You sure? Seems they were [brittle over time] colored plastic like the Valencia's.
GM
edit: sure looks like it here: Altec magnificent grills?
Hello,
I am going to try to renovate a pair of Altec Magnificent wood grills, and am hoping for some tips or suggestions from someone that has done this. The grills have a couple of good sized holes that I need to patch (should have sufficient spare grill pieces to work with). The PO also got glue smears on the face of the grills - I am pretty sure that is going to lift the surface finish when I try and get it off. Thus the grills will also have to be refinished.
If anyone knows what the finish is on the grills, of has used something that worked well, that would be great to know about. The grill appears to be painted rather than stained, but a pretty thin coat (so not sure it is really paint - maybe sprayed....).
regards -- Roger
You sure? Seems they were [brittle over time] colored plastic like the Valencia's.
GM
edit: sure looks like it here: Altec magnificent grills?
Last edited by GM; December 13th, 2016 at 06:38 PM.
Loud is Beautiful if it's Clean! As always though, the usual disclaimers apply to this post's contents.
Yep, those are it. Actually I am surprised about how flexible the grills are. Getting the glue trails off is a pain (wonder what the PO was up to with that....), but the wood is pretty resilient. Perhaps in Magnificent version 2 they used plastic grill material. The cabs are very nice plywood from days gone by. Close up is of the wood grill busted portion. Patching the hole is going to be interesting - two smaller holes in the other one. One wonders what went on in the church (where they supposedly came from).....
regards -- Roger
Interesting! Wonder how they cut it? Had to be expensive back in the late '60's, early '70s. For sure the Valencia's plastic ones were. A search returned no Moroccan or other fine grillwork in wood or plastic, so not much hope of making new ones from flat stock.
GM
Loud is Beautiful if it's Clean! As always though, the usual disclaimers apply to this post's contents.
When I was doing research on the Magnificent, I think I read that the grills were very hard to make and done by a unique wood processing firm in Japan that had the capability. The grills seem to be made of long rows of the same detail glued in a toggling fashion (level, half a step down, level, half a step down, etc).
Really very pretty stuff - hopefully I can repair it well. Will certainly take some time, but a fairly unique feature.
I wonder what the impact of the grill is on transmission of the driver sound. Hopefully Altec would not have used it if there was a big impact......
regards -- Roger
I own a pair also, and yes they are real wood. I believe they were made in 6 inch wide sections and glued together. Amazing how they pulled it off honestly!
They are awesome speaks :-)
GM - I had Valencia's before the Mag's and indeed they had plastic grills that became brittle over time and fell apart.
One like yours, quite a bit I imagine, taking the 'edge' off them, i.e. more 'HIFI', but Altec 'voiced' their consumer, studio speakers in an anechoic chamber and the ones I've auditioned [not these grills though] sounded quite nice to me, which spurred me on to experimenting with selective damping without taking too much of the cinema sound's 'heart attack fast' presentation that seduced me at such a young age.Originally Posted by rogerh113
Grill cloth is the worst though. I mean how many photos of M19s, etc., have you seen in folks homes with the grills on?
GM
Loud is Beautiful if it's Clean! As always though, the usual disclaimers apply to this post's contents.
That makes a lot of sense. I have always just thought of grills as muting the HF. The idea that it also makes the speaker "slower" is very interesting. And you are right about those wooden lattice grills, I'm sure they do quite a bit to tame those upside down A7's
Talk, scream through a tightly stretched grill cloth to hear how wide a BW it affects. Some foams are even worse; anyone who auditioned JBL 100s, etc., with/without those georgeous, somewhat 'eggcrate' grills knows how teeth gritting sharp, 'boomy' they could be.
For me, if a weak flashlight can't 'expose' what's behind in detail, it's too dense for me.
GM
Loud is Beautiful if it's Clean! As always though, the usual disclaimers apply to this post's contents.
Thanks for the tips! Soo much appreciated. I really need to start my house renovaion as soon as winter comes to a final end. I want to have new awning windows installed
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