Mastring Lab crossovers value?

[GuyL]

Hi,

This is my 1st post here.

I own an original pair of Altec Lansing "Big Red's" with Mastering Labs crossovers and 604E2 drivers. I was thinking of selling the crossovers in order to fund some special custom designed crossovers.
I've replaced the capacitors with Hovland musicaps and the internal wires with VanDenHul SCS-16, silver wire, at a total cost of more than $500.

I was wandering if anyone have got a clue, how much they are worth?

I can get a pair of 605 A's, and thought of using them instead of the 604E2's (in the same cabinets). Would they sound different or similar?

Thanks,
Guy

[Mirrophonic Sound System]

How much are those X'overs worth ?
Probably not much;they were a tweak by someone who
was hyped to have golden ears - I'm not saying
original Altec X'overs are any better (they're
probably not) but they will fetch more from purist
collectors. How do they differ from Altec ?
Does Doug Sax (was that his name at Mastering Lab ?)
use air-coils? different x/o freq? different slopes ?

[joyspring]

MSS:

The Mastering Lab crossovers are probably worth quite a bit, particularly for studios equipped with AudioTechniques Big Red 604E-based monitors. They are now difficult to source and may have high value to Big Red-equipped studios requiring spares.

Don't kid yourselves; stock Altec crossovers are abysmal, as were most were throughout 1950-1970s. Most are standard 2-pole Butterworth with no impedance compensation and simple HF shelving. All do not sum flat.

The Mastering Lab crossovers were intended to address certain deficiencies in the stock Altec unit; for example, air-core inductors were introduced to prevent saturation that occurred in the iron-core chokes in the Altec unit. It's important to remember that high-power Crown transformerless solid-state DC300 amps were de rigeur in recording studios in the 1970s.

The Mastering Lab crossovers also added continuously-variable MF and HF equalization as opposed to the HF shelving attenuator in the Altec units.

From what I recall, The Mastering Lab units allegedly flattened the midrange peak present in the stock Altec units as well. I also seem to remember that they did sound better, particularly at high SPL. Otherwise, they're nothing all that special, and certainly not so much of a significant improvement as the Long/Wickersham-developed UREI Time-Align(tm) networks.

And yes, it is Doug Sax at The Mastering Lab, along with his brother that developed The Mastering Lab crossover. After mastering many hit records as well as designing equipment, developing many of the standard techniques in modern mastering and running one of the most successful mastering facilities over the past 35+ years, I'd say that the `golden ears' assertion is far more than hype...

To his (dis)credit, Doug is somewhat of a digitalphobe Luddite (to which you may have some affinity) - however, his experience and listening prowess are unassailable. Certainly a lot more capable than the typical Stereophile or Absolute Sound reviewer.

BobR

GuyL - Upon greater consideration, since you've modified your Mastering Lab crossovers with boutique capacitors, they may have less value to commercial recording studios that attempt to match existing equipment for consistency.

My recommendation is to keep and enjoy your crossovers or sell them to an audiophile, perhaps someone on this board who may appreciate the special caps and silver wire.

[GuyL]

Thank you very much for your replies.

I've replaced the caps with a same value caps. The originals were out of tolerance and sounded very poor.

If anyone's using the 604 and ML's with tube amps, which transformer tap are you using? 8 or 16 ohm?

[selmerdave]

Guy,

You know, I'm in NYC and would love to A/B the mastering labs with my DIY. The first set of Big Reds I heard had the MLXO, Systems Two in Brooklyn. I am quite enjoying what I have, with vitually no crossover, but I would love to compare.

Dave

[GuyL]

Dave,

You're welcome to come by. We can try them in your system too (Though I'll have to take my drivers out of the cabinets in order to disconnect them).

Guy