Rusty 802-8G

[Altec Best]

Wow! I finally got around to assembling everything today (woofer, horns and driver, crossovers, etc.) put it all together and it works wonderfully. I'm really surprised. I spent about 30 mintues listening to Doobie Brothers (what were once vices are now habits) and it all sounded great. Pictures to be posted tomorrow.

Touchdown!

Real Nice Work Matt..

I'm looking forward to those Pics !

[mattvandyke]

It's all up and running and I'm a little surprised that it worked out as well as hoped.

Here is a recap of what I did.

Removed 802-8G. One was good - one was extremely rusty
Sprayed WD-40 on bad one and let it sit. Started cleaning with a small wire brush. Then moved to wire brush on a drill.
Worked on cleaning out the gap that had a stuck diaghrapm. Used a small utility razor blade - spent approx 1 hr on it. Used vacume and air compressor
Used paper speaker shim's to clean out the gap more extensively - spent another 2 hours +
Clean all with hot water and soap
Cleaned and polished 32B horns with Armorall
Installed diaghrapms that I had sitting on the bench
Refished cabinets with Howards
Installed 414C (purchased from member Ron locally in the Portland area)
Removed and cleaned crossover network.
Installed all items
Plugged in and she rocks.

I let it run for awhile and then cranked it up a little. All sounds good. Still have some work to do as I think that I'm going to move the speaker connections from underneath to the back of the speaker cabinet. Additionally, I think that I have to replace one of the LPADS.

Here is a summary of the pictures.

http://i976.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/P1070120.jpg
http://i976.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/P1070133.jpg
http://i976.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/P1070134.jpg
http://i976.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/P1070138.jpg

Thanks to all for your support on this project. We all learned together.

[voice of the theater]

Nice job! Glad they sound great. What is the Howards product you use? I might do my Model 19's and 14's this spring--they could use a little oil (or whatever that Howards stuff is--I think AB recommended it once in a thread here too). I was also wondering, are you using the Model 15 crossover in it's "stock" configuration with the 414's or did you customize it at all to compensate for switching the stock woofers with 414's. Or was no tweeking to the crossover necessary--did it just sound great as is with the 414's?

[Altec Best]

Nice job! Glad they sound great. What is the Howards product you use? I might do my Model 19's and 14's this spring--they could use a little oil (or whatever that Howards stuff is--I think AB recommended it once in a thread here too). I was also wondering, are you using the Model 15 crossover in it's "stock" configuration with the 414's or did you customize it at all to compensate for switching the stock woofers with 414's. Or was no tweeking to the crossover necessary--did it just sound great as is with the 414's?

Howards Restor-A-Finish and Howards Feed-N-Wax Great Stuff BTW.

[RonSSS]

Nice to see my old 414's put to good use! Only had them sitting around for 15 years or so.......
The 15's look great!

Ron

[mattvandyke]

I used the Howards Restore-A-finish - Walnut. It came out a little darker than I expected but did a great job.

Yes, the 414C are not stock for this Model 15 and I'm using the stock xover configuration. I've built Xover replacements for my 604's (Jeff M's version) and my model 19 (Zilch 19's) and those were a definite improvement.

I'll do a little research and see if there are any xover recommendation for the model 15's with 414c. I've found a couple of instances stating that the 414c were used in some of the later model 15's. Wondered if Altec did a modification to the cross over network then?

I also need to do some more detailed listening on the Model 15's and move them from my garage to my dedicated music room to see how good then sound. More data to follow.

[Earl K]

Wow! those are stunning !

Beautiful job on your restoration.



PS : I never knew the so-called 13" ( original ) woofer shared the same baffle cutout size, as the 414 .

[voice of the theater]

PS : I never knew the so-called 13" ( original ) woofer shared the same baffle cutout size, as the 414 .

Yeah, the Model 15 and the Model 9 both use the same 13 1/2" frame woofer (different than the 13 1/2" frame Model 14 woofer). That did work out great for the 414 substitution!