‘Listening through the system not to the system’

I have three pairs of A7's, two of which are stored away in another room.

The main pair, are older cabinets that were bought and restored by my go to guy. The cabinets have been strengthened over the original Altec factory design, internally. The bass speakers are from Eminence and went for about $175 each and has response curves similar to Altec's, they will handle twice the power.

I always prefer to use the 511B horns, they go deeper and sound better, that is with good drivers and crossovers. This pair has the 908 series driver, which can handle more power. The 902's will sound ever so slightly more refined. They are crossed over at 500-cycles. The horns and drivers are designed to do this. If done properly, you will not have any issues with crossing over at 500-cycles.

Keep in mind that the real Altec Lansing has been out of business for quite a number of years.

The ALK crossovers are designed to be upgrades for the large Klipsch speakers, like the Klipschorn's. They are not designed for Altec's at all. This is something that does not matter to me at all. They work fine in the A7's.

My custom guy built a pair of crossovers that are effective from 6K up. This is where the Altec's naturally start to roll of on their own, so filtering is not necessary and would only serve to get in the way. They are a three way system with JBL baby cheeks mounted on top of the 511B horns. They provide that sparkle with brushes on the cymbals that I happen to be listening to as I write this.

They are supplemented by a UCS1 15" commercial sub, powered by a bridged Crown XLS 2000, 1,300 watts, mounted in a standard 19" metal rack behind the TV.

In actual practice, they are a 4-way system.

Al quit forum participation years back because of the weekend warriors you speak of. He is a educated microwave engineer, they are idiots. Enough said.

You will notice on his web site, if he feels there is a design deficiency in a product, he will explain what that deficiency is, what it needs to be corrected and what is necessary to correct it.

Al's crossovers are not meant to be run in theater PA applications where high power is needed. limit his crossovers to fifty watts. This is more than you should subject your ears to, since the A7 cabinets are 103dB (rated at 4').

He suggests Bob Crites' crossovers for higher power commercial applications. For those commercial applications. I would use an electronic dividing network, which I would not use in a quality oriented home setting (I do have a Behringer in the commercial rack).

Don't expect to connect them and go. I may take you many weeks to get the correct settings.

I currently use them with a tube preamp and Rogue tube monoblocks, M-150's running in the triode mode, providing 75-WPC maximum.

 

I mix and match speakers and crossovers all the time, so I'm with you on not letting it bother you using them on the A7's, I too prefer the 511 horns.
With my bedroom setup I have 511's with JBL drivers on them and I could listen to them all night without getting fatigued.
I have been buying most of my Altec drivers from Great Plains Audio, the closest thing to new Altec, they make some fine drivers.
I have some JBL 2405 tweeters I have thought of using on the A7's, your thoughts?

 

Have to say it again but the moment I acquired my current speakers landed me in audio nirvana. The setup now just makes the whole act of listening to music a sheer pleasure. It was before, but the AE22s just sound so right, I use them for hours on end and they're good from the off.