Altec 846B Question

My neighbor has recently "upgraded" to a surround sound system, and in the process gave me his Altec Lansing 846Bs. The walnut cabinets are in magnificent shape and the woofers appear to be working fine. Having said that, I have two questions. There is no output from either of the horns. He said they both appeared to go out at the same time. What is the most likely culprit, the driver or the crossover, and in either case, what is the easiest way to get the grill covers off without damaging the cabinet or fabric? He replaced the fabric several years ago, and indicated the grills are just held in place by fricition. Thanks in advance for your help.

nice score.... unfortunately I am of little further help. :banghead:

Although I would suspect that it was a simple issue, maybe disconnected wire or something along those lines....

unless he forgot to mention that he had been pushing them really really hard with 800W per channel just prior to both horns failing... :D


Good Luck!

Oh and about the grille frames... I had some ARs that I had a simmilar issue with a few months back -- I took a curved, leather needle with monofilament tied to it and threaded the fishing string around solid parts of the grille frame's center supports and ***gently*** dislodged them...

Hi

It could be several of 2 things. Either the previous owner connected the woofer to the Hf horn and damaged them both.Or really over driven those speakers.

You will have to acess the components anny way. If your HF drivers are blown.

Send them to Great plains Audio for best and acurate repair.

http://www.greatplainsaudio.com/

Hi
(a) Worst Case scenario ; ( check by first removing the drivers and then using a multimeter to measure for diaphragm continuity / buy a meter if you don't own one ).

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He said they both appeared to go out at the same time.

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- IME, this is usually the sign of some "operator-error" .

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What is the most likely culprit, the driver or the crossover,,,

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- The previous owner , most likely popped/broke the fragile leads inside the diaphragm. The Altec diaphragms from this 846b era ( & before ) were notorious for breaking the internal leads when put under undue stress .

- The stress ,, ? ? some previous owner was likely in the habit to turning on the preamp after the amplifier was already powered up ( & vice versa ) / this "no-no" will nuke those ribbon leads in no time . Or,,, he had a receiver that had a nasty shutdown DC "pop" .

- Like Convergence said ; deal with Bill H. at GPA for any Altec diaphragm needs .

(b) Best Case scenario ; hmmm , maybe some kid snuck in there and disconnected the horn drivers as a prank ( or perhaps jostled loose by moving the damn things around ) . Okay, I'm reaching for a good-news scenario . :D

regards :)