Post photos of your systems/rooms here! (Part 15)

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Halloween Jack, Mar 28, 2015.

  1. timztunz

    timztunz Audioista

    Location:
    Texas
    Nice cozy space and I'll bet a blast to hang out in! Most excellently done.
     
    Kyhl, Dennis0675 and PhilBiker like this.
  2. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Here is the next stage of my audio evolution, the restored, legacy Altec Lansing, A7, Voice of the Theater speakers arrive from the west coast. This was back in January of 2013.

    One by one, they were removed from the pallet (the horns and drivers had already arrived by UPS).

    [​IMG]

    Fortunately I have a good friend, who happens to be a state licensed general contractor, standing by, ready to install a set of wheels on each cabinet.

    [​IMG]

    These next pictures were taken a couple of months later, after I received my ALK crossovers.

    [​IMG]

    This is a close up shot of the ALK gentle slope crossover (front), the rear crossover is to provide energy to the JBL "baby cheeks" super tweeter above 6K.

    [​IMG]

    Here, the sofa was rotated around for the best listening position of the A7's. Since then I have purchased a second sofa for this position.

    [​IMG]

    The A7's are now driven by an all tube upstream chain, including the phone preamp.
     
  3. Erocka2000

    Erocka2000 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY, USA
    Cool Altecs, but I would definitely put a rug in that room ASAP. ;)
     
  4. uncleroy

    uncleroy Forum Resident

    Location:
    usa
    what's the f-style mando? Sweet stuff there
     
    Pete74 likes this.
  5. action pact

    action pact Music Omnivore

    Good enough for these guys...

    [​IMG]
     
    Bananas&blow, Kyhl, bluesky and 8 others like this.
  6. timind

    timind phorum rezident

    If we ever head to Ft Lauderdale, I'm stayin at your hotel.
     
    billnunan, SandAndGlass and Davey like this.
  7. Pete74

    Pete74 Forum Resident

    It's just a beginner model as I'm not really a mando player.... a Johnson
     
  8. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    I see where you are coming from, but no.

    Because of the wide angle lens on the smartphone, the room appears bigger than it actually is. Now these pictures are from five years ago and the room has changed since then.

    When I say that I hear where you are coming from, when the place had a complete interior remodeling back in 2008, the office was stripped from everything that was not nailed to the floor. I would stand in this room, a large, empty room, that had tile floors, plastered walls, was big and boxy and I thought, the acoustics in this place, are the worst, there was no way anyone could get anything but horrible sound in here. That is me, saying this to myself.

    Since then, I have learned a great deal and walked down an interesting audio related path.

    Years past, we had rooms with heavy carpet, drapes and wallpaper, which made the rooms very un-reflective. I was used to dead sounding rooms. Now I prefer a room that is more alive.

    After the motel interior was remodeled back in 2008, I realized that the knock down product that they sprayed on the walls and ceilings were of sonic benefit. It appears to be some sort of soft vinyl product that is covering the hard plastered walls and ceiling. this acts to absorb some of the sound. Because it is textured, it adds a lot of surface area and acts as a diffuser for the sound.

    The A7's are designed to project sound and control its dispersion. With them, you don't get the first reflections that you might have with home speakers.

    Reflections are not necessarily bad, although they are not the best for imaging. But this room is not about imaging from a stereo source, but rather, an immersive sound experience.

    The A7's are the third set of speakers in the room. The stereo/HT mains are on the left side of the room and the rears are towers on the right side of the room. The volume level of all three sets of speakers are controlled independently from each other, which allows to better craft the immersive sound field experience. The way everything is arranged, I can create the ambience of a intimate jazz club or a live rock concert.

    Anyway, the room today has more furniture and drapes and has much less reflected energy than you would expect. In other words, I remain pleased with the sound.

    I did consider an area rug for aesthetic reasons, but vetoed the idea because being on the beach area means a lot of sand and we currently have a multi-million construction across the street that generates loads of dust daily. So the area rug is out of the picture.
     
  9. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    We would love to have you. We welcome all of our audio friends with open arms!
     
    ultron9 likes this.
  10. artfromtex

    artfromtex Honky Tonkin' Metal-Head

    Location:
    Fort Worth, TX
    Man, you are pumping some volume in that room. Those Altecs put out some serious sound. Wonderful soud too. Those horns are amazing. :righton:
     
    PhilBiker and SandAndGlass like this.
  11. Wardsweb

    Wardsweb Audio Enthusiast

    Location:
    San Antonio, TX
    I had a pair of A7's that came with the horn mounted inside. I veneered the cabinet in walnut, added a walnut pedestal and grill. I loved those speakers. They are what motivated me to build my main 2-channel speakers using the same 511B horns and 802-8G drivers.

    [​IMG]
     
    Baaronj, 4xoddic, Dennis0675 and 16 others like this.
  12. artfromtex

    artfromtex Honky Tonkin' Metal-Head

    Location:
    Fort Worth, TX
    That walnut looks great.
     
    SandAndGlass and PhilBiker like this.
  13. mongo

    mongo Senior Member

    Sorry for my redundancy and not being able to contribute to this thread BUT:
    It just keeps getting more unreal.

    AlanD unveils his 1st dedicated music room.
    I don't know about you, but having one is an oasis.
    Congrats

    Pete74 has a musical museum in his house and that chunkhead SandAndGlass rolls in a pair of Voice Of The Theater speakers!

    How can you not love this?
    Answer, you can't.
     
  14. jenkovix

    jenkovix Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe, Hungary
    Czech beer in Germany?? :)
     
    Mr. Explorer and timind like this.
  15. lobo

    lobo Music has always been a matter of Energy to me...

    Location:
    Germany
    Sharp eyes, Sir! Prost :)
     
    Mr. Explorer and Kyhl like this.
  16. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    I had my first pair of A7's built back in around 1970, so I have some experience with them (I have two more pairs). But it is not just about the Altec's, it is about the Altec's and the synergy in the room and the other associated components.

    When I light up the A7's (like now), I have two other sets of tower speakers playing, driven by sand amps, while the A7's are driven by the glass pre-amp and power amps.

    I feel that the horns are amazing too. The vocals are uncannily realistic.

    I can recreate rock concert levels with all three systems playing at once, but most of the time, I listen at much lower volume levels, The commercial sub-woofer that sits next to one of the A7 cabinets can maintain 133-dB SPL's, driven by a 1,600 Crown amp in bridged mono mode.
     
    33na3rd and artfromtex like this.
  17. artfromtex

    artfromtex Honky Tonkin' Metal-Head

    Location:
    Fort Worth, TX
    That is what strikes me about those horns as well.

    I was listening to an alternate take of Elvis' "Promised Land". Before they kick into the song Elvis has his mic turned off and you can hear him singing and cutting up from bleed through of the instrument mics. THEN he flips his mic on mid note during a impromptu line of "Columbus Stockade Blues" and my God, you literally feel like you are in the room. That phrase gets overused, but that moment will always stick out to me. It was amazing. Then the full song kicked in and I was grinning from ear to ear.
     
    Kyhl and SandAndGlass like this.
  18. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    The A7's pictured in my post above are the A7-500's, they are equipped with the 511B horns and the 8-Ohm, 908 drivers. The bass drivers are Eminence , Kappa Pro drivers, that have a sound signature close to the Altec drivers but can handle twice the power. The 908 drivers can handle quite a bit of power themselves.

    One of my other pairs of A7's are built much the same way as yours are, only the cabinet has been shortened and the horn is still on top.

    [​IMG]

    The individual that had them built, took some space off of the bottom of the bass reflex cabinet and then built a exterior cabinet around the 828 bass cabinets and then had a veneer, (I think walnut), on the top and sides, at the same time, building a cabinet around the 511B horn, which is on top of the shortened cabinet. This pair is powered by the lower power and slightly better sounding 902 horn driver. There are custom grills that fit into the holes that you can see one of them in the above photo. They are a large black grill cover that is black cloth, with a removable plastic frame.

    The pair in my living space with the Eminence bass drivers were about $350 for the pair, while these cabinets have bass drivers that are from Europe and run about $350 each. This pair is powered by the original Altec frequency dividing network, which has been recapped. I need to replace them with ALK crossovers as the original Altec, frequency dividing network's leave something to be desired.

    The ALK crossovers have been designed for upgrades for Klipsch legacy horn speakers but adapt well to the Altec's.

    When Altec made their home version of the A7, the box was reoriented, so that the bass horn was below, and on a riser, like yours, and the 511B horn was placed inside of the bass reflex cabinet, just the same as yours are.

    The home version was known as the Magnificent A7-500-W.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    A7-500W shown from behind.

    [​IMG]

    I had acquired a pair of these back in the 80's. I also had a pair of the model 19's.

    I have another pair of A7's that are all original Altec's, and the 511B horn is mounted inside of the cabinet. All three pairs are on wheels.

    My second and third pairs are in my audio store room.
     
    Manimal, Baaronj, Dennis0675 and 6 others like this.
  19. artfromtex

    artfromtex Honky Tonkin' Metal-Head

    Location:
    Fort Worth, TX
    Those "Magnificent A7-500-W" are beautiful. They have that Sansui SP-2500 look, but I am sure they are far superior.
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  20. mjcmt

    mjcmt Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Elementary system:

    Consonance C-100 Plus - integrated amp
    Rotel RT-940ax - tuner
    Seas Froy Mk3 - speaker kit built up in Paragon Radiant cabinets

    Looking for a budget audiophile CD player with good esthetics

    (Question: What is the process to add photos from my computer)
     
  21. Davey

    Davey NP: CLARAGUILAR ~ Figura (2024)

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2018
    barfko, Tlay, Quake1028 and 38 others like this.
  22. Manimal

    Manimal Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southern US
  23. Manimal

    Manimal Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southern US
    SandAndGlass and Davey like this.
  24. Wardsweb

    Wardsweb Audio Enthusiast

    Location:
    San Antonio, TX
    Thanks, here is a picture of the pair.

    [​IMG]
     
  25. Davey

    Davey NP: CLARAGUILAR ~ Figura (2024)

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    I had that tonearm on my Thorens TD 320 and never really liked it, mostly because the joint in the arm wasn't tight enough I guess, the sound was just too soft. So I rebuilt it a long time ago with telescoping tubes of aluminum and brass filled with silicone rubber (tubes are glued together with silicone adhesive and the wires run down a little teflon tube in the center). Much higher mass, but really transformed the sound, really solid now with MC cartridges. The headshell is also bonded to the tube and the counterweight is different too with added mass in the form of lead.

    But nice table, Thorens always made some good stuff, just don't care for the tonearms that much :)

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2018

Share This Page

molar-endocrine