OT - Officially getting into the audio business

**Panomaniac** · October 20th, 2013, 06:57 AM

Had a good time over there yesterday. Thanks to AA for inviting me. It's a 3 hour round trip, but well worth it. The cabinets are very, very nice. The guys have done a super job.
The MTMs were very smooth, very pleasant. Measure well, too. Then we hooked up the 604s. Oops! Both HF 'frams were fried. Dennis (with a little help from me) managed to solder back together the bunt leads. And they worked!

My prediction was "No Bass" for the 604 on the small open baffle. All it took was a battery click test to confirm that. But we plowed ahead, anyway. Dennis came up with a 1st try crossover that was not too far off. I did measurements, suggested possible problem areas and fixes - and Denis jumped right to it. After a few tries we had a darn good starting crossover - not easy with an Altec 604 on open baffle. The work speed was impressive. By the end of the afternoon, they were sounding pretty darn good. A very different presentation from the MTM OB. 604 much more dynamic, more precise, more "live" sounding. Of course some of that was a bump in the upper midrange we hadn't tamed (horn) but not all. You can't mistake that Altec sound.

Dennis didn't like those blue Urei horns, so pulled them off. I measured. Not bad. The tweeter doesn't go as low without them, but it kinda sounds better. Measured there was now a dip circa 2K without the horn. I' will post photos and graphs later today after work.

**analog addict** · October 20th, 2013, 11:21 AM

Enjoyed it Pano. Been too long. Anyway, as I expected, it didn't take Dennis long to get the 604's really close. I think he'll still tweak them a bit more, but I expect these to be minor changes. As Dennis tweaks, we'll be working on an attenuated horn via 3-D printer.....

**Altec Best** · October 20th, 2013, 01:12 PM

Originally Posted by Panomaniac

Had a good time over there yesterday. Thanks to AA for inviting me. It's a 3 hour round trip, but well worth it. The cabinets are very, very nice. The guys have done a super job.
The MTMs were very smooth, very pleasant. Measure well, too. Then we hooked up the 604s. Oops! Both HF 'frams were fried. Dennis (with a little help from me) managed to solder back together the bunt leads. And they worked!

My prediction was "No Bass" for the 604 on the small open baffle. All it took was a battery click test to confirm that. But we plowed ahead, anyway. Dennis came up with a 1st try crossover that was not too far off. I did measurements, suggested possible problem areas and fixes - and Denis jumped right to it. After a few tries we had a darn good starting crossover - not easy with an Altec 604 on open baffle. The work speed was impressive. By the end of the afternoon, they were sounding pretty darn good. A very different presentation from the MTM OB. 604 much more dynamic, more precise, more "live" sounding. Of course some of that was a bump in the upper midrange we hadn't tamed (horn) but not all. You can't mistake that Altec sound.

Dennis didn't like those blue Urei horns, so pulled them off. I measured. Not bad. The tweeter doesn't go as low without them, but it kinda sounds better. Measured there was now a dip circa 2K without the horn. I' will post photos and graphs later today after work.

Good to hear from you stranger ! Did you guys have the little multi horn to replace the Urei horn ?

**sanhanul** · October 20th, 2013, 02:51 PM

Wow..that CNC router.. wish I had one too.

**analog addict** · October 20th, 2013, 02:54 PM

I do have a set of 604-8G with the multi cells as well, but I haven't brought them over to the shop, nor have I tried to take the little horn off the driver. Is that easily possible?