Altec 19 crossover settings

[timoteus]

I'm interested in how others have their stock and rebuilt crossovers set. I know it is dependent on your ears and your room. I play with the controls on both pair of my 19s from time to time and always end up with both the HF and MF to the left of "Optimum". Any comments on where you are set at and maybe why is appreciated and welcome.

[RonSSS]

I have a very dead listening room.
speakers are out in the room a bit due to large Altec sub boxes behind them.
and I sit about 8ft from them.

I keep the MF control very close to minimum and the HF at maximum.

Mine are all Alnico.

Just my preference in my room.

[Altec Best]

I recommend you sit at your listening position and have someone else adjust them slowly until dialed in. You want to try an average them out, because all music sounds different. One setting on one album may not sound the same on another.. You want to just try and get the best position or average for all music. I turned the mid control down a bit because Altecs IMO are mid range heavy.I always found that I was trying to bring out more bass and HF on my Altecs..Altecs have beautiful midrange that I feel sometimes will over power the bass and highs. If you have original 19 crossovers that haven't been rebuilt yet ? They are most certainly out of spec by now. I highly recommend rebuilding them. Keep the inductors just replace caps and resistors. The terminal bridges on the XO's are held on the plates by rivets that will loosen overtime and not give you a good ground. There are some threads here that explain this. Called the Model 19 Ground Bypass.

- - - Updated - - -

Here is the thread I was talking about.

https://www.hostboard.com/forums/f70...+ground+bypass

[RonSSS]

The ground mod is a good idea.
Another thing to do is remove the covers on the pots and clean with D5 DeOxit.

I have tested cap values in a lot of these. Mostly they are fine. I’ve only found a couple out of spec.

Wire wound resistors don’t change value. I suppose you could replace them with something fancier.