On that note, we are going to start taking it easy on the creation of redundant posts like these polls, please. As always we welcome discussion regarding these devices, and in this case particularly which models are preferred over others, but these numerous polls are becoming excessive.
Ok, this will be the last for a while.
But, my favorite wheelock device is the ch70 chimes. I had always wanted to own one since I started collecting, and now, I do in fact own one. Only issue is that they are a pain to mount as the chime itself is very large, requiring a back box extender
Although I never heard them go off in person, I think the Wheelock 7001/7002s look interesting and would be nice to hear in a system if I was ever someplace where they were.
I love the design of the Wheelock E70s but their sound quality is noticeably poorer than the System Sensor Speaker Strobes. Not a big deal for fire alarm paging systems but since I also play music over my system it’s nice to have a high-fidelity speaker.
Also, the 7002/7002Ts were installed in my elementary school. They used to scare me but now I love that iconic pulse in the horn tone every time the strobe fires. Very unique (albeit a design imperfection).
I’d have to side with the majority here. The 7000 series is unique in quite a few ways, from the design to the tone to the fact that it was the first horn/strobe ever released. I have to say that the NS is a close second aesthetics-wise, but has a fairly pedestrian tone.
It might not have been entirely accidental. Wheelock actually marketed its pulsing tone as a feature, since it was easier to hear over background noise than a straight continuous tone. It could almost be considered one of the first self-coding fire alarm signals, along with the original Fire-Lites that had the flasher circuit.
Also, I felt like mentioning that when I first heard a recording of the 7002T on the Schumin Web as a kid, I was like “what the heck is that”? I’d seen plenty of 7002T’s, but never heard them, and was pretty surprised at how weird they sounded.
Some people may not agree with me, but I prefer the 7002T’s on FWR over Filtered DC on SOME of them(the good sounding ones, not the ones that seem to struggle on FWR), because it sounds more attention getting than on Filtered DC. Here is one of the good sounding ones on FWR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aacUiejlP_g
For design, I have to go with the vertical LSM strobe Wheelock MultiTone series. For some reason I get a lot of “unexperienced nostalgia” vibes looking at those alarms, particularly because of how the FIRE part of the strobe is normally yellow, or the aesthetic of the store they’re mounted in. The two main stores I can remember that have MT-LSMs are the un-renovated Sears at my local mall, and the (now closed obviously) K-Mart that used to be open like 5 years from now farther away, and they both had that yellow colour inside with the incandescent lights. A close runner up would be the Z-series alarms, because of how clean & modern they look.
Best sounding alarm– or alarms– are the NS all the way to the LED Exceeder piezos, because it isn’t really that loud since the tone is mid-ranged. My High School has the Siemens rebrand of the Z-Series so I know what it sounds like with the bare ear.
I’d like to add that the A-series is probably the most horrid sounding alarm in the catalogue. Thank you.