My DIY Altec Lansing A7 - Voice of the Theater

[santhosh]

Hi,

Santosh the speakers are looking great.:clapping::clapping:

I must make a trip to B'lore soon to listen to them.

Below is a picture of the A7 cabinet with the Altec 805 horns. The 811 will look small next to these.

Your wife is certainly not going to like it when you bring them into the house. Just don't tell her you got them from me. I might not be allowed into your home.

Regards
Rajiv

Thanks a lot Rajiv for the 805s as well as all your help. This would not have been possible without your help and guidance.

Guys, I went to Rajiv's house twice before I started off this build. First time, when I visited him to listen to his Altec speakers, I was really impressed by his system and inspired to build one myself. I visited him again to listen again and discuss the plans before I started off my build. All through the build, he has been very patient in answering my queries and sharing resources with me. He is a walking-talking encyclopeadia on Vintage Audio :cheers:

Santhosh,

Looks absolutely fantastic! And a lovely place to put them too . Eagerly waiting for sound impressions. What is the wood you've used? Looks very good!

Regards

Steven, I have used 19mm Marine Grade Void-Free Plywood for the build and teakwood veneer. The beadings, borders and pedestal have been made of burma teak wood.

Fabulous build there Santhosh. I truly admire your enthusiasm, patience and perseverance. Hope to hear them during my next visit to Bangalore and hope you would've sorted the x-over issues by then.

BTW, I have a feeling that the speakers are located too close to comfort.

Thanks Captain . With these speakers, you don't need too much of space between these speakers and strangely these don't seem to cause any room issues too. Here is a pic of the reference A7 speaker built and heavily modded by Jean Hiraga. As you can see, there is not much space between the speakers but those who have heard it say they have heard nothing like it. Thankfully, Jean Hiraga has shared his cross-over design and few other mods and I hope to implement them in future - big horns, wings, modded crossover, tube amps et all.

 

[santhosh]

Santhosh,

The speakers look very good. I am sure when crossover issue is taken care off, you would need to look at Pass or Tube to pair them and not what you have...

Cheers.

Thanks Anil for your kind words and your support during and before the speaker build. It was at your place that I was first listened to and was smitten by Altecs.

The amplification will definitely need to change when funds permit. I am inclined towards tube this time around but would definitely consider a Class A solid state like the F5.


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[t.antony]

Excellent outcome for a first DIY project. Congrats, they look majestic.

These might be useful for you - Browse - BAJAAO - Buy and Review Musical Instruments, Pro Audio, Studio, P.A. Audio Equipment in India

 

[svenkateshsmart]

Santhosh,

Looking good and hope to visit banglore somewhere around next month for another session.

Looks like you are maintaining blogspot too : Welcome to DIYable.net - Home to the DIY'er & Hobbyist and nice to read the same in detail.

Yes, indeed, he is a hifi bot.

 

[santhosh]

Update:
Fabricated a baffle(?) to mount the tweeter. Still need to make a support for the driver once I complete my testing.

Also attenuated the HF by 8dB by adding some resistors (Lpad) in parallel and series as per an online calculator. Nice tool, will share link later. Sounding much better now, gives me a feel of the nice deep and rounded bass. Still needs to tune it a bit. Even after adding LPad, the HF is still louder than the LF driver, will try reducing further by 2 to 4dB and report:

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[odyssey]

very very nice

 

[srinisundar]

Thanks Santosh. You are welcome anytime.

Thanks friends for your kind words. You are all welcome for a listen once I have sorted out the crossover and minor pending stuff .


LOL Srini, you are like a google bot and keep track of the entire World Wide Web .

Nothing great in this!! search for diyable or altec speakers and we will end up in this page somewhere... Welcome to DIYable.net - Home to the DIY'er & Hobbyist

We are supposed to go along for an Altec build, but i just postponed due to Thiel purchase.. Once you finish your build we(you) will start mine.

 

[Rajiv]

Hi,

Santosh,place a thick cloth/felt on top of the A7 cabinet in front of the Horn.This will help prevent HF reflections of the hard wood.

Also try damping the 811 horn with some modeling clay/soft putty.

Regards
Rajiv

 

[sunilj]

Awesome Santhosh, truly inspiring.

 

[t.antony]

...a first DIY project..

Sleeptyping Hazard

 

[Rajiv]

Hi,

Santosh,the next step on your journey.

Field Coil conversion for JBL, Altec, and Western - diyAudio


Regards
Rajiv

 

[jls001]

This is shaping up real well. I bet it will sound like a million bucks too. Tube SET (DHT) amplification is now all you need

 

[santhosh]

I did a bit of mid-field listening today and am very impressed with the bass. The bass is palpable and the quality of bass is very good - effortless, agile and fantastic decays. Attenuating the HF a bit will allow me to crack the volume up a bit to get a better experience at my 14ft listening distance.

We are supposed to go along for an Altec build, but i just postponed due to Thiel purchase.. Once you finish your build we(you) will start mine.

I remember buddy. Will start looking for drivers for you. Would happily build one for you. Need a month's break if not I will be thrown out of the house hyeah:.

Hi,

Santosh,place a thick cloth/felt on top of the A7 cabinet in front of the Horn.This will help prevent HF reflections of the hard wood.

Also try damping the 811 horn with some modeling clay/soft putty.

Regards
Rajiv

Yes Rajiv, I have been wanting to search J.C.Road (automobile market) for some felt like in this picture. From memory, it is called "Namda".

Altec Lansing - diyAudio

Hi,

Santosh,the next step on your journey.

Field Coil conversion for JBL, Altec, and Western - diyAudio

Sridhar (Odyssey) and I were discussing this the other day and he mentioned that music from a Field Coil Speaker is to die for. Will do this for sure. Some day !!

Sleeptyping Hazard

No worries buddy :cheers: . You were actually correct buddy. This is indeed my first speaker project. The Shiva X2 driver sub-woofer that I built never saw the light of day since both the plateamps I had short-listed are unavailable

 

[cmsajith]

Nice build...looking forward for the completion to have an audition...Never heard any horn speaker

 

[srinisundar]

I remember buddy. Will start looking for drivers for you. Would happily build one for you. Need a month's break if not I will be thrown out of the house hyeah:.
(

Thanks Santhosh,

Due to my space constraints & keeping in living room, will be inclined/interested for duplex too. I will be keen to have Altec 604 or 605...Kindly look out for some driver's around your place. Will discuss with Rajiv too about this build when he visit my house this week end for next round with Luxman.

Regards

Note : I enjoyed reading this :: http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/altec/dream.html

 

[santhosh]

Wow Srini, the 604s are very good drivers and considered to be the best point source monitors. Another member(introduced to me by Rajiv) from Bangalore will be doing the same MLTL build using GPA 604 duplex drivers. Try and get the older Altec 604s from eBay US as they will sound much better since the older Altecs (like mine) use an Alnico Magnet whereas the later versions and GPA drivers use a Ferrite Magnet.

Another member Cybervinay bought a pair of good condition 604s from eBay. Not sure which cabinet he wants to go for.

Even Rajiv has a pair of 605s (later version). Try and listen to it. Remember the one he showed us when we both first went to his place.

Interesting all 3 members mentioned above also have Tannoy Monitor Goldshyeah:
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[srinisundar]

Wow Srini, the 604s are very good drivers and considered to be the best point source monitors. Another member(introduced to me by Rajiv) from Bangalore will be doing the same MLTL build using GPA 604 duplex drivers. Try and get the older Altec 604s from eBay US as they will sound much better since the older Altecs (like mine) use an Alnico Magnet whereas the later versions and GPA drivers use a Ferrite Magnet.

Another member Cybervinay bought a pair of good condition 604s from eBay. Not sure which cabinet he wants to go for.

Even Rajiv has a pair of 605s (later version). Try and listen to it. Remember the one he showed us when we both first went to his place.

Interesting all 3 members mentioned above also have Tannoy Monitor Goldshyeah:
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Thanks Santhosh for your information. Good to see lot of us here tend towards Altec. I am happy to join the group. Yes thanks for your hint, now i remember Mr.Rajiv is having 605S.

Regards

 

[reubensm]

This is absolutely amazing...Have no words to describe how I feel seeing this...only the other day, I was feeling so down after missing out on a pair of Klipsch La Scalars....God bless you Santhosh!!

 

[santhosh]

This is shaping up real well. I bet it will sound like a million bucks too. Tube SET (DHT) amplification is now all you need

Thanks Joshua, Tube amplification is very much on my mind. Haven't decided which one yet. Will request Stevieboy to bring his DHT and 2A3s over to try when they are ready.

Nice build...looking forward for the completion to have an audition...Never heard any horn speaker

Sure Sajith, drop by sometime. I am sure you'll love the horn sound since you own and love the ATCs - very intimate and dynamic sound.

This is absolutely amazing...Have no words to describe how I feel seeing this...only the other day, I was feeling so down after missing out on a pair of Klipsch La Scalars....God bless you Santhosh!!

Thanks Reuben for your kind words. I would love to hear La Scalas some day having read so many good things about it. Does anybody have them in India?

 

[avidyarthy]

I would love to hear La Scalas some day having read so many good things about it. Does anybody have them in India?

A pair was on sale in Quikr Delhi some 2-3 months ago. Those were really big guys (pics were posted) and the asking price was also very affordable. Why not check Quikr about its current status.... obviously, you have to 'get back' by quite a bit. You might get lucky!