Altec 604 - opinions sought from 604 owners - blakey

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Altec 604 - opinions sought from 604 owners

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Posted by blakey on March 30, 2007 at 11:17:59

This is a follow up to my recent thread about Altec 604-8G. I had my 604-8G hooked up last night. Despite a tear in the cone and the missing horn in one of the drivers, they seem to work and sound OK.

In the past, I have owned a pair of Altec Valencias, Model 19s and now the 604-8G in 620A cabinets (though they can not be said to be in opitimum working condition as described above). To my ears they all have pretty distinctive horn coloration and do not sound very transparent, at least when compared to some good modern speakers. They also sound too bright even when paired with 300B SET amp, Marantz 8B, MC30, etc. I spent countless hours to optimize the sound of these speakers, but eventually let them go due to these issues.

So my question is why do people like these Altec speakers? Can they be modded to eliminate the coloration that I find so objectionable? I understand there are better quality after-market crossovers but do they really help solve or reduce the honkiness and brightness of these speakers? I understand certain charm about these Altecs (otherwise I wouldn't be asking these questions!), their efficiency, dynamics, etc, but how do people cope with their brightness, coloration, etc? I guess they can sound OK with rock and jazz, but they just sound completely lost when they are fed with complex orchestral music.

I really like the build quality of 604-8G drivers and the way 620A cabinets look and I intend to have the damaged driver repaired, and eventually use them to listen to jazz.

Thanks for your inputs.

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Topic - Altec 604 - opinions sought from 604 owners - blakey 11:17:59 03/30/07 (17)

Re: Altec 604 - opinions sought from 604 owners - jdiamantis 18:35:05 04/02/07 (0)

Re: Altec 604 - opinions sought from 604 owners - AstroSonic 13:44:15 04/02/07 (0)

Re: Altec 604 - opinions sought from 604 owners - Norbert2nd 00:58:58 04/02/07 (2)

Re: Altec 604 - opinions sought from 604 owners - blakey 09:24:14 04/02/07 (1)

Re: Altec 604 - opinions sought from 604 owners - Norbert2nd 08:18:13 04/03/07 (0)

What I did - dth31 18:41:35 03/31/07 (4)

Way too bright? - castironandtubes 14:49:34 04/01/07 (3)

Stock crossover and tilted up slightly - dth31 19:42:56 04/01/07 (2)

How much Attn. on the highs? - castironandtubes 07:55:06 04/02/07 (1)

Re: How much Attn. on the highs? - dth31 15:56:28 04/02/07 (0)

Re: Altec 604 - opinions sought from 604 owners - audioguest 20:55:11 03/30/07 (0)

Re: Altec 604 - opinions sought from 604 owners - Ian L 19:46:51 03/30/07 (2)

Can you tell me more about your passives? - castironandtubes 20:12:31 03/30/07 (1)

Re: Can you tell me more about your passives? - Ian L 21:32:52 03/30/07 (0)

Re: Altec 604 - opinions sought from 604 owners - castironandtubes 19:03:19 03/30/07 (0)

Re: Altec 604 - opinions sought from 604 owners - mhardy6647 18:14:45 03/30/07 (0)

I have the UREI 813 version.... - doodlebug 17:59:10 03/30/07 (0)

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