I will have to retire from my day job to be able to find the time to complete my "Audio To-Do List".
Altec Valencia = Heathkit AS-101
- Thread starter hjames
- Start date
I will have to retire from my day job to be able to find the time to complete my "Audio To-Do List".
Please let me know what you're going to sell from the Model 15s
EVERYTHING, If I can.
I'd really rather sell them as a whole -
which kinda means local,
I'll wait a bit before parting them out ...
PM me with your offers!
If I have to part them out - I'd like to break-even - that seems fair.
* - I bought the Altec 908-8A drivers for $250 plus shipping in Mid-Dec ...
* - I paid $175 for the Model 15 crossovers,
* - paid $200 for the (plastic) 32B horns.
I don't see a need for either of them IF I part out the Model 15s
I have $25 in the cabinets for the wheels and the Part Express connector cups
but I'll give the boxes away locally (like I got them from Joe) to anyone wants to buy other parts locally ...
The JBL L100T (2214H) woofers are worth $250, but PM me an offer -
They're nice, but I'll negotiate on them.
In short - just PM me an offer for anything you might want and we can talk!
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Okay - Heaths arrived late last night - around 9:30P - and they were VERY cold for being in the truck 2 days and who knows how long in the storage warehouse. I connected adapters to the crossovers for my banana cables, and played them very low last night, just to be sure they played. I didn't want to risk damaging a frozen (?) 50 yo diaphragm! So, eager as I was, I went to bed, and went to work today - and let them temperature stabilize.
I got home around 5 and gave them a once over - a few touchups with the furniture sticks, and wiped the top down with (a little) orange oil, and they cleaned up pretty nicely - tho I obviously need to give them more room.
I just spent about an hour playing all kinds of music through them: Art of Noise (Debussy), Box Scaggs (Dig), Bill Evans, Louis Armstrong, Otis Redding, Rolling Stones, Daft Punk, Rev Gary Davis, and bunch of other stuff.
I can hear the limits of the speakers - no Low-lows, limited high-highs, and I'm sure at 50+ years old, the crossovers could use fresh caps at the very least!
But figuring I've had them less than 24 hours - they are interesting!
I got home around 5 and gave them a once over - a few touchups with the furniture sticks, and wiped the top down with (a little) orange oil, and they cleaned up pretty nicely - tho I obviously need to give them more room.
I just spent about an hour playing all kinds of music through them: Art of Noise (Debussy), Box Scaggs (Dig), Bill Evans, Louis Armstrong, Otis Redding, Rolling Stones, Daft Punk, Rev Gary Davis, and bunch of other stuff.
I can hear the limits of the speakers - no Low-lows, limited high-highs, and I'm sure at 50+ years old, the crossovers could use fresh caps at the very least!
But figuring I've had them less than 24 hours - they are interesting!
Yeah -- high & low ain't their forte. The stuff in between, they should get pretty right.
Play some well recorded piano through them & report back at your convenience.
Play some well recorded piano through them & report back at your convenience.
Was just playing some Brian Blades, I've got tons of Bill Evans - but when I scrolled through the list, I put on Keiko Matsui - "Full Moon and Shrine" instead - nice piano with multi-instrumental new agey jazz music.
Sounded real good from upstairs ! Thats the thing about the plant room - music fills it very nicely, and can be heard upstairs in the office, in a hot bath - whatever ...
Funny - the 15s with the JBL woofers did play much lower - but those horn drivers could get a bit intense and shrill
(before I drilled the relief holes in the back caps - that toned them down a LOT)
Sounded real good from upstairs ! Thats the thing about the plant room - music fills it very nicely, and can be heard upstairs in the office, in a hot bath - whatever ...
Funny - the 15s with the JBL woofers did play much lower - but those horn drivers could get a bit intense and shrill
(before I drilled the relief holes in the back caps - that toned them down a LOT)
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The Valencia doesn't go low at all -- I would expect the Heathkit morph to be similar.
The Valencia box is too small for the 416 (as I understand it), plus the 416 would be happier in that mild front loaded horn enclosure that is the Voice of the Theatre (again, as I understand it).
That's why I ended up keeping the Santiagos -- they actually do some pretty respectable bass, albeit at the expense of some sensitivity.
The one way in which my ol' Cornwalls were -- umm -- superior (it's hard for me to type that word in this context!) to the Valencias was in LF extension and authority. They were profoundly inferior in every other respect -- but the bass was pretty good from 'em.
The Valencia box is too small for the 416 (as I understand it), plus the 416 would be happier in that mild front loaded horn enclosure that is the Voice of the Theatre (again, as I understand it).
That's why I ended up keeping the Santiagos -- they actually do some pretty respectable bass, albeit at the expense of some sensitivity.
The one way in which my ol' Cornwalls were -- umm -- superior (it's hard for me to type that word in this context!) to the Valencias was in LF extension and authority. They were profoundly inferior in every other respect -- but the bass was pretty good from 'em.
Well, I did dig a bit and found - George Shearing: The Complete Capitol Recordings. Older recordings but nicely mixed - period stuff but really nice. They were playing a version of Ray Charles song "Moaning" (late 50s, early 60s) and I realized this might be the stuff with young Gary Burton on it - before he went to ECM and all of that! Anyway, it does sound nice!
But I'm sure I need to redo the 50 yo crossovers!
But I'm sure I need to redo the 50 yo crossovers!
Do I detect an "anti-Klipsch" bias.....?
Back to Heather's Heath/Altecs.....
I had the 873a Barcelona for years (NEVER should have sold them) which made some of the same trade-offs as the Santiago.
Sealed bass enclosure, nice deep bass, not as sensitive.
My Mac 275 drove them nicely.
dowto1000
Junior Member
I wonder this : from your posted interior photo, and this Forum's recent thread on enclosure damping .....materials, and degrees of damping, if some simple experimentation with reduced damping ( internal walls ) would yield added performance and more listening gains ????
Dowto1000
Dowto1000
Dang if I know - I've been enjoying playing them as is - to get a good sense of the baseline.
I'll get back to the Heath project next month or so - they'll keep!
I've been working OTHER horn based projects lately to use some Fostex parts I scored ...
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Late on congratulations for the Valencias. I’ve always admired all of those early larger Altecs.
I hit the retirement button the first of this year and already have a part-time gig lined up to start Monday to bring in some extra dollars to continue with this crazy hobby.
Congrats on the beautiful find.
I hit the retirement button the first of this year and already have a part-time gig lined up to start Monday to bring in some extra dollars to continue with this crazy hobby.
Congrats on the beautiful find.
As I said, I'll get back to the Heath project next month or so - they'll keep!
Still working on the Fostex horn Stack hybrid project in the Altec Model 15 cabinets no one wanted.
I got the horn blanking panels stained and installed Saturday -
tho I may try another application of stain to get a better match to the cabinets finish.
Still need to build the crossovers, the control panel to cover the old Altec Crossover panel hole,
and mount the JBL 2214H woofer. But the teak Fostex horns I refurbed look pretty good!
Still working on the Fostex horn Stack hybrid project in the Altec Model 15 cabinets no one wanted.
I got the horn blanking panels stained and installed Saturday -
tho I may try another application of stain to get a better match to the cabinets finish.
Still need to build the crossovers, the control panel to cover the old Altec Crossover panel hole,
and mount the JBL 2214H woofer. But the teak Fostex horns I refurbed look pretty good!
A crossover one of the Fostex engineers sent me when I asked for some info. What a guy - he even looked up the JBL 2214H woofer and designed it into a 3 way design!
So, I decided that before I ordered crossover parts, I should at least put a little signal to them and test the drivers for basic function. Kinda pointless to build a crossover if something doesn't work.
So I wired each stack in parallel and fed them a bit of the Hejira album ...(with volume WAY down)
The duck lips/horns sound great - the slots are mostly a bit of sizzle on top. I even paralleled the JBL 2214Hs briefly - the combo is not bad - tho it'll be nicer with a crossover!
So knowing that the driver DO work, I can go to Madisound and order some attenuators, caps, chokes and power resisters (and some perf board) and plan to start building crossovers.
Really cool project!
Looking forward to your progress with great interest.
What you need now are some @mhardy6647 approved Audiophile Clip Leads.
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