a question about 802,806,&808 drivers

[Michael MCS]

Greetings fellow Altec lovers. While I'm a newbie here, I've been following Altec speaker products on EBay for a few months.

What is the difference and reason for the price difference between 802,806, and 808 drivers.

How important is the type of horn the driver is attached to?

Is there a discernible difference you can hear? or is it how much power you can run thru the driver?

Thank you.

[robertbartsch]

Prices of these and other compression drivers on Fleabay are a function of supply/demand, driver condition and the whims of auctioners - sort of a mistery at times. The diaphragm in a 30-40 year old driver is an important issue, however.

Great Plains Audio is the successor to Altec, a company that has been defunct for +10 years. They have the original Altec tooling needed to make "factory" diaphragms. Aluminum frams do deteriorate over time. Cheap frams ($45) from China do NOT cut it.

Typically, compression drivers work best with the horns that the factory designed for their intended purpose. Generally you cannot go wrong with a 511 sectoral cast horn and an 802 driver since these for designed by Altec to work together, for example.

The right crossovers are also important.

[spkrman57]

806 - smaller magnet version of 802 w/circumferential phase plug and aluminum diaphram - approx 110db/watt

807 - same a s 806 but with symbiotek diaphram for more power handling and less HF response

802 - larger magnet 1" throat w aluminum diaphram and "tangerine" phase plug - approx 112db/watt

808 - same as 802 but with symbiotek diaphram for more power handling and less HF response.

Great Plains audio has more definitive info on these 1" throat drivers.

Also, 902 is modern day version of the 802 w/ferrite magnet and is available with "Pascalite" (hardened aluminum) diaphram.

Great Plains has these manufactured new!

Regards, Ron

[robertbartsch]

This Bill Meckle describes these.

[robertbartsch]

http://www.wmeckle.com/INTRO/intro.htm

[spkrman57]

This Bill Meckle describes these.

Goes much further in explanation than I posted.

Thanks, Ron

[Fangio]

Good link!

An evaluative overview, something I was always looking for.

And there are some inspiring, great looking projects on this site.
Posthumous thanks goes to Bill Eckle also.

[Russellc]

806 - smaller magnet version of 802 w/circumferential phase plug and aluminum diaphram - approx 110db/watt

807 - same a s 806 but with symbiotek diaphram for more power handling and less HF response

802 - larger magnet 1" throat w aluminum diaphram and "tangerine" phase plug - approx 112db/watt

808 - same as 802 but with symbiotek diaphram for more power handling and less HF response.

Great Plains audio has more definitive info on these 1" throat drivers.

Also, 902 is modern day version of the 802 w/ferrite magnet and is available with "Pascalite" (hardened aluminum) diaphram.

Great Plains has these manufactured new!

Regards, Ron

Correction, the 802 does not have the tangerine phase plug, with 1 exception, the 802 8G. The 808 8B also has the tangerine phase plug, the 808 8A does not. All 900 series have the tangerine phase plug.

Russellc