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Altec Valencia Cabinets

Posted by Interstage Tranny on December 12, 2009 at 15:57:05:
I am following this thread closely. I have both Valencias in home, the 16 Ohm and 8 Ohm versions. The 16 Ohmer uses the compliment of drivers Les is using, plus I use the seriously good original N800F xover. So, what made these speakers so classic ? How can an undersized box sound so good, so huge ? How can it image so well ?

First, the original 16 ohmer trounces the 8 ohmer. The 8 ohmer uses ducted ports each side of the woof. The 8 ohmer uses a complex xover, with small iron-core trannies. So, not only does the 8 ohmer sacrifice efficiency, the xover slopes are far sharper in cutoff than the low phase shift 16 ohm xover.

The 16 ohmer, 846A, has the bass ports on each side of the horn; very important. Also very important is the close coupling of woof surround to tweeter mouth(front of horn). These close coupling methods, plus the low phase shift xover, yield the incredible imagery these Valencias are capable of setting up.

So, turning the box upside down and moving the tweeter/horn atop a molded wooden barrier(the old top or bottom molding flange) must have some immediate sonic differences, to be sure. Tweaking this new design will take time, and I am proud that you added more "box" in the rear; how resourceful...

When the horn is inside the box, attached to the box, it does not ring. But, lying it atop a box can bring out the worst in its' ringing. BTW, another tweeter mod to avoid is cutting the brass screen away from the driver mouth, unless you need a bright tweeter. An 802 is not recommended for usual home hifi. For a far away seat in a theater or barn, okay. But, for a home or garage, 802s sound sizzly. Duct Tack is nice, but these 811, or 511, horns need coatings or they need to be tightly attached, to minimize their inherent ring.

Play with the fore and aft arrangement of the horn mouth proximity to the woofer. Try a low slope xover, please. Usually, Valencias do not like toeing in, at all. They seem to image best when close to parallel, IME. Keep posting on this build of your new Valencias...