newbie to Altec's

[Old Guy]

There are used pro sound actives to be had from $50 or so up. Just depends on who offers what this week.

There are literally tons-. Rane and Ashly are generally decent as are many others. There are new Behringer units starting about $75, but better is over $100. But the at $199 for the DCX, as posted in another thread, I'd think twice before spending $125 on a unit.

If you see something rum it by the folks here. Between all of us we've used lot of units.

If you can use a basic passive crossover tutorial, go here:
http://www.passivecrossovers.com/

Written for car stereo, but the technology is the same.

Second order is most common BTW. Again it just depends on what you are looking for- you may have a better idea after reading that tutorial.

Hope some of this helps, if not please keep asking.

[oface1]

OG,

Thanks for the info,, and I will be posting a lot more questions/ pics in the next few weeks/ months...

later....

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ May 22, 2008 11:41 AM: Message edited by: oface1 ]</font>

[oface1]

I tried to go to the Altec pro site when I first got these speakers, and to no avail it did not work , no matter what browser and version I used , so I suspected I was out of luck.

Well I saw a post recently that linked directly to it , I think it was one of the posts in the MR horn post. I went to it and saw that it worked, and found the xover networks.

What would be a nice xover point for the 921-8a's, since the pdf says it goes go up to 3.5khz and the pdf for the 921-16k's with the MR64 horn says recommended @ 800hz....

Looks like the N500F network would work, but Is it the same as the schematic of the N500G? If so I could just replicate that and would that be cool?

I doubt I would have to use any $$$ unobtanium caps,resistors and inductors for parts would I ?

Thanks

[dedmonds]

The 921-8A is, for all practical purposes, the same as the 421-8A. They were made for higher power applications than the 416's and 515's and aren't quite as smooth.
As with all bass horns, the 817's don't go all that far down at the low end. We have a pair of 816 cabinets with MRII594 horns and 299-8A drivers (horns mounted inside, grille cloth on the front), and had two cabinets built that are the same size as the 816's, but with 2-18" Peavey subwoofers in them. When you stack the 816's on top of the subs, the height is about right for a small venue; put them on one section of scaffolding and the height is about right for a larger one. These are probably the best-sounding speakers we own! We also have 817's and larger manta-ray horns that we still use occasionally for rentals, and we have a couple of custom-built dual 18" subs we use with that setup. Everything is actively crossed over.
Dave Edmonds
Dave Edmonds

[timp]

Hey oface1

I will be the last one to give you any tech support. In fact, a few months ago, O G recommended me to read that site as well. To make it short, I built my passive crossover from the scratch. It was fun. But it wasn't cheap. If you are thinking about your wallet, a $50-$100 active crossover is hard to beat. If you have all the parts necessary in your hands, then it's a different story.

Tim

[oface1]

tim,

What did you spend on building yours?
What is your set-up like?

Yeah I am thinking I might just go to easy route and look for a active xover.

[timp]

Hi Ya

My set up is 414-16b/811. And I copied 800nf crossover which is a two way/second order. I budgeted the whole project for $50ish. Boy, I was way off! I ended up spending well over $100. For example, I needed 4 inductors. I spent $50 plus for those, alone. At one point, I thought about winding my own inductors. But it was way over my head. But take a look at some of the inductor values you need here. Plus, shipping, etc. It will give you some ideas.

http://www.partsexpress.com/mfg/jant...en.cfm#15gauge

If you can get a used active for $50-$100, and I think you can, that's a bargain.

Tim

[timp]

And did I tell you? I did not get it right the first time around. So I had to reorder, etc. So, it I add those up.... I call it a tuition.