My A7-500s. A journey

[Altec Best]

Remember, these are theatre speakers, not home. But with work and patience, they can be quite nice.

There is a reason M19's were better for home use.

Hey Mike, I think Ron brought up a good point. These were designed for large areas not a small room inside a home.So it will take some tweaking to get them right but you do good work very thorough.I thought your port was too big also for the 416 I would even try reducing it even more to what the M19 uses a 2 1/2" x 11" port you can always enlarge it.Also the 802 symbiotik with loading caps, most people I have talked to don't like the loading caps so they remove them and stick in a thick piece of felt in the end cap instead.And the symbiotiks are more or less for power handling replace with a all aluminum diaghram. Well anyway nice job Mike you are no novice we all can learn more each day for sure.I learn something new every time I come to this forum isn't it great !!! Those A-7's look to be very nice shape though. Regards

[Panomaniac]

Thanks guys, lot's of good feedback. I didn't know this thread would get so much interest. Yep, a get a nice set, thanks to O.G.

Some more playing this afternoon. Just FWIW.

• Putting the A7s in the corner or right against the back wall helps the bass a lot. Certainly seems to be the way to go in a room like mine.
• Adding a wing to one side also helps the bass. The A5s I used had wings in both sides.
• Rolling the crossover point up and down from 450Hz to 1.8KHz does not change the sound nearly as much as I thought it would. The 511 seems to blend well with the woofer all thru this range. Above that and the mids start to drop away (woofer roll-off) and below that the low mids go away (horn roll-off). Things do change, but it's fairly subtle. Good drivers, I suppose!
• Pulling out some mid with EQ does help the horn shout. A dip of about 3-4dB centered at 1.5K is a good starting point. Overall or just on the horn.
• Vibration. The woofer horn vibrates like crazy. It's the worse part of the cabinet. And it's pointed right at you. Mine are not kerf cut in the back, but are a solid bent piece. Damping material and some bracing back there ought to work wonders.

I agree about the symbiotic frams and the loading caps. They can't be helping. Will swap in an 806 driver tomorrow for a listen. That may smooth things out a lot.
OK, back to the music (Carlos Santana).

Note, just a quick swap to a 811/806 made a BIG difference. So much smoother, better balanced and more top end. Gives the 803/291 a run for its money. Eager to hear what the 806 does on the 511.