Model 14s first day

Zonker92, those look awesome! Remind me of the burnt orange L100 cube foam grill colors. By the way, what turntable is that?

So that's 3 for black (counting wife's vote) vs 2 for orange (I'm changing my vote so that I have a fighting chance + those look great!) and 1 for naked.
 
Very nice! Great design! I like how the amp on the left has the same angle surface and the top plate vanishes into the plinth as well as the banding around the top surface. Did you make those? Matching preamp?
 
Thanks; yes! I have threads on them around here somewhere; the preamp was a big DIY project that I concocted.
 
Classic Altecs, keep 'em black. I stopped buying speakers when I placed my 14s into my system; had a constant speaker carousel for years before that. Still have them as my mains, the only thing that will nudge them out is if I find a nice pair of 19s locally, and I never will.
 
I don't find my Altec 14s fatiguing, when played at low to moderately loud levels.
I was never able to listen to them at ear bleeding levels, but that's probably for the best, I guess.
 
gmc said:
I don't find my Altec 14s fatiguing, when played at low to moderately loud levels.
I was never able to listen to them at ear bleeding levels, but that's probably for the best, I guess.
Click to expand...
Same here. The 14s are smooth as butter.
 
SPEC2man said:
I have had a pair for about 15 years now ... it was a love/hate relationship but I hooked them up to my old Pioneer SPEC system and they are amazing. I went to sell them once and the fella talked me into taking the horn apart. The tangerine plug had come unglued, causing a rattle. I cleaned it up and very carefully epoxied it back into place, using the other speaker as a guide. The guy told me it was a common problem. The other catastrophe was when my daughter blew out the original woofers. I had to get them rebuilt and it seemed to change the sound but I never followed up. I tried (in vein) to contact GNSC but I never got a response. I still need to have the woofers redone by someone who knows Altec and rebuild the crossovers - not much to the crossovers but the attenuators are smoked - maybe just need to be cleaned out. They are a great match with the Pioneer system ... I decided to keep them.

Looks like you found a gem. The 14's seemed to like my garage - those horns need a bit of room to sound sweet.
Click to expand...

SPEC2man, I opened up the HF drivers to double check the tangerine phase plugs, and sure enough, the one on the right speaker was loose. Superglued, waited 2 hours and back in business. Cleaned out the coil gap with painters tape over a business card while i was in there.

Diaphragms were 34647 originals and looked to be a rose pink metallic color. In good shape.

I thought my phono needle was wearing out and the frazzle was infrequent and hard to locate. All better now.

Because the acoustic cap machine screws go through then edges of the diaphragm assembly, no risk of a screwdriver being pulled by the magnet and making a hole. Don't be afraid to take these apart, but do be careful that everything lines up perfectly when removing and replacing.
 
One more update.. was still getting some buzzing so took the 902 drives apart again.

This time, took off the horn and I noted the bug screens adhesive had also dried, rendering them loose.

Removed them, cleaned with contact cleaner sprayed through them, dried off with a lint free towel and reinstalled using the nitrile adhesive that came with the woofer surrounds. This worked well as the screens have a tendency to curl up and the tacky nature held them in place with a minimal amount and hopefully won't dry/fail in the long run.

One thing I noted is while the LF woofer has a more gaskets than needed, (the one on front), there's nothing on the mating survace of the Mantaray horn to the cabinet. Wondering if some gasket material here would help tame down vibrations or if it's unnecessary at those frequencies.

Re-gluing the bug screens seems to have tamed the buzzies for now.
 
titanstats said:
Classic Altecs, keep 'em black. I stopped buying speakers when I placed my 14s into my system; had a constant speaker carousel for years before that. Still have them as my mains, the only thing that will nudge them out is if I find a nice pair of 19s locally, and I never will.
Click to expand...

Just noticed that you have the LF2's and those things are unicorns and I assume the pertinent serial # digits must not get past 2 digits! I've been toying with the idea to add a 'musical' servo subwoofer along the lines of a Velodyne 15"/or similar into the mix, coming out of the 'center' channel of the Fisher 500B. Wish I could find an LF1 even.

How do they sound? I understand they use the same woofer as the Model 14s and have an Altec 140W amp?

Nice score, wherever you found those!
 
I've wanted to have my crossovers recapped but unfortunately Great Plains says they will only recondition drivers - not crossovers.
 
62caddy said:
I've wanted to have my crossovers recapped but unfortunately Great Plains says they will only recondition drivers - not crossovers.
Click to expand...

Caddy, it's the simplest task on these crossovers. Fifteen minutes per crossover max. It's two caps on each board.
 
Let me know if you want any pictures or steps on exactly how. Took me 20-25 minutes in total, including removing, soldering and replacing and I'm a total novice. If you've never soldered, this is a still pretty easy one.
 
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