I might be buying a pair of home made Altec VoTT and Peavey

[VolvoHeretic]

Thanks for the explanations guys.

Discovered that I had the Soundcraftsmen pre-amp wired up wrong all along all of this time (no manual) :{, now have the altecs running full range with the bass boosted 12db at 60hz and crossing over the subs at 40hz sounds best. Tomorrow I will hook the Altecs up to the active crossover.

Any recommendations for a cheap/used stereo sub amp with 300 wpc rms at 8 ohms or 600 wpc bridged mono at 4 ohms? Any good cheap Altec amps? Any good cheap Crown amps (too many kinds to choose from and can't decipher any of them)?

Old Guy; Would it be a bad idea to run my Crown DC300A at full power with a 2 ohm load? I don't know or think that I can run that amp bridged mono can I? The DC300A belongs to my A7's and will eventually be married back with them someday.

Cheers.

PS: GM, I have been forcing the Altecs to put out 110db at 30feet for a couple of years now, so they must be tougher than most expect.

[Old Guy]

Most amps are more linear in the middle of their capability. Loading the Crown down to 2 ohms will IMHO lower the audio quality.

[VolvoHeretic]

How much audio quality is there at 40hz?

It won't blow up will it?

[Old Guy]

Probably won't blow up. The DC300A was spec'ed for 2 ohms. May not sound great.

[VolvoHeretic]

So, wired everything up through the crossover, man what a bunch of wires and knobs... the preamp amp and crossover have no manual, so I am flying blind. The only way I can figure out how to wire it all up, I am sending the full signal through the tape loop on the preamp, to the EQ so that sound is what I want through the Altecs, then sending that to the crossover and to the three amps and to the Alpine subs, 418-8H II, 808-8As and Piezoes. I think that to send flat to the subs, and EQ'ed to the Altecs will require two EQ's. Any advise? At 1000hz, the Altecs have never sounded better. Too bad I have to jump up every other second to tweak this stuff, I guess I don't have to get onto the wife's treadmill anytime soon.

PS; after opening up the second Altec speaker, I found a tag that says that the compression drivers are actually 808-8A(802-8D) drivers that have newer Pascalite diaphragms.

Playing a little Weather Report, Return to Forever, Yes, Styx, and even Michael Jackson for the Wifey, and I love it. Can't wait to get a full 300 wpc to the subs.

[mah]

Crossover manual, here: Behringer: SUPER-X PRO CX2310

Crown: http://www.crownaudio.com/legacamp.htm


Google for the other gear. You may find downloadable manuals for them.

[VolvoHeretic]

Thanks for the links Mah. No Soundcraftsmen manuals, but the Crown was informative. I found out I can mono bridge it with a couple of internal jumper wires and a resistor or capacitor (can't remember, but won't try it nor running it at 2 ohms).

For fun I spent about 5 hours and went through every crown amp on Ebay and looked up each in the crown obsolete section webpage. It was interesting, but I can't make heads nor tails from it or figure out which would be a worthwhile amp to seek out. I also notice that there appears to be no rhyme or reason for the names, lettering, or numbering of their amps. Looking at the prices everyone wants for used-up gear, and having never bid on anything on ebay before, I think that the Parts Express Crown XLS 1500 that was on sale in December for $350 sounds like the best bet for a sub amp.

Crown XLS 1500 DriveCore Series Power Amplifier | 245-502