Nice Altec Project

**Barossi** · February 17th, 2008, 02:21 PM

Hi,

just found a nice site:

http://www.geocities.com/steveviso/a.../viso485e.html

Kind Regards

Hauke

**Barossi** · February 18th, 2008, 08:19 AM

Hi,

70 clicks and no comment ;-(

Kind Regards

Hauke

**edfallon** · February 18th, 2008, 02:08 PM

Reminds me of the some of the old Sound Practices projects of a few years ago. Lots of fun playing with Altec 416's and 511/802 combos.

I would agree with the crossover comments. First order crossovers can sound great but only under low power situations. Looks like they have reduced the woofer box volume less than what would be considered optimum. Not sure exactly what type of alignment that would be since it is stuffed and vented. May have worked fine for them. I would go with a bit larger enclosure myself and may as well go the width of the horn. One problem I always had with this type of setup is lack of time alignment between horn and woofer. Not sure how much it hurts as I couldn't compare to time aligned. Never wanted to fix it with digital delay as things get complicated fast and defeats the agenda I had of using just a single simple triode SE amp per channel.

One thing I haven't heard is the 511b with the vanes removed. Curious how that affects the sound? Anyone have any experience doing this for hifi setups? What's gained?

-Ed

**Mike Gibson** · February 18th, 2008, 02:12 PM

Nice looking speakers and his text was very interesting.

At least that which I could understand. I have little or no background in speaker design or construction. So it's all Greek to me.

I like the compact design and if I understood more about it might be able to comment intelligibly on the design. I'm sure they sound great though.

Mike

**ZilchLab** · February 18th, 2008, 07:04 PM

While it might be instructive to try 416Z in different alignments, this one seems to have choked it into service as a midbass driver.

His rudimentary HF compensation is not up to that of the more refined contour Altec developed for M19 et seq. Too bad he didn't have measurement capability above 10 kHz.

Not too late for that, of course, but his extensive subjective effort in this important detail would appear to have produced little more than a mediocre outcome....

**Todd W. White** · February 18th, 2008, 11:32 PM

I've never heard them, but those I've known who have heard 511's/811's without the vanes say they saound the same...

**zelgall** · February 19th, 2008, 09:36 PM

I cut the vanes out of an extra set of 811's with an angle grinder. There was no audible difference in a model 19 with or with out the vanes. Maybe if someone had measured them they would note some change but just by listening I couldn't tell. I have a pair of 811's that are worth less now, that's a perceivable change.

**StuWelwood** · February 20th, 2008, 04:41 AM

Also curious about the vaneless 511s, I wondered how this was accomplished and what, if anything, was done to dampen the ringing that may have increased, or so I'd guess, as a result of having removed them.

All around, an excellent job in designing and building these systems, and a fine job in documenting the effort. They must be a joy to listen to!

**bowtie427ss** · February 20th, 2008, 01:11 PM

Also curious about the vaneless 511s, I wondered how this was accomplished and what, if anything, was done to dampen the ringing that may have increased, or so I'd guess, as a result of having removed them.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I'm in the process of de-vaning a pair of 511 currently.

Having spent a lot of listening time over the last couple months with 511's, i'm sure that i'm hearing the result of either "shadows" or reflections caused by the vanes thenselves.

I've been quite dilligent in my efforts to either damp or remove reflective surfaces from my listening space, and am confident that i've narrowed what i'm hearing down to a characteristic of the horn itself.

I listen at a distance of ~14 feet from the front of the A7's. Minimal lateral changes in listening position have a significant impact on audible HF.

The very basic conclusion i've reached thus far is that from my listening position, smooth HF seems to coincide with an unobstructed view of the horn/driver throat.

511 seems to have a "split" sweet spot slightly off axis to either side, my fantasy is that removing the center vane will render a single larger sweet spot. I have a surplus of 511 and a couple with broken corners, so i figure it's worth a try.

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