Quote Originally Posted by atilsley View Post
I like the 816 design as it seems to present the best of both worlds...the "forwardness/accuracy" of the front-loaded woofer, with the bass extension from the porting. (The larger 828 VOTT bass cabinets are too big for me....)

Is this a good cabinet choice for building a quality two or three way home system?

Also, what's the difference in the A, B and C models....? Should I aim for the 416 driver, or 515?

Thoughts appreciated.

Andrew
It is my opinion . . .

All 816 cabs have the same horn flair, volume, and port tune.
They all will sound about the same . . . Here are a few specs that may help;

816A = particle board cabinet, painted Altec grey
816B = 7-ply birch plywood, painted Altec grey
816C = particle board cabinet, painted black with handles and corner protectors
816V = same as C model
816VI = vinyl wrapped particle board, light tan color

The 816VI is the best looking with dual vents for symmetry.

All 816 cabinets should be oriented as shown on the VI data sheet, not as shown on all the other data sheets. The horn flair is designed to be up-down to provide vertical control. This became abundantly clear when we measured the coverage pattern of the 816 for AcoustaCadd.

The early 515's and 416's are pretty similar for 816 application. 515-8G and newer are best for bass-horn uses. They offer instant response as good or better than a 12" direct-radiator woofer.

The 816 design is a bass-horn with horn-loading down to 200Hz. Vents (ducts) extend the low frequency to 50Hz. The low frequency response can be seen on the 9864-8A data sheet. However, as with any horn-loaded device, there is a drop of around 6 dB between 200H and 50Hz in free air. This drop is somewhat masked by half-space effect (3dB) when placed on the floor or against a wall. This improvement can be as much as 5dB when the cabinet is placed in a corner. In either case, the 816 cabinet is not going to "thump" and forcing it will cause the rear-loaded woofer to hit the baffle.