There are 2 different sets of 511E horns on Ebay at the moment. Weird, I almost never see them and than 2 sets pop up on the same day by different sellers. Kind of pricey for what they are. What I really want to see is a glut of 808H horns on the market.
BillWojo
Someone did a good job making the gray pair pretty. I still wouldn't pay that much for 511's. You could make your own pair for less than 100 bucks. And do a much better job than Altec did.
I wish we had some cheap 80x series horn remakes
................... and at the end of the day you still have a horn that won't load a driver well down anywhere near 500hz.
Not all vegetables make good leaders.
And gets left behind by the MRII594A
Originally Posted by bowtie427ss
Question : Would that be the main reason why some people suggest a A7-800 over a A7-500 ?? Any others??
Thanks.
Low Ohms ....Jeff Medwin
I think its mostly personal preference. Maybe there is a more technical answer.
Personally I like my A7's better at the 800hz xover. The horns were honkier and didn't sound as good below that. Also it seems to smooth out the mid hump of the horns/drivers.
I think my 802D drivers sound best at 800hz or 1200hz over point. Many people are running the 1200hz xover on their A7 cabs
I'd opine that it's the result of multiple contributing factors with the 511's acoustic limitations only being one small one.
I think another factor is in the design of the midbass horn of the 825/828 box and the Altec cone drivers designed to work with it. There's lots of midrange magic there, up to and beyond 800hz.
Not all vegetables make good leaders.
Thanks so much for your experienced input. Very appreciated.
I was given the 515Bs and 802Ds about a year, before someone else I had also mentored ( SET amp building ) gave me the 825s. So, for about a four month period, I listened to the 515Bs alone - in NO enclosure, and they did very nicely on my Type 45 SET amp, all by themselves.
Also, I cleaned the excess goop off the 515Bs' surrounds, that had migrated over time, and THAT was a really neat thing to hear, especially since I was listening to them crossover-less and full range.
When I finally mounted the 515Bs in the 825 enclosures, it was a wonderful thing to experience. But the buzzing cabinets, which I did not want to brace internally in any way, quickly led me to mass-loading the top of the 825 boxes.
I have a ( un-tried ) belief now, that even if someone braces the 825 cabinets really well, the mass loading will still help the sound reproduction, a lot. Its only just a strong intuition of mine !! On someone else's well-braced 825 enclosure, it may only take six concrete tiles, $10.02 a side, to try it out.
For mass loading experiments, initially I incrementally did ( up to ) five LP storage boxes, ( 12 by 12 by 18 inches ) at 55 pounds each. Then, I came up with the idea of these $1.67 each 16 pound concrete patio tiles, from Lowe's Hardware. Did that incrementally also, listening to music - not measuring - and ended up with 290 pounds on each stock box.
Much work ahead. Next week I receive for evaluation, new Heyboer M6 prototype Power Transformers, for an upcoming DIY JJ 2A3-40 SET / pair of monoblocks build. 'Also have to build a DIY higher-quality passive attenuator, low loss, for this VOTT system.
Thanks for your input. It helped me understand the A7-800 speaker a bit better !! A wonderful speaker, fully deserving of our optimization.
Low Ohms ..... Jeff Medwin
Last edited by LowOhms; March 3rd, 2017 at 08:28 PM.
Mainly because they don't know how to set them up or not willing to do what it takes, i.e. need CD horn EQ along with an early autoformer XO or all new XO if not driven with a period correct amp with variable damping tone controls, plus loading caps need to be removed/cap lined with felt for HIFI/HT apps.
Last, but not least, the cabs were designed for 800 Hz HF systems, so while off axis polar response suffers when using the 511, it's a better choice overall if not willing to do what it takes to make it work at 500 Hz. Note too that ideally the horn throat should be reduced like the original, though obviously not a big deal if not: https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-T...%25201505b.jpg
Never will get around to it as I once planned, but scaling it up to match the 511 would be the 'bees knees' [to keep it period correct].Ignoring WAF space issues, I'm betting it would be the 'darling' of the vintage small theater horns.
GM
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Yeah, even though my super tweaked 511s were smoother sounding, the superior polar response of the Mantarays made them a better overall performer, hence the ones to tweak.
GM
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Don't remember if it came up in your earlier thread, but you're right in that if you brace a stock cab enough to not need any mass loading and don't want to change its exterior, then its insides will look something like a Birdcage Maserati's 'space' frame.
Better then to DIY with thicker no void plywood plus reasonable bracing to tie all six sides together and double up the top plate [or at least use a clamped down large/massive horn 'sled'] along with mass loading [filling in] the horn flares.
GM
Loud is Beautiful if it's Clean! As always though, the usual disclaimers apply to this post's contents.
GM,
Thanks for responding !
You mentioned DIYing an enclosure.
I have stored, for 8 years now, seven large sheets of 1 inch thick European Baltic Birch plywood ( 15 layer ) , good looking stuff, standing vertically on end, taking up all the usable space in my apartment's second ( spare ) bathroom.
I have never been able to decide to build a 604 MLTL, or a super thick A7 VOTT enclosure with this wood. Still don't know, so it sits !!
Hope it doesn't warp, never turn them, probably should.
Jeff
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