Quote Originally Posted by GM View Post
Hmm, please define 'unloads' since F6 is more like ~400 Hz and its cutoff is right at 212 Hz since it's designed to do 300 Hz for the 730C driver.

There's an awful lot of mis-understanding/information re compression driver power handling in general and the 802-8G in particular, but GPA's Fs for it proves it can handle anything the earlier 802s can.

WRT how it sounds, that has as much, if not more, to do with the horn it's attached to than the driver, i.e. it's 'voiced' [entire BW is shifted a little higher] for the small Mantaray and 811, so more CD horn EQ is required for the 511 plus more mouth damping to ~delete its 'honk', reflections back to the throat and 'let through' the 8G's superior HF response. Apparently the plastic phase plug doesn't handle the 511's relatively strong mouth reflections hammering away at it too well.

Factor in there's no need in a typical HIFI/HT app for high power, the driver's 8 w rating is all that's needed, so plenty of Xmax left. Worst case is someone may need to add loading caps to fill a 10 car garage with a pipe organ symphony.

GM
Hi Greg-
In all honesty I'm not as well equipped for this discussion. I'm operating on info gleaned from the engineering guys when I worked at Altec. Their attitude was that operating the 511 down to 500 wasn't a good idea. That's where I got the 485 Hz figure.

I have used the Community RH-90. It's a 400 Hz flare rate horn. In A/B situations it sounds much better than the 511 at 500 IMHO. On the 511 it sounds like the driver is struggling compared to the RH-90. There are other possibilities for this- I don't care for the throat design of the 511. But I've operated on the above info.