612 cabinets

[Naimare]

Hi :waver:,

Thinking of building myself 612 utility cabinets in high quality 22mm birch ply for my 604-8Ks (which I use with Jeff Markwarths filter) inspired by this gentlemen's setup.

Attachment 818

I like their cool looks and would need somewhat smaller speakers in my room. Current cabinets are the original 620a (made in MDF I believe) which are in rather bad shape.

Should I expect a significant change in presentation with the 612 cabinets compared to the 620a cabinets I currently use? There is also a subwoofer in my setup.

Regards
Naimare

[Altec Best]

The 612 is a nice cab. I think it has or will produce less bass than the 620 though IMO.But not by much, I'm using them now with a 416 and 288/1005's on top. With the 88 shelved they sound nice.The mid range is sweet. But when I had my 604G's in them the bass was even less.The only real way to tell if you will like them is to build one and test it. :2thumbsup:

Everyone's opinion is different to say the least. A nice cabinet though especially where space limitations is concerned.The 612 is still a pretty big cabinet.I have the C variant.

I just threw these together over Easter Weekend.I just wanted to test the 288/1005A's but was quite surprised with the result after shelving the N501- X-overs to balance the drivers out. The 612C/416 combination threw out a lot of bass with a 416 in them.Not nearly as much with a 604, big difference in bass response between the 416 and 604 woofers IMO. Good Luck with it Regards!!!

[David Yost]

That's not a surprise -- the 604 has a 515 motor and needs a bigger box than a 416 for an equivalent F3. Go big to go low and tune your port to the room and your amp.

[speakerdave]

Hmmm....I wonder if the use of the 605 explains why I don't usually care for the Beatles mixes--too hot! Altec describes the 604 as "well-behaved in small cabinets," and if I understand rightly what they meant by that, that it won't give you a big mid-upper bass hunk, my experience confirms that. I think the point is that drivers with more powerful motors remain more linear in small spaces. I repeatedly see this wisdom about the 416 making better or deeper or bigger bass. Bigger, maybe. I doubt the 416/605 will go much lower in a given cabinet than the 604/515b except perhaps some slight addition as a by product of more overhang/less control, an increase in the kind of bass you may not want to listen to for very long; in other words, more boom. Because of that difference the 416/605 will give slightly greater returns of a kind when using larger boxes. That's my sense of it, anyway, but I don't have the test data or technical knowledge to prove it. Anyway, to get down to specifics, a 6 cu ft box (Lampton and Chase used 5) should be good down to just below 40 Hz with the 604 using a maximally flat alignment, although in some rooms you may want a different tuning. Personally, for music, I've gotten used to speakers that go a little lower than that, but I don't think I'd have much trouble going back to it. I would try to tune for a more gradual roll off into room rise, but at this point I can't say exactly how to do it, but I don't think the blue print 612 specs will give you that.

[Altec Best]

Go big to go low and tune your port to the room and your amp.

But the OP said he has a 620 and wants to go smaller due to space

but I don't think the blue print 612 specs will give you that.

Ditto: But the OP said he has a 620 and wants to go smaller due to space, the 612 still sounds real nice with a 604.Just a little less bass than the 620 so going from a 620 to a 612 he will notice the difference !

"BUT WITH A SUB WOOFER IN YOUR SETUP IT WILL BE A NON ISSUE I THINK". If you like the look of that cabinet I would go for it, your supplementing the bass anyway with the sub :2thumbsup: IMHO Would love to see it when your done if you decide to do it.

[GM]

Should I expect a significant change in presentation with the 612 cabinets compared to the 620a cabinets I currently use? There is also a subwoofer in my setup.

Greets!

The 612 is ~28% smaller, so will in theory need to be tuned lower than the 620 to get ~the same tonal balance down to 60-80 Hz, though I'd try stock first since you have a sub.

The big difference (if any) though will be due to the lower driver/floor height which IME still won't sound the same even if tilted back. One big advantage to tilting it though is that it helps to average out driver/floor, driver/ceiling eigenmodes as well as floor bounce issues to the LP, making for a smoother measured in-room response, though depending on several variables, not necessarily all that noticeable in music playback.

GM