Wow—this thread has featured some really inspiring Altec projects, which I’ve appreciated seeing. Lots of creative ideas, including a
3D-printed H808 ... what?!? For some reason, I’ve always assumed the H808 was the missing link. Maybe because those little horns have always eluded me.
I can share with you all the bits that haven’t eluded me, though—a few stops on my own Altec journey, which has been the source of such enormous pleasure and frustration, probably in equal measure.
I guess lots of folks start with a pair of Carmels or similar. Those are what I had, anyway, and I loved them until the desire to rip them apart overcame me. (Not to be self-congratulatory, but that was a good instinct.) I sold a couple of the 414s, had GPA restore the other two, followed “the recipe,” and ended up with these. (I always preferred the Joe Roberts single-cap option BTW. I also liked the Edgar 650 Hz tractrix: it’s
present. I can’t remember which 1” drivers are hiding here after trying so many. Probably 802-8Gs, which I liked for their HF extension. Many others worked well, though, including some offbeat Fostex and some even more offbeat TOA with their fancy magnesium diaphragms. Always alnico, though.
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I loved these even more than the Carmels (much more)—and so did everyone who heard them. In the end, I had them perched on some atrocious paving-stone-and-pink-insulation sandwiches, which worked very well. And then I read something on Audio Asylum that really devastated me: Brother Jeffrey Jackson preaching that, “the very first thing that should be horn-loaded is the bass.” That phrase just wouldn’t let up. It kept echoing (and still does). Was I really going there?
Yup. I found a pair of Edgar’s 100 Hz Tractrix midbass horns (the model he was building circa 2000), followed quickly by a pair of Altec 203B multicells. (Of course they’re minimally “multi,” but they still qualify. They’re also wonderful.) I believe there’s a pair of 288-8H drivers hiding back there. And Yamaha JA4281B tweeters up front.
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So, OK—I had midrange but not bass. I had already started down the road with small sealed subs, but I wasn’t crazy about the results, so I turned around and started scheming down the path of, “let’s see how low we can push horn-loading—maybe
low enough.”
A dozen systems followed, each one morphing into the next, until I arrived here with a 65 Hz hypex bass horn designed by John Hasquin and built and gifted to me by a diyAudio friend. (It’s spec’d for the JBL 2220A, though—massive faux pas right about now, I know.) Lower-midrange is GPA-restored Altec 290E on Altec 803B; upper-midrange is TAD TD-2001 on Altec 32C; with same Yamaha tweets.
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If you’ve wrestled with big horns and large-format drivers, you know how difficult it is to fit everything together in a way that works both sonically and aesthetically. (OK, none of your domestic companions would ask you to adopt my sense of aesthetics ... but it worked.)
Incidentally, this system required significant digital delay to get all four drivers time-aligned. So important, though, that I was willing to accept the significant downsides, not least of which was an extra A-to-D-to-A conversion. Also, as I look at this photo, those aren’t 290Es back there; this must have been taken when I was using Yamaha JA6681Bs (more elegant, less gutsy).
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Those speakers were the best I had (and have) done—at least up to this point. I tore them apart, though, when I got interested in some other horns. 1505s have always been on my wish list, and the right opportunity came along. While 329As have always been on my
lust list, and the
only opportunity
I’ve ever had came along. (Together with a third-class ticket to the ramen aisle, but that’s a separate issue.) So, I’m back to a 2-way with serious interest in the Hiraga crossover massaged for the 288-8H and something other than the 825/828 LF section. Not sure it will work, but I’ll build it (or at least model it) and see for myself.
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Incidentally, the 329A was the horn that Altec used to “introduce” the new 288-8G/16G and 290-4G. Hard to argue with this.
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So looking ahead, I wonder how kinky this can get? (Damn, they fit together so beautifully.) I’ll likely try sooner rather than later.
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My little kitchen is pretty freaked out ... it feels like
Sound Practices exploded in here.
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And looking even further ahead, I’m not sure what’s left except the 1803? That could be it, and I actually do have a line on a pair ... but moderation, right? Besides, they might be excessive in a 12’ x 12’ room.
Final Altec Frontier? I’m not sure, but I did have a vision along the way. The last time I listened to the 414/614, 802/32 combo playing with my Jeff Korneff 76 pre and 45 power, I caught a mental glimpse of myself as a very old man. (Lugging around large-format horn gear must massively speed up the aging process.) I saw myself in some horrid assisted living place somewhere, with an afghan on my lap like in the movies, but extremely content with this deceptively small and simple audio system. It’s not the most extravagant, but it may be the most right ... beautiful, sophisticated, manageable, useful. And again, deceptive: you may need to experience everything else in order to fully “get” it, I’m not sure. Sometimes truth has that character.
While I’m doing all that, though, I’m enjoying the long detour, because high cell counts and drivers the size of melons are awesome—in the literal sense of the word. It’s BIG SOUND even when it’s low volume—rich and dense with an honest-to-God trustworthiness that makes me skeptical of just about everything else. No doubt I’ll keep exploring the territory for a while yet.
Alright! That’s enough audio shit-talking from me, even though it’s good to share with you Altec people. At least I know y’all understand. Wishing you the best with your projects, which I look forward to seeing and learning from. I’ll try to drop back in if I come up with anything good.