Hello all....
I'm relatively new here, but have been lurking for a while. I fell in love with Altec's at a young age listening to my uncles A7's powered by some SS McIntosh. I've been chasing that sound ever since. I had an english teacher with some khorns, sounded alright, but nothing like the Altecs. I've been building custom speakers since I was a teenager, and have always wanted to make my own A7's. But never could find the plans or someone willing to let me take apart their speakers. Needless to say I found the plans here, and I am VERY grateful.
So here's what I'm planning on doing.... Until I can get all the "correct" drivers, I have some that I think will work for the time being. For the horns, I have some NOS University ID-30's(I think, been a while since I've seen them in storage). For the lenses I am going to make some "smith" type wood horns. Is this combo a bad idea? It is just going to be temporary, but not sure for how long. For the woofers, I have some Altec 421 16h's(rubbing vc's) that I am going to have reconed to 8 ohms. I picked up some N800F crossovers on FleaBay, but will eventually like to move to an active crossover with dedicated amplifiers.
The enclosure's will be pretty close to the specs, with a little more cross bracing and corner bracing. One thing I am considering is using MDF instead of plywood. Or even plywood sides(for the oak veneer) and the rest MDF. On the surface, I would think that the different densities would be a bad thing, but I'm willing to try. For the curved pieces I was thinking of using 1/4 inch Louon, or other similar plywood. Also, what do you all think about using spray-on undercoating for sound deadening on the backs of the curved pieces or even the whole enclosure? Cost is a big consideration. I figure that a trip to the local "home center" for everything I need will be somewhere around $100.
Now I do have my heart set on at least one pair of A7's, but I am very open to suggestions for better sounding speakers, using the same or similar drivers.
Thanks again for the great site......
Nate