902 driver ?

[Gary L]

Nice observation there Russ. I can certainly agree with your preference after having and useing all three of the Altec drivers and making your own personal choice.

From my own stand-point, we are talking about the 811B Altec horn, and I would sure like to meet the guy who could stand in front of one and tell me if it has an 802-8G or an 808-8B or a 902-8B on it just by listening!

Zilch's measuring equipment might be able to come close but I seriously doubt any ears here could get it right.

Just for some additional fun, not too many would be able to listen and tell me if the rear label on the driver says Altec or JBL either.

I firmly believe we convince ourselves through reading and looking at all the charts and graphs which driver is best and then we learn to love it and will swear it is better.

About the most I am able to discern is if an Altec driver is with or without loading cap.

I am not saying there is no difference or that one driver might not be better. What I am saying is 99% of us would need to see the charts and graphs to know which one we are hearing.

If you had 4 pairs of 19s, each set up with different HF drivers, you would probably be surprised when the driver number of the pair you thought sounded best was revealed. If you came back the following day and all the pairs were switched around it wouldn't surprise me at all if the pair you like best yesterday was different from the pair you like best today.

Very, very few of us have the Golden ears to compete with the test equipment so my advice is to always go with what sounds best to you.

If Hillman thinks the 902s sound better then those are the ones for him.
I'm pretty happy with my 802-8Gs but I also have a pair of 808-8As and 808-8Bs and if I didn't stick a label on the back saying what driver is in them I honestly would never be able to tell.

Gary

[Russellc]

Nice observation there Russ. I can certainly agree with your preference after having and useing all three of the Altec drivers and making your own personal choice.

From my own stand-point, we are talking about the 811B Altec horn, and I would sure like to meet the guy who could stand in front of one and tell me if it has an 802-8G or an 808-8B or a 902-8B on it just by listening!

Zilch's measuring equipment might be able to come close but I seriously doubt any ears here could get it right.

Just for some additional fun, not too many would be able to listen and tell me if the rear label on the driver says Altec or JBL either.

I firmly believe we convince ourselves through reading and looking at all the charts and graphs which driver is best and then we learn to love it and will swear it is better.

About the most I am able to discern is if an Altec driver is with or without loading cap.

I am not saying there is no difference or that one driver might not be better. What I am saying is 99% of us would need to see the charts and graphs to know which one we are hearing.

If you had 4 pairs of 19s, each set up with different HF drivers, you would probably be surprised when the driver number of the pair you thought sounded best was revealed. If you came back the following day and all the pairs were switched around it wouldn't surprise me at all if the pair you like best yesterday was different from the pair you like best today.

Very, very few of us have the Golden ears to compete with the test equipment so my advice is to always go with what sounds best to you.

If Hillman thinks the 902s sound better then those are the ones for him.
I'm pretty happy with my 802-8Gs but I also have a pair of 808-8As and 808-8Bs and if I didn't stick a label on the back saying what driver is in them I honestly would never be able to tell.

Gary

Agreed! The wife was looking at me funny having all this stuff clogging up valuable closet space, and I have (unknown to her) a JBL project to finance, so I sold them and aquired a slew of JBL stuff and put them in my closet!

As to the sound differences concerning 902 vs 802 vs 802 8G, one could definately be happy with any of them, and I doubt seriously if I could tell the difference with any degree of accuracy which was which in a blind test, with ears only.




Russellc

[Skywave-Rider]

I have BMS 4552NDs on the way for comparison to my 902s which will be heading west to Zilch for measurements of record. I don't expect to sell off the 902s though.