Altec Valencia = Heathkit AS-101

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I have already done the dual layers of Qpad on both the horns -
But I will NOT wrap the 2nd horn with the insulation formerly used to block the ports.
Have to run down for supper shortly -
(steampot spare ribs, with baby potatoes, cornbread, baked beans - and prob salad)...
carbs, OMG!
Gotta scoot or it'll not get done today!
 
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OK, back to the fun with the ancient Heaths!
I made a run to the Guru and got fiberglass and lambswool, crossover parts and more on April 7th, but things weren't working right,
and I was trying to troubleshoot, then life got busy ...
Basically, the Fiberglass screen I wrapped around the back of the woofer caused a weird sound distortion in the left cabinet and I tried all kinds of things to pin it down,
but finally I abandoned that media and got some 3/8 in thick air filter media from Grangers. The idea is to keep the fluff from getting into the back of the woofers.
So, the 4 sheets of media I ordered came in today. Picked it up, did grocery shopping, ate dinner, then just finished my work.
I had already showed how I cut the thick fiberglass to make a "barrier" between the woofer area and where the horns are, with notches to let the bass come though and up to the factory ports, e.g, "vents" on each end of the 811 horns in the cabinet.
You can see how I laid the sheet of blue filter media around the woofer , then fluffed up the lambswool as fluffy as I could get. Honest to god sheared wool chunks from a lamb, and you tease it apart as much as possible, and toss it in the lower area of the cabinet filling in around the woofer.

Check out the 4 pix below to get an idea of the process.

So - I played the Harold Budd track that I heard the distortion most prominently before - no distortion there now!

woofer-Area-B4_6561.jpg Woofer-screened_6562.jpg Woofer-lamb-fluffed_6563.jpg screening_6559.jpg
 
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Moved the Altec Model 15 "projects" out of the living room for now ...
The Heath AS-101s are sounding good! [Melody Gardot - Live in Paris release]

Still need to:
Put a better weatherseal on the back & seal the cabinet
Replace the old back-panel screws with longer, tighter grip screws
Add 470 ohm load resistors to all 4 drivers.
Rebuild the crossovers
Get the Granite for the tops (and add the constraint material to the stone)
Buy or build Altec Bass Energizers to get more bottom end.
Decide if I want to add JBL Bullets or Slots to get more top end ...

Heaths_Alone_6578.jpg
 
Emma is back from her trip and she had a chance to do some listening to the evolved Heaths today. She has not listened to them really since they arrived -
they were maybe a 4 out of 10 when they first arrived - now she says probably a 7 - and - she listened to maybe an hour's worth of various music to check them out.
If they engage her enough to draw her in like that, I am very impressed!
They are still somewhat volume dependant - they sound better at some levels than at others ,. and this is dependant on the recordings as well!
 
Mike Stehr said:
Maybe try the Fostex slotted tweeters you have.
Click to expand...
Could do that ... but I'm still working on other things first -
Emma has better ears than I do (!!) and yesterday she said they have enough highs already ... (!)
 
Odd little gadgets - a Low pass filter - by knocking down the mids and highs,
bass is (relatively) enhanced. At least in theory ...
I'm interested in trying some out to see what happens.

BassEnergizer.jpg
 

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seacliffe301 said:
I’m sorry, maybe I’ve misunderstood. Are you stating that your AS-101’s are from 1964?
Click to expand...
Yes, they are ... They were formerly owned by David W. Nurse, who went to work for Heathkit as vice president, was promoted to president in 1966, and remained in that position until he retired in 1980. The speakers passed to his son Howard, and then Howard's daughter, who sold them to me.
Ancient and cool things, huh!
 
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hjames said:
Yes, they are ... They were formerly owned by David W. Nurse, who went to work for Heathkit as vice president, was promoted to president in 1966, and remained in that position until he retired in 1980. The speakers passed to his son Howard, and then Howard's daughter, who sold them to me.
Ancient and cool things, huh!
Click to expand...
Respectfully, I would have to disagree with that as I purchased a pair of these new from Heathkit in 1976. I still have the original manual, which is copyright 1970.
More importantly, these speakers were designed based on the Altec Valencia/Flamenco speaker, which was a late 60's product.

Regardless, great find, especially considering their history.
hjames said:
Great, thanks for the date correction - I really had no idea and was basing that on dates of Altec Valencia ads I saw
Click to expand...
 
seacliffe301 said:
Respectfully, I would have to disagree with that as I purchased a pair of these new from Heathkit in 1976. I still have the original manual, which is copyright 1970. More importantly, these speakers were designed based on the Altec Valencia/Flamenco speaker, which was a late 60's product.

Regardless, great find, especially considering their history.
Click to expand...

So, no insult taken - I really have no idea. So maybe they're from 65-69? The Heath AS101 manual I have does not show a date anywhere.
I've had a hard time finding actual manufacturing data of the Altec Valencias - production runs, model years, etc,
and the Heath records are even sketchier. The internal parts tags on mine are all Heath number sequences, not Altec.
I know there was an early Valencia 846A design (that looks like mine), which had open space at each end of the horn for venting, a kind of port.
There was a later model, the Valencia 846B, which had actual round ports in the front baffleboard of the cabinets.

Either way, the mods I'm applying to my pair are moving them far from the original frequency response and character ... dynamics and tonality are changed a lot - for the good!

So, I changed that text from "1964 Heaths" to say "ancient Heaths" -
even if they are from 1968 they would be 50 years old -
and that's old for consumer speakers!

Of course, there is this Nov 1965 Magazine Ad for the Valencias ...

Altec Lansing 1965 Advertisement.jpg
 
Just for general FYI - pix from the internet showing the difference in the Valencia cabinet design (behind the factory grills) -
Altec Valencia 846A on the left (no real ports, just space around the horn),
Altec Valencia 846B on the right (with round ports)


Altec-Valencia-846A.jpg Altec-Valencia-846B .jpg
 
hjames said:
Just for general FYI - pix from the internet showing the difference in the Valencia cabinet design (behind the factory grills) -
Altec Valencia 846A on the left (no real ports, just space around the horn),
Altec Valencia 846B on the right (with round ports)


View attachment 1171502 View attachment 1171503
Click to expand...
I definitely remember those ported cabinets from '75 or so. They looked so different from the originals, I was surprised that the didn't give it a different name.
 
That link will work just fine. You are a better googler than I am, I tried that before I bugged you...
Thanks,
Jim
 
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