Most classic rock and jazz recordings contain no information at all below 40Hz (one notable exception being the low bass notes in "Firth of Fifth" from Genesis's "Selling England By the Pound"). If you place the cabinets against a wall or in corners you should have plenty of deep bass when they're tuned to 40Hz.
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
KEEP ON LISTENING!
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
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