Upgrading the Altec 515 RWB ( Hollywood series)

SIDEWINDER18X

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A pair of Altec 1st generation 515 RWB (Hollywood Series) fixed paper edge full range cone....... upgraded to 515B with accordian cloth surround edge for greater compliance and
excursion for a lower Fs more LF and lower distortion.
 

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Neat job:thumbsup:

What about the spider? IIANM the first generation ones had phenolic resin dampers. Did you retain them or changed to the later type?

Posting link to a pic of the phenolic damper.
http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=15679&stc=1&d=1147383232

Accordion cloth type surrounds are supposed to have deeper bass while the paper edge ones are perceived as a little faster. Difficult to make a choice.

Regards,
 
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Neat job:thumbsup:
What about the spider? IIANM the first generation ones had phenolic resin dampers. Did you retain them or changed to the later type?
Posting link to a pic of the phenolic damper.http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=15679&stc=1&d=1147383232
Accordion cloth type surrounds are supposed to have deeper bass while the paper edge ones are perceived as a little faster. Difficult to make a choice.
Regards,

The 1st generation 515 RWB had the bekalite spiders with the paper edge cones.
At that point of time fabric spiders were not introduced into the loudspeakers.
After the invention of cloth spiders, bekalite spider had no room into the loudspeaker industry.

The fixed edge paper surround cones are loud sounding high efficiency full-ranger's rather intended for outdoor PA use.
The accordian shaped pva damped fabric surrounds finds it's way more into the living room or enclosed area.
It is more compliant and so is the excursion, resulting in a lower fs. Bass is much stronger and so is the reduction in distortion at higher excursion which is much lower.

It is not always wise and logical to follow up the same bits and pieces in restoration of vintage drivers. The judgment and choice of components should be based upon the best available possibilities which can be brought into application while re-building or restoration of these vintage beauties. Keeping in mind not to alter much that can change the tonal characteristics of these drivers.
Some also have a mis-conception of the voice coil bobbin or former material used in those days.... which was kraft paper. Which is replaced with the advanced polyamide materials such as the Dupont Kapton, which hold an advantage over the kraft paper bobbins which is hygroscopic. Kapton is uneffected by moisture and climate.
Even Sonically Kapton sounds better that the traditional paper bobbin though it is virtually
impossible to hear any audioable difference apart from Kapton being a hi temp material with greater durability, reliability and resistance to humidity or moisture and exibits greater tensile shear strength and resistance to flaking or cracking or becoming brittle on ageing.
 
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