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Altec Bolero 890c SCORE!!!!

bdblkta said:
I would do tweeters to the inside with the active driver in the top position, but I really am not 100%
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That sounds like what I had planned to do myself with the tweeter...but just out of curiosity, why that configuration for the woofers?
 
Westy56 said:
I think the horns were intended to go inside the cabinet. ;)


Steve
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My mirror imaged pair of IMF TLS 50's are exactly like that, woofer on the outside tweeter on the inside. Since high frequencies help the most with imaging that only makes sense.
 
Nice, nice speakers. I wouldn't feel bad for the people who sold them to you. Had you convinced them to keep the things, they probably would have just powered them with some crappy bpc receiver anyway... Instead of saving good people from making a bad decision, what you did was save good speakers from bad owners.
 
Except for the horn, this speaker looks a lot like an EV Sentry. (I don't know the number, the smallest one). My guess is that the bigger cone is the passive radiator.
 
This is as good as it's gotten as far as book shelf speakers go for me.
They blow away dynaco a25's in bass and imaging. :yes:


Steve
 
Westy56 said:
This is as good as it's gotten as far as book shelf speakers go for me.
They blow away dynaco a25's in bass and imaging. :yes:


Steve
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Really? I have always had my eye on the look out for a pair of A-25's (and might know where a pair is) but I am running out of room and would need to get rid of a pair of either EPI 120's or a pair of my beloved OLA's.....the 4311b's and now these Altecs are keepers. I am not sure it's worth it.

Do they A-25's sound that much better then the EPI's or Advents?
 
dadsaway said:
Do they A-25's sound that much better then the EPI's or Advents?
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I had new A-25s back in the 70s and I thought they had better life and clarity than EPIs, Advents, ARs and such. The Dynacos had poor dynamics though and IMO were nothing special, just a decent speaker, nothing to get worked up about.
 
There is a certain fascination here with audio that is, how should I say...out of date? A-25s are nice speakers. They're really nice when you find them for $40. When you remove the price factor, they're just one among hundreds of other nice speakers out there. And many are better if you spend some more or look for something that wasn't as ubiquitous. Much of what is popular has become popular not because of how good it ultimately is, but because of how many people were exposed to it, and who are now around to talk about it online. Consider the speaker that wasn't made in as many numbers but is much better... It's not talked about as much, so not as "good" to the world online. But in actual performance, it IS better, it just doesn't have the fanbase because it's more rare.

You will find a correlation to numbers produced and talk of greatness in this hobby. So A-25s, having been very popular, are talked about a lot.

I think they're a great bargain. But the 890C is a more interesting speaker, to me anyway.
 
That's good to know. I really like my stacked OLA's and was looking forward to Econo-waving an extra pair of OLA utilities...but considered selling them for some A-25's. I may just keep them and go ahead with my original plans rather then sell just to get a pair of "ok" speakers.
 
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I've owned 2 pairs of 890C's for a long time and while they are nice, good mid-range, and efficient they always left me wanting more.

Well this morning I replaced the 3 caps in each crossover with 1% Daytons and I am simply blown away right now. It is single-handedly the best improvement I've ever done to my stereo system. The highs are no longer muddy and sound crystal clear. 3D imaging is there....I'm frankly amazed. I had put it off a long time figuring it would improve them a little but it's a night and day difference. Go to parts express and get the 25 to 30 bucks of caps and spend 30 minutes doing this. The A-25XL's just took a big back seat.
 
And I thought my pair was a steal. If you think they sound good now recap them them with Dayton 1% caps. There is virtually no break-in with these caps and the difference is immediate and dramatic. I also mirrored mine. They replaced my Heresy's and I don't even look for speakers anymore. I've found what I want.
 
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