New here and recent Model 14 owner

[Tom_in_RI]

I've been an avid music fan for a long time. Only in the last few years have I begun to pay more attention to my equipment. The more I read, the more I realize I don't know (and probably never will). Anyway, for the past couple of years I've had ADS 1290II's as my main speakers. This winter I bought a pair of Model 14's which I really enjoy, particularly that they sound good but different from the ADS speaks. I am looking into having the 14's recapped (I can't do that myself). My question concerns the woofers. My cones are pretty faded but otherwise seem to be in fine shape. Do people only recone when the woofers have rips, tears or other dings, or is it done to refresh parts that are 35 or so years old? I like how they sound now.

Is there any consensus on what people prefer as far as replacement caps? Do people generally replace the inductors when recapping (I don't really know what they are but the guy I am speaking to asked if I was planning on replacing them also). My knee jerk reaction is to be conservative in changes to the speakers.

[Altec Best]

Hi Tom ! Welcome to Altec User Board ! OK as far as the inductors go, they very rarely go bad.I would leave them.If you do change them make sure you keep the old ones case you need to put them back in.. Usually just replacing the capacitors and resistors is all that is needed.Replacing the wires and cleaning of the pots (De-Oxit) on the L-pads as well.. If the L-pads are in bad shape ? Very badly (Oxidized), then you can replace them as well..

L-Pad 100W Mono 3/8" Shaft 8 Ohm 260-262

Capacitors - Solens or Daytons are good and inexpensive.

Woofer Cones - Generally speaking here we like to try and save the original Altec cones as much as possible.. Just fading color of the cones is no real reason to recone them.. When they have large tears, rips,and cone sagging or spider issues, surround issues then a recone maybe inevitable.

They come with foam surrounds and if they need to be refoamed the cones should be able to be saved..

For parts for your Altec speakers call Bill at Great Plains Audio.. Bill is still making original parts for Altec speakers,components,etc...

Bill Hanuschak @ GPA - (405) 789-0221

Again Welcome to the Board !

[Alien_Shore]

Welcome to the AUB, Tom.

The Model 14 networks are more than a simple first order XO that they initially appear - and have many parts that might be fatigued or well out of spec by now. Recapping the HP filter, and cleaning the L-Pads is an easy and effective fix to help make those old networks sound better. The overload protection circuitry is fairly simple to bypass if you have some skill with a soldering iron, and is probably the second best thing you can do. As Altec Best indicated, some people take care not to make any mods that can't easily be reversed if they want to resell a "stock" speaker system down the road, so you may want to consider that before you dive in. I wasn't really concerned about that so much when I modded my M14 networks.

If you're interested, there is a M14 XO redesign that you can use if you wanted to bypass the old stock XO entirely: