Initial Consultation Free?

[bdub]

OK, looking for some guidance here. My father-in-law is (literally) down-sizing his speakers and wants to 'dispose' of the pair of Altecs and cabinets that he personally built, circa 1966. They are built lika a brick sh*t house out of high density 3/4 in mahogany ply with solid black walnut trim. They are probably 8 cu.ft. cabinets built to Altec specs with a screw every 3-4 inches - well over 100 in each cabinet.

Anyway, he built them without access! Each cabinet is totally glued & screwed shut. I even had to drill out the plugs on the strips holding the grill cloth on one of them for a look. There is an Altec 604 or 605 in each one, but I can't tell which. The main question here is:
Can you tell from the front view only which it is?
The cones & surrounds are pristine! I can't believe there's not even a LF reflex port to stick a mirror into. These are totally sealed cabinets - was there an 'acoustic suspension' design for these type speakers back then???
Anyway, we're going at this slowly. The cabinets, while structurally perfect, show wear from being banged by little feet and vacuum cleaners. They have irregular sunlight damage and an occasional drink/water ring. We're considering selling the speakers without the cabinets, but if we knew what the speakers were, the potential buyer might want the cabinets anyway.

Leaving for vacation 'til July 4, so may not be able to respond to any posts 'til then but will try to get into one cyber cafe or two before then.

Thanx in advance for your advice!

[bdub]

One additional snippet of info. We got into a discussion of magnet size and I was relating as how my JBL LE-15's have a 20# magnet. He seemed to remember the Altecs weighing in at 35#. I don't know any speaker with more than a 20#, but I know the total weight on a 604 is 34#, so maybe the ones in the cabinets are 604's.

[LICORNE]

BDUB

was there an 'acoustic suspension' design for these type speakers back then???

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well no . If your enclosure is greater than 6 and less than 12 cubic feet with no ports it's considered infinite baffle for the 604.

Altec recommended greater than 6 for bass reflex.

The 604 and 605 horn were identical.

If you could remove the back panel would be ideal
to acess driver.

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

[speakerdave]

Where is the crossover mounted? If that can be removed you might have an access hole for flashlight, mirror, etc,

David

[Old Guy]

The JBL didn't have a 20 pound magnet, though it did weigh that much. Bear in mind the 604/605 also have a HF driver mounted on the back.

Not being real Altec cabs, the value is in the speakers.

The crossover access hole idea bears merit.

[bdub]

The crossover is mounted inside with only the pot shaft sticking out for the knob to mount on. I think I'm going to cut a 'view' and a 'light' hole in the back and then give any possible purchaser the option to take the cabs, or not.
On the other topic -
The marketing description of the low freq driver in the Olympus/Sovereign systems says, "...the LE15A..is driven by a massive 20 pound, low-loss magnetic assembly......."

According to JBL specs - the LE-15A speaker had a magnetic assembly of either 19 & 1/2 or 20 POUNDS - depending on which what year spec sheet you looked at. The total shipping weight was 26 pounds which was likely the addition of the aluminum frame, the cone, surround & the voice coil.

http://www.lansingheritage.org/image...bass/page1.jpg

Thanx to all who have read this and especially those who took the time to respond. Much appreciation on this end!

[selmerdave]

Are you positive the cabinets are glued shut? That would be a *really* unusual way to do it of course. Is it possible that the back is just a tight fit (as it should be) and after however many years without removal it's a little reluctant to open?

Dave

[Steve Mac]

Maybe the speakers are front mounted...

[cclark65]

Just in case they want the cabinets intact, you might want to make the access hole in the bottom, then you could make another board to cover it up and it would never be seen, even if the cabinets are out where the backs could be seen.

[cclark65]

Originally posted by Steve Mac:
Maybe the speakers are front mounted...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I bet it's rare to find a front mounted early 604. If I am thinking right, most of them didn't have the "fat" lip making it a 16" frame. And the 15" frames had support ridges like almost every inch on the back, making it very hard to mount them from the front. I did it once by making a ton of notches around the hole, but I wouldn't recommend that unless absolutely necessary. I'll never mess with it again, that's for sure!