DCAudioDIY.com

After about 13 years of absence from Audiophilia I am trying getting back into it. Was active on AA at that time and attended few dcaudiodiy meets. Met several people including Roscoe, David McGowan and Gower. Remember the huge horns in Roscoe's home. David McGowan was accumulating speakers for line array speakers then.

Anyways, now I am in NoVA area.

Few years ago I purchased old Altec Horn loaded speakers from an antique store. They were sitting unused in my basement since then. Trying to revive them. They are very promising... 511B Horns with 802D Drivers and 411 woofers.

Couple of other small DIY projects going on....

Horns are cool. However, the 511 is one of Altec's worst... See if you can find some 32s as mentioned in some of the other active threads on the forum....

Roscoe

What do the cabs look like? Do you mean 421A woofers? That would be a musical instrument woof but you can get sound out of them for hifi. Hopefully they are 416s. Don't remember any 411 woofs...

Funny you posted while I was getting ready to post.

one of the 802D driver is not working. There is no continuity between the terminals. So, got an original 511 with 802D driver on Ebay, which is sitting on top of the speaker. Using N-500D crossover.

Initial impressions.

I never heard the dynamics like this before. They just draw you into the music, I often find myself listening to music for hours. Little harshness on the high frequencies which is tamed slightly by the grill (see photos with and without the grill). Bass is very tight and goes down to 30Hz. Piano sounds like a piano.

The cabinets are sealed, having trouble getting the horn out for replacement. Back wall of the speaker wont pry loose.

Roscoe, how do you describe difference between 511 and 32s?
In an another forum folks suggested building the midrange attenuated 30904. Got the parts for it, may be next weekend.
http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/ ... post394213


Shashi

J-ROB wrote:What do the cabs look like? Do you mean 421A woofers? That would be a musical instrument woof but you can get sound out of them for hifi. Hopefully they are 416s. Don't remember any 411 woofs...

411s are 15" Woofers with freq response from 20Hz to 1000Hz. Mine are crossed over at 500Hz.

Spec Sheet at:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Altec+4 ... 8&oe=utf-8

Oh yeah, forgot about those "special" woofers. Don't see too many around. They could be very interesting!

Your speakers look like Altec Santiagos.

The EQ crossover is a good idea generally. The idea is to drop the mids so that the HF looks peaked. The midrange efficiency thrown away to achieve the curve is totally excess to needs anyway.

There's a good description of the difference here: http://jelabs.blogspot.com/2014/01/alte ... redux.html

I think I have a pair of those in the garage with woofers that need to be re-foamed...

Roscoe

J-ROB wrote:Oh yeah, forgot about those "special" woofers. Don't see too many around. They could be very interesting!

Your speakers look like Altec Santiagos.

The EQ crossover is a good idea generally. The idea is to drop the mids so that the HF looks peaked. The midrange efficiency thrown away to achieve the curve is totally excess to needs anyway.

These are larger than Santiagos and the horn is 511B instead of 811B. I could not find a spec sheet to match them.

Roscoe Primrose wrote:There's a good description of the difference here: http://jelabs.blogspot.com/2014/01/alte ... redux.html

I think I have a pair of those in the garage with woofers that need to be re-foamed...

Roscoe

interesting comparison. Love to hear the 32b'

Everybody is looking for 32s! It's Esmilla's fault, I tell you.

I'm going to try to lend him some gear to blog about so I can manipulate the market price to my benefit...

Somebody needs to find a good cheap current production 1" horn. I am sure there is something out there. B&C, Faital Pro, or something like that.

I love vintage Altec but availability is becoming a problem.

Not for 811/511s...there is no shortage of those cowbells. A lot of people seem to like them well enough, however.

Really, it is all up to whatever Cogito thinks (Latin/English joke there)

Roscoe, if you are talking about woofers from Model 15s, I believe they are the so called "RCA" woofers (part number begins with RCA), not 411s.