Just wondering if anyone knew anything about Altec 918-8A woofers? What time-frame did they come from and are they good for home hi-fi use??? Any kind of specifications would be appreciated.
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Just wondering if anyone knew anything about Altec 918-8A woofers? What time-frame did they come from and are they good for home hi-fi use??? Any kind of specifications would be appreciated.
Calling a 918 a woofer is stretching things a mite. Essentially based on a 418 but ceramic mag and higher power. More full range than woofer.
So it's basically a 418 that takes more power and has ceramic magnet. I imagine that it would sound a lot like a 418 and have similar frequency response with no real bass below 50-55 hz??? I guess a 421a would have more bass down below 50 hz. Thanks for the info. I've never seen or heard of the 918 model. There's a couple for sale at a decent price on the auction site and I wondered if I should go with them or a 421 for some old 1202b cabinets with 811b horns. They have 418b speakers in them now and they just don't have enough bass... I would like replace the 418s with some 416s but I can't afford it. So I'll have to use 421s or something.
I've got 418-8H's in 8 cu ft cabs and with lots of EQ sound better than non-Altecs. :) I think that the most important bass is centered around 40Hz anyway. Have them reconed as 416B's if you hate them.
Yes, I have thought about that a few times. I can get the 418s reconed at GPA for $130 each plus shipping shipping both ways. So I would have around $350 or a little more invested. That's not outrageous but I can get reconed and guaranteed set of 421a for $250 shipped to the door. That's more of what I can afford to put into them right now. I don't hate the 418s sound at all. I think they sound really good especially running them with an old Luxman 120 watt per channel receiver from the late 70's. BUT, they seem to bottom out really easy on bass heavy recordings. I can make them hit their xmax limit fairly easy. I hook them up to one of my Altec 9444a/sa amps and because of the high damping factor, they still sound good but have no real solid bass; only mid-bass and up.
Best shot is buy blown 418's often 25-35 each. Be suspicious of reconed 421's unless GPA did them, Better to buy original used.
Well, I'd just send the set of 418s I already have to get reconed to 416s if that's what I could afford. Yes I'm suspicious of reconed 421s that aren't done by GPA. I'm sure they would sound good but wont have the "midrange-magic" the original altecs do. I'm having a hard time trusting most people that have the original 421s on the auction site. I'd hate to buy them and something be wrong and no warranty or guarantee. Just don't want to deal with the hassle. That's where the reconed ones have the edge right now. At least they have a guarantee of some sort. Thanks for the replies and info.