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Thanks again Bowtie, I will admit that at first listen, I was disappointed, but after several hours of tweeking on the EQ and learning what these things want, I am warming up to them nicely, even with their flaws. :) I am trying to clean up my living room and make room for them in the corners, Wifey is chomping at the bit to get her Christmas decorating going.
That small horn likes 1200 better than 800 IMHO for xover.
Pretty much all that has been said on the differences, higher Fs drives generally have lighter voice coils assemblies. The paper dome trick will cover the overtones from the dome and drop the Fs. I have never tried removing the aluminum and venting VIA the 416 dome, would like to do it under controlled conditions, but as surviving 418's with original cones get less common seems hardly worth it. I just look for blown ones and recone as 416.
Ok, I have been alone with these things for a couple of hours placed in the corners of my 14'x36' room, and have been listening to my favorites; Weather Report, Return to Forever, and Mahavishu Orchistra at maybe 40 watts, have them dialed in and loving it. I have the EQ set flat except 25Hz and 40Hz are at +12 db and no tone from the amp. I can feel the bass inside me which doesn't sound muddy in the least. :) Maybe they just needed to warm up? Best $400 I have spent in a long time. :):)
Corner placement can do wonders for low end reinforcement. When you mentioned that you were going to push them back into the corners i knew there was no point in mentioning this because you were going to find out first hand soon enough.:D
Something that OG's post reminded me of, and i would emphasize is that exact 418/421 cones and other rebuild parts are NLA. Yours look to be in quite excellent shape, beauties in fact and to parrot OG, the quantity surviving in that condition is limited and shrinking slowly. Take care of em, maybe rotate em 90-180 degrees once a year or so to prevent any sagging of cone or suspension. Sometimes i forget that those shiny Altec aluminum dust domes that were once very common will someday be pretty much extinct.
Just for clarification, when i mentioned reconing them in a previous post i was only referring to in the event they were damaged from over excursion or over powering. I don't want you fellas thinking i'd tear perfectly good working and looking cones out for the sake of replacing them with something else.
Bowtie, thanks a million. Too bad the young builder and his dad didn't have better advice from the local stereo shop (This is North Dakota) when they ordered their components. But, they sound great for what they are and I and my kids will keep them for a long time. It has been great over the last 6 months since I discovered your guy's site to finally learn what the great name of Altec Lancing is really all about and am glad to have been a part of the Heritage for at least 3 decades. By the way, what is your 427ss bolted up to and any time you want to show off, I and my Volvo are ready. :)
My daughter is just home from collage and cranking her tunes on my new A8's; Frankenstien Musical, Phantom of the Opera, Mulan Rouge... It sounds killer. :)
It's late and I can't remember, but did i mention that I hooked up a piezo super tweeter up that was just sitting there and boy, it adds every thing these things where missing.
I also caught my wife, laying on the couch, listening to Youtube Styx, tapping her foot to the tunes. ;):)
After deep reflections, it would take 4 Peavey t300's running at 4 ohms to equal two of these Altec A8 clones at 8 ohms. :)
I just downloaded WinISD pro and don't have a clue how to use it yet, but here are some plots of the 418-8H in it's 8 cu. ft. box.
With the current 11"x3"x.75" or 33 sq. in. port.
http://www.hostboard.com/forums/hbmc...2011/12/16.jpg
With 12x3x.75 or 36 sq. in. port.
http://www.hostboard.com/forums/hbmc...2011/12/17.jpg
With 11x3 port and EQ. This looks terrible and I might not have the data input correctly, but this is how I have my graphic EQ set and I like the way it sounds at something like 33% on the volume knob on a 100 wpc amp. But... then again, I'm a bass junkie. :)
http://www.hostboard.com/forums/hbmc...2011/12/18.jpg
So, I have been googling "Adding weight to lower Fs on a woofer". I can find no definitive answer, but did read that the woofer really can't play any lower than Fs since above Fs, the port is in faze with the woofer, and at Fs, the speaker stops moving and all of the energy is vibrating in the port, and below Fs, the port is out of faze with the speaker and any low frequencies are canceled out. (?) I don’t understand how the port can be reproducing in faze and out of faze frequencies at the same time, but I don‘t know much. :)
So, back to lowering the Fs of the 418-8H by adding weight, I know that the differences between the 418-8H and 416-8B are many, but how are they the same? Same frame, surround, cone, motor? That only leaves the voice coil and dust cap?
I can live just fine with this sound with out reconing these things, but am just curious. I just want my cake and eat it too, even though there is no such thing as a free lunch. :)
I need to build an adapter plate and mount my one good 416-8A in one of these and see what the difference is.
(Calling GM?)
PS; I have a low cut button on my EQ, and have no idea how it works, but I know I don't like the sound of it.