Model 14s first day

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.
I would love to see a tutorial. I want to recap my 14s and have never done a recap.
 
I can probably find someone to do the job. I'd hate to chance screwing up the boards.

Does anyone have a cap list? Also one of the clips that slide onto the posts (tabs) of the input terminals broke. I'll have to check whether a different size was used for positive and negative (to maintain polarity). Does anyone know where to get those?
 
I would love to see a tutorial. I want to recap my 14s and have never done a recap.

Here you go. I'll try and annotate with pictures where it's needed.

1. Remove 4 hex head screws (4 mm) from that hold in the crossover. (in red below) but do not yet pull out the crossover, as the wires going to the horn will keep it from coming out and you don't want to rip them out of the board.

2. Remove the 6 hex head screws from the mantaray horn (below in black). Leave the center top or bottom screw for last. The horn will want to tilt back due to the weight of the driver, so support the horn up when removing the last screw, so the plastic doesn't break off.


screws.jpg

3. Remove the manta ray horn, by pulling forward, just until the big magnet is about to come out of the box.

4. Unplug the red (positive) and black (negative) from the tabs of the back of the horn assembly. Make a note if the back of the horn is labeled + and -. There should be a pen mark. If not, put a + next to where you removed the green wire with a sharpie or other permanent marker that can write on metal.

mantaray.jpg

5. Now that the wires are disconnected from the horn, you can carefully pull this out. The back (driver) is very heavy and the plastic horn a bit flimsy.

6. Next, you'll have to pull the wires going from the the crossover to the woofer and the input terminals on the bottom, the same way you did for the the manat ray horns. You don't have to remove the 12" woofer, but it will make seeing things much easier. So, disconnect the wires to the woofer, make sure theres a + label as with the mantaray. For the woofer green is + and black is negative.

For the 2 wires going to the speaker terminals, white is + and black is negative.

7. Now you can fish the crossover out from the front. The cables should be 3 pairs of different lengths.

shortest - red/black goes to mantaray
medium - green/black goes to woofer
longest - white/black goes to speaker terminals.​

8. Now that you have the crossovers out, it's time to examine them. See the two items in the red square? Those are the capacitors. Mine happened to be 6uf and 2uf. Check what values yours are, as there are 4 distinct combinations.

I ordered Solens from Madisound as follows

Solen PB 2 mfd Metalized Polypropylene Fast Capacitor 400V
Solen PB 6 mfd Metalized Polypropylene Fast Capacitor 400V

See the white wire in the blue square? That is the wire to move, if you are going to bypass the speakers protection circuit. There are mixed opinions if this matters or not, but I did it anyway. (You would disconnect this, and reconnect where the leg of the resistor labeled R9 is now. (yellow box)​

crossover.jpg

Now, you can put your unit back together and wait for the capacitors or leave it open, if you're going to proceed.

Here's the back of the crossover, which is important, because this is where you will apply heat to disconnect the wires. I've labeled the pins to correspond with the boxes by color to the front, but you should double check your own.

crossover back.jpg


9. Removing the old capacitors. Get a soldering iron, solder and some solder wick ready on your workspace, but not plugged in. Use rosin core, leaded solder, so that you don't need flux and it's much easier to work with.

a. Place the crossover on your workspace so that you can apply heat with the soldering iron, while at the same time applying gentle pressure to the leg of the capacitor you want to remove, and wont be yanked one way or another or topple over. You may want to rehearse this whens it's cold, so that you can have a confident position.

b. Also, choose what tool you will be using to apply pressure. Remember, the iron is super hot, so you want to use a pair of bent needle nose pliers or a flat screwdriver with tape over it to pry up one end. If using needle nose pliers or forceps, put them a bit away from where the solder joint is, so they don't act like a big heat sink and keep your solder from melting quickly. You want to get in and get out.

c. Once the soldering iron is heated up (I have a Weller and I turned it all the way up to 5) and the crossover is in working position. Heat the correct pin (appropriate red square) on the bottom while you apply light pressure to pull the leg out from the top. You can wait until it melts first before applying pressure, if you want. It takes about 5-15 seconds to melt. Once you've pulled one leg out, put the iron back in it's stand and take a 30 second break to congratulate yourself.
Now, you can use the capacitor body, to gently apply pressure and the second leg will release much easier than the first.

Tip, don't apply too much pressure. If the capacitor leg is stuck, it's either because of the angle or that the solder is not melting. Sometime a gentle back and forth wiggle will help it break free.

d. Repeat once more for the other capacitor.​

10. Cleaning up the holes and old solder. Take your solder wick and unroll about 2". Put the end onto where the hole is (or should be, if it's filled with solder) from the removed component and put the soldering iron onto the wick. This should wick out the solder into the wick. Move to a clean spot on the wick as necessary and repeat until all the holes are reasonably clean.

11. Installing the capacitors. Good news here is that if you're using film capacitors, as spec'd above, you don't need to worry about installing them backwards, as they are non polar for the most part.

a. Test fit the 2uf capacitor by pushing the legs thorough the holes. Make sure the label is up (i forgot on the 1st one). This is just so if you need to read the value in the future, you can, without removing the cap. Leave a bit of a smoothly bent lead above the board, to allow for a minor bit of positioning, if required after soldering. You might also find that for the larger capacitor, that the leads are too big to go through. No problem get fine drill bit and gently ream it out by hand. (don't use a drill). I used a sharp pick and worked it for about 20 seconds.

b. Add the larger (in my case 6uf) capacitor and make sure there's enough room between them and they are snug to the board. You can bend the leads on the back to hold them in place, but don't cut them yet!​

12. Soldering:

a. Bend the leads on the back so that they go away from the gaps and toward the copper surfaces. This will ensure that any solder doesn't bridge electrical components accidentally.

b. Get the crossover back up on the workspace.

c. Apply heat (I dialed my Weller back to 3.5) to the pin and plate, just where they meet and touch the solder wire to the leg of the capacitor, very close to the board. Solder should flow into the area and push in enough so that you get a nice amount, just the same size as the other ones on the board. This should take 1-3 seconds maximum.

d. Repeat for the other 3 connections, making sure the solder has indeed flowed into the joint and not just globbed onto the lead.​

13. Clip the excess leads off, just like the other connections on the board.

You're done! Repeat for the next board.

Unless you want to bypass the protections circuit. (I recommend this, while you're in there)

To do this,

a. Desolder the white wire, that's in the blue square.

b. Desolder the resistor leg in point tp2 (yellow square) and pull it away from the board, where it can't make electrical contact with anything, but is out of the way. You can tape it to the body of the resistor if you want.

c. Clean the hole

d. Resolder the white wire into this hole. (tp2 - yellow square, where the resistor leg used to be)​

Since you're in there, you may also want to clean out the pots with deoxit or your favorite contact cleaner. There's a small square divot on top of each that will allow you to spray inside.

All done! Note the bends in the capacitors to allow a bit of wiggle and the white wire in it's new position.

outpatient.jpg

It think it took me longer to write this that it did to actually recap both boards!
 

Attachments

  • crossover back.jpg
    crossover back.jpg
    84 KB · Views: 0
Last edited:
One more thing, reinstall the crossovers. It's much easier to take the 12" woofer out and reconnect in this order.

1. Insert crossover and screw into place.
2. Connect appropriate positive and negative speaker terminals on the bottom of the box. (white wire to red terminal, black to black)
2. Connect and then install woofer into cabinet (green to positive, back to negative)
3. Connect and install horn into cabinet (red to positive, black to negative)'

Ok, now you're done
 
I can probably find someone to do the job. I'd hate to chance screwing up the boards.

Does anyone have a cap list? Also one of the clips that slide onto the posts (tabs) of the input terminals broke. I'll have to check whether a different size was used for positive and negative (to maintain polarity). Does anyone know where to get those?

Unfortunately, these vary from unit to unit. If you can identify yours, I can tell you which ones to buy. You only need 2 per crossover. (remove crossover as above and read the values or post a photo)

For the input terminal, Just get a standard spade terminal (female side) and crimp it onto the old metal one. (I don't recommend stripping as it will reduce the length by 1/2" and you don't want these to be any shorter than they already are. You may have to squeeze the old one down. I found the yellow color coded terminals have a large enough opening to do this.

In my case, the old terminal were crimped down and inserted into the aftermarket woofer binding posts. I simply crimped the yellow connectors over these, so that I wouldn't lose any length.

Hope this helps! I'd be glad to answer any questions you might have.

ps... you can get the spade connectors at walmart in the automotive section, or Home Depot, Lowes, etc.
 
Last edited:
Thanks. I'll post some photos when I get the crossovers out.

I'm 99% certain they're the earliest version because I had looked into this before. The overload circuit is working perfectly in both speakers I'm glad to say.
 
If I had to guess, you probably have the 10uf and 2uf capacitors, but you should really check to get the right ones. The 2uf (closer to middle of board) smaller cap is constant across versions, I believe and the larger caps could be 2uf, 6uf, 10uf or 12uf (in some cases 6uf x 2 in parallel)
 
Here's a picture of the crossovers from another thread shortly after I had gotten my 14s. It's probably too small to see...

Here's a link to the thread if interested.

http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/altec-14-odyssey-brief-review.666136/

index.php
 
Thanks, I had read that thread when researching before purchasing mine and the content was very helpful in rehabbing mine. Great work on the restoration and particularly the cabinet!

You are right, the photos are too small. Will need to be able to read the writing on the 2 black items with red ends, just next to where the wires attach to the board.

What we can tell is that they larger caps on the left are 6,10 or 12uf and not 2uf, as they are larger. Also, looks like your crossovers match, so you only need to pull one. (I recall seeing a forum post of left and right crossovers having different values).
 
Here's a shot of what needs to be read.

In the example from mine below, you can see the smaller ones say 2uf-50VNP, which means 2uf (microfarads) 50 Volts max, Non Polar and the larger ones 6uf-100VAC, which means 6uf, 100 Volts of AC current max.

For the new replacements, the uf reading should be the same or within 10% and the voltage should be the same or greater. In my case, madisound had the exact values (most places will have 6.1uf, etc in the common sizes) and are 400 volts. The bigger the voltage, the bigger the capacitor. (Same goes with uf, the higher, the bigger)

That's why you don't want to go too crazy with the higher voltage rating, as they can get so big, they are hard to wire in. Not long ago, when i recapped my first set of speakers, I ordered some pretty high voltage daytons and was surprised that I had to replace what was half the size of an AA battery, with one that was the size of a D battery. This was unwieldy on the crossover, but thankfully fit OK.

IMG-0986.JPG
 
I picked up a pair of 14s about three weeks ago for a very good price. I wasn't looking, but the price was a steal and they were real close.

Refoamed, recapped and listening. They are sounding better after a bit of breakin. I can tell they need rooooom to breathe.

BTW, mine had 12uF caps. Protection circuit yet to be bypassed
 
Late to the party, but welcome to the altec rabbit hole! Nice looking 14s you have there fella, props to you on your restoration.

my altec journey (obsession) started with a need to scratch an itch to have a pair of votts, one thing led to another next thing you know I have two pair of project votts that will be getting some love soon, and a game ender set of altec driven heathkits that I am enjoying immensely, theres just something about a altec horn top end and bottom end midbass dynamics that I really enjoy.

Congratts and enjoy those 14s
 
Last edited:
Thanks altecchris!

Turned these up loud enough to shake the room today (room is 27'x22' with 21' ceilings). Zero distortion and I'm sure tons of headroom left as the volume know was only at 9 o clock on the Luxman R-115 and any louder would make me want some hearing protection. The bass was causing the CD to skip on some songs, lol.

These could easily double as dj speakers and can really fill a good size space easily. I can't imagine what the model 19s are like and I'm glad I got these smaller ones to some degree as I suspect the 19s need more breathing room.
 
Back
Top Bottom