Bauhausler
Rational Subjectivist
All;
This morning a phone call got me out of bed. It was an antique dealer I have bought audio gear from in the past. He's moving & wanted to sell his Valencias. I got down there in a hurry after a stop at the bank & hauled them home. If I had known these weigh 99 LBS I would have used a dolly to get them into the house instead of carrying them. I only weigh 145 myself. I can handle the weight, but these big cabs are AWKWARD in my gear-stuffed room. These are walnut and somewhat scuffed up. The drivers are 806A/811, 416Z with N800-F network and attenuator. They work fine & I'm playing them now. They've been run less than 2 hours/year over the last decade. In my experience, underused speakers need quite a few hours to loosen up, especially woofers that go up into the midrange, so I'll play them as much as possible for at least a week before making a determination if they'll stay. I'd like them to replace my Cornwalls, which for all their promise never really made my heart go pitter pat.
These speakers join a pair of Altec 605A's in furniture cabinets and a pair of Altec Boleros with 406Z/passive/3000G drivers. The Boleros sound astonishing for what they are and have been my main speakers for the last couple of weeks, occasionally trading off with the 605As. I'm looking for something with the same midrange clarity as the Boleros and more low bass dynamics. I previously had Altec 19's here, which I liked a lot, but they went to Radio X when I got tired of the huge size in front of me all the time. The Valencias have probably 60% of the frontal area of the 19's, which is a good thing.
If the Valencias stay I'll re-cap the networks. In my experience the caps in Altec xovrs drift & replacing them makes a HUGE difference.
Of course they'll play at normal levels with a fraction of a Watt but right now I'm using a 150WPC Accuphase P-300 amp rebuilt by Echowars, barely ticking over 150mW on most music. I'll try out my 8W homebuilt PP triode 6L6 amps later today. That should be nice.
This morning a phone call got me out of bed. It was an antique dealer I have bought audio gear from in the past. He's moving & wanted to sell his Valencias. I got down there in a hurry after a stop at the bank & hauled them home. If I had known these weigh 99 LBS I would have used a dolly to get them into the house instead of carrying them. I only weigh 145 myself. I can handle the weight, but these big cabs are AWKWARD in my gear-stuffed room. These are walnut and somewhat scuffed up. The drivers are 806A/811, 416Z with N800-F network and attenuator. They work fine & I'm playing them now. They've been run less than 2 hours/year over the last decade. In my experience, underused speakers need quite a few hours to loosen up, especially woofers that go up into the midrange, so I'll play them as much as possible for at least a week before making a determination if they'll stay. I'd like them to replace my Cornwalls, which for all their promise never really made my heart go pitter pat.
These speakers join a pair of Altec 605A's in furniture cabinets and a pair of Altec Boleros with 406Z/passive/3000G drivers. The Boleros sound astonishing for what they are and have been my main speakers for the last couple of weeks, occasionally trading off with the 605As. I'm looking for something with the same midrange clarity as the Boleros and more low bass dynamics. I previously had Altec 19's here, which I liked a lot, but they went to Radio X when I got tired of the huge size in front of me all the time. The Valencias have probably 60% of the frontal area of the 19's, which is a good thing.
If the Valencias stay I'll re-cap the networks. In my experience the caps in Altec xovrs drift & replacing them makes a HUGE difference.
Of course they'll play at normal levels with a fraction of a Watt but right now I'm using a 150WPC Accuphase P-300 amp rebuilt by Echowars, barely ticking over 150mW on most music. I'll try out my 8W homebuilt PP triode 6L6 amps later today. That should be nice.
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