Altec 418b's + Karlson 15's = big fun

[markus_8119]

So a friend of mine gave me a pair of slightly ailing Karlson 15 cabinets a while back . . . they needed the wings rebuilt, and DEFINITELY benefitted from some internal bracing. I had a reconed Altec Biflex woofer which sounded surprisingly good in the Karlson - I only had the one, so I stuffed the other with a random console woofer. . . I was using them for < 100 Hz
duty, as I have a pair of homemade open baffle line arrays which use KLH fullrange drivers.....

The franken - reconed Altec sounded very promising, but I never thought I'd score a PAIR of Altec's to stuff in them. . fast forward to this year's Kutztown PA radio swap . . . I traded an all original Heathkit AA-32 for a pair of Altec 418b's :applaud: I'm no Altec expert, and didn't know until later that they are 'musical instrument' speakers. Some of the guys razzed me for what they thought was a silly trade . . .

o contraire mon frere !

I looked up the spec's upon returning home:

100 db @ 1W/1m
55 Hz res. freq.
100 watt power rating

YEE HAW !

Because I'm only running the Karlson's for the sub-100 Hz duty, by way of a pro audio active xover, I wasn't worried about their original application . . . this combination thumps like crazy ! very accurate bass to my ears . . .

I used them for bass bins at my wife's 10 year college reunion, and have also used them to relieve my JBL C38's of bass duty . . . these Altec's just eat up power like nothing else I've heard . . at the 'DJ gig' I had 200 Watts going to them, and they just sounded amazing . . .

anyone else using Altec guitar speakers for 'non-standard' applications ?

[diamondsouled]

"anyone else using Altec guitar speakers for 'non-standard' applications ?"

Just me in my home made Valencia cabinets, 418B Altecs as well. Tuned the ports though. Used to be able to turn my Quad 405/33 full throttle with no clipping whatsoever. Too loud to take for long though, lol.

Lar

[Earl K]

YEE HAW !

Because I'm only running the Karlson's for the sub-100 Hz duty, by way of a pro audio active xover, I wasn't worried about their original application . . . this combination thumps like crazy ! very accurate bass to my ears . . .

I used them for bass bins at my wife's 10 year college reunion, and have also used them to relieve my JBL C38's of bass duty . . . these Altec's just eat up power like nothing else I've heard . . at the 'DJ gig' I had 200 Watts going to them, and they just sounded amazing . . .

anyone else using Altec guitar speakers for 'non-standard' applications ?

Thanks for the insight / it's nice when someone posts something around here that's completely foreign to the usual status quo .

FYI, I'm sure Bill Woods ( aka, RCA Man ) would love to hear & measure those ( too bad he's typically up here in Ontario ) . He & Freddyi ( the Karlson Coupler evangelist ) can usually be found over at the H.E. forum of A.A. .

- Interestingly, someone is using something like this combo below their "Exemplars" . This ( fairly ) recent thread , Click Here ! (http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/hug/messages/13/134052.html) talks a bit about this arrangement .

:)

[markus_8119]

Thanks for the insight / it's nice when someone posts something around here that's completely foreign to the usual status quo .

FYI, I'm sure Bill Woods ( aka, RCA Man ) would love to hear & measure those ( too bad he's typically up here in Ontario ) . He & Freddyi ( the Karlson Coupler evangelist ) can usually be found over at the H.E. forum of A.A. .

- Interestingly, someone is using something like this combo below their "Exemplars" . This ( fairly ) recent thread , Click Here ! (http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/hug/messages/13/134052.html) talks a bit about this arrangement .

:)

I'd love to measure them too, but I dont have the proper gear :o: I like to think I have a good ear . . .

I did see that Exemplar thread on AA, and have heard in the past Karlsons integrate really well with horns . . . . I have followed Freddy's exploits for YEARS and was very happy to finally snag a pair to play with.

diamondsouled - I hear ya on the 'volume' thing . . they just don't break up no matter how high I crank 'em . . I swear they WANT to be spanked by 100 + watts

here's a shot of them 'under test' with my DIY open baffle line arrays: