jimreeves
Site Supporter
Roughly two weeks ago I snatched these Val's from the second owner, no grills, bases shot but the cabinets and internals seemed fine, gotta quick demo to make sure all was functioning, then jammed them in the back of my little Mazda 3 hatch (yeah they fit). Never had real horn speakers til now, I was perfectly fine with my modded Infinity Quantum LS's. In person I was surprised how squat and fat these suckers are! i read up all the threads I could find here and elsewhere, downloaded all the vintage Altec literature I could and set about to make them work in my second listening room.
For starters...
From what I gathered and from initial listening they had all the dynamics anyone could crave but were a little weak on the bottom and the top. If I sat on the floor the horns were great, maybe a tad short on top end twinkle. Couldn't wrap my head around why Altec set them so low to the ground (were people shorter in the 60's? I should know I lived there too!) and in the process made the lovely cabinets shy of the cubic feet they needed.
Here we go, again...
I love to work with wood, and to be honest I needed another project more than I needed another pair of speakers (but they're so lovely, and need a new home!) so I set about building new bases for them. So why not bop two birds with one stone and incorporate another 1.5 cubes to the volume while I'm at it? Mind you, all this was done on my back porch or in my dining room when it rained. Good thing WAF isn't an issue here (my GF has no say in matters of Hifi).
Boxes...
The base boxes are two layers of 3/4 birch ply with walnut veneer applied and stained with Minwax Mahogany gel stain. I used the same on the baffles of my Infinity's last year and it's a pretty close match. They're 25 1/2 inches wide, 16 1/2 inches deep and 9 inches high, so 1 1/2 inches set back and recessed 1 inch at bottom to sorta hide the nifty collapsable casters. They don't really collapse, a fixed polymer foot protrudes with the turn of a thumb wheel to raise the caster wheel off the floor when you have them where you want them. Overall the new bases bring the Val's to 40 inches tall so I can stare at the horn throats and add 1.5 cubic feet to the insides.
Guts...
The 16 ohm drivers (806a's, 416-16z's), original crossovers and pots all work like new and I've decided to leave them alone. The 416 cones seem quite dry but the surrounds are still tacky. I did remove the bug screens from the 806a CDs after reading that they might muffle things a little and I can say it didn't hurt any.
Adding the twinkle...
So I understand what others have said, the horns could use a little extra poop on top. I already had a half dozen of these little 8 ohm planar tweeters from something or other I once planned and forgot about, so I thought why not put a series pair in each cabinet with a simple 2nd order butterworth filter? Couldn't think of a reason why not, so that's what those are in the after picture. They're crossed at 12K Hz and not as sensitive as the horns, but despite that (and that my HF hearing is crap) I can and do hear some extra sparkle. I like it!
Kick in the butt...
You'll see a M&K V125 subwoofer in the after picture. To date I haven't used it with them, I'm waiting for a replacement sub amp so it can make noise. I have another pair of M&K V75 subs in the main system but haven't felt the need to hook them in with the Altecs. Everything I've thrown at the Val's so far has great bass, and if the bass is deep and strong in the recording I'm hearing already. I'll try the sub once it's ready, but if it can't keep up with the 416's I'll be just fine with the bass. I find it very punchy and visceral as it is.
Wrap it up will ya???
I really, truly LOVE the way these sound! I just have this silly little hybrid tube-adjacent integrated amp from Dayton Audio running them and they sound WONDERFUL. Quite different than my Quantums and bonus points for not needing 100 wpc to wake up! Yeah, they would probably sound loads better with a Conrad Johnson or some such, but frankly my ears at this late date are the most limiting factor in the mix. I know this is the honeymoon phase but I think we'll have a long and happy ever after!
THE END.
Jim
For starters...
From what I gathered and from initial listening they had all the dynamics anyone could crave but were a little weak on the bottom and the top. If I sat on the floor the horns were great, maybe a tad short on top end twinkle. Couldn't wrap my head around why Altec set them so low to the ground (were people shorter in the 60's? I should know I lived there too!) and in the process made the lovely cabinets shy of the cubic feet they needed.
Here we go, again...
I love to work with wood, and to be honest I needed another project more than I needed another pair of speakers (but they're so lovely, and need a new home!) so I set about building new bases for them. So why not bop two birds with one stone and incorporate another 1.5 cubes to the volume while I'm at it? Mind you, all this was done on my back porch or in my dining room when it rained. Good thing WAF isn't an issue here (my GF has no say in matters of Hifi).
Boxes...
The base boxes are two layers of 3/4 birch ply with walnut veneer applied and stained with Minwax Mahogany gel stain. I used the same on the baffles of my Infinity's last year and it's a pretty close match. They're 25 1/2 inches wide, 16 1/2 inches deep and 9 inches high, so 1 1/2 inches set back and recessed 1 inch at bottom to sorta hide the nifty collapsable casters. They don't really collapse, a fixed polymer foot protrudes with the turn of a thumb wheel to raise the caster wheel off the floor when you have them where you want them. Overall the new bases bring the Val's to 40 inches tall so I can stare at the horn throats and add 1.5 cubic feet to the insides.
Guts...
The 16 ohm drivers (806a's, 416-16z's), original crossovers and pots all work like new and I've decided to leave them alone. The 416 cones seem quite dry but the surrounds are still tacky. I did remove the bug screens from the 806a CDs after reading that they might muffle things a little and I can say it didn't hurt any.
Adding the twinkle...
So I understand what others have said, the horns could use a little extra poop on top. I already had a half dozen of these little 8 ohm planar tweeters from something or other I once planned and forgot about, so I thought why not put a series pair in each cabinet with a simple 2nd order butterworth filter? Couldn't think of a reason why not, so that's what those are in the after picture. They're crossed at 12K Hz and not as sensitive as the horns, but despite that (and that my HF hearing is crap) I can and do hear some extra sparkle. I like it!
Kick in the butt...
You'll see a M&K V125 subwoofer in the after picture. To date I haven't used it with them, I'm waiting for a replacement sub amp so it can make noise. I have another pair of M&K V75 subs in the main system but haven't felt the need to hook them in with the Altecs. Everything I've thrown at the Val's so far has great bass, and if the bass is deep and strong in the recording I'm hearing already. I'll try the sub once it's ready, but if it can't keep up with the 416's I'll be just fine with the bass. I find it very punchy and visceral as it is.
Wrap it up will ya???
I really, truly LOVE the way these sound! I just have this silly little hybrid tube-adjacent integrated amp from Dayton Audio running them and they sound WONDERFUL. Quite different than my Quantums and bonus points for not needing 100 wpc to wake up! Yeah, they would probably sound loads better with a Conrad Johnson or some such, but frankly my ears at this late date are the most limiting factor in the mix. I know this is the honeymoon phase but I think we'll have a long and happy ever after!
THE END.
Jim
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