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Storms Santana cabinets come to life again.
When we did the Altec Valencia comparo, Storm was gracious enough to bring me a pair of Altec Santana cabinets which were destined for the trash. Here they are again at the beginning of their new life as JBL/BMS/Altec hybrids. I bought a JBL Lancer 99 (S99) just for the LE14A to see what all the fuss was about. I had thought to populate the Santana's with Trusonic stuff, which I had on hand. Zilch said "Try the LE14's."
Wow, the LE14A is dynamite after being refoamed. Now there are three projects which are on my schedule: 1) This pair, which will become my computer speakers, 2) A pair of "4414's" in L99 cabinets for my brewer friend, John, who owns the local micro brewery, and 3) a pair of "4414's" for myself, in Lancer L55 cabinets. Most likely all three will be veneered in South American Rosewood, which I really love.
When this pair become my computer speakers, they will replace two pairs of Trusonics. One pair is the factory 12" two ways, and the other is a two way utilizing 150FR's and 5KT tweeters in 1.5 times size Electro Voice Baronet cabinets which were made by me. Not easy to replace all that stuff with so much personal baggage, but these guys sound so good. Expect to see some Trusonic stuff on E-Bay.
The ports are two 3" on the back of the cabinet, and at present is tuned for about 29 HZ. It is too low for my tastes. I will shorten the ports when the cabinets are next opened. The BMS HF driver is way too efficient for the LE14A's, and will need some adjustment. Zilch suggests that he dropped the HF section by 10 db when he packaged his latest two ways, but my cabinet is different, so I will wait to measure them and see how much is necessary.
Even with the LPad almost at the lowest extreme to balance the HF/LF, the sound is dynamite. Myrna and I listened to some Turkish Folk Guitar and Greek music today. It was very good, and we were guessing at which new instruments were in each successive piece. They were easy to pick out. Not my choice of music, but I gave her the choice.
Thanks, Storm for these wonderful cabinets. I will keep you posted when they are veneered, but right now I am in the building mode. When all three pairs are ready for veneer, the mood will change.
