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In the Forum: Horn-Loaded Speakers
In the Thread: Amazing Altec 288 ++
Post Subject: Vintage Horn SystemsPosted by Paul S on: 6/4/2025
As I have shared around these parts for years, my early forays into hi-fi included speakers/horns salvaged from theaters (etc.), locally made PA drivers in black cabinets. I finally quit these horns because I did not have support for further experiments after I married and had children, and the speakers I had did require further experiments. Basically, the 802/811 was wrong to my ears at 800Hz, too much horn sound and ringing, and I could not make the 515B sound good/of-a-piece crossed at 800Hz in that cabinet. A friend made a fiberglass mold of a 511 horn and then used that to make a 511 horn from reinforced tar, and I thought that sounded good at 800Hz, but that did not solve the problem of the 515B at 800Hz X/O, and the 802/511 did not work at 500Hz, IMO. I recently saw where a vintage guy "tested" a "similar" 2-way he had:
https://redspade-audio.blogspot.com/2013/07/altec-a7-voice-of-theatre-horns-measured.html#:~:text=Compression%20driver/horn%20gated%20frequency,looking%20at%20the%20dispersion%20behaviour.
Not trying to prove anything with this information, just sharing the sorts of things one tends to encounter with vintage speakers/drivers. If there is a Moral to the Story I tell, it might be: If inclined to vintage, bring either low expectations or your A Game with respect to "restorations".
Paul SRerurn to Romy the Cat's Site