Moving to the Dark side....adventures in Altec land

[awsmone]

Yes it’s true

I have bought a horn system consisting of a altec 288 driver and 416 woofer from GPA
To this I have added a supertweeter coming in at 13.5 khz

It’s in a massively overbuilt cabinet

With external crossovers with high quality caps with tri amp capability

 

[awsmone]

Did I mention I am in musical bliss

Feel the power of the dark side ....rshhrrr ahhhhwww!

 

[bonzo75]

Did I mention I am in musical bliss

Feel the power of the dark side ....rshhrrr ahhhhwww!

That's the sound of Tang's Daniel O LP played back after he tried setting up the zyx anti skating on it

 

[ddk]

Congrats! I know the Altec components in your speakers well but in that cabinet but I love the industrial look, enjoy!
david

 

[bonzo75]

Congrats! I know the Altec components in your speakers well but in that cabinet but I love the industrial look, enjoy!
david

How do they compare to 604

 

[ddk]

How do they compare to 604

Hard to tell how everything sounds in the GPA cabinet but I was never a big fan of the 604.
david

 

[awsmone]

Too things have struck me

1. Fantastic imaging and great depth, wide sweet spot
2. Extraordinary timbral accuracy from woodwind to brass to timpani to strings all sound life like and more like real life....stunning

 

[Audiophile Bill]

Welcome to the dark side, Awsmone

 

[awsmone]

Welcome to the dark side, Awsmone

Thx Bill

I am enjoying the dark side very much, lack of compression in loud orchestral passages is a nice side benefit, along with great clarity of bass lines

No fiddling just listening, I am just spending more time claiming my records to get the most out of them thru the Altecs

I am lucky to have the ASR which work so well with horns as reported elsewhere, but Keds Experience with PNOE has me thinking of SET goodness

At some stage I will pull the Lamm off the Quads and lug the beasts down stairs to try

 

[jeff1225]

Very cool set up!

 

[Robh3606]

Hello

What horns are you using? Are they Mantarays hard to see in the photo,

Rob

 

[awsmone]

Hello

What horns are you using? Are they Mantarays hard to see in the photo,

Rob

Yes mantaray, Great dispersion and huge sweet spot but pinpoint imaging

 

[awsmone]

Well I see it’s a month since I posted

Since then I have upgraded the external crossovers with better caps especially on the supertweeter
This has made a big difference

To be honest the sound I am getting now is superb both on vinyl and digital

I find I am pouring through my vinyl collection

It has also allowed me to much better fine tune my turntable set ups and cartridges and feel I am wring the most out of them all

One thing that has surprised me is the wonderful soundstage depth and air on top of real life timbre I am getting, I thought horns didn’t image well, but these are superb

The ability to differentiate woodwind and different strings instruments makes both string quartets and large orchestral lps truly spell binding

A Janos Starker mono of Bach cell suite No 4 I listened through multiple times revelling in the tone micro detail and air of the performance plus supreme artistry, his instrument sounding warm, organic and stable with wonderful air and breath

The 16 altec woofer is a killer, both in depth, speed, timbre and ability to separate cello from double bass, and different drums, timpani from double bass, tuba from bass trombone

It is by far the best speaker I have personally heard only the Veyron Khamas match it, at 100x the price

The ASR amplifiers seem an incredible match with these speakers