Need blueprints of RCA theremin cabinet.

My sugestion is to make it tall enough that most, but not all, of the "diamond" is above your head. Otherwise, make sure it is not too tall for a typical ceiling height.

A simple, flat open baffle up to 24 inches square should be sufficient. If the "diamond" needs to be smaller, you can make it a smaller, shallow, open-back box. For example, a 16-18 inch square with 3-4 "sides" towards the back.

One issue you need to be conscious of is weight. This thing is going to be top-heavy. The heavier it is, the more unstable it is going to be.
Also, do you intend to lug this thing around?

Having an open baffle will provide you with less fullness and power, but it will have a more airy, vocal quality.
If you make it a sealed enclosure you "may" get more fullness and power, but then you get into the sticky problems of cabinet design.

I understand that Floyd Engels had some well laid out plans for a diamond speaker. Mike Buffington can expound on this more than I can. He posted an exploded diagram of one a couple of years ago, but no hard dimensions.

Otherwise, as I said before, the rest is up to your imagination (and budget).

You can see a couple of examples on Charles Lester's website.

Theremin Gallery (http://www.137.com/gallery/)

And, of course, you can see *my* favorite version, the Ondine, on Peter Pringle's website.

I've already spent some time drawing up a few ideas for diamond speaker designs. I've not yet made a finished design because I wasn't able to come up with an ornamental design that I liked.

If you are not in any particular hurry, I can draw up a basic design along with a parts list.

I had also considered a folding baffle to keep the size I wanted and still make it more portable.

Hi Rowsby, I'll certainly post pics at my site once construction starts. However, it likely won't be a tube type, at least not just yet. (I'll leave room for that later.)

Jeff S, I'm certainly not in any rush, and would welcome whatever you can provide.

I was about to do an extrapolation based on Clara's hight by watching videos, and studying photos, allthough there's so much room for error in that course. The only problem with that rout, is there's no images showing the base of these speakers.

One thing I'll need to keep in mind, is that these lovely diamond speakers can turn into a sail in out-door venues, and would certainly require substantial mass in the base to prevent being blown over, and posing liability issues in that regard. It's best used indoors. ;)

I only wish I knew how to weld, because the Ondine is on my list of replicas to build when I get a chance. Certainly there may be alternatives to welding. I do wonder what affect the large spiral grill has on sound. Could it produce a light reverb effect?

While we're on this topic ...

Over on the RS Theremin site, there's a picture of Lev with a triangular speaker cabinet. Anyone know anything more about that cabinet?

That's the only place I have ever seen that picture. All others show him with diamond shaped cabinets.

Don

I've seen that triangular speaker with Lev too.

The only thing I know about it is it was used as a prop in the move "This Island Earth". It was used as the "interocitor", which was a telecomunications and weapons device in the movie.

I wondered about that! They were the same shape and I had wondered if This Island Earth (one of my all time favorite movies, BTW) had been inspired by it. I had no idea they might have actually used it as a prop!

Don

Yeh, kind of ironic, really when you stop to remember that that vintage of movie would liely have had theremin in it if it had been shot a little sooner.

I guess by that time though, the theremin was prettymuch in the dark, and nearly forgotten.

Oh dear, that's why they don't let me drive. I thought it was released in 1966. Under high power magnification my DVD shows 1955. So, I'm surprised it didn't have theremin in it now.

There's a post elsewhere within TW about the husband and wife team that did the sound effects for that movie. The story is pretty amazing ... as I remember there is more about them on Wendy Carlos' site with pictures of their studio.

Since they were in NY, it would make sense they might have encountered theremins and old abandoned hardware. More of that 6 degrees of separation stuff. LOL

Don

Hi Don, I'll have to search for that story. That sounds interesting.