Being as there has been some interest expressed in the Altec Duplex line of drivers, I figured now would be a good time to share my experience with these drivers.
A few years back, I came across a pair of Altec Model 19 speakers on the local craigslist at a price that was about half what I was used to seeing them at, so I picked them up and spent quite a bit of time sanding them down, building new crossovers, etc. Once they were complete, they became my main speakers and I enjoyed them for several years but there was one little thing that I could never get over with them. Although my listening space is pretty big, I found that I had to sit WAY back from them, like 14+ feet away in order for them to sound like a system rather than two different drivers doing two different things.
I did some reading online and found that I wasn't the only person to experience this phenomenon and that alot of people that had enjoyed the Model 19 but didn't have the space in their listening area to set them up correctly had moved along to the Duplex line which incorporates similar drivers as the Model 19 but in a Point Source presentation with the horn originating from the center of the woofer cone.
Not long after that I saw a set of Altec 605B duplex drivers for sale locally without cabinets for a decent price so I took the plunge. Now, this was in late spring and I was dying to hear these, which meant that I had the pleasure of building cabinets for them over the summer where the temps here in the Phoenix are were hovering around 110 degrees.
I decided to build the cabinets based off this build which even included a cut sheet detailing how to rip the plywood!
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=440547
The cabinet is a slightly modified Altec 620 cabinet, which many have had success with over the years. Here are some photos of the initial cabinet build.
A few years back, I came across a pair of Altec Model 19 speakers on the local craigslist at a price that was about half what I was used to seeing them at, so I picked them up and spent quite a bit of time sanding them down, building new crossovers, etc. Once they were complete, they became my main speakers and I enjoyed them for several years but there was one little thing that I could never get over with them. Although my listening space is pretty big, I found that I had to sit WAY back from them, like 14+ feet away in order for them to sound like a system rather than two different drivers doing two different things.
I did some reading online and found that I wasn't the only person to experience this phenomenon and that alot of people that had enjoyed the Model 19 but didn't have the space in their listening area to set them up correctly had moved along to the Duplex line which incorporates similar drivers as the Model 19 but in a Point Source presentation with the horn originating from the center of the woofer cone.
Not long after that I saw a set of Altec 605B duplex drivers for sale locally without cabinets for a decent price so I took the plunge. Now, this was in late spring and I was dying to hear these, which meant that I had the pleasure of building cabinets for them over the summer where the temps here in the Phoenix are were hovering around 110 degrees.
I decided to build the cabinets based off this build which even included a cut sheet detailing how to rip the plywood!
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=440547
The cabinet is a slightly modified Altec 620 cabinet, which many have had success with over the years. Here are some photos of the initial cabinet build.
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