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How you guys doing? Hows your systems hangin? Have you made any Minor/Major changes, Mods, Revelations? Discoveries? I did today, after running the Mock N-1600 crossover for three weeks and fighting with a HF that I wasn't happy with I swapped them out for the PCD ones I had before. It's much nicer now.
Feel free to share what you've been up to. I'd love to hear it.
ive been crankin' the tunes and reloading, mostly 308 and 44..
I just watched Men in Black 3 last night. My system has been the same since about last April/May. My 9444A powering Jensen Tri-ette speakers, a Sony DVD player, and my 27" Sony Wega, The Jensens were the last change I think, and that was April/May. I've been thinking about swapping in my 835A Monterey Jrs.
System is pretty well tuned and not changing much these days. That's a good thing! Have been building a little tube amp from scratch - wires and solder everywhere - that's the project of the month.
Badly in need of room treatments... systems the same... Craddeldorf I tried the 19's and 604's at the same time, as expected results.. spent 10 hours getting home from NY, should have taken 2 and a half.. wife and five year old were broadsided going 10 miles and hour by someone out of control going 55.. Thank god for german engineering, they are fine.. Bought a rather large pair of klipsch horns 40.5 L X 26.5 H X 22 D... Cant find a pack in ship place near sellers house... Just a bad week... The good news I might be building some onken W's soon.. Hope you are all doing better..
I've been trying my 604-8g's in place of model 19's for the last few days. I really think the 604's are better for jazz and small group classical than the 19's but they just don't rock the same way. I listen to a lot of different types of music so both work but not for everything. I'll try the 604's with a couple of subs for while to get a better idea of what's what.
I also have a couple of halves of a conference table (4' x 5' with curved sides) from my old office that I was going to use to store my 16" drivers on but when I cut the first two holes I thought, "hey, open baffle". I put two 421's reconed as 416's on the bottom, a 16" 420 mid and an 811/802 on top. Surprisingly good sounding but it needs a lot of crossover work. Also tried a real 416 on the mids but the 420 was better on the OB arrangement.
Built some diyhifisupply monoblock kits.
Got hold of unbuilt kits from 2007-2008 of LD91 mk 2 signature monoblocks (using the 310 pentode as driver).
Great amps and a great match with my Altec 604-8Gs. Better with the Altecs in many ways compared to the Hypex ncore monoblocks I assembled last winter.
Next project will probably be a NOS dac kit.
Regards
Kjartan
Got a whole lot going on...so much in fact, I'm not spending as much time on my sonic endeavors as I'd like.
My current speaker projects:
* construction of my Stonehenge III clone cabinet for my 604E
* Got the 604E crossovers ready to test once the cabinet is done, then will measure and tweak them down
* Designed a new passive XO for the garage (416A in 816s, 802-8Gs on 511s). need to complete the build, measure, tweak
* Build a test box for calculating Vas - want a 15" baffle version and then a 12" baffle version
* A/B listening test with Stock M14 XO vs. DEQ active XO
That ought to hold me until summer :D
Quote:
Originally Posted by cradeldorf
work.
all.the.time.
no time to do what i want to.
last 4 years have been worse.
Sorry to hear that Tom, Hope you'll get some time to yourself soon. 4 years is way too long.
I hooked up my subwoofer using the high level inputs the other day. Totally cured the hum I was getting using the line level input.
what are you using for the sub?Quote:
Originally Posted by cradeldorf
Attachment 1790
Scored these
Attachment 1791
And four of these came in
Dayton 12" she's got plenty of boom in her.Quote:
Originally Posted by tomt
Nice score tinpan, what's the plan?
Actually I have been busy with projects, mostly non-Altec though. Cornucopya's [sic] are top of the bill [easy to build version of Daniel Ciesinger's spiral horn] along with a new woofer project, new finds at the second hand store etc.
Eventually I will put together my own version of a Stanley Screamer with the 416C bottom and 604-8H top, most likely in an Onken style cabinet.
You should do a build thread on that! Looks interesting!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Cal Weldon
Attachment 1792
They will be going in these.
I mounted a pair of 803s in preparation for the A210s but I put them on my A7s and they sounds so nice I think I'll leave them there.
I found these 1003s and ordered that pair of 288 drivers oldguy found on another thread. These are a little rougher, I'll have to clean up a little rust and paint them, plus make another set of wings. I am a little concerned the 515s won't fit. I'd hate to have to send them back to get the frame cut
If those are old style(32-1/2 inch overall width) 210's, you're going to have to cut something. I figure the cabinets are easier to return to original than a truncated driver frame.Quote:
I am a little concerned the 515s won't fit. I'd hate to have to send them back to get the frame cut
It is possible to chisel out the inside of the side panels where the motorboard meets them. The panel gets mighty thin there, maybe 1/8 left on each side. That will usually allow large frame drivers to be "shoehorned" in there and will mount using the factory T-nuts. You should be able to slip a business card or matchbook cover between the driver frames, there won't be any extra space beyond that.
I think they work better in a 813 UREI configuration.The extre woofer fiils the room. Ithink if my memory is correct that it's a 3 way monitor.The second woofer could be a 515 allnico or a 416B.It would work just as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by zelgall
Anny one knows what the second woofer XO seperation frequency is .
Doing great!
I finally cleaned up the basement after it flooded a year and a half ago. I also lugged the EV Sentry IVs downstairs and discovered many terrible sound transmission issues upstairs emanating through the floor and heating ducts. It's funny that the Altecs upstairs don't do the same when I am in the basement. Both upstairs and downstairs layouts are identical.
Worst offender was the adjustable heat registers rattling in the duct work and also the dampeners in the registers. Fixed that by slipping automotive car door edge molding onto the registers and removing the dampeners. Doesn't sound like someone hitting the duct with a drum stick anymore, but still tons of sound coming through. I still need to somehow wrap the 6" ductwork running across the basement ceiling with something sound deadening. Too bad they outlawed asbestos.
I also need to remove the drop ceiling, stuff the floor joists with 12" of friction fit fiber glass in the 10" joist space, and I was thinking of covering the ceiling/bottom of the joists with removable 4x8 sandwiches consisting of from bottom to top; 1/4" oak ply-wood glued to 1/2" or 5/8” gypsum board, glued to 1/2" foam carpet pad and screwed to the floor joists with rubber sleeved and under headed screws so I can remove the panels and access the floor system. I need to come up with some kind of channel to wrap the sandwich edges with like they make from 1/2” and 5/8” drywall.
Also need to glue something on the upstairs stairwell hollow core door as that is also a bad sound source as well a dampen the stove range hood and lots of other things upstairs that rattle.
I’m making my kids buy me a bunch of black light posters for fathers day and birthdays.
And… finally got my Crown DC300A power amp fixed, now just need to do the same with the Stax SRA12S preamp, and re-cone the 416-8As and I can listen to my A7-500s again after 15 years or so.
End of Essay. :)
I did a rather strange thing last night. (like that's a surprise) :D and it turned out to sound really good. I understand what Greg was trying to say now that just because you can tune your cabinets to your speakers doesn't mean everybody likes them that way. I was goofing around and cut a couple of scrap pieces into backs for my cabs but left the top 6.5 inches missing. Then I closed up the port on the front. (basically I moved the port to the back side of the cab, same square inches) it was less shouty but didn't have the open tingly sound I like. Since the attenuators were not hooked up I decided to take them out so there would be a 2" hole in the front baffle to let some tingleness out. It did, but it sounded like a miniature speaker and was kinda messing up the zero point source sound. So I stuffed just the attenuator cups back in the holes so all there was was about a 3/8 hole...It still sounded like there was a speaker there but was even louder!!!. Like a super tweeter. I liked what it was doing but didn't like how it was messing with the zero point source so I measured out all around the speakers and drilled 8-3/8th inch holes all the way around each speaker. They don't sound boxy at all and they have a nice tingle to them I also put the full backs on. I know it sounds kooky but I'll be damned if it doesn't sound better than ever. I would have never guessed that that much sound could come out of a 3/8's hole but it does. I'll shoot a picture of what I'm talking about tomorrow and post it so you can see what I'm talking about. If I can get a decent sounding vid I'll post that up too.
Cradeldorf you are the mad scientist of the 604, Awesome!!!
A peek inside Cradledorf's laborrrratory:Quote:
Originally Posted by juniper
http://www.hostboard.com/forums/hbmc...2013/02/16.jpg
Damn, that looks like the Solen Audio display at the Montreal audio show, a lot of goodies!
So now I feel bad. I was looking at the picture and realized I could identify a good portion of what I saw. So, I thought to myself?. Self, what kind of freak would know that. And then I thought? Self, you should stop at the thrift on the way home from work and see if they have any cool old audio stuff. And people wonder why I drink.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alien_Shore
Having indulged in a few various "narrow market" hobbies other than the audio hobby, i am here to tell you that it is a very fine line that separates hobby from sickness.:DQuote:
Originally Posted by martyh45
When i was a bit younger, a bit lighter, and a bit more flexible, i had a snowmobile drag racing fetish. Talk about pulling a vacuum at the bottom of a money pit.:D
That can't be my laboratory...there's no Bong. :D
Being serious for a minute On this link the guy talks and shows that he runs a wire from the speaker frame to the negative speaker connection... Not saying its a good or bad Idea, just wondering why it would make a change in the sound? He claims it does,
http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/do...o-206_copy.pdf
Also I've been under the impression that my 604's are basically 515's with horn drivers mounted to them, But when I look at 515 specs both the 515B (which is the only one out there) and the GPA 515's they both say the frequency response is 20hz to 1000hz. How can that ever work with a horn that's not supposed to go below 1600?
I'm still getting a boxy sound though, I think it's because the LF driver is trying to do what a HF driver should. It's always on the men's voices in movies. Will Ferrel in the other guys is where it was doing it today...er..yesterday.
Agreed. When you just do it a little bit, it's a sickness. But if it takes over your life, it's a hobby.Quote:
Originally Posted by bowtie427ss
I've even seen it on some older commercial speakers. Not sure why.Quote:
Originally Posted by cradeldorf
I think it's the other way around. I believe the 515 came as result of the 604.Quote:
Also I've been under the impression that my 604's are basically 515's with horn drivers mounted to them
Okay lesson learned. Don't put holes in the front of your cabinets. yada yada yada, Anywho, I switched back to the shortened back panel and plugged all the holes in the front of the cabs. I then put some poly fil over the opening in the back and then some of that thin black carpet I have over the poly fil. It sounds pretty damn good now...Kind of an Aperiodic alignment.
Sorry about the darkness of the video but it's one of the best sounding I have gotten in a while.
T2 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Put the EQ back into the system. Even nicer sounding now, Here's a bit of Jazz Brunch from this morning.
JazzBrunch | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
I genuinely applaud and at the same time envy your motivation to experiment. I wish i had just half of it. Been going thru some of the "crap" that life can sometimes hand you for the last several months. Hopefully when this chapter is over i can get my heart deeper back into this hobby than just participating at the discussion forum level.Quote:
Originally Posted by cradeldorf
Keep on tweakin, you're an inspiration to at least some of us!
QFT.Quote:
Originally Posted by bowtie427ss
I love the tweakin'. And the willingness to share the mad experiments!
Thanks guys, To tell the truth Bowtie, I'm breathing at about 50 % capacity right now. Spent my life sucking lacquer fumes, carbide dust, MDF dust, and most recently at work Silica dust.
I feel like I'm closer to deaths door than I care to be. Oh and the 36 years of Marlboro reds at a pack a day isn't helping either. Sometimes I think I'm just striving to get it right so the next person who get's my stuff can just sit back and enjoy it. Stay strong Brother.
I have 3 projects to do, the worst one is dealing with this mess.
DSCN6405 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Since none of the holes in the front are being used except the speaker hole, I'm thinking I should set the router at 3/4 deep and just mow the baffle off and install a new one.
the others are redoing the carpet on the back wall, It's sitting here just needs to be cut and installed.
and redoing the crossovers now that I know I'm happy with them. I should order new parts except for the inductors. The caps and resistors have been twisted and untwisted too many times and it would just make it nicer and easier to do.
you could make a circular foam cover for the driver, and use some of the holes to hold the cover mounting pegs...
Cradeldorf, so sorry to hear about your condition, it is amazing the things that people come in contact with and "no one told them they should protect themselves" I hope you use masks at all times now when needed, and purify the air in your house the best you can, lots of plants too, start juicing too!!!!! You obviously are a good carpenter, why havent you tried some of the MLTL designs with your cabinets? Is that because the 604's you have dont go that low?Quote:
Originally Posted by cradeldorf
I worked a little on a MLTL calculation but it seems as though it ended up being massive in size. GM confirmed that suspicion. I smothered the cabs in black carpet for now. Also redid the wall behind them with it too. It cut down the sharpness of them. I seem to be having really good luck with the Aperiodic setup. Glad I tried it. Very nice smooth deep bass and cut out some more sharpness with it too. That's after at least 7 start ups and listens. Here's a picture of my aperiodic vent. Basically 2 layers of really thin black carpet. I get it at Menards. It comes 6 foot wide.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8281241...in/photostream
The tacky carpeted fronts.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8281241...in/photostream
I got my wings on my A210's roughed in and the crossovers for my Azura horns. I can't believe the difference wings make. I'd post some pics but I keep getting a message that I am over my 1 MB limit?
I used to have that problem, after constantly deleting them to make room for new I started converting them to gif's in photoshop. Then I could have about 100 before I reached my limit. Although they still resized them so you couldn't get a good look at them. Now I just post them to flickr and link them.Quote:
Originally Posted by tinpan
