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RE: (Altec) 604 - Field Coil Version e.g. by Wolf von Langa- experiences?

Posted by Joe Roberts (M) on January 10, 2016 at 06:53:06

In Reply to: (Altec) 604 - Field Coil Version e.g. by Wolf von Langa- experiences? posted by baja on January 2, 2016 at 11:14:19:

I know Wolf fairly well and I get to hear his latest creations several times a year, ETF and Munich show.

I'd say the general quality level of his stuff is very high, coming from the crazed German perfectionist that he is. He really is a maniac in this regard.

I have heard Wolf's field coil 515s in several settings. They sounded great.

That said, I am not sure that I would buy a speaker because it is field coil. Even within the subset of WE555 originals and copies there seems to be a range of qualities. Heard some myself and have trusted friends who have heard more.

A good Alnico speaker is better than a worse electrodynamic.

The closest I came to comparing directly was old 515s/288C vs. Lansing 415/287s back in the 80s. The Lansings seemed faster and more detailed and energized the room in an electrostat sort of way that the 515s and 288s didn't. But I went on to listen happily to Alnico 288s/416s for fifteen years after. My Lansings are part of the Silbatone museum collection now and I get to visit them often, since I doubt they are coming back here...

I also get to hear FC Iconics at Silbatone. Although the old Lansing crossovers are probably dubious, these are more lively than, say, an Altec Alnico equivalent setup.

And I personally have found the 604 difficult to get right. In fact, I gave up several times. And although I am still often tempted because I like the concept and historical air of 604s, I think it is far more promising to use separate woofer and HF horn so you can put a better horn in there for one thing, but also to avoid the crossover limitations of a cone that doesn't want to go high and a small horn that shouldn't be crossed so low, and to sidestep the interference between the two drivers resulting from the mechanical arrangement of the ensemble.

I had far better results with B&C 12CXBs and they were only a couple hundred a pair. Not famous classics but they worked quite well with no irksome anomalies.

I heard really great 604s one time (could have been 605s) in Jean Hiraga's room at Munich HighEnd some years ago. Super coherent, smooth and spunky room filling sound. Awesome. I intended to go back the next day and try to pry some crossover tricks out of this master of the passive Altec crossover but the room caught on fire overnight and the next day they were gone.

To me, the separate horn/woofer advantages may swamp the alnico/field coil considerations intellectually, but it all comes down to specific implementations and tuning in the end.

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