I've recently acquired a pair of Seeburg DDS1 'discotheque' speakers. They're equipped with Altec 806a drivers on an 811b horn. The problem is that the two speakers are equipped with different woofers. One of them has a pair of Utah woofers in them, the other Goodmans.
Apart from that, the crossover is way to simplistic and does not live up to the quality of the drivers at all. It crosses over way too low and does not address the peak between 1k and 2k nor the falling high frequency response.
So I'm a bit at loss as to where to go from here. I'm located in Berlin, Germany, so either of these woofers are basically impossible to buy to match the speakers.
One solution would be to slap in a MiniDSP PWR-ICE125, with which I have plenty of experience and would easily allow me to compensate for the different woofers (plus the time difference between horn and woofers) and probably make them sound pretty similar.
But then I'd like to use these monsters according to how they were designed, i.e. with a passive crossover and a tube amp. One thing that came to mind was to adapt a Model19 x-over to the impedances present in these speakers, but perhaps there's a better solution?
On top of all that I think the tuning of the bass reflex ports is suboptimal.
Anyway, here are some pictures. First of some measurements, taken at about 70cm aka 2 feet, then the speakers and their interiors themselves.
Apart from that, the crossover is way to simplistic and does not live up to the quality of the drivers at all. It crosses over way too low and does not address the peak between 1k and 2k nor the falling high frequency response.
So I'm a bit at loss as to where to go from here. I'm located in Berlin, Germany, so either of these woofers are basically impossible to buy to match the speakers.
One solution would be to slap in a MiniDSP PWR-ICE125, with which I have plenty of experience and would easily allow me to compensate for the different woofers (plus the time difference between horn and woofers) and probably make them sound pretty similar.
But then I'd like to use these monsters according to how they were designed, i.e. with a passive crossover and a tube amp. One thing that came to mind was to adapt a Model19 x-over to the impedances present in these speakers, but perhaps there's a better solution?
On top of all that I think the tuning of the bass reflex ports is suboptimal.
Anyway, here are some pictures. First of some measurements, taken at about 70cm aka 2 feet, then the speakers and their interiors themselves.
Attachments
Nice analytical work on the frequency spectrum outputs of the two systems. I'm not sure that any two speakers systems of the same brand and type would be much different, even if they had identical drivers. But your graph is what it is.
I have a pair of DDS-1s, both with Utah woofers. They sound fine, but I had to put a T-Pad in line to the horn tweeters to calm them down. They had far too much HF output, and would overwhelm the Utah woofers. With the T-Pads in line, the outputs of the tweeters was very significantly reduced, and resulted in a much smoother and balanced overall output. No spectrum analysis was performed, just the ear test.
It may be heresy, but you could put one of the Utahs and one of the Goodmans in each cabinet, and maybe the overall spectral output would equalize between the two systems up to 650 hz or so.
I don't know what to say about the drop off above 10Khz. The Altecs are plenty hot to me, but your mileage may vary.
Best regards,
R. Michael West
I have a pair of DDS-1s, both with Utah woofers. They sound fine, but I had to put a T-Pad in line to the horn tweeters to calm them down. They had far too much HF output, and would overwhelm the Utah woofers. With the T-Pads in line, the outputs of the tweeters was very significantly reduced, and resulted in a much smoother and balanced overall output. No spectrum analysis was performed, just the ear test.
It may be heresy, but you could put one of the Utahs and one of the Goodmans in each cabinet, and maybe the overall spectral output would equalize between the two systems up to 650 hz or so.
I don't know what to say about the drop off above 10Khz. The Altecs are plenty hot to me, but your mileage may vary.
Best regards,
R. Michael West
Not long ago I was stupid enough to give away a set of DDs1 see burgs that worked great. They had the alter horns and Utah woofers. I didn't have room for them and I never realized how much I would not only NEED them but MISS them.
If anyone has a set or two sets actually of the see burg dds1 I would be very happy to purchase them at a reasonable price. Like me I'm wondering if anyone has been lugging them around the country and doesn't have the room anymore.
I stupidly lent a pair of 605As to a studio in Denver/Aurora that I built for these guys back in 2001..when I went to pick them up...The guy had moved to Hawaii... !!!
I'm Altec challenged. I'm now building a soffit monitor system for my new control room.
I need any and all the Altec drivers/speakers etc. that any philanthropic soul would feel the need to donate/sell at a low price or trade for studio time in the Mountains of Colorado.
thanks much
China West
worldbanqrecords@hotmail.com
If anyone has a set or two sets actually of the see burg dds1 I would be very happy to purchase them at a reasonable price. Like me I'm wondering if anyone has been lugging them around the country and doesn't have the room anymore.
I stupidly lent a pair of 605As to a studio in Denver/Aurora that I built for these guys back in 2001..when I went to pick them up...The guy had moved to Hawaii... !!!
I'm Altec challenged. I'm now building a soffit monitor system for my new control room.
I need any and all the Altec drivers/speakers etc. that any philanthropic soul would feel the need to donate/sell at a low price or trade for studio time in the Mountains of Colorado.
thanks much
China West
worldbanqrecords@hotmail.com
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