Whats the wiring order for the heithkit legato HH-1-C

[altecchris]

Hi does anyone know or can point me in the right direction to how the three speaker wire taps are to be connected on this speaker, I have done some googling but do to their apparent rarity I am having trouble finding this type of info.

Starting from the left the first tap is labeled on the inside as #1 the second tap is labeled as #2 and the third tap has no number but is marked with green tape on both speakers.

From what info I have been able to put together if I understand correctly, the third wire tap marked as green is the negative? And the ones marked 1 and 2 are the positives that you use one of them if your amp has a dedicated 16 ohm tap or the other if you amp or receiver only has an 8 ohm tap? Something to do with the damping was what I took from it.

I have three tube amp setups I'm gonna be trying out on them. A custom homebuilt single ended tube amp that has 4-8-16 ohm taps, a pair of audionote el34 tube mono blocks that have only 4 and 8 ohm taps, and lastly a pair of thor tpa 30 tube mono blocks that only have a single set of taps.

I am gonna be trying out all the amps eventually with the speakers to determine which I like the best sound wise, so far they have only been run with the audionote monos, but would like to know the proper wiring order to use the 16 ohm tap on my homebuilt, plus a it's actually the one I personally favor sound wise and suspect will matchup the best with the the legatos.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Chris

 

[maxhifi]

The Legatos have the option of putting a resistor in series with the speaker, in order to lower the damping factor seen by the speaker and improve bass response. If you have an amplifier with a high damping factor, it should be connected through the resistor. If you have an amplifier with a low damping factor, it should go directly to the speaker. If it is somewhere in between, like a single ended triode, try both.

Look at pages 60-61 in this magazine for some explanation why this was done. Note the page order is messed up in the scan, the pages you want are 53 and 52 of the PDF.

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-News/50s/Radio-News-1957-05-R.pdf

Congrats on the Legatos, those are a very cool find!

 

[altecchris]

Thanks maxhifi! Now I just need to figure out which one of the taps on the speaker is for the the 16 ohm and for the 8 ohm, i wonder if a multi meter will tell me this, if the hooking one way will show say a 16 ohm load the other 8 ohm?

They are big and heavy but might just have to slide em back out from the wall and try it, was hoping to find out the wiring order before I try this.

 

[maxhifi]

Thanks maxhifi! Now I just need to figure out which one of the taps on the speaker is for the the 16 ohm and for the 8 ohm, i wonder if a multi meter will tell me this, if the hooking one way will show say a 16 ohm load the other 8 ohm?

They are big and heavy but might just have to slide em back out from the wall and try it, was hoping to find out the wiring order before I try this.

That's easy. Take a multimeter, and read from green to one, and then green to two. One reading should be higher than the other, about 6-7 ohms, then about 15 ohms.

Then read between one and two, it should be about 8 ohms.

To make sure that you have it right, quickly connect and disconnect a flashlight battery across green and one, and the speaker should click, then across green and two, it should still click, and if no click when it's across one and two, that's definitely the resistor.

If those were mine I would go one step farther, and pop the back off to check the wiring, largely to take in the beauty of 1950s altec!

 

[altecchris]

Thanks for the info I appreciate it!

I have had the backs off already to take in the altec goodness, it was a good thing to a one of the wires had worked loose on the woofers, I tried tracing the wiring back to the crossover, but with my lack of technical knowledge of crossovers it didn't help me much, just confirmed the green tapes wire should be the negative.

Gonna try the multi meter this evening. Thanks again!

Here's a couple pictures

 

[maxhifi]

Jeez those are beautiful, I bet they would be spectacular for film sound.

 

[altecchris]

Thanks, yeah they impressed me greatly soundwise, one of my bucket list speakers has been a pair of a7 votts, I actually picked up a single legato to use the woofers to restore a pair of a7s that were missing the woofers, but couldn't bring myself to do it after I got it home, this started my search for another one and i ended up by chance recently finding its mate.

The overall sound on these really surprised me, the bass is just so full and natural sounding, some of the best bass I've had, the top end is fantastic as well, the speakers have such a warm natural sound not overly hard or shrill like other horn style speakers I have had, I like to listen to live recordings and they present it in a very "like your there" way.

 

[maxhifi]

Good for you for keeping it together, those are definitely one of my bucket list speakers, much more so that the A7, mainly because they just look so much nicer.

Interesting and not surpring to hear you like the sound. I'm running a pair of La Scalas, similar genre but yours are definitly better

 

[VINTAGCHRIS]

Thanks maxhifi, I have much respect for lascallas having heard a pair years ago on some wonderful tube gear, i remember being blown away by how drums and guitars sounded on them . Seemed everytime a pair came up for sale they were either outa my budget or to far away.