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A friend offered me a great deal on a pair of GPA 416-8B and 399 compression drivers.
I have a fairly large second living room that I can put the speakers in and a change of pace from the ESL63 would be welcome, plus allow me to fool around with lower powered amps :0)
I was thinking about some sort of Altec inspired speaker ala A8 (the speaker I build can be much deeper). The cabinets can be large, the only requirement is that the horn be self enclosed in the cabinet and not external. And I would prefer if I didn't have to design the crossover from scratch. I am fine with building something with plans.
Any ideas are welcome!
Follow Ups:
I've been in touch with GPA, they have a crossover that should work very well for this purpose.
You may have to pad down the 399 as the GPA Model 19 crossover is designed for the 902 1 inch driver not the 399 driver and the 399 is 110db sensitivity and the 902 is 105.7db sensitivity. The 416 is like 97db to 99db sensitivity in a vented enclosure.
What I'm saying is don't give up on the 416 399 combo until you get the 399 balanced with the 416 as I almost quit with the 399 and went back to the 902. I had the 902 on QSC PL-000466GP horn. That is another great sounding combo.
Kenny
Also I have tried low powered SET's and they sound nice in the mids and up but I just found you need more power for the 416.
Maybe in a much bigger cabinet they will need less power but to me the 416 comes alive with more power. Just my opinion. But SET's are great for mid range and voices.
Kenny
I think I might go with push pull, but with DHT output tubes.
The 416 in A7 enclosures absolutely crank with a good 20 watt SET. Depends on the quality of the SET, of course.
20 watt SET will do it. I just think 5 watts or so is too soft of a sound in the bass.
I do have a 8 watt single ended EL84 that sounds pretty nice in the low end but a 22 watt 805 SET sounds real good in the low end, gives much more of a kick in the pants.
Kenny
Generally speaking I do agree that a 5 watt SET will likely be soft in the bass. I think matchups like this gave SETs the reputation of having soft bass. Folks look at a 100db/watt rating, think "Oh, I'll never use a watt even", and get a 5 watter. Since they feel they have plenty of power they conclude SETs have soft bass with no depth. In reality, in many cases they just did not have enough reserves in the amp to keep to relatively low distortion on low frequency transients.
Just relax and take your time when learning about simple yet VERY HIGH QULITY passive crossover designs (2nd order for both drivers).
These ARE great drivers that are wonderful to design with. I have three pairs of the Altec 416's and many Altec compression drivers.
I am glad that size is not a problem for the bass portion of your design as the 416's need the cabinet to come alive. And come alive they will. The compresion drivers are kind of a cosmetic issue as far as the box is concerned.
Lance A.
I built 5.65 cu. ft. tuned to 34.68 Hz cabinets. I used GPA 1200 model 19 crossovers so I could adjust the mids and highs on the GPA 399's. This is per Bill's suggestion at GPA. I used Eighteen Sound XT1464 horns. I had to put L pads after the crossovers to the 399's because they are so efficient I couldn't get them to balance with the 416's. They were too loud.After all of the adjusting I did I can listen to them for long periods of time without getting tired of them.
But I think the key is to get the GPA 416 and GPA 399 balanced sound volume wise or you will never be happy with them. Also pad down the mids of the 399's and let the top frequencies thru or you will think they sound dull.
I used two 4 inch round vents per cabinet and 3/4 inch Baltic Birch. I used the golden rule for cabinet dimensions. I also did not put the 399's and horns in the cabinet with the 416's. I put then in a separate sub enclosure above the bass cabinet.
Kenny
Edits: 10/05/14 10/05/14
Excellent, I'll look into the GPA crossovers. I'm going to order a calibrated mic as well.
Also thanks to Lance and Scholl.
There are many ideas for 15" two ways.
I don't recoment a ductless port. Too much higher frequency energy is reflected back out. Consider a duct port, shelf or tube.
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