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Tonally matching drivers for Altec 416

January 14th, 2019, 9:58 am

Walt/joe,

I bought a pair of Altec 416-16Zs. I believe these the OEM version ob 416Bs. Any experience and/or opinions on these?

Also, I am looking tonally for smaller matching drivers around 8” to handle low-mids around 250-1kHz. Any sugggestions.

Re: Tonally matching drivers for Altec 416

January 14th, 2019, 10:45 am

Cogito wrote:Walt/joe,

I bought a pair of Altec 416-16Zs. I believe these the OEM version ob 416Bs. Any experience and/or opinions on these?

Also, I am looking tonally for smaller matching drivers around 8” to handle low-mids around 250-1kHz. Any sugggestions.



I'm running 416-8Bs that I modified and they match up beautifully with the 800-Hz. horns. I am not sure adding a cone driver is going to get you where you want to be.

It's difficult to beat the speed of the horns. Plus cone drivers have their issues especially in terms of colorations that have to be dealt with. You could take a page out of the ESS book and maybe run Air Motion Transformers.

Re: Tonally matching drivers for Altec 416

January 14th, 2019, 11:01 am

Shashi,

If you're going with vintage drivers, here's a link to a thread at Lansing Heritage forum that Heather started describing the JBL midwoofers from their heyday with some specs and photos in the first post. There may be tech sheets in the library for many of these.

http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/ ... midwoofers

Re: Tonally matching drivers for Altec 416

January 14th, 2019, 11:36 am

Running an AMT down to 250 Hz would be a stretch. The original AMT1 had some of the best low frequency response and even that was limited to around 800 Hz. When I used them I crossed them over at 1.5 KHz at 12dB/octave which allowed a little more dynamic range.

Re: Tonally matching drivers for Altec 416

January 14th, 2019, 12:36 pm

tomp wrote:Running an AMT down to 250 Hz would be a stretch. The original AMT1 had some of the best low frequency response and even that was limited to around 800 Hz. When I used them I crossed them over at 1.5 KHz at 12dB/octave which allowed a little more dynamic range.



So back to the horns. I just looked up the original AMT-1 and it is only rated down to 800-Hz. -- not quite what Shashi is looking for.

There are so many mid-range cone drivers to pick from and no way to audition any of them without plunking down $$$.

Re: Tonally matching drivers for Altec 416

January 14th, 2019, 2:01 pm

My project is horn loaded until 10kHz. 416's are for the bass (50/60Hz - 250Hz). Looking for a matching cone driver above it.

Anyone know that is the purpose of this transformer on a driver?

s-l1600.jpg

Re: Tonally matching drivers for Altec 416

January 14th, 2019, 2:03 pm

Jim G wrote:Shashi,

If you're going with vintage drivers, here's a link to a thread at Lansing Heritage forum that Heather started describing the JBL midwoofers from their heyday with some specs and photos in the first post. There may be tech sheets in the library for many of these.

http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/ ... midwoofers


Jim,

Those seem too be JBL drivers. If I cannot find a matching Altec, I will look into JBL. Lansing forums is a good resource for JBL and ALtec. I will do the research there. Thanks.

Re: Tonally matching drivers for Altec 416

January 14th, 2019, 2:18 pm

Cogito wrote:My project is horn loaded until 10kHz. 416's are for the bass (50/60Hz - 250Hz). Looking for a matching cone driver above it.

Anyone know that is the purpose of this transformer on a driver?

s-l1600.jpg


As I recall DuKane was big in public address systems and it's possible that's a step-down transformer to go from a 70-volt distribution system to the driver's impedance whatever that is.

Re: Tonally matching drivers for Altec 416

January 14th, 2019, 3:42 pm

That solves the mystery. Thanks Walt.

Re: Tonally matching drivers for Altec 416

January 14th, 2019, 4:45 pm

Cogito wrote:That solves the mystery. Thanks Walt.


You're welcome!
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