West Coast Sound

IT’S FUNNY how old impressions die hard. Remember the loudspeaker wars of the 1960s and 70s? I certainly do. Back then, people would describe speakers as having either an East Coast or a West Coast sound, with the buttoned-down and refined east represented by brands like Acoustic Research, Bozak, and Dynaco, and the more raucous, wild west dominated by Altec Lansing and JBL. Those last two brands both take their names from loudspeaker pioneer James Bullough Lansing, so perhaps the so-called West Coast sound had more to do with heritage than geography.

At that time, the thinking was that if you wanted a speaker that would let you rock out while listening to your Led Zeppelin records and smoking a doobie with your friends, you needed the raw power and dynamism of a JBL or Altec. Meanwhile, jazz cats