newbie to Altec's

[Ronald Lee]

oface1: welcome!

Good find, you made out like a bandit.

Did you bring them horn in your little white car?

Don't know too much about the Altec large format drivers and horns, so I will leave it up the more knowledgeable members.

[oface1]

Hahaha,, no way could those fit in my civic....

I rented a 6x12 box trailer, they did not have a flat one, and it WAS suppose to rain,, but you never can tell.....

It was only about 30 miles away....so no biggie there.....just had to get my truck out , and it likes to drink the gas,,,but I thought it was worth it....

[RacerXX]

Nice score. You'll love the 817's. They will
sound great in the garage or in a larger room in
a home theater application. I'm not an expert on 291's, but remember them to be somewhat lacking in high freq. response for
home use. Think you can drop in a 299 diaphragm. Check with O.G., Todd, or GM to make sure.

Got to go back and look at the pictures, but those appear to be pretty long throw horns. Ideally, you might want shorter ones in a garage or large room in your house. They will work, but are designed to project much larger distances.

Either way, ............

Your neighbors will love you.......

[analog addict]

Good to see you here! I recently got my 291-16B's back from GPA after they converted them to 288-16G's. They will replace missing terminals for $2.50 each, but I would wonder if the missing terminals mean that someone's been in at least that driver....

I would use that one as the test subject. You can carefully take out the screws that hold on the back cover and slip it off. Do this in an area free of any metal debris and keep all ferrous tools clear.

Neither of my 291's had terminals when I bought them, but one of them was also missing a diaphragm when I opened it up. If you have the $$$$ available, then best thing to do is bite the bullet and send them back to GPA for a tune up, and new 'phragms if necessary, especially if conversion to a 288 series is possible. Even just 2 at a time would be worthwhile...IIRC, the 288's are better suited to audio while the 291's are more for sound reinforcement....

[oface1]

Analog,,

I was thinking the same thing about the driver with the missing terminals.....wondering who might have been picking around,,,,

The only story I got on them was that I bought them from the second owner , who was also gonna use them in a project. He had them just sitting around a corner in his hanger/garage/house, and said he did not have anything to push them with. He told me he and his brother got them from a theater somewhere in middle NC.

I believe from what literature I have seen these are from around '83, and the big horns are MR 42a's? and the small ones are MR something else...
If it is possible to convert 2 of the 291-16's to home audio use, I will get a separate pair of smaller horns,, any suggestions?

With the diaphragms in question, you are saying to get the replacement diaphragms for the 288's then? I would like to use these in a home audio/theater set-up, at least 2 of them. How challenging is the replacement process? I noticed that the 288's spec's are almost identical to the 291's, only the 288's seem to go a bit higher..

Also will be looking into a pair of tweets for them, the 288's go up too 15k right?

Will have to save some $$$ but I think I will get at least a pair going by this time next month or at least try. I will have to keep them out in the garage, I doubt I have a room big enough in the house to place the 817 cabs in.

Just still wondering if the 921-8a woofer is cut out for at least decent audio reproduction.... or will I need to start looking elsewhere?


Ahh, a lot of what ifs to and looking forward to getting answers or finding out myself.

later

[Cal Weldon]

Nice score on the goodies. I think you should mount that long horn on the top of your Civic. Less trouble in traffic.

[oface1]

Yeah,, my civic has a squeeky sounding horn , I swear my old bicycle had a louder horn than this car...

But I have noticed here in SC, most people in their big suv's and trucks try to run me over while I am in the civic, but the story is much different when I am driving in my Nissan Armada ...

[analog addict]

I had a pair of mine shipped to GPA, a broken mounting bolt replaced, new diaphragms installed, a magnet check with free remag if necessary, a sweep check for function, 4 new terminals installed, and shipped back to me for less than $300 total. I do need to e-mail Steve for a copy of the paperwork for my own records, but GPA service will restore your drivers back to factory spec or better(depending uopn the 'phragms installed) and may actually increase the resale value if you ever have to liquidate. A definite win-win deal....

[LICORNE]

Congratulations on your acquisitions.This set up will make a lot of DIY set up look like transistor radio.

I would make it a 3 way TRI AMP the bottom part
from 20 to 250 second half 250 to 500 and horn
500 to 20kHz.

Can be used for rock group and you will get a lot of SPL Dynamic range out of it.

This sort of set up for small night club is the Ideal thing.

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

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ May 06, 2008 08:08 PM: Message edited by: CONVERGENCE ]</font>

[analog addict]

I just checked the GPA site...

http://www.greatplainsaudio.com/PartsList.html

and the 23834 diaphragm for the 288-16G will fit on the 291-16K, so you're in business.

Call Steve or Bill at GPA and tell them the Altec board sent you...