Altec Valencia b port size

[DarcyL]

Hi there, can anyone tell me the diameter, and length of the stock ports on a Altec Valencia B series? Thanks!
Darcy

[Bryans12v]

Hi there, can anyone tell me the diameter, and length of the stock ports on a Altec Valencia B series? Thanks!
Darcy

4" dia, 6" long.

[DarcyL]

4" dia, 6" long.

Great! Thanks!
Darcy

[gdmoore28]

You have me curious now, Darcy. Are you building some Valencia cabs?

GeeDeeEmm

[DarcyL]

You have me curious now, Darcy. Are you building some Valencia cabs?

GeeDeeEmm

No, I have a pair of Santigo's that the previous owner put 416 woofers in, so, will try Valencia ports in them as the rest of the components are the same, and box volume is very close-

[DarcyL]

Thanks for the reply- the last speakers I was listening to regularly were JBl 4530's with 500hz Renkus-Hienz horns and home brew crossovers- They actually sounded pretty nice, but again not really much low bass, room was probably too small for them anyway, also Pioneer HPM-100's. The Altec's do have the fiberglass in them on all panels but the baffle. I was working on the house this weekend, so I disconnected the Altec's from the tube amp, and hooked them up to a Yamaha CA-810 I have kicking around, and put a cd with good bass on repeat at moderately high volume, and let them go for probably 10-12 hours Saturday and Sunday. At some point, they woke up, and now sound quite good, with much more bass than at first. Much happier now!!
Thanks for all the help,
Darcy

[Ed Kreamer]

Hi Darcy,

I'm not terribly surprised at the perceived lack of bass. As you said your 416's may need some break in since they were freshly reconed. Is there fiber glass in the box? Each surface should be lined except the baffle. You do not want to over fill the box, so don't stuff it. That would over damp the speaker and you would get even less bass.
And lastly, what are your other speakers? The ones that you are used to listening too. Many speakers are designed to produce a sort of mid bass bump from 50 to 100 Hz or so. What you have won't do that. the 416 was a pretty flat reproducer and won't give that inaccurate but pleasant sounding mid bass resonance that you may be used to.
I'd just listen to it as loud as circumstance's permit (don't wreck your hearing though or blow them up ) for a couple of weeks and get used to them. Some times there is a learning process when going to a more accurate system ie: If you were to move from the vintage L 65 to the LSR 6332, you might hate the LSR perceived lack of bass, when actually what is being reproduced is accurate bass and the listener is not used to it.

So I'd give it a while.

Ed

[Ed Kreamer]

Hi Darcy

1 Welcome to the club. You'll like it here

2 Why would any one exchange the 411 for the 416?? Maybe it was the 413, but still......

Have fun

Ed

[DarcyL]

Hi Darcy

1 Welcome to the club. You'll like it here

2 Why would any one exchange the 411 for the 416?? Maybe it was the 413, but still......

Have fun

Ed

Well, I don't know why the previous owner swapped the woofers to 416's, but it is what I have to work with- and as the compression drivers, horns and dividing networks are the same as a Valencia, and the box size is really close, I thought I'd try putting Valencia B ports in the baffles, and have some wannabe Valencias?

[Ed Kreamer]

What you will have are pretty much 846b's except.......after the crossover there will be an EQ/attenuator device, probably the 30904. Unless of course the previous owner removed it. It's purpose (if you don't know) was to extend the highs and pad down or reduce the midrange between 800 Hz and 6 or 8 k if I remember right. If it were me I'd leave it in the circuit as it does aid the high frequency performance and the overall fidelity of your speaker, which will be pretty much flat from around 40hz to around 16-18kHz or so. You can experiment and see which way you like it. As a classical music listener I preferred the sound with it in.

These were very good speakers in their day and still are very good.

Have fun Kill Zombies - drink beer

ed

[DarcyL]

Great! thanks for the info!!
Darcy

[gdmoore28]

Ed,

Won't the 30904 circuit have the Zobel network in it, too? I wonder what effect the Zobel will have on the 416, since it was designed for the 411/413?

Of course, that's assuming that the previous owner left the original crossover in place.

Darcy, do you know which crossover is in place?

GeeDeeEmm

[Ed Kreamer]

Good Point GDM.
There were two EQ/Attenuator circuits one with the zobel and one without, I don't think think 04 had it. (The other one, 30923, was for use with the 770 bi-amp). Whoops! I had it backwards. The 04 has it, but you can skip the LF section and go directly to the 416 from the crossover. I've done it with good results.

There will be reduced output from the HF section but this can be made up by turning up the shelving control on the crossover, as the 806 is more sensitive than the 416.

Ed

[DarcyL]

Ok, great advice, I'll have to open them up, and see if the 30904 is still in there-

Darcy

[DarcyL]

Ok, the 30904 is in there, and i bypassed the zobel for the woofer- If I did my box volume calculations right, with 2, 4" dia. x 6" long ports, the cabinet should be tuned down to 40hz- If I put longer ports in, and tune to say 35hz, will I see any improvement in low bass, or should I just stick with the stock port length?
Darcy