What to do with these vintage Altec drivers?

[AstralFurious]

I've got a couple of pairs of vintage Altec loudspeakers lying around unused. One pair is a late-'50s or early-'60s 838A "Carmel" (each with 2 x 414Z and an 804A with 811B horn and N-800-F crossover). The other is a '60s (maybe '70s?) 847A "Seville" (with a 414Z and a 3000G with N-3000-F crossover).

I'm trying to fill a big room (25' x 20' x 17' with cathedral ceiling) using a 45-based SET power amp -- so roughly 1-1/2 wpc available.

The Carmels are the best I've heard in this room with this amp -- and about the closest to live I've ever heard anywhere -- but their enclosures are just not up to par. Colored, veiled, boxy... I've seen designs using this exact collection of drivers in a better built Altec 614 cabinet (housing one 414 with 804 and 3000 horns resting on top).

Is this the best use of these components in this environemt? Can anyone recommend something better. Can anyone recommend someone to build (in the NYC area if possible) some really beautiful cabinets for me? (Sadly, I'm not a woodworker by any stretch of the imagination.)

If the details matter, system consists of the following:

Basis Ovation TT --> Wright phono preamp --> Jeff Korneff Type 76 preamp --> Jeff Korneff Type 45 power amp --> ???

Music is primarily classical, so speakers really have to do it all. ;-)

Thanks for any advice to a sometime lurker, first-time poster!

[dirkwright]

With so little power available, I would sell the Altec stuff and start building or buying modern horn loudspeakers. You need horn loaded midbass and even lowerbass also. You need really high sensitivity to do what you want.

[DavidL]

Originally Posted by AstralFurious

I'm trying to fill a big room (25' x 20' x 17' with cathedral ceiling) using a 45-based SET power amp -- so roughly 1-1/2 wpc available.

Seriously? Ditch the boutique amp and get a real SS amp that can deliver the wattage and get some better sounding speakers too.

[AstralFurious]

Originally Posted by DavidL

Seriously?

Yes.

Originally Posted by DavidL

Ditch the boutique amp and get a real SS amp that can deliver the wattage and get some better sounding speakers too.

If you're going to make snarky suggestions, maybe you could be a little more specific? That would be helpful.

[GM]

While I agree in principle with the others if you want to go ~’live’ at front row center, I can appreciate how these sound with a good 45; so a 3.5 way could be a nice compromise if you don’t mind sitting back a bit in ‘concert hall’ and accept 1st order low passing the four 414Zs from the Carmels to a ~‘full-range’ 414Z+ horn ‘mains’ OB centered around 250-300 Hz.

If you have enough space on the sound wall and willing to use it, I recommend OB loading the bass 414Zs also. Otherwise, some form of TL loading where they can go vertical to keep the footprint acceptable.

If the extreme HF is too rolled off over distance, then use the 3000H as a super tweeter capped off to ‘taste’, probably up around 15 kHz.

GM

[Hawaiiman]

Curious to hear what was the resulting decision. I'm pairing 12" Altec bottoms with 811 horns. Love to have those 3000's on top.......