Crossover Help Needed With ANOTHER Pair of ALTECS

[voice of the theater]

I need some help with the newest addition to my Altec family. I've mentioned in previous threads that gradually over the last couple of years I've sold all of the Altecs that I owned for my three stereo systems when I joined this community just over two years ago (a pair of 846 A Valencias (16 ohm), a pair of Heath/Altec AS-101's, a pair of Model 9's, and a pair of P.A. speakers --home made cabinets with various Altec VOTT drivers/crossovers installed--511B horns, 421 woofers, etc.....). Anyways, I still have the three vintage Altec stereo systems here in the house, but largely thanks to what I've learned from the good folks here, I've upgraded all the Altec speakers I listed above with the following (click on photos to enlarge)......

1)REC. ROOM stereo (mancave--finished basement) now has a pair of Model 19's instead of AS-101's.


2)RECORDING STUDIO (finished basement--the BIG room) now has a pair of Model 19's instead of the vintage Altec PA speakers in home-brew cabs.





3)LIVING ROOM STEREO--My latest purchase/upgrade. Just before the holidays, I bought a mint pair of Altec Model 14's from a guy here in upstate NY to replace the 846A Valencias that I had there.....





I'd been looking to upgrade the 846A's ever since I upgraded to Model 19's in my rec. room. These were the old 16 ohm 846A's with original diaphragms and caps (42 years old) which I'm sure could (should?) have all been replaced and upgraded. They just didn't get the high frequency extension or the deep thundering bass of the Model 19's. I did some research and of course read everything I could get my hands on here at this forum and scoured craigslist, ebay, etc. looking for something (preferably no more than a 12 hour drive round trip) that would fit the bill. One day, these Model 14's showed up on Craigslist. I read up on them, and called Bill at GPA to see if he offered recone kits and diaphragms for these speakers (in case I blew something in years to come, I didn't want to buy a pair of speakers that couldn't be serviced by GPA). He said yes they have the recone kits for the woofers and of course the diaphragms for the 902 h.f. drivers. While I had him on the phone, I told him I wanted to sell my 846A's because they just didn't get the high and low frequency extension that my Model 19's got and asked him if he thought the Model 14's would get better (deeper) bass and the extended H.F. response I wanted compared to the 846A's. I've been using Altec 15" woofers for so long, I admit I was skeptical whether or not I'd be happy with the 13.5" frame woofer in the Model 14's. Anyways, Bill said the 902 driver should be comparable to the Model 19 h.f. driver as far as high frequency extension/clarity, and he said the Model 14's used a really good woofer (I think he said it had a very deep voice coil?) and he said that the woofer, combined with the (more) modern tuning of the Model 14's cabinets (compared to the 846A tuning) does give them significantly better low end than the 846A's. I decided after talking to Bill that I needed to audition these Model 14's! I did a little additional research on the woofer and specs in the meantime and found from these specs that they do have a nice response on paper as well as what I heard from Bill (35-20,000 hz) and 95 dB at 1 one watt -- not quite as efficient as the 19's but still very efficient..... http://www.lansingheritage.org/image...l-14/page4.jpg

I also found this quote from Todd at the L.H. forum

The Model 14 woofer never had an official model number - only an internal Altec part number - because it was proprietary for the Model 14 and, as I recall, the 9842-8A/F Studio Monitor.

The Model 14 has really nice bass for a speaker it's size - if you are having problems with these in the Model 14 box, I don't think you'll find they work better in a different one.

If Bill and Todd spoke that highly of it, I was ready to audition these speakers! Drove 3 hours, cranked them up, saw and heard that they were mint (with nice crisp highs and deep thundering bass), and drove 3 hours home in Altec Heaven for the entire ride home!

TO BE CONTINUED..........