A-7s for '50's-60's rock band

[DocRock]

I am trying to decide whether to repair the blown horn drivers on a pair of A-7s I've recently acquired. These would replace our JBL powered Eons and subs we use in a geezer rock band when we play gyms and outdoor concerts. They would be driven by a Peavey 50/50 power amp. Is the project an improvement over what we have or would we be better of replacing the woofers and horn drivers with units with higher wattage ratings?
Thanx,

[LICORNE]

Hi,

It yould be better if you could replace these units with more powerful ones.

I'm afraid your horns are 511 so your stuck with 30 watt drivers.
Unless you can find an 1505B ,1005B,805B horn or the equivalent in a mantaray or constant directivity horn.

Then you can load it with a 5158GHP and 50 watt 299 HF drivers.

.....................................

[Old Guy]

Normally I wouldn't suggest using anything other than Altec replacement diaphragms from GPA. This is one excption. Radian diaphragms will handle quite a bit more power, sound better than Symbiotiks but not as good as Pascalites. Power handling and durability are improved. They were designed by the way by Aldis Renkus, an Altec Alumnus. He was a major player at Emilar and of course Renkis Heinz after leaving Altec.

The better solution would be to find some small Mantarays and use 299's.

[LICORNE]

Hi,

I think I found large Mantaray horns , There is a Gov.liquidation for these at the following site.

http://cgi.govliquidation.com/auctio...&convertTo=USD

The sale is over but here is a picture with the horns mounted on 817 cabinets.





.............

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ November 09, 2007 10:24 PM: Message edited by: CONVERGENCE ]</font>

[Old Guy]

That auction is closed- that's the one where audio by goodwill got his.

[boltupright]

Why would you want to lug around a pair of A7's, what's wrong with the JBL eons?
Are you planning to use the eons as monitors?
You would have a good sound with the A7's as long as they are elevated some, the thing that's nice about the smaller speakers is that they can be elevated so the soundwaves are not consumed & absorbed by the people most closeset to the speakers & lose all the intensity when the sound reaches the back of the room.
There were many bands in the 70's using A7's for mains & they were loud indeed, They usually used 421 bass drivers & 808 symbiotic diaphragm horn drivers, I wouldn't use the Peavy 50/50 power amp though as they are designed for guitar application & would yeild too much distortion for the small horn driver to take, I would use a quality clean 250 watt per channel mosfet power amp & use it 3/4 way at the most to ensure clean headroom, that should be plenty loud.
you may still want to use the powered subs from the eons system as the a7's don't do much under -40hz & this would save some of that clean power for the A7's mid bass.

[Old Guy]

Have you ever heard JBL Eons? One of the worst speakers I have ever heard. Lots of cheap Chinese stuff is better. Oh, wait- the Eons ARE cheap Chinese stuff.

That JBL put their name on them should be legally false advertising. Jim Lansing must be turning over in his grave. He would NEVER have put out a product like that.

The best of the bunch is the 10 inch Eons- as long as you try to put vocals only thru them- and that at moderate volume...

[Russellc]

I have a set of 908 8B With symbiotic diaphrams in great shape as well as (I think) another replacement set of nice condition symbiotics if you are interested.

Russellc

[LICORNE]

Hi,

Here is a testimonial from a performer in the 70's
using A7.

Quote
In the mid 70?s I was working with big recording stars at the Sound Factory recording studios while playing studio sessions and the occasional live gig, and starting to notice monitors but mostly installed overhead as part of better club sound systems, such as a system at The Basement in Marina Del Rey, California where I played for a year with a cover band. Hannon Engineering had installed a pair of Altec A7 speakers with the revolutionary new Altec ?Acousta-Voicette? 1/3-octave equalizer system and an additional 90-degree multicell horn up in the light bars, facing the stage because the room?s back wall was a concrete reflector, and musicians needed the immediacy of the stage. That sound system in today's dollars would have cost 30 grand--ten times more than modern equipment capable of better performance

..................................

[boltupright]

Old Guy wrote,,,,

Have you ever heard JBL Eons? One of the worst speakers I have ever heard. Lots of cheap Chinese stuff is better. Oh, wait- the Eons ARE cheap Chinese stuff.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Actually, no I haven't heard the Eons, are they that bad?