My horns are very slightly mismatched in color, so I decided to do a very thin paint job on them to make the difference less noticeable. I used to restore 1969 Pontiac GTOs, and a friend pointed out that the horns were the same color as the Pontiac valve covers. Sure enough, as you can see from the pics, the color is a perfect match.

It's Duplicolor DE1616 Pontiac Metallic Blue engine enamel. Unfortunately, it's available only as enamel unless you have it custom mixed. Enamel dries pretty hard once it's been allowed to cure for a few days, and the fact that I'll be doing only a mist coat should make this work just fine.

I'll make a separate new post for the benefit of Altec folks who aren't following this thread.

GeeDeeEmm
Altec Horn Paint 001.JPG Altec Horn Paint 002.JPG Altec Horn Paint 003.JPG
 
Today I sanded the oak grill frames, stained them, and laid on the first coat of polyurethane. Before the poly was applied, these were much too brown to match the mahogany on the cabinets. I was hoping that the poly would redden them up a touch, and it did. Not a perfect match, but close enough for whose it is. The oak is so pretty, it made me think that I might have to do oak veneer if I ever do another build.

I also drilled the recessed and shouldered holes at four points in the frame. I'll use 10-32 hex bolts to hold these in place with copper inserts. I'd considered other options, such as magnets and heavy duty velcro, but the black hex bolts will work just fine and won't look obtrusive.

Altec Grills and Paint 001.JPG Altec Grills and Paint 002.JPG

I also removed the horns and laid on a mist coat of the paint I noted earlier. I guess the metallic in the paint makes them look so light colored, but the paint is an exact match. Just to make sure, I sprayed a test spot on the back of one, and could not tell any difference between the Duplicolor and the original. Now these will not only match perfectly, but the decades of small chips and scratches will be concealed.

When I bolt them back in the boxes I'll stuff the areas around them with motorcycle seat foam. I knocked on one of them with a screwdriver and it rang like a church bell. The seat foam should stop that nonsense.

GeeDeeEmm
Altec Grills and Paint 003.JPG
Altec Grills and Paint 004.JPG
 
Oh man, they look good!! The horns look great, and I love the proportions. Very nice work indeed :thumbsup:

Just awesome!
index.php

:lurk:
 
Oh man, they look good!! The horns look great, and I love the proportions. Very nice work indeed :thumbsup:

Just awesome!
index.php

:lurk:
I am deeply humbled. Thank you so much, Denton, Earl, Sunnyray, Bill, McAltec, Cubdog, Elitopus and all the others who have taken time to watch this build! One of these days soon I may able to actually hear these things and post a video.



GeeDeeEmm
 
and post a video.

I was hoping you were going to say that, :) BTW,.. I held a tape measure extended to 4 1/2 feet, up beside my StudioLAB's ........it makes my speakers look like bookshelf speakers!.. Man I hope you got a big room! I'd love to see those sitting across the room from me! :rockon:
 
I happen to have a pair of 806a/811a Altec sectoral horns if you are ever interested. Both work great. They came out of a pair of Seeburg speaker cabinets which had Utah woofers.


This is going to be as close as one can get to a "budget" Altec build considering the skyrocketing prices of classic Altec components. Like a lot of you guys and gals, I have little to no money to throw at these pieces, and the process of assembling them has taken three years of swapping and watching for good buys. I'll summarize for those that are interested.

The cabinets will be based on the Altec 606 corner cabinet: http://lansingheritage.org/images/altec/plans/1960's-lf-design/page15.jpg
This cabinet was chosen for a simple reason: I don't have space for anything larger.

Finding the Components (Skip this part if you like. It's just background info.)

I've been entranced by the look of the Altec 811/511 horns since I was a kid in the late fifties. So, yeah, this build is based a lot on nostalgia as much as anything else. But how to afford the components? I was fortunate to be good friends with an aging WWII vet and electronics technician in town and made sure that he knew where to sell his old vintage gear when he was ready. Shortly before his passing, he made the move. I ended up with a University S6 cabinet, two University C15W woofers, two University HF206 super tweeters, two University N3 crossovers, one Altec N500 crossover, one green and one black Altec 511, one Altec 802D, and one Altec 808, along with assorted Altec mounting hardware. Most of this gear was still new in the original boxes.

In short, selling almost all of the above gear allowed me to finance the A-7 components. I found a matching 802D and 511 horn in green to match the one I had, and located a very nice pair of 416-8Z woofers. The woofers are the ones that have the 16" cast frame, along with the "A" model alnico magnets. I believe these were the standard woofers in the 846Bs.

View attachment 911767

The Cabinets

Having finally located a local source for 3/4" Baltic Birch plywood at prices that earthlings can afford, I was ready to start cutting lumber when I stumbled across a pair of (don't laugh, yet!) new kitchen corner cabinets at the Restore store in town. Whipping out my tape measure I found that the cabinets were within one inch of the measurements of the 606s. For $40 I couldn't see passing these up as a great foundation for what I was about to build. Yes, a few mods and much re-enforcement will follow.

It was first necessary to cut back the front of the cabinets so that the fronts would give me the necessary minimum 24" for the 511 horn width. Plans are to re-extend the front of the cabinets 5.5" in order to recoup the lost volume. Plus, this will be a much more interesting look.

View attachment 911770 View attachment 911771 View attachment 911772

(The joints in these cabinets were simply stapled together, so I knocked them all loose enough to fill the joints with Titebond wood glue. They were then clamped back together as the glue dried.)

These cabinets came with four 1/2" shelves, which I bonded to the top and bottom panels. This, of course, yielded 1" thick panels. The side panels will be bonded to 3/4" Baltic Birch (for 1" side panels) which will extend 1" beyond the cabinet backs. Then, the same 3/4" BB plywood will be used to fabricate the back panels which will fit inside the recess. One of the back panels will be removable for service. More on this as I make progress.

I plan to make 5" risers under the enclosures, and these will be "kick-toed" back about an inch. Depending on how the calculations for volume work out, I may seal these risers and open them up for additional cabinet size. We'll see if it's needed.

I have a decent quantity of nice mahogany veneer that will eventually cover these, along with possible additional cabinet adornments courtesy of a local lumber reclaiming business. They frequently have a good volume of reclaimed cabinet trimmings from old homes that have been demolished. I love the look of fancy old cabinets, so maybe I can do that style here.

The Crossovers

This is the area that has given me the most headache so far. Even though I've been building speakers for over fifty years, I've always followed somebody else's designs. So, outside of installing a standard Altec crossover, it was necessary to design something. I am not trained in electronics, so the last two years I've been immersing myself in learning about crossover design, speaker measurement, yadda, yadda.

In the end, I've decided to start simply and modify as I have access to diagnostic equipment. So, for now, I'm going to use a simple second-order Linkwitz-Riley crossed at 800Hz, followed by the sixteen-ohm version of the Altec 30923 eq/attenuation circuit. As typical, my first intention was to use air-core inductors. Then, I ran across a fellow on ebay who builds really nice iron core versions from 14 guage windings and DCR readings on par with typical air cores. So, that's what I went with. The capacitors are motor start caps. Why? Because I've read good reports about them and (I'm ashamed to say) I dig the way they look. Sort of a Klipsch look. Here's what I came up with:

View attachment 911779 View attachment 911780

More later. I'm old and my back is hurting.
Comments are quite welcome.

GeeDeeEmm
 
sbeineke, have you ever listened to those horns on some tube amps? You may not be so inclined to part with them. But than there are folks that just don't like horns.
gdm, myself and quite a few others on here have been very happy with our Altec gear. If you haven't done so, give them a try. One thing about these horns, they are very unforgiving of any short comings in your support gear.
gdm, those speakers just keep looking better and better. I sure wish I had your wood working skills. They are beautiful.

BillWojo
 
I happen to have a pair of 806a/811a Altec sectoral horns if you are ever interested. Both work great. They came out of a pair of Seeburg speaker cabinets which had Utah woofers.

Very good. I was hoping to find some 811s for this build, in fact. As I noted, I have a couple of other boxes that would be perfect for a fifteen/811 configuration, so I'll keep your offer bookmarked. I'm guessing that, coming from a Seeburg cabinet, they are gold in color? How about shooting me a PM and give me details and pricing?

GeeDeeEmm
 
I was hoping you were going to say that, :) BTW,.. I held a tape measure extended to 4 1/2 feet, up beside my StudioLAB's ........it makes my speakers look like bookshelf speakers!.. Man I hope you got a big room! I'd love to see those sitting across the room from me! :rockon:

No, I don't have a large room :(. These will be eventually going in my 20X12 bedroom, one on each side of my bed. My "listening" area is on the other end of the room, so they will have 20 feet from their location to my location. Not ideal - but what is?

Video: I plan to do it, but it will be a first-time effort for me. I've no idea what I'm doing. All I have is my trusty old Lumix TZ1 that was quite nice in it's day - but it's been eclipsed by newer gear. The only other alternative is my new cell phone that my son just bought me. I know nothing about cell phones or any other newer gizmos, but it may be the best candidate. It says it is a Verizon Moto Z2 Force, whatever that means. My son says it was just released three or four weeks ago, so maybe it has good video/audio performance. I'll have to look up the owner's manual and read thru it to see how it works. As for now, I've missed phone call after call because I can't even figure out how to answer the darned thing! o_O

Time for some experimentation, I guess.

GeeDeeEmm
 
I sure wish I had your wood working skills.

BillWojo

You do!

This stuff, as the saying goes, "ain't brain surgery." It's just grown men working with sticks, gluing them together, and making them look pretty. I'm convinced that this sort of thing is part of most men's genetics. Just built in, and all we need to do to bring it out is just do it, then steal the tricks and shortcuts from those who are really good at it. :beatnik: (That emoji is supposed to represent the artist in us. It may not mean what I think it means :idea:)

Best of all, building stuff is tremendous FUN!

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement, my friend.

GeeDeeEmm
 
No, I don't have a large room :(. These will be eventually going in my 20X12 bedroom, one on each side of my bed. My "listening" area is on the other end of the room, so they will have 20 feet from their location to my location. Not ideal - but what is?

Video: I plan to do it, but it will be a first-time effort for me. I've no idea what I'm doing. All I have is my trusty old Lumix TZ1 that was quite nice in it's day - but it's been eclipsed by newer gear. The only other alternative is my new cell phone that my son just bought me. I know nothing about cell phones or any other newer gizmos, but it may be the best candidate. It says it is a Verizon Moto Z2 Force, whatever that means. My son says it was just released three or four weeks ago, so maybe it has good video/audio performance. I'll have to look up the owner's manual and read thru it to see how it works. As for now, I've missed phone call after call because I can't even figure out how to answer the darned thing! o_O

Time for some experimentation, I guess.

GeeDeeEmm


I'm playing in a 9 X 15 room with good results, so you should do good in a 20 X 12 room, I wish my room was that big!
Most smartphones record in stereo, IMHO the phone is your best bet. One tip I can pass on for a good recording is, ....just like our amplifiers need head room for transients, so do the mic's on our phones so record at low volume and let the viewer control the volume, if you try to crank it, you will brick-wall the phones mic's. Also, the mic's are at the top and bottom of your phone so make sure you record with your phone held horizontally so the mic's are aiming left and right and not up and down.
What I do is, I do a quick test vid at a given volume and move it to my computer and try it, if it sounds too loud and distorted, I try again at a lower volume and repeat until I'm happy with the sound :)
 
Very good. I was hoping to find some 811s for this build, in fact. As I noted, I have a couple of other boxes that would be perfect for a fifteen/811 configuration, so I'll keep your offer bookmarked. I'm guessing that, coming from a Seeburg cabinet, they are gold in color? How about shooting me a PM and give me details and pricing?

GeeDeeEmm
Well those kind of just fell into your lap didn't they? Good for you! I guess I need to start living better, helping old ladies across the street, that sort of thing. My luck with audio hasn't been so good of late. If ever?
 
Well those kind of just fell into your lap didn't they? Good for you! I guess I need to start living better, helping old ladies across the street, that sort of thing. My luck with audio hasn't been so good of late. If ever?

Well, maybe. We'll see. Considering where I live, I have to say that I'm extremely fortunate to have found the gear that I have. Central and south Arkansas is a virtual wasteland when it comes to quality audio components, and I'll bet that 90% of what I've found was imported here via the Little Rock Air Force Base personnel. Several of my pieces have the service numbers inscribed on them the same way I did when I sent my gear back from Germany.

But, if living right had anything to do with it, I'd be in big trouble! Thank God for GRACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GeeDeeEmm
 
I'm playing in a 9 X 15 room with good results, so you should do good in a 20 X 12 room, I wish my room was that big!
Most smartphones record in stereo, IMHO the phone is your best bet. One tip I can pass on for a good recording is, ....just like our amplifiers need head room for transients, so do the mic's on our phones so record at low volume and let the viewer control the volume, if you try to crank it, you will brick-wall the phones mic's. Also, the mic's are at the top and bottom of your phone so make sure you record with your phone held horizontally so the mic's are aiming left and right and not up and down.
What I do is, I do a quick test vid at a given volume and move it to my computer and try it, if it sounds too loud and distorted, I try again at a lower volume and repeat until I'm happy with the sound :)


Ahhh! Good tips, Denton. I just downloaded the owner's manual for this phone and it looks like (surprise!!!) it is fairly well-written in understandable english with step-by-step instructions.

No speaker work today. Mrs. GDM was off work today - and she never stops working. Ever! And you know what wifey projects turn into. :whip:

GeeDeeEmm
 
Nice work Gee! I bet you're going to be liking those speakers a lot. If you don't have some, start stocking up on female vocals and some instrumentals (I like jazz). The horns really put it out there.
 
Nice work Gee! I bet you're going to be liking those speakers a lot. If you don't have some, start stocking up on female vocals and some instrumentals (I like jazz). The horns really put it out there.
Odd that you would suggest that, as that is exactly what I've started doing. I've never listened to female vocalists before, never listened to jazz before, and have yet to give one moment of time to any classical music. But I've run across classical string trios that really bring the songs to life - especially those that have added in instruments like guitar, bass guitar, and, especially mandolin. I love being able to hear the rosin on the strings as the bow moves across the strings. I'm quite sure that I could come to have a high appreciation for classical music if I could only find some recorded well enough to hear the tympanist move his feet across the pedal.

To shorten this meandering response - yep, I'm doing exactly what you suggest!

GeeDeeEmm
 
"and have yet to give one moment of time to any classical music." said "GDM"

WAKE UP!!!! There plenty of stunning classical music out there. You might wonder why you spent so much time avoiding it. :jump:
 
Thanks for the suggestions, guys! I've already added a very nice selection of the Brubeck Brothers, some Postmodern Jukebox, Regina Spektor, and Christian McBride Big Band among others. I grew up on country music until the Beatles came along, and that set me on the road to becoming a musician and playing in rock bands. For all these years, I've had zero interest in anything that didn't include drums, bass guitar, electric guitar, and a Hammond organ - because I was always looking for material for my bands to play. That's still the style that I love, but I'm also excited by the other genres I'm exploring. Heck, I have a few CDs that I listen to only because they are recorded so deliciously.

As I said, what I'm trying to find now are modern string quartets with recording quality that will raise the hair on my neck - like I hear when I attend the symphony. Rosin on bowed strings, low bass notes, kettle drums and the like. I've purchased a few classical symphony collections - only to be disappointed with the recording accuracy.

I'll find the stuff I'm looking for eventually. I just need to start asking around and reading some reviews.

GeeDeeEmm
 
Back
Top Bottom