Cabinets for 604 8K's (Looking To Build)

[Tom Keatley]

Hi All...

I have just purchased a set of Altec 604 8K's from Great Plains Audio and need to obtain cabinet designs for them. I have approached Iconic (who I understand make Cabinets) but they seemed reluctant to supply them ....I did offer to purchase them too....! It would be impractical to have them made in the States and then ship them all the way to Western Australia (where I Live)

I used to own a pair of 604 8G's many moons ago and never thought I would own another pair ..... I stupidly sold them and here (in Australia) they seem as rare as hens teeth and dont seem to come up second hand

I know Altec had a number of official designs back in the 70's and have searched various web sites trying to obtain them.

I am happy to pay a reasonable sum for the correct plans and maybe some advice on the best way to go about it. I know I need to use a hard timber that will not flex and am considering a local timber called Jarrah which is a Hardwood sort of like a reddish mahogony....

I hope SOMEONE can assist.... I would be very grateful

Regards

Tom Keatley

[Earl K]

Hi Tom

- You might "PM" lansing member billfort of this forum ( another Toronto lad ). He has 604-8Gs I believe, in custom 620 cabinets ( 9 cu' ). I think he modified his to be more a triangle shape, to better fit into corners . He also uses tube amps to drive his 604s.

- He has comparitive experiences with different cabinet sizes and different 604 models that are worth hearing about .

- He's the guy I would turn to for a bit of guidance on the subject .

- As such, I would go with the bigger cabinet , along with its' larger baffle board ( for better bass reproduction reasons from the larger baffle & cabinet ) over the ( admittably ) "slicker-looking" Stonehenge version .

- In the meantime to give you something more than words, here's a link to the 620 plans

- Here's another link to all the Altec plans housed within the Lansing library

- Woodwise, make the cabinets from mdf and then cover or skin them with the wood of your choice. This will give a nice "dead" and dampened enclosure.
- Using pure hardwood would not be my first , second, or third choice ( for a building material approach ) .

[Tom Keatley]

Thanks Earl K Your advice has been noted and I will try to contact billfort I will check out those links later but I suspect I have already been there a couple of weeks ago.

1/4 inch thick MDF is perfect? Oh well at least its cheap.

(joking by the way).

As I remember mine (back in the 70's) were made of particle board and then finished with a veneer .... I do remember they were extremely heavy. I think the thickness was around an inch or inch and a quarter

Thanks for the help

Regards

Tom

[Stonehenge Man]

Hi Tom

- You might "PM" lansing member billfort of this forum ( another Toronto lad ). He has 604-8Gs I believe, in custom 620 cabinets ( 9 cu' ). I think he modified his to be more a triangle shape, to better fit into corners . He also uses tube amps to drive his 604s.
~~~~~
- As such, I would go with the bigger cabinet , along with its' larger baffle board ( for better bass reproduction reasons from the larger baffle & cabinet ) over the ( admittably ) "slicker-looking" Stonehenge version .

- In the meantime to give you something more than words, here's a link to the 620 plans

- Here's another link to all the Altec plans housed within the Lansing library

~~~~~

I have a pair of Stonehenge I and I have been looking for every reference I could find here, but I must admit I am still in the dark about them and I have to repair the woofers, at the least (one was badly torn and patched and the shaft on one of the pots is snapped, as well as veneer missing and no grilles). These are to be my next daily drivers, replacing some decent Brand Y I bought 13 years ago, so it would be nice to fix them (myself if I can) soon. I will look in the plans you linked too but any information you might further impart would we very welcome. Thanks, Steven.

[Stonehenge Man]

Okay! I found some parts numbers to reference, and that's a start, now I actually need to FIND the parts esp. the cones as someone 200 mi away I know is an excellent reconer and needs the work.

[mazort]

Hello, I bought some mint 604-8G's and would like to replicate billfort's fantastic cabinets, does anyone here know his email address so I might querry him for detail about the port dimensions? I think everything else needed is posted on his site. Thanks...

[Earl K]

Hi Mazort

(A) I don't know his email address , but ;

- you can try contacting him by leaving a "PM" ( personal message ) in his Lansing Heritage mailbox. Navigate to it by clicking on the Members List Button at the top navigational bar . ( Okay , I got you started by giving you a direct link into the "B"s / you can navigate from there).

- Since he's never posted at this forum , he may or may not respond to the sites' automatic email notification .

(B) Apart from that ; read this recent post of his over at the HE forum of AA

- You can see from this posting, that the enclosures he made have the same internal volume ( 9.0 cu' ) and the same F3 tuning ( ??? ) as the Altec 620 enclosure. If you know the 620 tuning frequency , one can find out the recommended port size in square inches if one keeps the duct length to .75" .

- Well, I just looked at the 620 plan that I had referenced above. It shows a single front port that has an area of 27.5 square inches , (11" by 2.5" ) . That also equates to a square hole of 5.5" by 5.5" .

- It looks to me that Bill has simply taken that one single 5.5" by 5.5." hole and divided it along the diagonal / and then placed these 2 triangular ports on the sides , near the floor .

- That perspective can be seen at Bills Page.

[mazort]

Earl,

Thank you very kindly, I sent a message to "Bill F." - I hope that is him!

Andy

[mazort]

Earl,

Thanks for the other info, looking at his page, the picture of the preassembled cut pieces, it appears he built a triangluar "mini duct" on each side with another layer of 3/4" plywood.

I think this is one of the coolest speaker designs I have ever seen in the last 40 years.

Andy

[Earl K]

Andy

You know the one about "a horse & water"

Well, anyways, try sending this "billfort" a new PM / since I think the other fellow isn't the "one" .

[billfort]

Thanks for the compliments guys and sorry for the late response, been real busy lately and haven't checked in here in a while.

I've PM'ed Andy and Tom and would be glad to help out in any way I can with their projects, I really think the Altec 604 can be something special and love to see more people playing around with them.

Earl pretty much nailed what I did with the ports, I calculated 2 rectangular ports for 40Hz tuning at 1 1/2" long, then converted to triagular cut-outs of the same area. As you noticed in the pictures, I just doubled up the thickness of the 3/4" Baltic birch near the ports to get the 'length'.

[korneluk]

Thanks for the compliments guys and sorry for the late response, been real busy lately and haven't checked in here in a while.

I've PM'ed Andy and Tom and would be glad to help out in any way I can with their projects, I really think the Altec 604 can be something special and love to see more people playing around with them.

Earl pretty much nailed what I did with the ports, I calculated 2 rectangular ports for 40Hz tuning at 1 1/2" long, then converted to triagular cut-outs of the same area. As you noticed in the pictures, I just doubled up the thickness of the 3/4" Baltic birch near the ports to get the 'length'.

Bill, Forum Folks,

Please excuse the intrusion. I am a new member and I am bringing back this thread from the dead. I would like to build Billfort's corner design for the 604-8G's. Can you please spec the dimensions of the side and rear panels of the enclosures?

Thank you for your contributions to our hobby,

-- josé k.

[hjames]

Well, if you click billfort's name and "View Public Profile", it appears his last visit
has been a while - It was; 04-03-2007 10:07 AM
its basically 4 years since he posted anything here ... (on;ly 3 posts show)
and basically 2 years since he's been here, even for a visit without posting ...

maybe the Ward's Web site link would be more helpful?
http://www.wardsweb.org/Billfort/

Just a thought ...

Bill, Forum Folks,

Please excuse the intrusion. I am a new member and I am bringing back this thread from the dead. I would like to build Billfort's corner design for the 604-8G's. Can you please spec the dimensions of the side and rear panels of the enclosures?

Thank you for your contributions to our hobby,

-- josé k.

[korneluk]

Hjames,

Thank you for the suggestion. I have also posted inquiries on Audio Karma and the Audio Asylum but no responses yet.

I was hoping that some of the members who responded to this thread above, and who had the same questions as I, would chime in and help me out. Otherwise I will have to take the existing AutoCAD drawings, which I assume are to scale, and figure out the measurements for myself.

Regards,

-- josé k.