Model 19 listening again

[RonSSS]

Hey gang,

So, this will be a long post so bear with me.

I bought my 19's a couple of years ago from a local guy. He came here for a bit,,,,,

Got em home and discovered they needed new cones in the woofs, and had to have the mud wasps nests removed from the horns. Funny.

Took them completely apart and bought cones from GPA and had a local reconer do the work. They did good. These are the 416-8C's.....not the ideal match to the 19 cabs IMHO.

I completely rebuilt the cabs adding bracing to the sides and backs because they were not well damped. I also modded the 811 horns by removing the dividers, and damping them till dead. Removed the bug screens from the drivers as well. These are 902-8A's, my favorites.

I loved the results. But, shortly there after I bought some Manta small format horns and stuck em on top amd listened that way for the last 9 months or so.

The Mantas are wondefull horns, but stock they just never mated well with the 19's. The combined sound was good, but just never clicked right.

Now.....I tend to get serious about this stuff every 6 months or so......

Got my PP 300B amps up and running again, and just wasn't thrilled with the 19's and the Manta horns. I was about to blame the amps....

So, decided to connect the modified 811's back up and see how it sounded.

Call me an audiophile if you like, because I was listening to a Stereophile test CD that has a lot of awesomely recorded music on it and it revealed the problems with the manta horns. They have too much gain, and due to the undamped fiberglass construction, they just weren't smooth.

Enter the modified 811's.

Sheesh. Where was I for the last year or so?
The whole deal came back into focus. Very good balance between the woof and horns.

I listen in the near field, and this setup has a huge but very well focused sound stage. Very extended highs. Bass isn't great till I add the subs in. Then it's stunning. Seamless.

Looking forward to re-coning the 416-8Bs....just might be better.

Gotta tell ya, experiment, and switch back and forth. When you get to my age...the brain forgets real quick. But that might be the case with the audio brain at any age.

Ron

[dgwojo]

Ron,
I'd send the 416-8B's to GPA and have Bill recharge the alnico mags before he recones them, that's standard procedure for his rebuilds, the 416-8C isn't alnico so recharge wasn't neccessary. S&H via Fedex ground is very inexpensive, and Bill's return S&H is also very reasonable, not to mention his usual 24 hour turnaround time on repairs. I suspect some of your manta expereince was caused by the horn being out of phase with the woofer, many people overlook voice coil alignment issues. Some day I'll fire up my 19's again, great speakers, Dave.

[RonSSS]

I had the re-mag conversation with Bill on the phone. He didn't think it would be necessary given the fact that I'm the original owner and never abused the speaks. on the other hand, it couldn't hurt!

Electrically, the big horns were in phase, acoustically, another story.

Happy with the sound now though.

Ron