Help me choose....

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Help me choose....

Postby SDS-PAGE » Sun Aug 10, 2014 10:00 am

Hi all,

I am in the market for a new pair of speakers for my SET amps and I am considering two options, i.e. The Altec Valencia A8s or the Madisound BK-16 kit with 6" Fostex full rangers. I don't have firsthand experience with either one and I was wondering if anyone in the forum has any useful info that they would like to share. They would cost me roughly the same for me. FYI.

Thanks,

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Re: Help me choose....

Postby EWBrown » Sun Aug 10, 2014 3:06 pm

I have a setoff the Madisound BK-16s which I built about seven years ago, they are fantastic sounding.
the pre-cut and route Baltic Birch cabs went together fairly easily, definitely you should do a "dry fit"
practice run before applying the wood glue. You have to place all the internal baffles in the right order,
else they won't all go in properly. Think of it as a 3-Dwooden puzzle, at least for the dry-fit run.

They are very efficient. As with most of this kind of full range drivers, they do need some "break-in" time
before they start to sound really good.

They produce quite loud SPL with only 2 or 3 watts (2A3, 6B4G, 6AV5GA, etc) SET, and arevreally loud with 8 W 300B SET.
Bass is good and solid down to about 45 Hz, These are not designed to be deep bass "earthshakers" [:)

/ed B
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Re: Help me choose....

Postby SDS-PAGE » Tue Aug 12, 2014 10:10 am

Thanks, Ed. I am bit concerned about the low end with the BK-16. The full rangers I heard before always left me wanting but they used smaller drivers and cabinets. Perhaps the BK-16 would surprise me. At any rate, I will be auditioning the Altec Valencia A8s this Thursday, so I may just settle with those if I am impressed enough.
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Re: Help me choose....

Postby dcriner » Tue Aug 12, 2014 4:57 pm

I built a pair of BT-16s with Fostex speakers. They sound very good with my ST-70 Dyanaco clone. Plenty of bass response, at least for me.
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Re: Help me choose....

Postby DeathRex » Wed Aug 13, 2014 9:24 am

I'm a bit partial to older speakers. And those anteks are just too cool looking.
At first I wanted to be a ET. Now I are one.
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Re: Help me choose....

Postby battradio » Wed Aug 13, 2014 7:55 pm

A model 19 altec will sound better than the valencias , even though they use the same drivers , if you do get the altec's the crossover should be replaced with something better
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Re: Help me choose....

Postby SDS-PAGE » Fri Aug 15, 2014 10:12 am

Okay, I did end up buying those Valencia 8s, which incidentally has a label showing "Iconic" by Altec Lansing on mine. They sounded wonderful right off the bat as is but I don't like how low the speakers sit so low on the floor. I want to build a pair of speaker stands to lift them about a foot off the floor to align the the horns on the same level as listening ears sitting down.

A model 19 altec will sound better than the valencias , even though they use the same drivers , if you do get the altec's the crossover should be replaced with something better


Is there a good source to look up for xover schematics to replace the N-800Fs?
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Re: Help me choose....

Postby battradio » Sat Aug 16, 2014 3:27 am

Try here first , the trouble with the valencias is that when the horns at the correct height the the woofer doesn't load as well into the room , that was corrected in the model 19's , i would put the 811's on top the existing cabinet and in a seperated enclosure and install a choke plate in place of the horn to get the port the correct size after the horn was removed .

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showth ... +crossover

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Altec-Lansing-G ... 4d1436130c
http://www.ebay.com/itm/251409089612?ss ... 1423.l2649
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Re: Help me choose....

Postby leadtower » Sun Sep 21, 2014 6:35 pm

I use Valencia 848b's. I have used the EAR 859 SE amp with excellent results. The cabinet must be ported; no bass otherwise and the woofers don't breathe.. The Altec users Forum is a great source of info as I am sure you already know. As a point of interest the DIYTUBE ST 35 is a wonderfull combination with that speaker. I don't know why. Good luck; after years of swapping speakers of every ilk I just listen to my Altecs now; they have their faults but they sound exactly as I need a speaker to sound. I wonder if that isn't a result of the original mastering of much of the music I like being done on Altecs?
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