Heads up - 19's for sale

[SOOTSHE]

Just out of curiosity what caps did you order and where from?

Anthony

I used Solen 400V from Parts Express, the same as AB. Good service & reasonable shipping rates to Australia. You could go the boutique cap route, but many knowledgeable people I have discussed this with tell me that the difference would be minimal, if even noticeable. (& the price could be up to 4,5 or 6 times more). It cost me A$100, including shipping to get these, so fantastic value.

Be that as it may, as you can tell, I'm more than happy with these.

[SOOTSHE]

Hey John did you have to change any of the resistors or was that just the caps and ground lug bypass ???

I didn't change any of the resistors, except to put fixed resistors in place of the L Pads, (I'm running 3 ohm & 10 ohm) I figured they shouldn't deteriorate with age, although I'm prepared to be corrected by anyone with more experience with this.

And yes, the ground lug bypass.

Don't worry, I've hit them with a fair whack of power & they are just sooooo clean.

Just beautiful. I'm still bringing out material to listen to where I'm finding I'm hearing things I never knew were on there. These speakers now have such a palpable sound it's amazing.

[Altec Best]

I didn't want to say "I told you so" but hey "I told you" I told you they get better a lot better. :2thumbsup:

[Altec Best]

I figured they shouldn't deteriorate with age, although I'm prepared to be corrected by anyone with more experience with this.

Well John 2 of the 4 resistors were out of spec on mine one of the 3.9 ohms and the 3 ohm needed to be replaced so I went ahead and changed them all.They are fairly cheap.

[SOOTSHE]

Well John 2 of the 4 resistors were out of spec on mine one of the 3.9 ohms and the 3 ohm needed to be replaced so I went ahead and changed them all.They are fairly cheap.

Good info...thanks John.
I'll go ahead & replace them when I get a chance.

[rontec]

AB and John, I noticed that Parts E. doesn't have exact values for all of the capacitors in the Solen brand. Do you mind stating again exact values you have used? Thanks.
I have tried some other caps that I didn't quite care for but now would like to try the Solens. So far the biggest improvement was connecting the ground lugs together. Now I think it would be a good experiment to try the Solens. I need some for another project as well.
It seems that many of the original Altec caps have degraded. Has anybody actually measured a bad original Altec cap?

[Cal Weldon]

Has anybody actually measured a bad original Altec cap?

I have measured old Altec caps and have yet to find one that was out more than 10% which I am guessing is the rated tolerance anyhoo. This includes a set of XO's that came with the 604's that had all been recapped (with nice big shiny yellow ones) without removing the old caps. So was it a waste? Dunno, to me it seems like I have an extra set of caps now.

[Altec Best]

AB and John, I noticed that Parts E. doesn't have exact values for all of the capacitors in the Solen brand. Do you mind stating again exact values you have used? Thanks.
I have tried some other caps that I didn't quite care for but now would like to try the Solens. So far the biggest improvement was connecting the ground lugs together. Now I think it would be a good experiment to try the Solens. I need some for another project as well.
It seems that many of the original Altec caps have degraded. Has anybody actually measured a bad original Altec cap?

IMHO it is preferable to keep the values as close as possible Example: Nobody makes a 21 uF so to keep the values close I would use a 10uF and an 11uF to reach 21uF instead of using a 20uF and a 1uF i think it is best to keep them (Values) close to one another.For the 16uF use two 8uF's and so on.If you can't get a 6uF use two 3uF's and the last one use one 8uF or two 4uF's.

Actually back in the 70's I think the tolerances were +-20% not good and I think they are a much better cap today.How else do you explain the improvement and I'm not talking about slight improvement, leaps and bounds over the old ones.Caps life span is approx. 20 years give or take a year.I'm completely thrilled with the difference this is how Altec intended the 19's to sound "No Doubt" and what a beautiful system they put together in the Model 19 :2thumbsup:

(Parts-Express or Madisound) if I remember correctly I think I had to get a few of the parts at Madisound as PE didn't have all I needed at the time.

Please post back after all upgrades done John and I already know the outcome but would be informative for other folks.

[SOOTSHE]

AB and John, I noticed that Parts E. doesn't have exact values for all of the capacitors in the Solen brand. Do you mind stating again exact values you have used? Thanks.
I have tried some other caps that I didn't quite care for but now would like to try the Solens. So far the biggest improvement was connecting the ground lugs together. Now I think it would be a good experiment to try the Solens. I need some for another project as well.
It seems that many of the original Altec caps have degraded. Has anybody actually measured a bad original Altec cap?

Rontec,
You need 6, 8, 16 & 21 capacitors......1 of each total value.
I used 2 x 3 for the 6's, 4.7 & 3.3 for the 8's, 16 for the 16's & a 10 & an 11 for the 21.
These were all available from PE. I used 400V Solens.

This will make the biggest difference you can make to your 19's....way above all the other usual mods.

Now to get the new resistors...& I wish I had done this before as they are now buried underneath the new caps. Ah well....the things we do for old Altecs!!!

[rontec]

Thanks everyone for the info. I'll post later what I find out with the Solens.

Now to get the new resistors...& I wish I had done this before as they are now buried underneath the new caps. Ah well....the things we do for old Altecs!!!

Exactly....Maybe I should order resistors now too!