Budget woofer system with Horn

[gwho]

Lee wow you do beautiful work. Your speakers are a work of art! I'm afraid I do not have that level of skill. Space will not be a limitation (at least not now). I will likely just pick up a pair of 8256 with drivers to get up and running as quick as possible. If I can get them into the house I will likely have to make them look less obnoxious. I wonder if the 8256 can be improved or modified to extend low frequency response. Thanks for the pics. I was wondering how you mount the horn to the box. Is the placement of the horn to the box have any phase alignment or do you handle this digitally.

gwho

[more10]

Hoktuna at Hififorum.nu built Altec 816 cabinets to use with his homemade multicells:

[Lee in Montreal]

The Altec 8256 is a "smallish" 6cft cabinet. Would be great for one single driver. But for two, it means each driver only has 3cft. That's not much. That will restrict the lower range and will make bass boomy. But 6cft was probably great for portable sound reinforcement. But if you have access to such cabinet, you could fit one single 15" driver (JBL 225, 2226, 2235), block the unused mounting hole, and fine tune the ports by perhaps blocking one of them to get a lower reach. But you know, building a simple 36"x 24" x 24" cabinets for two drivers is failry easy. That's one sheet of 8'x4' per cabinet. BTW empty A7 cabinets very oten end up on kijiji for dirt cheap. That would be a good match with the Mantaray. They often go for $200 a pair.

[gwho]

More10 and Lee,

I live in a major metropolitan area (Phoenix) so I can be patient to wait for boxes if they come up often. There aren't any at this moment. I definitely like the look of the multicell horns but they are priced way to high (~$700 for the 1005 / 805 horns on epay. Are there other more prevalent horns that will work? There are also A7 cabinets for sale but they want 325 a piece which is quite a bit different than 200 a pair. I could not find any 816 cabinets for sale. Thanks for the tip on the 8256. That could definitely work. Is there a reason why a single 3156 would not work in the cabinet or is the 2226 much better (or go lower). I also would consider building a box but I thought it was mentioned in this thread that it could be difficult to build and/or problematic to achieve better results. Do you know of a box plan that is known to work well with a specific driver. If so, please let me know.

Best Regards,
gwho

[gwho]

I will look into the 816 cabinets. They look nice and appear to be a nice size.

gwho

[more10]

816A spec sheet

[Lee in Montreal]

@gwho

You will notice from the posted picture that the 816 requires two subs (located behind, near the wall) for bass. That's because those are upped/mid bass and midrange cabinets. If it is what you need and have subs for the 20-80Hz range, then you will be happy with them.

Lee

[more10]

This is how Hoktunas system looked like a year ago or so:



The subs are the white boxes with the small horns on top. These are Tapped Horns of Petter Persson design. The round horns are LeCleach from Auto-Tech. The big ones are 200 Hz horns and the small ones are 1000 Hz. This is the best sounding sytem I have ever heard. The LeCleach horns sound better than multicells, but are not so wife friendly. Hoktuna has his system on top of the garage, and his wife rarely goes there.

The Altec 816 will give you good horn sound down to 200 and that makes a big difference.

[Lee in Montreal]

Hoktuna has his system on top of the garage, and his wife rarely goes there.

;-)

The Altec 816 will give you good horn sound down to 200 and that makes a big difference.

Agreed

[gwho]

Let's assume that I could find a set of 816 enclosures inexpensively. What driver would be the best match for the driver that I have? Would I want to use the 515b or the JBL 2225/6 that was previously suggested. Would my horn even be a match for this enclosure. Sorry for all the questions. I have a nice subwoofer that could be used with it. It is a dipole subwoofer comprising 4-15" drivers with a separate EQ that extends to 20Hz.

gwho

[gwho]

I'm also talking to someone out of state on a pair of 8256 with 3156 drivers. I might have a go at these if I can get them at the right price. Would removing one of the drivers (plugging up the opening) and closing up the port to double the box size work with the 3156. I really appreciate the help with these different suggestions.

gwho

[Lee in Montreal]

2225 vs 2226

The 2226 will play hard. It will be generous in mid bass and mediums (those must be tamed from 100Hz and up). Considering the 816 will acoustically put the emphasis on the 150Hz and over, I think the 2226 might not be ideal for hifi. The 2225 is a bit more limted in the amount of power it can accept, but I feel it is a bit more linear. Its bass goes a bit deeper, and it doesn't have that midrange hump. But the 2226 is a great contender nonetheless. I am curious to hear what others think on this subject.

Lee

[gwho]

Lee,

Can I ask your normal sitting distance from the speakers. How big are your horns? I read MR94's are constant directivity and mine measure about 3' by 2.5'. Are your horns constant directivity also. How do they sound?

Regards,
gwho

[Lee in Montreal]

My horns are slightly smaler and they are constant directivity. Dimensions are 30-1/2" x 30-1/2".

I like the sound. The horn sounds big. Great for jazz as well as electronic. I understand that some people don't like the 2360 though. I am happy with them.

Be aware that as any CD horn, it will require equalization if you want to use them up to the higher octave. I use my horns in a two-way system.

Lee

[gwho]

Here are some Altec cabinets. Do you think they are 816. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Alte...item1e860f945c


gwho