Audio Engineering Society

Chicago Section

Meeting Review, October 18, 2008

10/18/08 Meeting Highlights
by Ryan Scott

At the October meeting of the Chicago Section, about twenty members made the trip to Milwaukee to visit Bob Paquette�s Microphone Museum. The museum is a private collection that Bob has been growing for 58 years. The museum contains over 1000 microphones, the majority of which are pre-1950. Every nook and cranny is packed with interesting items including ribbon, crystal, condenser and electrets microphones. The tour was very informal, giving the members a chance to chat with Bob and hear many of the fascinating stories he had about each of the microphones.

Also on display were a few wire recorders (pre-tape!), a record cutter, a giant horn which was once used to amplify a movie theater with only 2 watts. Bob also demonstrated a pair of very early Klipsch loudspeakers that contained an 18� woofer and folded horn super tweeter giving them a range of 30 to 43kHz. The museum also had a few large balanced armature motors that can be used to drive paper cones and can be retrofitted with a mouth-piece that can be bitten by the user to allow for bone conduction of audio. On top of all this, Bob has even restored a Model-T Ford which he noted cost about $500 in the late 20�s, the same price as a quality condenser microphone.

The Chicago Section would like to thank Bob Paquette and Select Sound Service, Inc.

For information about the museum please visit: