With the kind permission of :



By Bill Gaw (Enjoy the Music)

"Best Horn sound has to be, believe it or not from a pair of theater speakers made by Siemens, a photo of which can also be found in Steve's article. 1960's vintage and taking up the entire wall of a huge room, they came close to the best reproduction I have gotten from my system (but not quite.)"

"The best sounding, as mentioned previously, was a 6x10' baffled pair of Siemen's Theater Horns which were being used to demonstrate a new turntable, the name of which I've since forgotten. Driven by Lamm SET $29,000 amps, they sounded superb, giving the most lifelike reproduction of an orchestra that I've heard at a show. Unhappily they haven't been built since the 60's, so are obviously unavailable unless someone is tearing down an old theater in your area. This is not so far fetched as you might think. There are many recently closed old theaters in small towns, run out of business by the Megaplexes that may be happy to sell you for a pittance their old horn speakers and tube electronics. Look around and let me know."

By Dave Glackin (Enjoy the Music)

"One of the biggest rooms at T.H.E. Show housed the Most Outrageous Loudspeakers, namely the eye-popping Siemens flat-front horn theater loudspeakers, powered by Lamm electronics sporting the tri-tipped 6C33C vacuum tube. These were rare, original 1960 speakers with about a 6-by-8-foot frontal area. The sound was quite enjoyable, and it was fun to watch the reaction of Clark Johnsen and many others to both the appearance and sound quality of these honking big mothers. Pictured are Vladimir Lamm at his room in the Alexis Park, and the monstrous Siemens speakers at the San Remo. www.lammindustries.com"

By Dick Olsher (Enjoy the Music)

"OK, so it isn’t a commercial product, but the Siemens Bionor horn loaded cinema speaker made by Klangfilm in Germany and dating back circa 1960 was for me a fantastic experience. Kudos to LAMM Industries Vladimir Lamm and distributor David Carmeli for going to a lot of trouble in order to display one of the greatest speakers of all time. Visitors were treated to glorious horn sound with stupendous dynamics and unbelievably tactile voicing. Relative to a modern audiophile favorite such as the Wilson Audio Grand Slam, the Bionor is of course a different “cup of tea,” but if I had the room and could find a pair, that’s what I’d be drinking.

Associated equipment included the LAMM ML2 power amplifiers and L2 Reference preamp. The LAMM LP2 phono preamp and American Sound turntable fitted with a SME 3012-R tonearm comprised the analog front end. The Weiss Medea DAC and CEC transport made up the digital front end."

By Clement Perry (The Stereo Times)

"Damoka's David Karmeli room featured what only can be described as a blast from the past. The enormous Siemens Bionor open baffled horn loudspeakers (circa 1960) which, by the way were in mint condition, measured an amazing 6 feet high and a staggering 8 feet wide. While they took up most of the listening wall, they literally disappeared once the lights were set low, the gawkers got seated and the music started. After spending time in Tokyo covering the 2000 Singapore Show, I saw plenty of rooms sporting this very same type setup with a sound that was nothing like I've heard repeated here in the US. Single ended triodes and large horn-loaded loudspeakers are as common over there as Corn Flakes are here.

This system's analogue front end consisted of The American Sound Turntable weighing in at over 440 lb., featuring two SME 3012 tonearms, one using the Shelter 901 cartridge while the other was equipped with the vintage Autofon SEU Mono. The phono stage featured the Lamm LP2 ($6,900) which digital was fronted by the CEC TL-0 ($17,900) for the first day, until it broke from shipping. It fed zeros and ones into the new highly touted Weiss Medea dac ($10,000). The preamp was the Lamm L2 ($13,690) while all amplification was the Lamm ML2's $29,900). All cabling was by Strerovox.

Needless to say, physically, the sound of this room was purposely designed for discerning audiophiles who would not contemplate such a grand setup for themselves, but musically, fully appreciate it. This is art at its zenith. The sound was at once liquid and fluid. As big as this setup, it reproduced violin as delicate and harmonically truthful, with proper size, as one could ask. Congratulations to David Karmeli for reminding all of us what this is all aboutÂ…the music."

By Greg Weaver (The Stereo Times)

One of the most fascinating rooms at T.H.E. Show, without question, was the Damoka room, where David Karmeli had assembled one of, if not the, most lifelike sounding rooms I've ever heard under any conditions.

Using a pair of Siemens Bionor Loudspeakers, with a born on-date of January 1960, these enormous classic horns were celebrating their 43rd birthday! Given their age, there is no way to place a price on these six-foot tall, eight-foot wide antiques. Sources in the room were the $9,800 Weiss Medea D/A Converter or the $45,000 The American Sound Turntable with multiple SME 3012R tonearms and various carts. The phono stage was Vladimir "changed his last name to Lamm" Shushurin's $6,900 Lamm LP2 connected the $12,900 Lamm L2 Reference Line Stage which in turn fed a pair of the $29,900 ML2 SET Monoblocks. Connectivity throughout was provided by the new Stereovox Analog cabling, roughly $30,000 worth.

These super-sized historic horns are without question the least aggressive and most coherent horn speakers I've ever run across. Though most horns may offer lifelike dynamics, many other negative attributes, such as their general aggressiveness and discontinuous and nonlinear frequency balance, have conspired to keep me from ever finding a horn that I felt was truly an all-encompassing speaker. Well, it seems all I needed was a time machine, because these relics were the real deal. While one would expect quite a bit from gear with this kind of sticker price, that alone is never a guarantee of such solid, all-inclusive and integrated performance. This system may possibly be the most lifelike sounding electro-mechanical sound reproduction system I've ever heard!

The hard part was getting a seat in this room. Once someone sat down in the dozen or 14 odd chairs at the south end of the room, they tended to stay. I noticed that both Clark Johnsen (author of The Wood Effect) and recording engineer Stan Ricker were among the many who were slow to give up their seats in that room. I know I went back Monday morning, after CES had closed down but Mike's T.H.E. Show was still going, to get some quality time in front of this rig.

On a musical note, it was in this room that I was introduced to a recording from one of the most accomplished soloists on the doublebass, equally matched by its sonic splendor. The lyrical prowess Gary Karr displays over his 1611 Amati doublebass on The Spirit of Koussevitzky [VQR Digital VQR 2031] is unparalleled in my years of listening. The proficiency of this artist, and the emotion he wrings from this period instrument, approach genius, while the sonics are nothing short of superb. Track 12, Reinhold Gliére's "Prelude, Op. 32, No. 1," really highlights the tonal weight and full, aged body the instrument. This is a spectacular recording, and this system really allowed it to be recognized as such!

...

The significance of the experiences I describe from the last two rooms has given me much to rethink. While the electron luv/Cain & Cain/PranaWire room would have benefited greatly from greater clarity and detail in the highs and much more bass support, and the Siemens/Lamm room tended to create a slightly larger than lifelike soundstage, those experiences represent the first times in over 3 decades of listening to music through these silly toys that I ever had such revelatory experiences with tube driven horn loaded drivers.

By Neli & Mike (Audio Federation)

"Lamm/Klangfilm Bionor ballroom-sized horn speakers.
Lamm ML2, L2, CEC transport, American Sound??? turntable . These speakers are each approximately 10 feet wide by 8 feet tall. What can we say: huge sound, able to render big band sound in a realistic size and seperation. Very real and powerful with an ease that I had not heard before. But, I do not know what Neli was thinking but what I was really thinking was that this looked like it came out of an old movie theater and that if we had a room big enough in our house, I could put these speakers along the front wall, put a front projection video screen between them, and recreate Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Miles Davis on demand. OK, it was the last day of the show and I was tired. I thought it really showed a love of the hobby for these people to go to the trouble to bring in these HUGE speakers (they had to disassemble part of the external wall just to get them, still in many pieces, into the room), pay for a room to set them up in, and play tunes so that we can all share this experience."

By Greg Petan (Ulta Audio)

The next stop proved there is more than one way to float the boat. Lamm Industries showed off their ML2 amplifier and L2 preamp to great effect. Lamm coupled them with some enormous vintage horn speakers, and BeethovenÂ’s Moonlight Sonata on vinyl washed over me with grace and beauty, causing me to re-evaluate my aversion to tube- and horn-based systems. American Sound constructed the turntable, a prototype, from blocks of solid steel. Despite its compact dimensions the base alone weighs in at 400 pounds!


By Arnis Balgalvis (The Audiophile Voice)

At the last hour I ran into Vladimir Lamm, the creator of the famous amplifiers by Lamm Industries. Since I was way behind schedule, I was in a hurry. Luckily for me, he would not have any of that. He politely guided me into the sweet spot, and had me sit and prepare to listen. At that point, knowing Vladimir, I realized I was in for a treat. He put on an old Connoisseur Society LP of Ivan Moravec doing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, and he had me. Captivated, amazed, and intrigued. Bewitched, bothered, and bewildered. How come? You see, I was listening to 42-year-old speakers! They were the Siemens Bionor Loudspeakers. A two-way system, it consisted of a horn-loaded mid-range and tweeter unit and a horn-loaded cone woofer. Not too unusual...except that each side was seven feet high, a good 10 feet wide and at least five feet deep right behind the drivers.What was bothering me was that I was listening to a decades old product and I was absorbed and involved. I had really expected that much more progress had taken place in the intervening years. It also occurred to me that, given the progress in amplification and playback, the designers of this speaker probably never got to appreciate just how great their accomplishment really is.

By Jeff Day

"You might be wondering what speaker stood at the very top of my personal podium at this years show. For my tastes it was the vintage 1960’s Siemens horns in the Lamm (http://www.lammindustries.com) room hands down. These big horns were about ten feet tall and fifteen feet wide each! There are a lot of small auditoriums that don’t have that kind of stage width! They had two 12” or 15” (not sure) drivers in each bass horn, paired with a mid-range / tweeter horn to cover the rest. They are a smaller version of the horns they used behind the screens in movie theaters back when, scaled down to fit in a home – a big home at that. They were discovered in Japan by David, purchased at a moments listen to just one of the speaker’s bass horn, and then taken apart and shipped over from Japan and set up for the show with a dedicated room which was specially built into a San Remo conference room to demo them to the show goers lucky enough to come into the room. The planned Vitavox corner horns they were going to use remained in a corner unheard. Maybe next year huh guys? Nothing in the speakers has been altered from their original manufacture, and with the Lamm gear they were absolutely stunning and played music better than any other system I have ever heard. The tonality was so natural and true to life it was enough to make a person weep and I nearly did—my eyes literally teared up listening to the majestic beauty of the big Siemens. Witnessing these Siemens speakers tells me that speaker building hasn’t advanced at all since 1960, in fact if you consider most speakers it has regressed considerably. Even Terry Cain, who makes extraordinary horn speakers, told me at Bob Crump’s after hour’s AA party that he thought the big Siemens were the best sound of the show. That’s extremely high praise coming from the normally reserved Terry, and he knows his stuff. I just want to say thanks to David and Mario for making it possible to hear these musical monsters, it was truly a Herculean effort to build a room and assemble the Siemens in them. The trip to CES was worth it just to see these speakers. Wow! If anyone was to make modern versions of these things, and you had the room to put them in (I don’t), I can’t imagine you would ever leave the house again. Hey, maybe the CAR guys or Terry Cain would like to take a crack at a reproduction? They’re probably the only ones in the USA that would have a chance of pulling it off. Whew! I am totally blown away! I ran into David and Mario in the coffee shop of the San Remo on the way out to catch a plane on Saturday and they invited me to New York to do some more listening. New York’s a long ways from Washington State but it would be worth it to hear these amazing speakers again!"

By Rod Morris

"Yes, they do indeed take up an entire 20 odd foot wall. As one fellow was heard to say, I want them, but I don't have the room! Built in around 1960, you'll find these beasts in the Lamm room at the San Remo. Here's a shot of Seimens compression driver used in the Vitavox speaker"

By Edp

"Hit - Lamm Seimens Bionor
The complete opposite of the Halcro/Wilson. Ease, emotive, technically flawed, audiophile gymnastics deficient, but it played music that had the ability to connect with the listener instantaneously. Could it do DynoStomp/Organ pipe bass - nope.

Could it do the SACD 30Khz zing - nope. Could it present a realistic sized concert grand piano with tonal consistency across the entire scale - yep. Could it full output without compression/clip of a Soprano aria - yep. Could it do a Ellington big band live rendition of A Train with the full sized presentation imaging, not the scaled down micro sized razor thin version, - yep. Could it make you forget about stereo and multichannel, ditch it all and go mono. yep.

Great kudos need to go to the Lamm folks for the supporting electronics and the willingness to share the unusual gem. To me it spoke through the decades of speaker designers who knew something that has either never been learned or forgotten by many present speaker builders, myself included."