High Efficiency Speaker Asylum

Posted by bald2 (A) on June 19, 2016 at 00:36:26

In Reply to: RE: New 414 crossover yet ?? posted by amandarae on June 13, 2016 at 17:49:05

Hi Abe-
I've enjoyed following your thread and recent posts about your Altec/ Azura horn system. I also have 414(Zs, which are 16 ohm) in 5 cubic ft cabs. Until tonight, I had been trying to mate the 414s with a nice pair of LeCleach profile 550 hz wood horns turned by Gary Pimm, who lives near me in Portland, OR. Am using Emilar 175 1" Alnico drivers, which I find to be superior to the 802Ds I've had on these horns. Even more natural and musical-- and I love the 802Ds. Crossovers are based upon Joseph Esmilla's schematic for the modded N1500, which is fairly similar to the model 19 xover. But the system never sounded right, with the 32Cs I had (the plastic ones) or the wood horns.

And now the good news... tonight I finally got everything dialed in! A friend brought over his 32Bs, which he had restored. He is a machinist by trade and a perfectionist about things mechanical AND incredibly knowledgeable about horns with almost 40 years of experience building, collecting and listening to old and new components, active crosses, tube gear and such. A fellow traveller. We listened for several hours and we were both gobsmacked.:)

Anyway, we put the Emilars on the 32Bs. The crosses use paper in oil caps and good coils, but could use higher quality resistors. I'm running a restored Scott 299D and a Pioneer Elite 65 CD player ( a beefy, single bit ladder DAC unit) these days...

The system is magical. The 414s have a palpable, tangible sound unto the real thing and the coherence with the 32/175 is breathtaking. I will have proper boxes built up and will post pics here soon.

So glad to have seen this thread. I had set aside my project out of frustration until tonight:)

Cheers!

Harry Z