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Thread: Altec Lansing 846b Valencia Questions

  1. #16
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    Earl, let’s do it, I’m bored outta my skull these days too. Please PM me.

  2. #17
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    [QUOTE=bedrock602;432305]
    Quote Originally Posted by Chas View Post

    Holy-Moly......
    Austin Powers moment: Ya, baby!!

    And, we poor sods here in the great white North, have exchange, taxes and duties to deal with too!

  3. #18
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    [QUOTE=Chas;432307]
    Quote Originally Posted by bedrock602 View Post

    Austin Powers moment: Ya, baby!!

    And, we poor sods here in the great white North, have exchange, taxes and duties to deal with too!
    Ouch.

    GPA makes replacement diaphragms for the 806 drivers, I'm guessing they should be a sonic improvement over the originals for much less money than buying the entire driver

  4. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chas View Post
    Earl, let’s do it, I’m bored outta my skull these days too. Please PM me.

    Cool, will send a PM within a few minutes!


  5. #20
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    GPA makes replacement diaphragms for the 806 drivers, I'm guessing they should be a sonic improvement over the originals for much less money than buying the entire driver[/QUOTE]

    I have wondered about the same thing, although it would not have the benefit of a more modern phase plug design. Let us know if you try it, please.

    Looks like they have a Black Friday sale on, at least for drivers this month only, with 20% off:

    https://great-plains-audio.myshopify...ession-drivers

  6. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chas View Post

    Ouch.

    GPA makes replacement diaphragms for the 806 drivers, I'm guessing they should be a sonic improvement over the originals for much less money than buying the entire driver

    Personally, I doubt it's worth it ( refitting an 806 driver with a GPA diaphragm ) .

    The 806a drivers problem is that it's less efficient than an 802 or 902 ( plus it's more or less a 12 ohm driver working against an 8 ohm woofer which is more efficient .
    - Chas did the smart thing in buying a true 8 ohm driver,
    - If GPA sold a 4 ohm ( or even 6 ohm ) modern diaphragm to retrofit into the older tired 806's >> that would help .

    If a person is going to drive a 97db efficient system these days ( and get satisfying HF + UHF ) one needs to use a driver that's much more efficient than 102db ( which is only that efficient in the midrange ).
    - One wants the response over 10K to be at least 95db ( not less than 90 db which is about what one gets with the stock 806 ).

    Here's a pretty accurate representation from Zilchs archives ( compare HF at 95db // woofer at 97db to get an idea of just how lacking the original Valencia system was.

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  7. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by Earl K View Post
    Personally, I doubt it's worth it ( refitting an 806 driver with a GPA diaphragm ) .

    The 806a drivers problem is that it's less efficient than an 802 or 902 ( plus it's more or less a 12 ohm driver working against an 8 ohm woofer which is more efficient .
    I have a pair of 802-8D drivers, would they be preferable to 806-8A for use in my Valencia 846B ? They currently have no horn drivers or crossovers.

  8. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by bedrock602 View Post
    I have a pair of 802-8D drivers, would they be preferable to 806-8A for use in my Valencia 846B ? They currently have no horn drivers or crossovers.
    Yes the larger drivers are preferable / unfortunately, they physically don't fit in the allotted space.

    The pancake type 902's from Altec or GPA are the best upgrade.

    Routing out the back panel might fix the depth issue for an 802 ( if not and more depth is needed then do what Altec did with the Barcelona > cut a hole for the driver to poke through and then seal it all with a "top-hat device" of some sort ) .

    Name:  Altec-Lansing-Barcelona-873A-back.jpg
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  9. #24
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    Is the Altec 30923 attenuator circuit a useful upgrade for the 846b? Any downsides to adding this?

  10. #25
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    Hi Earl,

    RE " all with the of intent finding something that Cdn Valencia owners can use as an upgrade path. For Instance, I have a pair of Peerless compression drivers that I think very highly of" (Post # 9)

    This idea is an interesting one and i'm in favor of looking at other alternatives when prices are sky high. I also looked at some prices on the GPA web site a few days ago and these gave me vertigo, and then some when all costs are in.

    I don't intend to rain on your project, nor to send you back to leaf raking (have that too), however not sure the Peerless would be a viable replacement for many or for the longer run in view of availability issues. Did a search on these Peerless at some well-known places to Canadians and the results aren't great, seems more like a discontinued product.

    On Tymphany.com (maker of Peerless) i haven't found a single current compression driver! For Solen which distributes Peerless in Canada zero Peerless comp driver seen (though Solen has many from Precision Devices, Fane and Dayton at more affordable prices than GPA). Digikey.ca is listed for a few Peerless comp drivers but has none in stock (see pic). On Madisound in the US which also sells Peerless no comp driver seen.

    In fact the only one i saw which had some Peerless comp driver in stock is Parts Express, where user comments were generally good. How many of these units they have and/or for how long remains to be seen. Could be left over or remaining stock only?

    As always good things seem to get discontinued over and over again... Regards,

    Richard

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  11. #26
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    Yes Richard,

    As far as I know, only Parts Express stocks the Peerless driver that I'm referring to. In fact there are times I think it was a prodcut made just for them ( though I don't know that to be true ).

    The thing is, these Peerless drivers are so affordable that even a Canadian can afford to import it ( though it may not stack up as well as some of the other more available choices that I intend to send to Chas > ie; some Celestion drivers ).

    What I like about the Peerless diaphragm is that it's plastic damped metal ( titanium ) which is very much a JBL thing ( for their SOTA HiFi compression drivers ).


  12. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by Earl K View Post
    Yes the larger drivers are preferable / unfortunately, they physically don't fit in the allotted space.

    That's good to know, I wasn't quite sure what to do with the 802-8D's, I got them as a trade for a ratty old Fisher receiver. Allowing the driver to poke out the rear of the cabinet is a good option.

  13. #28
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    Earl,

    Yeah Celestion too, i keep forgetting about them. They have many as seen on Qcomponents.ca, going from say $50. up to $500+.CA, with a good number of them quite affordable.

    The British (Celestion, Fane, Precision Devices) are competitive in the comp driver market. With the Brexit drama going on for a while now the pound's value went down which meant and still means some more interesting buys from overseas. Regards,

    Richard

  14. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cadguy View Post
    Is the Altec 30923 attenuator circuit a useful upgrade for the 846b? Any downsides to adding this?

    The 30923 attenuator circuit is a very useful way to reduce the midrange based "horn-shout".

    Unfortunately, it can't address the HF deficiencies of the 806 driver.

    Worth noting here GDM ( from your AK thread on the same subject ) uses the better 802 driver as well as a tweeter on top of that.

    OPINION :

    Those $3600.00 Valencias from out west are priced at least 50% over market value.

    3 years ago those Valencias would have had to wait awhile to sell for $1500.00 Cdn // last year even longer ( if at all ) for $2400.00 // and this year they won't sell for $3600.00 ( it's all a "Hail-Mary play" based on some Forum monitoring ) .

    One can do much better than that for what is essentially a project speaker ( needs a new pair of HF drivers > upgraded crossover > should really have a bigger box though that's dépendant on how much bass you need.


    PS : Your thread at AK should have been started in the Lansing Forum.

    That way it wouldn't sink out of sight so quickly ( currently page 3 & approaching crush-depth ).

    You can always ask Heather ( HJames ) to move it for you.

  15. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by Earl K View Post
    The 30923 attenuator circuit is a very useful way to reduce the midrange based "horn-shout".

    Unfortunately, it can't address the HF deficiencies of the 806 driver.

    Worth noting here GDM ( from your AK thread on the same subject ) uses the better 802 driver as well as a tweeter on top of that.

    OPINION :

    Those $3600.00 Valencias from out west are priced at least 50% over market value.

    3 years ago those Valencias would have had to wait awhile to sell for $1500.00 Cdn // last year even longer ( if at all ) for $2400.00 // and this year they won't sell for $3600.00 ( it's all a "Hail-Mary play" based on some Forum monitoring ) .

    One can do much better than that for what is essentially a project speaker ( needs a new pair of HF drivers > upgraded crossover > should really have a bigger box though that's dépendant on how much bass you need.


    PS : Your thread at AK should have been started in the Lansing Forum.

    That way it wouldn't sink out of sight so quickly ( currently page 3 & approaching crush-depth ).

    You can always ask Heather ( HJames ) to move it for you.
    Thanks so much for this advice Earl. I will pass on the Valencias at $3600 but I may go listen to them. Just for comparison there was a nice looking pair of Model 19s refinished in black, new grills and foam around the horns for $5000 CDN here that sold recently and there were some A7s that sold in one day.

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