Altec 9446 Amp

[Old Guy]

The 515 G hp essentially uses the 421's cone with a newer design voice coil to sink more power.

I suspect the parts would drop right into a 421- we'd need Bill at GPA to confirm that.

The G series does have a larger magnet.

As far as the power specs, they were done at seriously different times to different standards. Comparing them is not quite that black and white.

[LICORNE]

Howdy,
The magnet of 515 8GHP is twice the weight of 421

8.25 vs 4.87 lbs Gauss 1000 more

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[Old Guy]

The field strength is what matters, not the magnet weight. The heaviest magnet in the world is worthless without field strength. And in that spec there is only about a small difference.

There are Chinese speakers out there with huge magnets, just because people think that's better. They are junk.

I'm not disputing that potentially the 515GHP would be slightly better. But twice as good? Nah.

The regular 515G on the other hand is an excellent speaker for what it is intended for.

I'm not a fan of ANY of the HP series of Altecs. They came when Altec was on the way down. The last years of Altec were very painful for a lot of us.

[LICORNE]

If you look at the thiele small parameter
The 421 has an X Max of .05 and the 515 8GHP of .12
and the regular 515 .17 .

As far as resonance there both similar.

The Gauss on the 515 is 15000 as opose to 14000 for the 421.

So in conclusion a more powerful speaker with greater cone displacement greater definition =
more dynamic range and harmonics for the 515.




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[LICORNE]

JJ sound quoted.

As Old Guy suggested I do still need more subs in my mix, any ideas on Quality subs

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well I have good news Bill at GPA has 3182 subs
These have twice the the X max as the 3184 and there are no surround foam anny more.
Can you imagine .50 and the top of the line JBL .35.

You should look into this with Bill at GPA.

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[Old Guy]

You can quote specs till you are blue in the face-it simply doesn't matter. I've used both. I don't like the HP's.

Have you used the HP's at all? If not the discussion is pointless.

I've seen quoted specs on speakers that mean they should blow Altecs away. The Altecs still sounded better.

Specs are not the be all and end all. In the end, the only thing that matters is what the stuff sounds like.

You are fond of quoting specs on stuff you have never used and saying how great it is. Real life does NOT work that way.

I never said the HP's were BAD. I don't like them. And they simply do NOT have a huge dynamic range and efficiency difference. The difference is nowhere near what you would think when you look at the two. One would expect the HP to blow away the 421. It does not.

The comparisons I did were between 515HP's and 421 8H II's. The 421's had a much cleaner mid bass.

Tests were conducted in a free space with analyzer and subjective listening. Both horn loaded (sealed) and ported boxes.


I did not test for low limit- neither is a good sub woofer.


I use 12's for mid bass now, as do most Pro sound engineers. These tests were back in the 90's.

There is very little differece, but the 421 has a cleaner mid. Huge magnets don't mean as much mid band.

[James Bonar]

As Old Guy suggested I do still need more subs in my mix, any ideas on Quality subs at an affordable price as to what would work well since I am having a hard time finding Altec?
Quoted from Old Guy Actually you've got a decent size rig there. 16 mid bass, 16 horns. I think you could use a lot more subwoofer. I usually put more power there than the mid bass and horns combined, especially outside.
A change I would think about- since you are using them as mid-bass I would consider trying 421 series in the cabs. These will take a little more pounding than 515's, won't go as deep but you don't need that.
I'll keep my eyes peeled for cabinets. With the escalating prices of Altec components on EBay, I occasionally get them stripped out. If I can find any for you, they'd probably be free or some token amount. You're not very far away- I'm in central Ohio.
You are so right about smaller cabinets. The older I get the more essential they are. Just have to spend more time stacking, but it beats having a busted back.
I am also still looking for additional 816 cabinets. What was the difference that would make using the 421 a better choice than the 515GHP? I thought the 421 were rated at 125 watt and the 515 GHP rated at 200 watt.