindly on Jon R.
I know guru Jon was in on that or at least knows about it.
Thanks

peteleoni
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Re: Who designed the original SP-3? I think it is unique and great

Post by peteleoni » Mon Dec 07, 2015 6:46 pm

B

Marty McCann
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Re: Who designed the original SP-3? I think it is unique and great

Post by Marty McCann » Tue Dec 08, 2015 11:08 am

Although Electro Voice had the 1st patent on a Constant Directivity Horn developed by Don Keel and John Gilliom, they did not bring it to the market place. The story being that all the molds and fixtures for the then current horns were paid for and quarterly profits were high. As a result of this corporate decision, both Don Keel and John Gilliom resigned from EV. John Gilliom came to Meridian and told Hartley Peavey that he had another design for a constant directivity horn that would not violate or infringe upon EV's patent. At the October AES show in NYC in 1978, EV delivered a paper on the new technology, and only had a prototype on display. The EV management were astounded when two doors away from their suite at the Park Plaza hotel, Peavey was demonstrating the very first edition of the SP-1, which had the first CD Horn to reach the marketplace as well as the first Model 22 compression driver.

peteleoni
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Re: Who designed the original SP-3? I think it is unique and great

Post by peteleoni » Tue Dec 08, 2015 1:54 pm

Well that explains a lot. As far as I can see the horn is an sonic improvement over the EV "whales" sounds way more natural. And I guess everyone knows that the FH1
(Bottom half of the SP-1 is a vastly improved simple fold I have several here now. Obviously a Klipsch LaScala derivitive.

But what I an very curious about is the
Straight mid bass horn version of that series the *SP-3* which used a "Perkins" style short mid bass horn below the ubiquitous CH-2 800 hz horn. It is also worth noting that you guys put it through at least one redesign and kept the short horn but added a tuned port below (Klipsch Cornwall style shelf below the bass horn) instead of simple vents on the side of the horn. You the renamed the 1522hc or something like that....sooooo thanks a lot but any more info on the Sp3 (perkins type) in particular would be much appreciated. Thank You
Pete

peteleoni
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Re: Who designed the original SP-3? I think it is unique and great

Post by peteleoni » Tue Dec 08, 2015 1:55 pm

Well that explains a lot. As far as I can see the horn is an sonic improvement over the EV "whales" sounds way more natural. And I guess everyone knows that the FH1
(Bottom half of the SP-1 is a vastly improved simple fold I have several here now. Obviously a Klipsch LaScala derivitive.

But what I an very curious about is the
Straight mid bass horn version of that series the *SP-3* which used a "Perkins" style short mid bass horn below the ubiquitous CH-2 800 hz horn. It is also worth noting that you guys put it through at least one redesign and kept the short horn but added a tuned port below (Klipsch Cornwall style shelf below the bass horn) instead of simple vents on the side of the horn. You the renamed the 1522hc or something like that....sooooo thanks a lot but any more info on the Sp3 (perkins type) in particular would be much appreciated. Thank You
Pete

peteleoni
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Re: Who designed the original SP-3? I think it is unique and great

Post by peteleoni » Tue Dec 08, 2015 11:12 pm

I am now far into audioning a this vintage SP-3 for use my personal start point for constant directivity hifi speaker. I am floored by how little there is for me to improve outside of eq and a sub. Mind you I am a mastering engineer with a housefull of such speakers as B&W 801s Genelecs, Ev Sentry IIIs. You guys must have been looking like the cat that ate the canary when you pulled these out of your hat. Peavey ....up there with Altec JBL Ev and the rest. Funny how all of us including my dumb ass at the time did not know it. I'm betting though that those fools at Gulton who bought up all of those companies knew well the name of Hartley Peavey.
I am floored, though I will bet a lot of you younger guys are going huh? Those old Sp series speakers were jut "ok" The hell they were. (-;

peteleoni
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Re: Who designed the original SP-3? I think it is unique and great

Post by peteleoni » Tue Dec 08, 2015 11:14 pm

Is Jon Gilliam still with us (alive and well) ? I know Don is.

18hands
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Re: Who designed the original SP-3? I think it is unique and great

Post by 18hands » Mon Dec 24, 2018 10:10 am

I'm currently restoring a pair of the original sp-3's.

As a custom speaker cabinet builder I was also very interested in both the HF horn and the woodworking on the LF horn. Still covering them in duratex and making some modifications before I fire them up.
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ka7niq
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Re: Who designed the original SP-3? I think it is unique and great

Post by ka7niq » Tue Aug 24, 2021 2:40 pm

I am going to follow this thread, because I too plan to get either a Peavey SP 1 or SP 2 and because of this thread, I will add the Peavey SP 3 to my list of hunted Peavey Speakers.
I too am an audiophile, and will only be using these speakers at my home, for TV Watching and to play music.
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Re: Who designed the original SP-3? I think it is unique and great

Post by ka7niq » Fri Apr 22, 2022 2:46 pm

peteleoni wrote:
Sun Dec 06, 2015 5:03 pm
Well. Thanks Marty. I am intrigued with them as every time I have ever heard them or used them I have done a double take. So I found some in pristine condition with the Eminence 15's and 22a's. What I need are the "deep" specs. Volume of cab tuning of the cab (it's convoluted in there) and T.S. parameters of the Eminence woofer etc.
I intend to convert them to hifi use, something I think they are ideal for.
Thank You and please direct any peavey speaker design heroes here!
I found a pair about 100 miles away, and I am going to buy them tomorrow! The poop sheet from peavey says they come with the Scorpion Woofer, not an Eminence, unless the Scorpion is an Eminence ?
Here is a picture of what I have now.; These use the same horn, 22a driver, and 800 hz crossover, but my woofers are Black Widows in Scoops. The SP3 has nearly flat frequency response curves, compared to my current speakers that have a big broad peak in the response from 2 to 4K. I EQ this peak out of my speakers using a parametric EQ.
My Woofers do have Bass and the SP3 does not, however, I have Subwoofers, so no big deal.

The question I have is HOW does Peavey get such flat response out of the SP3 ? LOL, the frequency response graph in the Peavey Literature looks almost like a straight line! Very Impressive!
Peavey 115 sc and Horn top.jpg
Peavey 115 sc and Horn top.jpg (133.77 KiB) Viewed 3640 times
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