Altec 210 Split

[GEK]

I recently split a 210 cabinet, similar to Mike Frye's article in SP, drivers are a pair of 420A's reconed as 416's by GPA.

I would normally not sacrificed a vintage cabinet, but the original was in poor shape and seriously delaminating. I reused the horn flare and much of the bracing lumber. The rest is some cabinet grade birch plywood.



Some additional pic's are in the link below.

I ended up keeping a small port at the bottom as well as a 4" opening in the rear behind the woofer.

I'm still working on integrating it into the rest of my system but it has very impressive low frequency output and mates well with the A-5's

Split Altec 210 Cabinet

- Gary

[Altec Best]

Thanks for posting Gary, I posted your link in another thread. I don't know why your posts were delayed but they were for some reason otherwise I would have not posted a duplicate.Sorry everyone for any confusion on the duplicate I just saw Gary's Project and thought it deserved some recognition.Very nice job to a Altec Lansing aficionado.

Thank You :thankU: for sharing all the Dynaco links in your site :2thumbsup: JOHN

[Mustang Marvin]

I know this thread is about those 210's, but I can't take my eyes off those horns on the A7's. I'd love to get a pair of those...

[Panomaniac]

Yep, looks like a pair of 1505s. Great sounding horn!

[GEK]

Thanks for all of the kind words.

The A5's are a clone of Hiraga's setup from Sound Practice with 1505B horns (288 drivers) and 828 cabinets with 515's.

About the only failings of the setup are the size, and lack of deep bass. It's been difficult to find an ideal match to augment the deep bass. The 210 split thus far is the best I've found. I'm currently running the A5's "full range" directly off of the linestage. The 210's are running low-pass at 80hz thru a Rane AC-22 crossover (somewhat modified with upgraded op-amps) into a pair of Mcintosh MC60's. The drivers are a pair of Altec 420A's that were reconed by GPA as 416's's.

As you can tell, I'm a bit of an Altec addict, and there are several other altec speakers, mixers and amps in the room.

I would be more active on this site, but sadly it's blocked at my work by the filtering. It also seems to have me listed as a QUAD ESL63 Electrostatic Loudspeaker Member and when I try to get into the signature/profile I get a 505 error.

- Gary Tube Swap Homepage

[Mustang Marvin]

Gary,
Great set up. I'm a Mac and Altec fan myself. I think as Mr H has done, you can achieve more bass with the A5's by reducing the port size. I did this with my A7's and it really works.

The 1505's really look great atop the A5 cabs. I hope to do the same someday.

[Altec Best]

I I get a 505 error.

Hi Gary, Yes alot of us are getting that 500 - Internal Server Error. I can only say that Steven Hostboard Admin. is working on it they are trying to run down this error that seemed to come out of nowhere he said.Probably some kind of Virus,Malware,or Malicious code,they are usually the things that come out of nowhere.But those A-5's I keep drooling over my keyboard.Everytime I see those my lower lip just seems to hang alittle lower. Regards ~ JOHN

[valhallax]

yes..the 1505's are terrific horns, the dispesion is great. talk about surround sound! i find them very detailed and ofcourse very smooth. someone said multicells beam, but ive not noticed, is this because im not far enough away from them? never tried running the 210's as bass horns, i cross into mine around 60 hz. just allways cringed at running my 515b's that low with any volume. gotta give ya props at reviving an old altec cab gary, well done. sure looks sweet!

[leifchristensen]

hello
I really like the split 210s!
would it be possible to make a split 210 from scratch and drop the reflex bit?
I have some huge bass bins on incoming next week and they go down to 25hz with 103db efficiency
would be great to run the split reflex-less 210 from lets say 75 and up to 5-600 and some wood 1505s with fc Altec or similar
what?s the freq response of the split 210 with refleks
can it be made to go all the way down?
best
Leif
Norway

[GM]

someone said multicells beam........

........just allways cringed at running my 515b's that low with any volume.

That would be me among others. Each horn segment beams like crazy up high, though the smaller the cells and/or the more cells there are, the 'smoother' it sounds overall same as the more speakers in a surround sound array does due to our inability to process a lot of conflicting info, so our on-board processor (brain) sums it all into something coherent, if not accurate.

Well, they have a rising rate suspension, so it takes a lot of power to physically damage one or 'let its smoke out' in a HIFI/HT app, especially if driven with a period correct amp, so as long as there's some form of EQ to protect it below Fb, then they should be fine. Mine are tuned to ~16 Hz, so at high SPL should bottom out in the octave above and below it if pushed with some movies played back at reference level, but quasi-corner loading seems to protect them enough. No way I'd try it away from the corners though........

GM