will these parts work together?

[djgaloot]

I have put together what I hope will be the components for my center channel speaker. Here are the parts:
(1) 806A driver and 811B horn from a 9844A cabinet. (1) N800F crossover from the same cabinet. (2) 414A 16 ohm drivers from an unknown source. I plan to make a cabinet similar to a 9844 but wider and less tall, but with the same volume and depth. My question is that the original woofers from the 9844A were 414-16Cs. I read a lot of posts on whether or not 414Cs are alinco or ferrite. The original woofers were quoted as weighing 15.8 lbs which, I believe, matches the alinco weight and the Altec spec for the 414A at 15 lbs. So, am I okay? Is the crossover the correct ones for these components and is my cabinet strategy okay?
Thanks for any advice. I am going to use this center channel with my new Malibu's which use the same components in a vertical arrangement.

[GM]

All 'C' motors I've seen are ferrite, but the original 9844 used AlNiCo. Anyway, it all sounds OK to me, though panned scenes may sound a bit odd due to the dramatically different power (polar) responses of a horizontal CC Vs vertical L/R speaker layouts.

[dgwojo]

The 414-8C came in both alncio and ferrite versions, up until about 1980 they used alnico, I believe it was the same motor used in the 416-8B, here's the 16 ohm version, Dave.

[bowtie427ss]

Respectfully, i've never seen a 414C that was ferrite, all "C" versions i've encountered have the stepped alnico structure like the one Dave Wojo has posted.

The only ferrite 414 i'm aware of is the 414-8E/16E, and i've owned factory cabinets with both branded (foilcal) and bare steel backplate ferrite 414's. They're considerably more efficient than the alnico versions, but don't sound nearly as good, the bass is "different" i couldn't flip them fast enough while i still own all of my alnico 9844A's.

Just my .02 y'all understand................

[Old Guy]

I think Bowtie's info is correct- or at least matches what I remember. At my age of course...

[djgaloot]

Thanks for the input. Seems like I have the "right" parts coming. I will have everything in a week or two. Any other thoughts on making a center channel speaker cabinet? I was going to make more of a horizontal arrangement because I do not have enough room above my TV for a 9844 style cabinet let alone a vertical style. I also wanted the dialog close to the screen and figured moving the horn down would be a good thing. GM mentioned the different polar response. Is this going to be a real issue? Any expwerience out there with this type of thing?

[GM]

Originally posted by dgwojo:
The 414-8C came in both alncio and ferrite versions

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Gees, why am I not surprised! Since I often was trying out the 'latest n' greatest' sent to the distributor, they may have been E series with 'C' stickers, but I never used any 'E' tagged ferrites, so don't know for sure. For that matter, I don't recall any 'C' AlNiCo 414s, all the ones I was exposed to were either A or B series IIRC, but then this was all mostly before the late '70s. For sure, all the ferrite Altecs I tried didn't sound as good to me as the AlNiCo versions and why I never bought any more.

[GM]

Originally posted by djgaloot:
Thanks for the input.

GM mentioned the different polar response. Is this going to be a real issue? Any expwerience out there with this type of thing?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You're welcome! Yes I do and for folks like me that have a high sensitivity to phasing it's very distracting and why we prefer using a phantom CC in such situations, but judging by all the popular HT speaker systems with TMM towers/MTM CCs, we're a minority, so as always YMMV. If you can, go demo one of these systems with a movie such as 'Outbreak' and if the opening sequence fly-by bombing run sounds seamless/real, then you're good to go. If not, then you have to decide if its off enough to justify gutting the Malibus and building three identical cabs.

[GM]

Originally posted by djgaloot:
BTW, using the components I have, with your experienc, what type of enclosures would YOU build? three 9844 style?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes, since a proper HT set-up requires each front channel to be highly focussed just like in a real cinema, especially horizontally, the 9844 layout is the best choice, ditto dual horizontal 15" when the 511 is used and what I'll build if I ever decide to put that much effort into HT with my current components.

[Ronald Lee]

I have a pair of alnico 414-8Bs with 806/811, and EV T350 super tweeter. Sounds great. Xover at 800 & 700kHz. I had to build my cabinet in the vertical format because of space limitations.