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Just picked up the Altec 511b metal horns. Now I have to get other *stuff*
Follow Ups:
It's nice to see a pair with all the corner intact.
that I need to restore. They are the Green version and are a little scuffed around the edges from the guy I bought them from. I want to redo them in a black paint type coating to reduce any ringing or mess with the design.
Well, finally hooked up Altec 511b with Radian 475PB sitting on top of 12" Alnico Philips woofer, all with analogue active crossover.
There's definitely that vintage, technicolor sound with big tone, but the resolution and clarity is not there compared to my 1.4" Titanium compression driver on ME horns or triple-stack Heil AMT's. Perhaps I was a bit too optimistic about these vintage parts.
I suppose I won't give up until I can try a proper Altec or JBL 15" woofer in decent sized box, and I do have some bullet tweeters to try later...
Don't give up yet.
Keep in mind the modern strategy is different than when that was designed.
The tradition was to try to match the drivers natural HF roll off against the horns narrowing HF directivity. When those two properties are offset, the raw response is flat....on axis.
But this is NOT what it seams as the horn drivers actual roll off up high is still there. The 511 is partly constant directivity, the horizontal is more constant than the vertical angle BUT aimed at the audience, most of the ears are a similar height.
The modern drivers normally have a greater HF sensitivity and output AND not designed around a particular horn directivity so it is expected that the response must be EQ'd to be flat.
Put the driver on an actual CD horn and you find that it requires even more eq to be flat as the highs are projected at an even wider or more constant angle.
A CD horn's response is much closer to the drivers plane wave tube or actual power response the idea being a more or less constant dispersion angle over a wide frequency range (being much more important for an audience area than a seat on the couch)
I think both 300B SET and Altec 511B tend to have eh.."romantic" upper ranges and too much together. I replaced 300B with RCA 829B transmitter tube single-ended tetrode amp, which tends to run quite neutral, and everything seems just fantastic.
Once I added a decent bullet horn, the entire sound became Glorious!!
I went "4Pi". Affordable horn system that souds good
... and still have a spare at home. :)
all the best,
mrh
... ended up going to EMILAR EH-500-2 horns and selling the 511B.
YMMV, though, of course.
all the best,
mrh
Don't limit yourself to antique drivers, i rebuilt a pair of A-7's about 15 years ago and used a BMS4550 and JBL 2226 woofers. Re-tuning the box and a new crossover added an octave more response at each end.
IF those horns are mounted on a wood baffle with rubber tape, there is no need for further damping.
Altec A cabinets can accept a sub woofer by closing the vented space below from the horn. Reinforcing the cabínet and placing an effícient driver like an 18 inch JBL. Thís with súper tweeter out classed the Wilson Wamm of the 90s!
Rafaro
modern ones.
I happen to already have a pair of Radian 475PB compression drivers, so I'll try them on the altec 511b once I can find some shorter bolts that will fit. I know that many people with Altec 806 compression drivers already use Radian diaphragms.
But there's a side of me that whispers to keep it in the Altec vintage Alnico sonic signature. If I can find some good and reasonably priced Altec 802D, 808, etc. Less so for 806..
-
I've owned several Altec Drivers since I was 18, 808, 802, 902, etc. also Radian Aluminum Diphragams for my jbl 375, 2440, 2441, 2445, 2447, as well as a few of their 1" drivers etc. Radians are fine aluminum diaphragms bested only by their beryllium ones.I also have a pair of 4550's and have had them in Tom's little Runts and SH-50's.
The 4550's are far superior to any of the Aluminum Ones of any type in terms of output to 18 Khz. with lower distortion than the rest of the 1" throat offerings.
Time to get with the new Millennium for gosh sakes, instead of Nostalgic Listening!
Edits: 11/22/24
I guess I may have a bias against anything with word polyester. I would have thought Alu, Titanium etc would have more forward, sparklier sound, which is a signature I kind of like. And I can dsp/eq down the nastier peaks.
A driver should have no "signature." IDK what the 4550 uses, it' just WORKS.
My current preference for a 1.5" driver is the Faital Pro with a Poly type diaphragm. It sounds terrific for home use on the right horn.
Edits: 11/23/24
Most damping is a waste of money when the horn is solidly bolted to lumber.
Easy to try and measure with/without.
I had a pair of those when I was 18 in their own 3/4" cabinet, free of ringing.
I have always rejected comments made without data to support them.
Too many people do "emotional testing" or look to mythical opinions, even though they are simply WRONG!
Tom Danley is correct about this and he can certainly back up his claims with more data and results!
Edits: 11/20/24 11/21/24
A set of drivers in good condition of course.
Those horns really react well to being damped. I had a set back in the early 1970s and that was a tweak people did even back then.
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