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WHos the Doctor for ALtec 19 Crossovers?

MJ Clemmer

MJ Clemmer

Well-Known Member
:banana: Hello, Picking up my ALTEC 19s TODAY :banana: But 1 has a bad Xover, who here knows what I should do? :scratch2: as soon as I pick them up and get em here, Ill post pics , they are the OAK version, I wanted Walnut, but Ill take the Oak.... How much do you guys think it will cost to go thru BOTH Crossovers and just check everything and replace anything thats not the right resistance? (I know NOTHING about that stuff) I leave that to the pros..:) Hey *draudio, if you see this, do you do them? Im gonna need someones help on this one... thanks...Michael...
 
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Mike.....

3 words.

Great Plains Audio.

Find their phone number and discuss the issue IN PERSON. GPA is THE place for Altec repair/service from what I'm told.


Russ
 
Hello, Picking up my ALTEC 19s TODAY But 1 has a bad Xover, who here knows what I should do? as soon as I pick them up and get em here, Ill post pics , they are the OAK version, I wanted Walnut, but Ill take the Oak....
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congradulations mj :thmbsp: i will be getting my 19's on monday and they're also oak.i will be also trying them out on my ba3000 sansui eventually but i'll be trying out tubes first.i too would be interested in what people do to update the crossovers as i'd like to redo mine.

chris
 
I recall you saying one speaker was not putting out any sound at all. Who knows it might not be the crossovers at all. Maybe the guy simply forgot to reconnect the drivers before he put them in storage.

Before you do anything else...swap the good crossover into the cabinet with no sound just to make sure BOTH drivers have not been blown. Unlikely...but then again...


Russ
 
Im gassin up in an hour......

RussinOhio said:
Dude! Gas up that Jimmy and git yur butt into Michigan!!

I'm waiting for those pictures! :D


Russ
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Im gassin up in an hour, CANT WAIT, Im still pondering if I should pick up his "EXTRA" 416b driver, he wants $200 for it, and said its MINT, so I may just pick it up and maybe someone from AK may need it. BUT he also has some Heath Kits with all of the Altec VALENCEIA drivers and crossovers in them... Gonna check them out also. He has SO much stuff, 2 McIntosh 250 Tube amps, SX 1280 some JblS and other Altecs, Pioneers HPM 100s, etc.... CANT wait to see all that beauty...I may have hit the MOTHER LOAD :yippy: !!.pictures to come sooon Bro....Michael... :thmbsp:
 
radioactive said:
congradulations mj :thmbsp: i will be getting my 19's on monday and they're also oak.i will be also trying them out on my ba3000 sansui eventually but i'll be trying out tubes first.i too would be interested in what people do to update the crossovers as i'd like to redo mine.

chris
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You have to let me know HOW they sound until I get my BA back from Ohio..... CONGRATS on your score. Where did you get yours? were they the ones in Columbus OH? if so they look sweet.....Im getting mine for $700, Ill find out if its a deal once I light them up.....Michael.... :thmbsp:
 
Re: Altec 19 Crossovers

If it is indeed a crossover problem, chances are your inductors and resistors are fine. You will want to replace the caps and clean the innards of the attenuators. Somewhere out in the vast ethernet, there is a schematic of the Model 19 floating around that will give the the appropriate values of the passive components.

As one poster suggested, you might want to contact Great Plains Audio for upgraded crossovers.

Better yet, why not try to diy? With my 19's, I rewired the drivers, installed new speaker jacks, and built new external crossovers. I've been very pleased with the results. Here's a pic:
 

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Looks very interesting SBB, I'm using copper foil inductors and oil caps in my Altec crossovers as well and am very happy with them. Did you copy the 19 circuit or try something different?

There is a schematic for the original 19 crossover at Jeff Markwart's site.
 
Thank you both. It was a lot of fun and surprisingly inexpensive to build these. Not including my time and the wood/pegboard, I've got less than $250 in both of them!

Billfort, I copied the stock circuit.

Steve
 
You have to let me know HOW they sound until I get my BA back from Ohio..... CONGRATS on your score. Where did you get yours? were they the ones in Columbus OH? if so they look sweet.....Im getting mine for $700, Ill find out if its a deal once I light them up.....Michael....
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hi michael,

i got my altec 19's from ak member "rockmonton" from up here in canada.i will let you know how they sound with the ba3000 when i get them hooked upto it.
 
I also just bought a set of altec 19's and need to replace the caps, I was just wondering where you found caps that were the same values. Is there a conversion factor for capacitors? the ones in the 19's xover are 75v and 50v at varying ratings. all the caps I find are rated at higher voltages. What gives?
 
Using higher voltage rating will not hurt, avoid using lower voltage caps. Great if you can match the capacitance exactly. Sometimes you have to put 2 or more in parallel to add up to a certain value. So say if you use a 2.2uF and a 4.7uF you will have a 6.9uF. You can google Capacitors in parallel to get the math behind it and find online capacitance calculators.

When I recaped my 19's I used Auricaps and they had exact values.

Good Luck
 
Like PunkerX said, you are Ok as long as the new caps have equal or greater voltage ratings. I am currently using PE's Dayton Film and Foil Polypropylene caps and I like them a lot. I have only had about 6 hours into them (Ewave xovers) but they are more mellow than the Solen in my recapped 19 xovers, which I think is plus for the 19. They are inexpensive as well. For your 19's, I recommend either cut off or unsoldered the caps and replace them with the new caps. Leave everything else alone, or , if you really want to upgrade the resistors, spring for the Mills non-inductive. Leave the inductors alone. I spent big bucks to upgrade the inductors and this money is not well spent.
 
where did you find auricaps that had the the OEM values? Am i reading the values correct at:
6 mFd
8 mFd
16 mFd
21 mFd

thanks for the help!

i am dieing to hear these at full potential and without the x-overs working right its killing me
 
I got my caps through

http://www.soniccraft.com/auricap.htm

Now that I think about it, was over a year ago.. I used Dayton's from Parts Express for the 21uF. Think I used a 20uF and a 1uf. The 21uF cap is in the woofer circuit and just cuts off the high frequency to the woofer. So no problem using a lesser cap in that part of the circuit.

If you get the Auricaps from Sonicraft. For an extra dollar he will match the caps, so the caps between the two speakers are very close in value.
 
soo... I recapped the crossovers and they dont sound much different than before. I am wondering if my problem is elsewhere. On both crossovers The top (HF) pot does nothing and the bottom (MF) pot only subtracts highs. I tried both crossovers in the one good 19 I have (the other one needs a fram and a recone) and they behave identical. I am just not getting much bass out of these. I get plenty of mid to low punch and killer highs from the comp driver, but to make it sound half correct I have the MF set to the minimum position possible and as stated, the HF pot makes no difference where i set it.

and just an FYI, my Rig is a Macbook pro - Pro-Tools Digi-002 - Crown PS-400 which sounds great with my stacked pair of criterion 2002+'s so i know its not a problem on the amp or signal side. I have no equalization or tone controls, everything is straight.

Thanks for all your help guys.
 
xxxcadillacx said:
where did you find auricaps that had the the OEM values? Am i reading the values correct at:
6 mFd
8 mFd
16 mFd
21 mFd

thanks for the help!

i am dieing to hear these at full potential and without the x-overs working right its killing me
Click to expand...

I've successfully rebuilt a number of Model 19 crossovers (and Voice of the Theatre, essentially the same), some for guys on this forum.

The "attenuators" are simply 8 ohm 100 watt L-pads. They are not using them as L-pads, but rather just using half of them as variable resistors. Just connect the new ones like the old ones are connected.

I usually use Dayton or Solen caps from Parts Express. Getting the exact value is not critical. The values I will list below are well within tolerance and have been used successfully.

www.partsexpress.com

6 mFd 027-427 6.2 uf Dayton Metalized Film Poly 250 vdc

or 027-558 6.2 uf Solen Metalized Poly 400 vdc

8 mFd 027-426 8.2 uf Dayton Metalized Film Poly 250 vdc

or 027-564 8.2 uf Solen Metalized Poly 400 vdc

16 mFd 027-578 16 uf Solen Metalized Poly 400 vdc

21 mFd Use these two caps in parallel:

027-436 20 uf Dayton Metalized Film Poly 250 vdc PLUS
027-410 1 uf Dayton Metalized Film Poly 250 vdc

In all honesty, you could use only the 20 uf cap, leaving off the 1 uf and probably never hear the difference. Likewise, due to the size of this cap and where it is used in this crossover, you could substitute a 22 uf np electrolytic and never hear a difference. And perhaps 20 years down the road you might need to replace it.

Click here to download the schematic:

http://audiokarma.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=21568&d=1153923794
 
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