Altec 801-8A dividing network repair.

[alancohen]

I bought a pair of 801-8As for my A5s before I decided to build the Hiragas. One didn't pass HF so I shelved them for the time being. Now I'm selling them as is, but getting lots of questions.

So I decided to open them up and see if I could diagnose the issue. All connections seemed OK and all caps looked and measured good, so I thought I'd put my new signal generator/scope to work. I set the SG to a 2000Hz sine wave and hooked it up to the XO inputs. I started tracing the HF signal and it was fine entering the L-Pad but that where things went bad. I soaked the L-pad with Dioxot and finally got a good output signal with the knob wide open, but as soon as I started to attenuate, the signal got squirrely.

Prognosis: It will be fine with a new L-pad.

So does anyone know off hand which Parts Express L-pad will fit the bill?


As a side note, while I had the scope hooked up I ran the signal generator through the range of frequencies from 100Hz to 15K. It was fun to see the LF voltage output drop as the Hz rose. I could have plotted the slopes if I felt like it, which come to think of it, might be a an interesting way of profiling what a crossover is doing independent of its reaction with the drivers. If I'm not careful, I might actually learn something.