Altec Valencias Redone !

**drummerwill** · August 10th, 2016, 08:53 PM

Well a close approximation of one.! They are Type A Valencia cabinets with the vent holes drilled in them.

I drove from St Louis to Dayton Ohio to get those empty cabinets for $50 bucks.

I needed cabinets for my pair of Altec 421's reconed as 416's and Altec 808 drivers. My crossover is
simple N1500-A design with Oil caps as main HF and Woofer caps.

What I did lately was bypass both woofer and Tweeter oil caps with a Russian K75 and
a Russian Teflon. Of course all the wiring to each woofer terminal is double 12ga, Mil. Spec Teflon
silver plated over copper wire. Each H.F. driver terminal is single 12ga. Mil Spec. Also new brass
Speaker Terminals to the cabinets.

Well it's been about 2 months since I installed the bypasses and Listening today, tells me it really
opened the speakers up . I really like what I hear; At one point I was thinking of selling these.
.......That was then ...... This is now !

Have fun
Willie

**Elitopus1** · August 10th, 2016, 09:29 PM

Hi
I notice you have tape over the rear vents on your 421's. Did you install the traditional 416 vented dustcap? I have some 421's with 416 cones also. Mine have solid dustcaps and use the rear vent though.

Those look nice! Where did you get the speaker wire?

I use Jantzen caps in my Altecs but have been thinking about trying out the Russian bypass caps

**drummerwill** · August 14th, 2016, 12:26 AM

Originally Posted by Elitopus1

Hi
I notice you have tape over the rear vents on your 421's. Did you install the traditional 416 vented dustcap? I have some 421's with 416 cones also. Mine have solid dustcaps and use the rear vent though.

Those look nice! Where did you get the speaker wire?

I use Jantzen caps in my Altecs but have been thinking about trying out the Russian bypass caps

Yes the cones in my 421's are "Original 416" type cones with the vented dust cap..... hence the tape on the back.

The speaker wire came from Apex Jr. you can get better deals there than on ebay !.

I'm so happy I took the time to work on these speakers. they responded very well to the bypass caps and better wiring.

Have fun

Willie

**Elitopus1** · August 14th, 2016, 10:20 AM

Yeah its very satisfying when you put some time into a pair of speakers and they turn out great.

I have a bunch of mil-spec wiring left over from work. I need to go through and reseach the spec numbers. I know some of it is CCA for weight/cost savings but some is silver coated copper in the high voltage/current applications.
I have some shielded, twisted, triple 10 gauge that I should use.