Altec 834a

[jeremyk]

Hello,
One day while browsing craigslist, I was suprised to see Altec 834a's listed. I had never heard of these. I bought them, and recently discovered the High Frequency Att knob falls out of the speakers! I have the knob and a long piece of metal. There is no sound coming out of the horn. Is there any way to fix this problem? Do I need to get a new crossover network? Is there any documentation for these speakers?

Thanks!

[jeremyk]

More information on this speaker system - there are two 8 inch 402a speakers in each speaker. There is a small horn, but I do not see any markings as to what type of horn it is. There is not speciefic crossover network (unlike my A7's which are using the 500g network)

Any help is greatly appreciated. They sound decent with no high range, but I think they'd sound AMAZING if I can get the high range to work.

[GM]

Greets!

These have the 3000B horn IIRC, in which case the diaphragms are probably burned up since the're so fragile. If so, then until recently, common kowledge was that replacements were long gone, but apparently this company has stepped up to fill the void:
MicroMike Laboratories ?
1537 West Cris Place
Anaheim, California 92802
Telephone: (714) 774-0342
Attention: Mr. Bill Hayes

The XOs then would be the 3000B 3 kHz network and unless you can find some worth buying, you'll have to repair/upgrade what you have. At the very least they will probably need new attenuators (pots) and caps also if they haven't been replaced since the originals may be PIO filled with toxic PCB. I'm not familiar with these in detail, but I assume that it's typical of their other networks built well into the '70s, which are textbook 2nd order Butterworths.

GM

[jeremyk]

Thanks. I wound up bringing them to a speaker specialist. Since I have my A7's wide open (I like a bright sound), he simply bipassed the caps. Looks like I got a pretty good deal on these after all. Now I have a7 fronts, the 834a's as rears. I have to find a kick *** center channel.

[jeremyk]

Ok, one more thing I could use suggestion on. These speakers came with no grills. Any ideas on what I could make to fit these? I can't find any info on this system anywhere!

[GM]

Greets!

You're welcome!

That's beyond bright!

Uh, what's going to protect the horns against overexcursion?

Well, the obvious is to use a matching A7 if it's a front projection system and if it's a TV, then you can 'fly' it upside down over it, angling it down as required.

Back then, it was common to stretch grillcloth over a frame and screw it to the baffle from the rear and add trim moulding around the perimeter on the front to finish it off. I assume these mouldings are gone so I'd just cut out a false baffle from thin hardboard to stretch the grillcloth over, then secure the assembly with pin brads or double stick carpet tape or similar to the driver baffle.

I normally used double knit since it's cheap and comes in myriad colors, but for the vintage 'look': http://www.acoustonegrillecloth.com/about.htm#

GM

[gvasale]

It is someone's luck day. I have a pair of 834a's that I got second hand in Boston, about 1971. Altec repaired the hf drivers. I took a couple of photos of them, one with a close up of the grille fabric. As soon as I am able, I'll get a link for them here.

[gvasale]

go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/levewind

or someone with better computer skill can copy them the the message board

[GM]

Greets!

The link is missing an 'L', but I found the pics searching '834A', so your homepage is:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/levelwind/
and right clicking on the enlarged images and copying their links:
http://static.flickr.com/86/24455787...ec0574.jpg?v=0
http://static.flickr.com/88/24455787...18f0e6.jpg?v=0
or using the 'image' button to view them in this message:


Anyway, thanks for sharing! They appear to be constructed just as I described.

GM

[gvasale]

Sorry for the error, and thanks for the help too!