Altec 211 VOTT and possible driver choices.

[Democles902]

Hello all,
I am rather attracted to these voice of the theater speakers and I could see myself building a pair when I get the space. I am particularly interested in the 211 cabinet.
I would position the high frequency horns on top of this wide cabinet and maybe another one of these above the horns. Depends on the size of the room I'll have. Fingers crossed for a 20x30 room! 😉
The choice of HF horns is a topic for another thread, now lets focus on possible driver choices for this cabinet.
The obvious choice is a new production Great plains audio 515-8/16G bass horn driver loudspeaker. I want more options.
Would these Acoustic elegance speakers work? TD15H & TD15X? They seem rather close.
The ports would need to be a bit smaller as I am not using these for a theater. And yes, I know these lack deep bass and so I have elected to use folded horn sub woofers. Maybe 12pi Basshorn Subwoofer or Bill Fitzmaurice Tuba HT full size version.
What do you think? Any ideas for alternative drivers and alterations to this cabinet design?
-Anthony

 

[WSJ]

Have you considered a single driver?

 

[Democles902]

I would not mind a single driver. The 816A would be the choice then.
The 817 would be my next choice down the line from the 211 though. Maybe I just have a compulsion to go to the extreme?

 

[Cal Weldon]

Then go for the 210 cabinet and 825's for satellites. 😀

These are being run with Selenium drivers. http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=264-425

 

[djn]

If you like the 210 you should check out the split 210. This is were a guy took 1 210 and split it in two. You could just build two of them as singles. I think the mouth is large enough for a 350hz horn right in the center. Either way, you'll need subs if you listen to anything other than classical, accoustic, and jazz.

Split Altec 210 Cabinetr

 

[Democles902]

Then go for the 210 cabinet and 825's for satellites. 😀

These are being run with Selenium drivers. Selenium WPU1507-SLF 15" Driver 264-425

How was it you decided upon these? Those specs seem pretty far from the Altec GPA drivers that are recommend. 😕

 

[Democles902]

Take a look. Maybe someone could tell me a little more about what specs actually are required to match to swap out drivers?
I was wondering whether such heavily vented enclosures would benefit from high qts?

 

[Cal Weldon]

How was it you decided upon these?

It was more a case of having drivers and having cabinets and seeing what happened when you put them together. The Altec cabinets are very forgiving if you listen instead of measuring. 🙂

 

[Democles902]

That's nice. And a good thing too. 🙂

 

[Democles902]

AE Speakers Online Store
AE Speakers Online Store
AE Speakers Online Store
What do you think of these?

 

[Pano]

Either way, you'll need subs if you listen to anything other than classical, accoustic, and jazz.

Meaning if you listen to anything other than music? 😉

FWIW, my little 828 cabinets with Altec 416s go down to an F3 of about 33Hz. And I have to pull the low end level down with EQ, because they are in the corner. Room gain is your friend.

 

[GM]

Maybe someone could tell me a little more about what specs actually are required to match to swap out drivers?
I was wondering whether such heavily vented enclosures would benefit from high qts?

The cab was designed for up to a matching impedance to a ~0.2 Qts, so an effective ~0.38 Qts for max bass output in a theater or typical HIFI/HT app, though back when I had 210s I tried them with up to a ~0.6 effective Qts before they got too 'boomy' sounding in an outdoor app.

WRT other drivers, you ideally want this [HF] response for best overall blend to the HF horn unless a <500 Hz XO with >2nd order slope is used: http://www.lansingheritage.org/images/altec/specs/components/515b/page02.jpg

GM

 

[djn]

Meaning if you listen to anything other than music? 😉

FWIW, my little 828 cabinets with Altec 416s go down to an F3 of about 33Hz. And I have to pull the low end level down with EQ, because they are in the corner. Room gain is your friend.

That is not bad Pano. When I ran the 828 I couldn't get them down below 56hz with the 515. Maybe it was the driver.

 

[Pano]

There is a lot working in my favor. Corner placement, revised ports, 416 drivers with a medium Q. When I got them, 65Hz was as low as they'd go

 

[Democles902]

Just out of curiosity. What would happen If I was to use a sub woofer driver (Which can go up to 500hz)? Probably wouldn't sound good above 200hz would it?

 

[Democles902]

What about replacing the vents with passive radiators?

 

[GM]

It would depend on its specs, frequency response and the local boundary conditions plus the cab is tuned to 35 Hz, so would need a much lower tuning to take full advantage of a sub driver.

Bottom line, you can put most any 15" HE driver in it and will get some usable BW out of it, but having tried various drivers way back when, I ultimately cut off the back box and made them ~70-500 Hz compression loaded corner horns with 515Bs and perched them on top of a 'stereo' pair of dual 515B corner loaded 'subs' to handle the < ~120 Hz BW, though if done today I tune for a HT's 80 Hz/4th order XO and more space efficient, higher power handling, lower Fs, 'sub' drivers.

GM

edit: you could, but I imagine the cost would be prohibitive at the < ~18-16 Hz max ideal tuning to keep the PR's resonant peaking inaudible.

 

[djn]

Has anyone measured the spilt 210? It would be interesting to hear them with a horn in hung in the middle of the opening. Would that effect the low end much???

AND, the split 210 being that narrow, would there be an off axis issue if it was slight and the mid/hi horn was a CD???