846B Valencia speakers

[tab328]

Hey Everyone. Got a question. I recently bought a pair of Valencia speakers at a yard sale for $25. Problem is one of the speakers is missing a driver. I know that 806-8A is the replacement but are there any others that will fit? I don't mind replacing both drivers if I have to. I'm just having trouble finding a vintage 806-8A.
Thanks for the help.
Tim

[LICORNE]

Hey Everyone. Got a question. I recently bought a pair of Valencia speakers at a yard sale for $25. Problem is one of the speakers is missing a driver. I know that 806-8A is the replacement but are there any others that will fit? I don't mind replacing both drivers if I have to. I'm just having trouble finding a vintage 806-8A.
Thanks for the help.
Tim

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">If you want new ones (ferrite) GPA 909-8A would be a good choice.

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

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[Old Guy]

806 drivers are readily avaiable on Ebay.

[bfish]

Hi Tim,

Great score! Congrats!

The 807 series is the same basic driver with a different diaphragm.

802s and 808s will fit the horn, but probably too deep for the cabinet. They'll be slightly louder than 806 or 807.

902s or 909s are newer, thinner ferrite magnet models that will fit as well.

BMS makes some nice 1" drivers that will fit as well.

Note that anything besides the 806/807 may be different enough to warrant some crossover modification. In some cases, that can offer signifigant improvements, it just depends on your budget and desire.

Someone here may have a single 806 to offer if you're patient.

What part of Missouri? (That's where I hail from).

[tab328]

Hi BFISH,
Thanks for the reply. Needless to say, I was thrilled to find these. The cabinets are a little rough and the grill cloth needs replacing but everything is there except for the one driver. (Someone had attached a Motorola piezo tweeter to the horn!) I started to replace the missing driver with another older Altes driver that I had and ran into the depth problem that you mentioned. The original 806 drivers come right to the back of the cabinet with no room to spare. I have numerous other thread-on drivers that would work (with adaptors) but that would require modifying the cabinet and I really don't want to do that. There is a pair of 902-8T's on eBay right now; maybe I can get them for a reasonable price. But if anybody out there has a single 806-8A they could part with reasonably, I would sure like to know about it. Thanks again for the reply and info. (by the way, we are in Bourbon, MO just about an hour southwest of St Louis.)
Best regards,
Tim

[Old Guy]

At the risk of sounding like a snob...

Most screw on drivers are garbage. This includes, and some times especially, Atlas.

Plus- doing so will lower the value of the cabinets- a lot.

I'd recommend the 806, next best thing but a lot more money is the newer drivers.

Here is a horn driver combo. I believe it's an 806- to confirm, ask the seller to measure the depth of the driver. We can then compare it to the spec sheets to make sure.

you can then recover a few bucks by selling the 811 here or FeePay. Or keep it in case might want it later.

You would probably wind up with $100 or so in the driver if you did that, shipping excluded. I doubt you will do better.

Come to think of it, just compare your driver depth to his. If they are the same, it's almost certainly an 806. Slim chance of an 807, which can be converted.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Altec-Lansing-H-...QQcmdZViewItem

There's two pairs of green 806's on Ebay, and a pair of 807's/881 horns.

[intotubes]

I think the 902-8T's would sound wonderful - more extended highs than the 806. If you get them be sure to remove the loading cap (a plastic cover over the diaphragm). That will turn them into 902-8A or G. Bill has instructions on his website how to.

[tab328]

You're right about the quality of most thread-on drivers (I worked as an engineer for Atlas Sound and Soundolier for 13+ years, from '79 to '92) but Atlas did make some drivers for Klipch way back in the day that were prettygood and I still have a pair of those in my stash. That's what I was going to use but they are too deep with the adaptor.

[bfish]

Bourbon huh? I remember having a pretty good time at Elephant Rock once (of all places).

If you have a couple hours to spare, some extensive work went into finding a reasonably priced Val HF upgrade in this extremely rambling thread on the LH forum. Boil that down to the BMS drivers and XO upgrade and you'll have it.