Finished Cabinets

Some pictures of the finisihed 612's with integral horn enclosures.

The woofer enclosures have been insulated with 1 1/2" chopped denim from GPA on the sides, top and bottom and front and back. Probably overkill, and I hope it doesn't effect the sound quality. If I did wrong someone please tell me. Easy enough to take some of it out.

I mounted the woofers on 1/2" ply boards which fasten to the outside of the front. Reason being the plans called for a 14 1/8" hole and it was too large for the ID of the gaskets. So I opened them up to the OD of the speakers and mounted them thus.

When making the grille frames I wanted a nice snug fit in the opening with no gaps or "bowing" hence the extra stringer and the corner blocks. When cutting the pieces I put 6 layers of 3/4" masking tape on the edges (grille cloth is .040" thick and the tape gave me .060") so when done they fit nicely. Ditto drilling for the mounting pins in the frames and cabinets. The cloth is stapled and that lovely masking tape is just to prevent edge fraying.

The cloth is from Acoustex, claimed to be 100% transparent, and the color is "Cocoa".

A little over 150 screws per cab and 1 1/2 pints of glue.

They sound very nice. I'm hearing things in music I never did before on our old system.

Thak you all very much for your assistance and help. It was invaluable.

Lee

Very Nice ! :2thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by Altec Best

Very Nice ! :2thumbsup:

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+1...neat design...nice colors...nice altecs...it's a beautiful life! ;)

Really nice.

What is chopped denim?

Any details on the crossover available?

thanks.
Les

The denim is blankets of chopped up denim which is then made into 16" x 48" batts. Pretty soft stuff and easy to work with. GPA likes it so good enough for me.

The X overs are Altec 501-8A's. I believe the X freq is 500 and it's set-can't be fiddled with. Or so I've been told. They have horn attenuater controls to balance the sound.

hey nikki...
great job! way to rock out a project! got it done in a very short order
got a couple questions tho.. are those 511b horns? if not you will have to change the crossovers to either an 800 hz or the 1200 hz crossovers altec made, i like the 1209 crossovers myself. also, as for insulation, only three sides are enough, the back, one of the sides, and either the top or bottom.
have you had these cranked up yet? and i can well imagine you are hearing things with these that your other speakers just couldnt do, and at probably less than a watt as well!
nice build, thank you for sharing with us

Very nice! Excellent job!

Yes they are 511B horns with 806 drivers.

Cranked 'em up and they sound terrific. I hear things in some of my fav cd's I never did before. My wife's hearing is much better than mine for HF's , and she said to me "do you here the little bells?" No I don't. So there's a threshhold beyond which fiddling with them is pointless for me. Old ears and too much turbine whine for too many years.

I am not a super critical audiophile and frankly if I go to a store and listen to various speakers i have a hard time distinguishing between the " top end" systems. So it's hard for me to tell if I'm getting "all there is" out of these things. I may very well have over insulated the LF cabs as the bass sounds a bit muffled-not sharp with a definite "whack". I'm going to experiment with removing some insulation on one of them starting with the fronts to see if it makes a diff. If that helps then I'll try removing the insul on the bottoms.

Congratulations on the completion. Good job on matching the decor.

Can't tell that it's there for certain, but if removing you may want to start with that which is around the port as IIRC, it has been posted here that one would be best to leave the surface(/s) closest to a port, free from the damping material.

I removed the stuff from the front and it helped some. Then took out what was on the bottom. Big difference. Where before it was sort of "muddy" and weak the bass is now strong and defined with more authority. Going to leave them as they are.

Keep fiddling with them. You will get it correct.
Beautiful job on the cabs BTW.
I believe Model 19 crossovers, or N1201-8A's would be a nice improvement. Too bad these seem to have gotten popular and gone way up in price.
Search the site and see if you might want to build your own.

BTW...I'm 55 and can't hear the extreem HF at low volumes either. So just crank em up!

Ron

Beautiful!

Hey thanks Rico ! When I was younger I used to build furniture and cabinets (kitchen) for my therapy so I have a bit of a background in the area.

lee...
and some modeling clay for the horn bells. it deadens the ring

Haven't noticed the notorious "ring" in the horns but I don't hear alot birds anymore either so maybe it's moot. But it's worth a shot. So where would I place the clay? I would think in the centers of the flares and webs as opposed to the corners would deaden any vibes the best.

Nice Job Buddy. ; )