The road to nirvana |
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My journey into Photography, Horology, and Audiophilia |
DIY Speakers
Altec-based, 3-way Speaker system
Updated: June 24, 2007
I had my speakers go into a makeover. This is how they look like now.
I was pretty much pleased with the sonic improvement as well. So this is an unexpected bonus.
After hearing a speaker the size of a personal ref with Altec drivers, I thought that I'd like to have the same too.
This is where my quest for Altec drivers started. While I was successful in acquiring the 2459A, I thought it would be too small being an 8-incher for any seriously big cabinet. Fortunately, a pair of Altec vintage speakers appeared in a local forum marketplace, so I immediately took the opportunity to buy it.
The 10-incher I acquired is a pair of Altec 406-8Y, which information about it is scarce. With the limited information I found and after some correspondences with Nilo Mapa, I finally settled on the Altec 614 cabinet plans.
Joseph Esmilla once more, was instrumental in getting this cabinet right, and tuned. We've exchanged a couple of emails to sort out some minor problems with the cabinet and its interaction with the 406-8Y.
The information gathered about the 406 suggested that it was originally used in the Altec Bolero 890 speaker system, and a tweeter picks up from 2kHz onwards. While looking for a suitable tweeter, I initially installed the Altec 2459A, being a full ranger, in a 2-way configuration.
After a while, one of my usual sources tipped me that he has a pair of Oxford mid-horns. So I immediately saw him and took home the Oxfords. However, being a mid-horn, I was told it won't extend beyond 8Khz and because of that, I still needed a "super tweeter."
I don't have that much funds, and since I've studied the Fostex FT-17H somehow, I thought it would be good to use this as an augmentation from 6kHz and up.
In the end, the "speaker system" has the following specifications:
Here's a closer look on the mid, high drivers and crossover-
The sound I'm getting from this speaker keeps me away from commercially available ones. It's a great match with my flea-powered amplifiers and can be driven to party level by as small as 1W from my type 10 amplifier. I have not made any measurements, and I don't even know the effective sensitivity, but nevertheless I'm satisfied with what I achieved.