Quote Originally Posted by vuki View Post
Did I tell you, or did I tell you?
Do the same measurement with crossover. Do the RTA measurement of the complete loudspeaker at listening distance. Post the schematic of the crossover.
I don't think the distortion is the cause of bad listening impression. Also, it seems to me that diaphragms are OK.
Ok!

Cross over is second order Linkwitz-Reilly on 650Hz that works wonders on my 802 setup. C=12uF paper in oil 600V cornell dubilier, L=3.3mH heavy copperfoil air inductor. This is a fantastic filter for my 802 setup.

Driver with horn sounds equally bad with and without the co and with and without my diy altec 828 cabinets. I don't expect any difference by inserting the filter nor by adding the bass cabinet. Been there, done that.

Fyi I experimented with various caps like different pios and polypropylene and different cables (stranded, solid core, silver, copper etc). NOTHING cures or even ameliorates the harshness. The high distortion makes a whole lot of sense.

To me it is no longer circumstantial that the phragms are not up to spec, probably the whole batch isn't. They might have have been tin thin or had a bad heattreatment, bad coating, bad whatever, but they break up as hell. Factory misalignment may also play a role, but both drivers suffer the same illness, so it is not exemplary. This is supported by the post of Todd W.

For now I'm curious how my other 288 and 802s perform on the graphs. I do like this sound of the latter.

If I find some extra time I will go through the trouble of measuring in situ. But

Thanks anyway for your suggestions!

Coen