Ideas or concerns about upgrading a pair of 9849A's

[bowtie427ss]

Careful AB, his internals are date coded 1974, and use "pipe and plate" alnico motors. 9849-8B uses all ferrite motors, introduced prolly sometime in 1979-80.

AFAIK, the history goes something like this:

9849A originals used a foam edge woofer, sealed box, and 900hz XO.

Sometime not long after their introduction(very early 70's) came the 414 and ports. The move to a 1500hz XO may or may not have happened at the same time.

Sometime late '74 or early '75 the 9849-8A was born with the newly designed cast return pots on both HF and LF sections.

9849-8B arrived circa 1979-80, and with it's new ferrite motors offered a big step up in sensitivity and sizzle at the cost of some midrange smoothness and warmth.

This is my .02 based on the info i've been able to glean over the years combined with owning multiple 9849's, temper it accordingly.

[Altec Best]

Careful AB, his internals are date coded 1974, and use "pipe and plate" alnico motors. 9849-8B uses all ferrite motors, introduced prolly sometime in 1979-80.

Bowtie I'm referring to the enclosures he has there.Although it says 9849A. It looks like a 9849-8B to me,they are ported cabs.

WRT the internals it wouldn't be the first time that Altec speaker systems had other internals than what it was supposed to be ! Where are you seeing date codes on those drivers ?

In the Altec Ling or LTV era is when there was the most discrepancies IMO.The 414 is definitely in the Ling era.

[bowtie427ss]

Bowtie I'm referring to the enclosures he has there.Although it says 9849A. It looks like a 9849-8B to me,they are ported cabs.

Sure enough they do/should, all the ported cabs are essentially the same for 9849A, 8A, and 8B. It is the driver load that makes the difference.

Where are you seeing date codes on those drivers ?

The only date code i saw was on his crossover. The drivers are easy enough to date within a narrow range by virtue of the pipe and plate construction of the alnico motors, and black paint. By some point in '75 9849's were using the "new improved design"(think 416B and 802G) 1 piece cast magnet structures and would continue until the introduction of the ferrites in 79-80.

I have 1975 vintage 9849-8D's, their load consists of non-tangerine(later 23746 had tangerines) equipped 23746 HF drivers which have one piece cast pots, basically an 806 with the light phragm, and 414-8C woofers which use the same 1 piece cast motor pot as the 416B.