1970 VOTT horns

[hornysounds]

I have a mint pair of A7-500/8 horns . They are my home theater main front speakers but have never had the correct drivers in them. They do have the 511b horns with 808-a drivers on top but have 418b re coned 16 inch woofers and Alpine car stereo xovers at 2.4KHz., 12 db/octave . They sound just great with most material and lower midrange is very accurate but bass under say 125 Hz or so is down quite a bit. Now,,I have a chance to get a pair of 515/8G/HP 16 inch woofers brand new but can't find the right 501 or 801 xovers . Will they work with the Alpine xovers or should I go to a lower xover point at maybe 500 or 800 Hz.?
These cabinets are original grey paint with the big decals on the sides and I want to keep them the way they were in 1970.,,,Any thoughts ??,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Ron

[djnagle]

Hey Ron, I would go ahead and get the 515s. They are a great driver. In time you can switch to the orig xover if you think they need it.

[Fitts]

Hi Ron,

I think the 515 woofers will work to give you better low end than you get from the 418 woofers but you may end up losing some midrange unless you lower the crossover point into the 500 to 800 Hz range. Making a crossover is not all that difficult, maybe someone else can suggest a good schematic.

Regards,

[hmole]

Those 515hp are really nice, but they need to be crossed by 1200, or 800, lower is better, the compression drivers will easily pick up the slack above that.

[hornysounds]

I use an 18" earthquake sub in an 8' sealed cabinet with the horns crossed over electronically at 40 or 50 Hz.,through my Harman Kardon 520 Dig.,Receiver . I have lots of sub and LFE so what I want is a little less low midrange ,,say from 300 to 2000 Hz. The 418b's are MI speakers and are great for eclectic guitars but for home theater they are hard on the ears mixed with the other speakers and no way to control them when I pour the coals to them.
My rears are a combination of JBL L series,,,L100's,,,L166,,and L36's in a tower on each side for the rear sounds. My center front is an L77 and center rear the same.
The system is at it's best with movies of course and with tenor sax you are right there with it and the LFE can move the cement foundation of my house.
So,,what I want to know is if the 5158ghp has as much low mid as the 418b and is it more power hungry that the 418b. I am trying to get a pair of original Altec 501 or 801 crossovers to keep them stock but hard to find these days even on Ebay or they want blood money for them. Even a couple of empty cases so I can plug the holes and make them look right and put what I want in them.,,,,,,,,,,,,,ron

[gearjammer]

If this is mainly for hi-fi get yourself a pair of 416B,s and your done. Well maybe you want to install a pair of new aluminum dia. from Great Plains and you will be in hi-fi heaven.

[Steve Burger]

Ron, email me, I might be able to help in the xover as well as driver department. The 418 is going to have less linearity than the 515 or 416. In terms of judging the sound, I don't see how that would be very objective given your xover which is totally out of whack.

[zelgall]

Ron's, if you're in Van. one of our local reconers has four 515-8ghp's in very good condition for a reasonable price. Email me if you need info.