Altec Speaker Repair

[bobschneider]

Hi. I just bought a pair of Altec 601c coaxes (the little brother to the 604) from the auction site. They arrived today. One speaker seems fine. The other was showing an open circuit on the tweeter (they were sold as is at a cheap price). I partially removed the felt cap behind the tweeter horn, and found that one of the tweeter leads was broken, right where the tweeter lead comes through the woofer cone. Measuring the leads there says I have a good tweeter, which is excellent news because these tweeters are not repairable.

So now I need to figure out the best way to repair this tweeter lead. Right now I have a short lead from the tweeter to the cone, a small hole in the cone where the lead goes through, and a lead from the tweeter terminal to the cone, with a metal grommet on the end where it went through the cone. There is very little slack on the lead from the tweeter to the cone considering cone movement, so I don't have much material to work with on that end. I could run a new wire from the terminal through the cone to the tweeter lead and solder them, but then I need to close up the hole in the cone and reattach the felt dustcap behind the horn, but with what? Silicone bathtub caulk comes to mind, but I'd like to know if anyone has any better ideas.

Thanks!

 

[SleeperSupra]

Aleene’s Tacky Glue is what I have always used and had success with.

 

[gdmoore28]

I would call Great Plains Audio or Simply Speakers and buy a piece of tinsel lead wire. Solder the lead back in using all the usual "best practices" for soldering. Leave plenty of flex room, then secure the lead to the cone using 3M Super Black adhesive sparingly. You should be good to rock.

Count yourself fortunate in owning a pair of the few 3000 series tweets still tweeting.

GeeDeeEmm

 

[bobschneider]

Thanks, guys. I think I'm just going to ship them to Great Plains, since I want to get the Alnico magnets re-magnitized on these 54 year old speakers (date code 1st week of 1964). They can also repair the tweeter leads and cone. They don't offer a crossover for these, but I have the stock N300-Es, and the caps in those are big oil filled ones which still measure within 5% of spec.

I was pleasantly surprised that the tweeters were still good, since I know the reputation of them.

Once I get them back, I'll need to decide whether to keep the 601s in the 3.6 ft3 Barzalay cabinets I recently picked up, or to use a pair of recently restored 604Es I bought on Bartertown. The 604Es are supposed to be a better driver, but want a larger cabinet than I have. And the Barzalays turned out to have a high WAF at my house, while any monster set I build are pretty unlikely to meet with approval from the decorating police.

 

[Drugolf]

Thanks, guys. I think I'm just going to ship them to Great Plains, since I want to get the Alnico magnets re-magnitized on these 54 year old speakers (date code 1st week of 1964). They can also repair the tweeter leads and cone. They don't offer a crossover for these, but I have the stock N300-Es, and the caps in those are big oil filled ones which still measure within 5% of spec.

I was pleasantly surprised that the tweeters were still good, since I know the reputation of them.

Once I get them back, I'll need to decide whether to keep the 601s in the 3.6 ft3 Barzalay cabinets I recently picked up, or to use a pair of recently restored 604Es I bought on Bartertown. The 604Es are supposed to be a better driver, but want a larger cabinet than I have. And the Barzalays turned out to have a high WAF at my house, while any monster set I build are pretty unlikely to meet with approval from the decorating police.

Good luck with this Bob. I will hope to see your progress reports on what you decide to do as I am considering similar things. The larger drivers just need such a big box and my brain is telling me a well designed 12" format is all that most home applications would ever need anyway. I am sure many on here could shoot holes in that though. I recently got some 10" Tannoys and restored some Altec Santiagos and both sound absolutely fantastic so I am starting to game plan along those lines. The Tannoys are too small and the Santiagos are too large.