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Modding Altec Santana's

hunter00

hunter00

Super Member
So Im picking up a pair of nice one owner Altec Santana's tomorrow and planning on reconeing the 420a 15 inch woofers to 416's ive read this has been done before.Im also looking to add a altec Horn and possibly a mid horn.has anyone traveled this route and have any recommendations?
These will be an upgrade from my IMF als40ii speakers which will be sold.
The Altec's when finished will be married to my recapped HHscott LK-150.

hunter
 
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thanks dave for your imput.The Altecs will not be left stock as I outlined .The IMF's are great and ive owned them many yrs ,they survived the great speaker cull.but the cabinets are just not big enough.I got a taste of what a larger cabinet{JBL 003 load} can sound like with the large 15 inch 130a woofers and 175 dhl horn.So ive been looking for larger cabinets and with the 420a 15inch drivers in there it give me a start.
hunter
 
Sounds like a fun project. If it were me, and the 420a drivers are in good shape, I think I would focus on getting the hi frequency horn and driver, running the 420As crossed over in the 500hz to 800hz range, depending on your high frequency setup, and see how they sound before I spent the money to have them re-coned.
 
Given that the 416A doesn't really go very deep in the vented 846A Valencia cabinet, and the Santana cabinet is even smaller -- I am not sure that the OP is going to get what he seeks.

And I do say this as a big Altec fanboy & a former Valencia owner (with, truth be told, a pretty low opinion of even the earlier Santana version with the Biflex woofer).

DSC_8059 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

(those are 604E Duplexes in 8-ish ft^3 vented cabinets)
 
That's my main concern,cabinet size.A buddy of mine recently came across a pair of Stephens trusonic's full range 15 inch speakers and modified the front baffle in a vintage pair of cabinets and installed them,then added a jbl bullet tweeter on top and I must say I was impressed with them being driven by a pair of Dyna MK 3 's.
With the Altecs reconed to 416a's the consensus is the Santana cabinet is just not big enough for deep bass then .Cost wise im paying 100.00 for the speakers,recone another 200-250 then adding horns,maybe there are better option ...
 
Had the bi-flex Santanas... Not for long. Just nothing there of any interest. Weak on all fronts... Well... except appearance. They are a handsome speaker.
 
If the 420's are in good working condition....................

For what the recone will cost, plus what the 420's can be sold for, a fella could have brand new 416C in his choice of impedance from GPA.







But, OP will still need cabinets, IMNSHO.
 
Hmmm... I sold a friend a pair of used Santana's in the mid-80's and as far as I know they've been unused for at least 25 years now. I could likely get them back cheap if I really wanted them (have too many speakers already though). They sounded very nice driven by an integrated MacIntosh that I also sold him.
 
I'd recommend listening to the 420's first before making any decisions. Mark may not like them, but they (a pair of 872B Madrids) were one of the big hits at the long ago NC AK Fest. I think I had added an extra tweeter to them at that point though...
 
Someone else here is converting a pair of Cerwin Vega speakers into Altecs and is adding onto the base to raise the speakers to ear level and increasing their volume. Those Santana would look nice on slate covered bases with any Altec horn sitting on top. I also think that all Altecs need subs. :)
 
need a bigger cabinet than the Santana's ,that's there main downfall.Ive got 1 JBL 130a 15 inch woofer that needs a recone,maybe i'll pic up another off that site and then start looking for a $$ vintage horn and biger cabinets.,
Theres a single vintage JBL Harkness speaker local to me that I could pick up then have a matching cabinet built,then id just need a dlh 175 horn and I have a pair,these would just be 2-ways but hell did my last one sound good on tubes.

Any other idea's out there??

hunter
 
Huge is good in a loudspeaker.

Klipschorns do pretty well -- they cheat by using the corner(s) of a room to expand the horn flare.
 
here's what i did with a pair of gen 1 Santana's that i picked up for little $$. i followed the example of JackGiff and ewaved 'em. pulled out the 420As and sold them for an astonishing amount of money on ebay to a guy in Korea, then set about acquiring the JBL LE14a woofs, and followed Zilch and Jack's instructions on the eWave process. i got some great help from a local guy on new baffles and he did a superb job on the rear ports. i haven't felt the need for new speakers now for 5 years, and i get all the bass i could possibly want. scroll down to post #10500
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=150939&highlight=shrinkboy&page=700
 
shrinkboy said:
here's what i did with a pair of gen 1 Santana's that i picked up for little $$. i followed the example of JackGiff and ewaved 'em. pulled out the 420As and sold them for an astonishing amount of money on ebay to a guy in Korea, then set about acquiring the JBL LE14a woofs, and followed Zilch and Jack's instructions on the eWave process. i got some great help from a local guy on new baffles and he did a superb job on the rear ports. i haven't felt the need for new speakers now for 5 years, and i get all the bass i could possibly want. scroll down to post #10500
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=150939&highlight=shrinkboy&page=700
Click to expand...
I started out the same way with a pair. Interestingly, mine went to a Master woodworker in Poland.

Since i was already overflowing with big Altecs at the time, i went with an essentially cost free approach for an auxillary application where maximum sensitivity was at the top of the list of goals.

All said and done, total cost of the project netted me more than 100 bucks leftover after the sale of the 420's.

Horns - Emilar/Renkus 1 inch 800hz 90 x 30 exponential

HF drivers - Emilar ECK-175's

Crossovers - modified Altec 1234

Woofers - Pulls from a Frazier CAT-66 12 inch cast frame 3 inch VC made by Eminence

They are permanent residents at my off grid cabin.

cabinspkr3.jpg
 
botrytis said:
Most folded horn speakers are hard to get below 40 Hz for bass. Sorry. You want bass, horn-loaded will not cut it, unless they are HUGE.
Click to expand...

I guess that you did not bother to read the thread. The university is a very reasonable size and it will shake harder than a Klipsch Khorn with output into the mid twenties with some eq it is an impressive and yet simple horn to build.
 
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