Should Altec 288 compression drivers sound like this? (ringing)

[Steve71]

1. You hear the BEHRINGER through those Altec 288,s. Not really good enough for these drivers, IMO.

2. What amp are you using, and how much power does it produce?

I'm using a Trends Audio TA10-1 which is a 5watt/ch tripath amp. I've also used a crown XLS402D which is a 300w/ch amp.

According the to document below the 288's are 115db/w/m efficient the MR -64 horn, so I don't think that the trends is clipping, otherwise I'd be deaf already.

http://www.altecpro.com/pdfs/vintage...0HF%20Horn.pdf

And I don't think the Beringer is messing up the signal THAT much.

[1audiohack]

I have twice had what I would call ringing in my main system. Once it was an amp, once an active crossover. Both the result of dying capacitors on the pre-amplified stages.

Resonance effects appear in a wide variety of systems and are dominant in electronic circuits as the inertia effect of an inductance reacts with the storage effect of a capacitance. The interchange of energy between the two systems can result in a resonance effect.

Mine was set off mostly by piano , not always however, and it would sound almost like mic feedback, when ever it felt like doing it.

If that sounds like what you have, swap out everything one component at a time to find the offender.

If not, sorry to waste the space.

Good luck!

[Steve71]

I have twice had what I would call ringing in my main system. Once it was an amp, once an active crossover. Both the result of dying capacitors on the pre-amplified stages.

Resonance effects appear in a wide variety of systems and are dominant in electronic circuits as the inertia effect of an inductance reacts with the storage effect of a capacitance. The interchange of energy between the two systems can result in a resonance effect.

Mine was set off mostly by piano , not always however, and it would sound almost like mic feedback, when ever it felt like doing it.

If that sounds like what you have, swap out everything one component at a time to find the offender.

If not, sorry to waste the space.

Good luck!

Interesting, I wasn't aware that a dying cap could cause ringing. Before I had the Behringer x-over I tested the 288's by high pass filtering a wav file at 500hz on my PC. This was simply to test them out and see if they worked. Anyway the ringing was there from the get go. And that was with a different amp as well. I think it's got to be the room or bad diaphragms.

[Steve71]

Just wanted to post a follow up since I've sorted out the ringing.

I believe it was room related. Turning the MR64 horns on their sides so they splashed less sound on the (too close) side walls of my room helped, but the thing that really did the trick was some EQ via a dbx drive rack PA. About -3.5db in the 1.6 to 3.5khz region did the trick. Now all my movies and music sound good at any volume.

Since my original post I've replaced the 288 diaphragms (no change in sound), built a pair of 500-80hz conical horns with GPA 515G drivers. Added a B&C DE10/ME10 horn tweeter (crossed at 7.2kz) and built Tapped Horn to cover 16-80hz. I also replaced the Behringer crossover with a dbx Drive Rack PA.

I still have a number of things to do before I consider the project finished, but things are comming along nicely.