Quote Originally Posted by Panomaniac View Post
Well I was hoping the GM would drop back in to tell me what he didn't like about the 411-811 combo. The 416 and 515 are so well behaved at the top end that they blend well with the horns. Maybe not so for the 411?

I believe that the 411 in about 5 cubic feet sealed could be a winner. That's no small speaker, but not a mammoth.
What can I say beyond what I've already said? I learned early on that WRT a speaker's ability to reproduce music, my 'knee-jerk' opinion typically was an 'honest' enough one to my ears based on having had an above average exposure to live un-amplified music in my youth, so already being disposed to not caring much for most of Altec's (or any others) consumer offerings combined with the 411 loaded speakers sounding quite a bit different yet to my ears, the Barcelona's bass line was pretty much its only redeeming quality performance wise. The cabs sure looked nice though and would have fit right in with our then living room's Mediterranean decor. The only thing missing would have been the Ga. slate top inlays of the coffee and end tables.

Later, I'd hoped the 9846, being designed for studio monitoring, would be much more in line with a 'best of both worlds' design, i.e. a 9845 with more/better bass extension, but alas, twas not to be. The 9848 was a 'mixed bag' at best, though closer in some ways, so as I previously noted, the lack of efficiency seems to be part of it and the lack of HF 'snap' (technically distortion) of the earlier Altec woofers to help blend them to a horn probably accounts for a lot of it too, hence my dual 411/311-90 'dream team' thoughts.

OK, that's what the 9846 is and already optimized for the 511/802D, so only in-room tweaking required. Art J. made some risers for his, but don't recall if he tweaked the horn or electronics any: http://www.lansingheritage.org/image...-8a/page02.jpg

GM