Look at my new babies...Altec 846Bs w/EV Tweeters!

[scott fitlin]

"I would try moving the tweet top center horizontal, since that is the correct dispersion pattern for that driver."

EV intended the horn to be used with the long axis vertically for widest dispersion and EV usually used it vertically, the only time I recall EV using it horizontally was in the Eliminator.

PWK used the thing horizontally, who knows why.

In SR apps, sometimes reorienting the horns position changes the throw, and the eliminator was an SR cabinet. They may have done that to get longer throw. Not sure, but I know guys still do this with some things to get the throw they want.

JBL has current SR cabs with rotatable horns.

[Mr. Widget]

Check out my new babies.

And yes, the 846U's are going to be sold.

I have a pair of 846 U speakers and they are my first and only speakers. I have heard other high end speakers and the JBL L100 and I would never "move on". Once you get yours up and running, you will never need to move on up.

I'm simply shocked!


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[Tom Brennan]

http://archives.telex.com/archives/E...T35A%20EDS.pdf

Info on the mighty T-35, as can be seen it's not particularly extended, I think an 802-902 on an 811 goes out as high. But EV used phenolic midrange drivers and needed tweeters.

I used to have a half a dozen blown ones, gave them away to use as ashtrays. They were painted purple, from Heil Sound.

I've heard some good EV rigs though, I liked the Sentry III and IV.

[Mr. Widget]

PWK used the thing horizontally, who knows why.

Tom is right... the T-35, T-35A and the T350 use a diffraction horn and they are meant to be used vertically.

As for PWK... in the early Cornwalls the T-35s were mounted vertically. My guess is that the tweeters were used horizontally as it fit the La Scala, Klipschorn, and Heresy packages the best... they probably had wise guys like us asking why the Cornwall was different so they quietly changed it to match their flagship, the mighty Klipschorn, with it's myriad of well known compromises. (I'd still like a pair in rosewood or macassar ebony. )


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[scott fitlin]

they probably had wise guys like us asking why the Cornwall was different so they quietly changed it to match their flagship


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They had wise guys like us back then?

The term " audiophille " wasnt invented yet, I dont think.

:dont-know

[SEAWOLF97]

I'm simply shocked!


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me too

In my opnion, the unfinished birch is WAY more attractive than any Walnut veneer. Just because it sold for cheaper, does not mean it is cheaper. I would easily say it is worth 10% more than regular 846B walnut.

-Storm.

Seriously, though...I think my generation is done with dark colors and especially the walnut - yuck!

Yes, these were my first speakers and they will be my last.

-Storm.

[Nightbrace]

I'd love to see what the networks look like to incorporate the EV Tweeters. I've never felt the need to supplement the UHF's with my 19's, but in a soft room, it might be something to consider. As I agree that they do not compare to the UHF's on the L300's. But few speakers do .

Tom is right, the highs should be more detailed and if anything "harsher" as the highs on your Altec 846U's roll off fairly soon and I too have never heard the UHF's being described as overbearing on any Altec horn for that matter, but I will agree that the mid-HF's can be a bit overbearing with the wrong gear.

That being said, I think you'd go "nuts" for a set of L300's for a number of reasons, but most notably high powered SS DC amps do wonders with the L300 with none of the harsh and overbearing mid-HF issues of the Altec's with similiar gear. The Altecs do respond well to EQing if you MUST use a SS DC amp.

If you MUST have Altec and do not want to consider anything JBL, stop wasting you time trying every Altec under the sun and take my advice and go with the 19's. Especially with a softer tube amp and a better CD player like my NAD with Burr-brown op-amps and some "decent" cables, many of the higher priced cables do more harm than good. I use Magnavox "el cheapo" interconnects. I think I paid $20 for them (and unfortunately I cannot find them anymore anywhere ), but they sound better than the $229 Audioquest cables I tried.

The 416-8c woofers are better in the upper bass and mids. But the 416-8b woofers (in about 80% of all the 19's I've seen) will be a definite improvement over your Valencia(s) with the 416-8Z's in their respective cabinets.

Tubes make Altec's sing and smooth out the harshness in the mid-HF's quite a bit.. And contrary to what many people here have told you, the bass is exceptional, but you gotta choose the right tube amp and output tubes. Some of the poorer tube amps have this problem of not producing enough bass, and I will agree that most will not compare to a Solid State amp for bass, but their are several that work as well as a SS amp as long as you don't need SPL's of over 120 dB (something that I wouldn't recommend for ANY home speaker),

Your Valencia's are already producing 98 dB @ 1 watt @ 1 m, so a 10-25 watt RMS @ 8 Ohm tube amp will do just fine and get you playing pretty loud for most practical purposes. My HH Scott 222c with 7591 output tubes has ~20 watts RMS and I have never had the need for more wattage or have ever had the amp start to "soft-clip". I have measured levels of 120 dB with my 19's with this amps with no fatigue and no harshness and no evidence of any clipping. Continous dB levels of 110-115 are actually ok with the 19's, but there is NO need for this. 105 dB for most practical puposes is loud enough @ 1 meter. And I personally like to listen between 90-100 dB for music. And about all your amp will be running is 1 REAL watt at this level. But it is nice to have plenty in reserve for more dynamic headroom. But again, not needed with a speaker as efficient as yours.

7591 output tubes are as good as I've heard and would HIGHLY recommend trying a Sherwood with your Altec's on a budget., the HH Scotts go for 3x as much, but I noticed almost no difference. I just like the Scott's aesthetics better. Some of those Sherwoods are 40 watts RMS and can be had for under $200.

There is a Magnavox tube amp that would work to near perfection with your Valencias (or the 19's), I had a similiar amp in a bi-amp set-up and I could not have been happier. But it would not be capable of producing some of the volumes necessary for movies and explosions and such so I sold it.

For normal listening with high quality material, I think you'll be totally pleased with the Magnavox, just wouldn't work as well for movies as something with a little more headroom. . The one being sold here is not a 4 channel amp like the one I had with the ability to bi-amp, but you can run it normally just fine.. And if you have a CD player with a variable output, there's no real need for a pre-amp.

I can find the link for you, but its located in the for sale section.. I think he wants $295 for it.. And depending upon the networks of your new 846B's it should work fantastic. I'll have to scrounge up some some of my old EV catalogs to determine if thats a T-35 tweeter, but it looks to be EV at least and the efficiency should be pretty close. It all has to do with how they blended it into the system via the crossover. If you are able, post some pics, I am interested to see.

Your selling your other Valencias , are these new ones that good?

[scott fitlin]

Thats exactly how it starts. Every speaker was going to be my last speaker, but, dozens of different woofers and tweeters, and amps later etc........

1. We admitted our lives had become unmanageable, and that we were out of storage space.

[Nightbrace]

those look exactly like the k77 klipsch tweeters (the bell part at least) in both my hereseys and cornwalls...

storm-- get some decent amplification so that you can REALLY get your speakers rocking. You have 1200 bucks to buy another pair of the speakers you pretty much already have, so its not a liquidity issue.

I wonder how those custom tweeters affect the value of the speaker.

Couldn't agree more about the amplification. No need to spend $1200, but there are MUCH better options than what he is using, and definitely needs a decent CD player.

They have to hurt the value..

[loach71]

http://archives.telex.com/archives/E...T35A%20EDS.pdf

Info on the mighty T-35, as can be seen it's not particularly extended, I think an 802-902 on an 811 goes out as high. But EV used phenolic midrange drivers and needed tweeters.

I used to have a half a dozen blown ones, gave them away to use as ashtrays. They were painted purple, from Heil Sound.

I've heard some good EV rigs though, I liked the Sentry III and IV.

The Sentry III and IV used the SM120A horn with DH1506 compression driver, and the tweeter was the T350 baby cheek. These combinations sound quite good in the MR and high end.

[Tom Brennan]

"The Sentry III and IV used the SM120A horn with DH1506 compression driver,"

Nah, I think they used the 1823-1824M mid driver on the SM-120A, depending on whether or not they were from before or after the switch from Alnico to ferrite. Tweeter was the ST-350 a WHOLE diifferent animal than the T-350.

SM-120As make a great substitution for the death ray mid horns on Klipsch LaScalas. They helped my LaScalas ALOT though looking back I now realize that even unhooking the mids would have helped alot.

The SM-120A was a very cool looking horn and worked down to 400hz too.

Fella in Germany sent me this picture of his EV rig with SM-120s and ST-350s, note the single Khorn bassbin sub up near the ceiling.

[loach71]

"The Sentry III and IV used the SM120A horn with DH1506 compression driver,"

Nah, they used the 1823-1824M mid driver on the SM-120A, depending on whether or not they were from before or after the switch from Alnico to ferrite. Tweeter was the ST-350 a WHOLE diifferent animal than the T-350.

SM-120As make a great substitution for the death ray mid horns on Klipsch LaScalas. They helped my LaScalas ALOT though looking back I now realize that even unhooking the mids would have helped alot.

Just picked up some IIIs and IVs - they came with DH1506s ...??
Im always looking for SM120A horns...my favorite 1" CD horn

[Tom Brennan]

"Just picked up some IIIs and IVs - they came with DH1506s "

Hmmm. Perhaps they changed mid drivers along the way. I'm pretty sure they used the 1823 and 1824M at least for awhile.

[Storm]

Opened one speaker and took some pictures.

The tweeters are 16 ohms. The tweeters are fed into the 806-8A driver.

Let me know what you think of the pictures.

Looks like the whoever did the MOD knew what they were doing. The x-over looks re-done.

-Storm.

[Storm]

Your selling your other Valencias , are these new ones that good?

Yes, they are that good.

I played Pink Floyd and on the other speakers, when I played it loud - Gilmours voice would become distorted. I can turn these up another notch and they sound very clear.

-Storm.