Lowering the crossover point.

[voice of the theater]

Took the backs off the cabinets today and made some brackets so I could retain the attenuators. I was right that the backs were 5/8ths They measured .625 with my calipers. I like how they sound now. Shot some videos will be posting them up through the night.
Here's the first one. Sorry about the crappy quality.
Altec 604C Avatar1.MOV - YouTube

I was giving this situation some thought last night and I have a theory. However, if you like the way they sound now maybe you don't need this theory after all!

I agree with this, if I eq my 604's like this, the midrange energy overwhelms the lows and some of the highs. Something seems off......

Ya think?!

GM

I was thinking that you've been doing a lot of crossover changes/customizations etc. (swapping out inductors, resistors, capacitors, etc.) and cabinet changes trying to find the crossover and cabinet design that sounds the best with your 604's. However, you've been doing these modifications and listening tests (to audibly evaluate which mods sound best) with very unconventional graphic equalizer settings. So your current crossover and cabinet design that you're using is customized to be the one that sounds best with your (very) unusual graphic equalizer settings.

IMHO, if you really want to get the most from your Altecs, I would recommend doing your crossover and cabinet mods/experimentation/ and listening evaluations (to assess your results) with the graphic equalizer and tone controls set flat or at least with much less graphic EQ/tone controls (if you just can't listen to them completely flat under any circumstances)--a very subtle smiley face graphic EQ setup (which is a much more conventional setting/probably much more appropriate for 604's) would still be a huge improvement as far as being appropriate for your listening evaluations during crossover and cabinet experimentation/modifications. With your graphic EQ and tone controls set flat (or at least close to flat), you're modifying your crossovers and cabinets (via listening tests/trial and error) to sound the best with your speakers, and not modifying your crossovers and cabinets to sound the best with your unusual graphic EQ settings. Once you find which crossover and cabinet design sounds best with your speakers, then you can add some EQ to sweeten/fine tune the sound further if needed.

I know you've done a lot of work on your crossovers and different cabinets and I'm basically asking you to revisit it (and maybe drive Parts Express crazy), but if you want the most out of your speakers I think it's worth it and IMHO you're likely to be very pleasantly surprised by the results. Does this suggestion make sense to anyone else here?