Hello from Denver and new to me Milano's

[jcricket]

Hey Folks,
This is my first post. I am pretty active over at audiokarma though.
I have loved music all my life, probably my first love as a young child. I bought my first stereo console when I was ten years old - I used money I had saved shoveling walks and mowing lawns. It was a grundig majestic tubed unit. That was in 1974.

Today I am a dad of twin autistic boys, been married 21 years, and am disabled(MS). I still love music, maybe more now than ever. I have a background as an industrial maintenance technician.
My current hobbies are fishing, building tube amps, and music.


Today I happened to look on craigs list and searched for altec. I found an estate sale that had been running since Friday. It listed a pair of old walnut "altec lansigining? speakers. I thought for sure they would be gone.

I drove over and to my suprise, they were still there. I thought they might have been valencia's but I have been told they are Milano's. Also, next tothe speaekrs was a matching Altec console - unfortunately the inards were removed before I got there.

Since this is my first post, I obviously do not know how to navigate this site yet. I will try and post pics.

Does anyone know what components would have gone into this console?

Also, can anyone give me feedback as to how these milano's would sound if I changed out the crossover to the Z19 crossover? I am curretnly buildin a set - I had intended to put them into a 1235c system.

One last thing, my MS has caused me a lot of problems, one of hte most annoying is my typing skills are shot. Please bear with me as I plug through my posts.

[Old Guy]

The console came empty you filled yourself AFAIK

Owned one back in the 70's with a Fisher tube receiver and Dual table.

[cradeldorf]

Excellent find Buddy. They look very clean and pretty. Welcome to the club.

[zelgall]

I have no idea why everyone on audiokarma wants to put a Z19 cross over in every box they see and think that it will not only work but be an improvement as well. If there was such a thing as a universal cross over there wouldn't be a different version in every model from every manufacturer, Altec included. Zilch was a smart guy and was always ready to help but I don't think he would advocate tossing the same design in every speaker regardless of configuration or crossover point.
Congrats on the Milanos. Replace the Caps, if they need it and just listen to some music.

[GM]

Z19? Got thread links?

GM

[bowtie427ss]

Z19? Got thread links?

GM

You'll need a beverage and a snack: Z19 Crossover - AudioKarma.org Home Audio Stereo Discussion Forums

[bowtie427ss]

I have no idea why everyone on audiokarma wants to put a Z19 cross over in every box they see and think that it will not only work but be an improvement as well. If there was such a thing as a universal cross over there wouldn't be a different version in every model from every manufacturer, Altec included. Zilch was a smart guy and was always ready to help but I don't think he would advocate tossing the same design in every speaker regardless of configuration or crossover point.
Congrats on the Milanos. Replace the Caps, if they need it and just listen to some music.

Man, you shoulda heard em boo and hiss when i very gently made a similar yet tasteful and polite comment there. My comments were referred to as "off color", and i was accused of having heard neither Z19's or model 19's. They sure can be entertaining bunch, and sometimes keep me in stitches for hours. There may be an epidemic of cranial rectitis going around

[westend9]

I think the OP may have been building the Z19 crossover for another application and bought the Milano's sans crossover networks. He just wants to use the crossover as that is what he has at hand. Z19 Crossover - AudioKarma.org Home Audio Stereo Discussion Forums has information from Zilch about the crossover and has a link to the longer thread at LH about it's development.
Edit: Heh, Bowtie beat me while I was typing.

[zelgall]

Man, you shoulda heard em boo and hiss when i very gently made a similar yet tasteful and polite comment there. My comments were referred to as "off color", and i was accused of having heard neither Z19's or model 19's. They sure can be entertaining bunch, and sometimes keep me in stitches for hours. There may be an epidemic of cranial rectitis going around

I'm glad it was you they were talking about. I thought it was my regular posts about keeping the Altec xovers instead of replacing.
Kyle.

[voice of the theater]

.....Does anyone know what components would have gone into this console?

Also, can anyone give me feedback as to how these milano's would sound if I changed out the crossover to the Z19 crossover? I am curretnly buildin a set - I had intended to put them into a 1235c system.....

Welcome to our forum! Nice purchase--those speakers and cabinets look to be in great shape!

I owned a pair of Altec Valencias for many many years which were very similar to your Milanos. They were great sounding speakers in their stock configuration IMHO. Depending on the year of manufacture of your Milanos, they are most likely 8 ohm speaker systems containing 416-8A woofers, 806-8A h.f. drivers, 811b horns, and 800 hz crossovers. Very early Milanos may be 16 ohm configuration with 416z woofers and 806a h.f. drivers and 16 ohm crossover. It may say somewhere on the backs of your speakers what the impedance is, if not you'll have to open them up to find out (I'd definitely open them up anyways to make sure all the stock drivers are in there, and that nothing has been replaced/swapped out for other drivers). If you open them up, please post photos!

As far as all the controversy about the Z 19 crossovers, I haven't read the audiokarma thread but I will say that Zilch was a very smart guy who knew a lot about speaker systems. He designed the Z 19 as a replacement (possible upgrade depending on your opinion) to the Model 19 stock crossover (N1201-8A). I agree with Pano that there is NO Way that Zilch ever suggested or would ever recommend using his Z-19 crossover as any type of a universal crossover to be plugged into many different speaker systems in a willy nilly fashion (is that even still a term?)... He designed it to act (in theory) extremely similarly to an N1201-8A crossover including h.f. compensation etc. specifically designed to be used with an 802-8G h.f. driver and 416-8b woofer. According to Zilch, the main difference between his Z19 and the N1201-8A was that (I'm paraphrasing here) his design allowed the two EQ controls on the crossover to operate more independently of each other than on the original Model 19 crossovers. For example, moving his midrange control supposedly had less effect on high frequencies than moving the midrange control on a 1201-8A crossover....

As far as using the Z19 crossover in your Milanos, I believe he would possibly have recommended that but only under very specific circumstances. He owned Valencias, and discussed upgrading them by replacing the 806 h.f drivers with 802-8G drivers (to extend the h.f. response), and then replacing the stock Valencia crossovers with his Z 19 design since it was designed to be used with 416's and 802-8G's. This potential upgrade could be enhanced by adjusting the tuning of the Valencia cabs by changing the port size to further mimic the sound of Model 19's.

Depending on your taste, this may or may not be an upgrade. Personally, I've owned Valencias and currently own two pair of Model 19's and would say both definitely have their merits. I believe comparing them is an apple and oranges comparison. I can see how some people might prefer the sound of Valencias over Model 19's, but I believe they would be the minority (not that being in the majority EVER means that you are "right"). However, I prefer the sound of the Model 19's so if I still owned my Valencias, I'd be considering the Zilch upgrade (but I might have used N1201-8A crossovers and not Z 19's since I've never had a chance to listen to Z 19's, I'd consider the N1201-8A's to be tried, tested, and true)......

EDIT: I see two people chimed in while I was typing this thing. Tom (bowtie) has a good point. If you already have Z 19's, it wouldn't hurt to try them with the 806's even though 806's don't have the upper extension "chops" to fully benefit from the Z 19 design. If you try Z-19's and consider them to be audibly a step in the "right" direction, I'd consider selling the 806's and buying a pair of 802-8G's to really hear what Z 19's (or N1201-8A's) can do!


By the way, if you don't mind me asking, what did you pay for your Milanos?