FS: Altec A7 pair

[LineArrayNut]

these need a new good home: hmmmmm... my first post, no hotlinking... ok. Audio Asylum Classifieds Speakers full range.

[GM]

http://trade.audioasylum.com/ca/list...ice-pics/15740

Bone fide A7-8 cabs with the smaller filter chamber, cool! Surprised you have Symbiotik diaphragms for a HIFI app, or did you swap them out for.......?

GM

[bowtie427ss]

Bone fide A7-8 cabs with the smaller filter chamber, cool!

Please correct me if i'm wrong, but i think that's only the case with one of the boxes. They don't match, only one has the visible "lips" judging from the 5th and 6th pics.

[drummerwill]

Is there any advantage or disadvantage to have the original A7-8 cabinet with smaller camber?

The reason I ask is because my 828 pair one has the smaller camber. I'm considering pulling my 515 and cutting the camber panel to make it match the other.

Any opinions on which way to go with this ?

Thanks
Willie

[GM]

Oops! My bad, I didn't see the other pics, so you're right, one is an original A7-8 and the other an A7-500 that would be used for both presumably as a minor cost reduction.

Performance wise, I've never compared the two, but theoretically there will be some minor dips in an 800 Hz or higher XO's response using the full width filter cutout, ergo a slight peaking if a < 800 Hz XO with the narrower filter cutout. This assumes though that the woofer's response is the same as the one each cab was designed for, so in the scheme of things the myriad pairings that became available over time plus the minor differences pretty much means that for prosound apps its moot as to which pairing is used as long as the woofer's response is 'voiced' for horn loading good enough to be EQ'd flat through the ~500-2500 Hz BW, so woofers with either a rolled off or 'one note' break-up peak HF response or even ~flat is a poor choice for any A7 app if not XO'd down below 300-400 Hz depending on the woofer. That, or use a very large mids/HF horn that loads low enough to not need any help from the woofer to fill in through a higher XO point's BW, which from a purely accurate reproduction POV is preferred.

For the serious HIFI enthusiast then, ideally each cab/woofer pairing needs to be individually optimized, especially if re-coned, but again, IMO I doubt that any differences would be obvious in a typical HIFI/HT app since its these same differences that enhances the perceived spaciousness of a stereo experience, so having mis-matched cabs may preferable, though given a choice I'd opt for the smaller chamber/cutout since I'd rather have to maybe use an acoustic solution to attenuate rather than an electrical one to boost.

GM

[drummerwill]

Well GM, as usual your answers and explainations are are very explicit and on point.
In other words, As good as "Gold".

So I'm running Altec 803B Multicells with 299 drivers crossed at 500hz for the mid/hi's and
a Coral horn tweeter for top end. I use a Berhringer DEQ for EQ'ing. This pretty much
floats my Boat!

Based on your answer, I'm gonna put away the saw.

Thanks
Willie