Poor man's Altec?

[gamalot]

I can think of just two reasons to not get GPAs.

1- Maintain complete Vintage integrity.

2- Must have nothing but alnico.

Gary

[Steve Mac]

Originally posted by gamalot:
I can think of just two reasons to not get GPAs.

1- Maintain complete Vintage integrity.

2- Must have nothing but alnico.

Gary

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Not arguing but....scratch #2 from your list...pretty sure Bill is working on or is already selling alnico speakers. As for #1...well that's fine for some, old speakers are cool.

Just found my invoice...I was wrong...it was 325 bucks not 350 bucks apiece.

[timp]

I have a lot of infos to digest. There is one great factor that I must abide by. The WPF (wife pleasing factor). How many times have I told her that this would be the last "fix". I wear the pants in my house. But as some would have guessed,she tells me which ones I can wear.

I went into GPA sight but can't find pricings. Would you tell me how to find their products and prices?

Thank you. Tim

[Tom Brennan]

I read somewhere (here?) that the 418 motor differs from the 416 in having a chamfered gap, the better to produce distortion considered desirable in a guitar speaker.

I wonder.

[bfish]

Timp, just call 405-789-0221 M-F. Best time would be 10 AM to noon your time.

Personally, I strongly discourage the building of hybrids. You won't know what you have until you pay for it, then measure the performance yourself. Then you may find it's not what you need or wanted at all. If this practice becomes widespread, or even percieved to be so, even mint condition original drivers (with known, published parameters) will become next to worthless, except as for cores to build new, ****** hybrids. I have to believe that Altec tried all the possible combinations of their parts long ago, and settled on the ones that worked.

Some would say that dilution brings diversity. To that I can only say I'm glad I've already got mine.

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ December 16, 2007 05:26 PM: Message edited by: bfish ]</font>

[Steve Mac]

What's not to love about a brand new GPA speaker?
GPA 515-16G

[bfish]

Originally posted by Tom Brennan:
I read somewhere (here?) that the 418 motor differs from the 416 in having a chamfered gap, the better to produce distortion considered desirable in a guitar speaker.

I wonder.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hi Tom,

I've reconed several of both (with factory parts, but some time ago), but don't remember what had what.

As to Altec intentionally designing in distortion for MI apps, that's something I doubt. Personally, I don't think Altec ever "got it" as far as many musicians' preference for various types of distortion. I have and use most of Altec's MI drivers, and they're all extremely "clean" in the comparative scheme. Sure, they designed them to suit the specific needs of MI reproduction, which differ greatly from hifi, so when used in a hifi app, will not give the desired flatness of response which in itself is distortion.

I remember my first personal visit with Bill, and when he found I was into Hammonds/Leslies too, expressed some interest in the Leslie in particular. When I described the preamp/amp/speaker configuration, and how it utilized clipping and excessive THD to make the unique sound, a look of horror began to appear on his face. I could tell that the thought of anyone intentionally creating distortion in an amp/speaker system was horrifying. I suppose that if your life had been dedicated to eliminating distortion, intentionally creating it would be a very hard pill to swallow.

[martyh45]

In defense of hybridizing?. Altec did it themselves with older units, I?ve seen 515s with B cones more than a few times. I don?t buy MI stuff so I couldn?t say about that.

[bfish]

Originally posted by bfish:
...I have to believe that Altec tried all the possible combinations of their parts long ago, and settled on the ones that worked...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

[jnorv]

Don't tell my wife!!

Jim