Altec Lansing Valencia modifications : THE EMPIRICAL AUDIOPHILE 

That's very nice of you to say that. It does take time and money if you do not have your own wood shop.

The test between the two speakers were actually surmise by the Chicago Audio Society that came with me to listen to the West Minister royals. Their honest opinion was the Altec sounded better. They told me it would be a big mistake to get rid of the Altec's.

All you need to do is modify your speakers a little bit, and they will sound wonderful once again. They only need to be brought up to date and it could be done a lot cheaper than buying brand new speakers. Don't let me or anybody else convince you otherwise.

Do you mean new caps and resistors? Where do you get the crossover rebuild design? Cheers!

@@sballestra9269 Complete custom build of crossovers a friend helped me with the design. I did the actual construction.

I got my crossovers from a guy in Germany and replaced the material in the horns with Mylar same as the new gpa drivers. I also replaced the wires inside the horns with dueland silver wire they sound amazing!

They are! That's just not me saying that is from a lot of people from the Chicago Audio Society saying that. They actually said they sounded better than the Tannoy West minister royals.

@@theempiricalaudiophile3729 I’ve always liked them. I run Klipsch k-horns up front on B in back. Pair of Klipsch Belle’s . Together it’s as much music s anyone would want !

I knew a guy in the AUDIO club that had some Keff speakers and he sold them and regretted it. 20 years later, and wish he had not done it.

Shay wrote "....you should use...". Etiquette suggests "...one could use..." 🔈🔉🔊

Conrad Johnson made some wonderful equipment but it was expensive and they still make wonderful equipment but it's way too expensive for me now

That sounds great.

Good point you bring up. However, I've always had objects on top of the speakers cause they are so big and have never really noticed any difference whether they were there or I took them off. Plus, the stereo has to fit in a room that the family uses and not a dedicated stereo room. Some of us are lucky to have a dedicated room, but I am not one of them.

@@theempiricalaudiophile3729 The way you have beefed up your cabinets, external resonances are likely much less of an issue - although, once the sound leaves the speaker, it becomes the property of the room. Have you done any room treatments? Another question - by placing the sacks of shot in the cabinet and the extension on the LF driver, you have drastically altered the internal volume. Have you measured this affect?

I did the modifications back in the early 90s and the cabinet maker is long gone. He used to work out of Lombard Illinois.

Before I would modify the speakers any further, I would definitely have to listen to somebody who has already done it.

Must be the wife’s “condition” lol..

I've been doing that ever since I've owned the speakers, and had never, and I mean, never noticed the difference, whether anything was on top of them, or not on top of them.

The Dynamat was used to deaden up the horn, which it did work. This advice to deaden up the horn was given to me by Ray Kimber of Kimber cables. It's also used on the 2 inch baffle that I designed which helps deaden it, too. Tried several different materials and found that the Dynamat was the best.

RU-vid has dozens of videos featuring Altec Valencias playing music.

It would be cool to hear the modified versions

@@roberte.andrews4621 seems crazy to “audition” audiophile speakers over RU-vid on a computer or a cell phone. My two sense, 😝

Unfortunately, I do not because I do not want to get demonetized by RU-vid.

No not really it was not needed because I have the resin eliminator connected up to the woofer itself.

Sorry I don't.

I bought a dampening material, called Deadbeat. It used to be sold at Best Buy in their auto section but that was years ago.. You can buy it on Amazon and it's under the name Dynamat Xtreme, it cost $24.99 a roll.

thanks I will.

I was going to college these speakers sat in a little bitty 10 x 11 room and I love them.

Each speaker weighs close to 250 pounds and I put 100 pounds of dead lead shot in each speaker. Each bag weighs 25 pounds apiece. I did this to help stabilize the speaker and it seems to have worked taking out any of the vibrations that would muddy up the sound.

@@theempiricalaudiophile3729 Wow I never hear of doing that before...! I Guess all of my Speakers, are so Freakin Heavy... They Sound Good without The Extra Weight ...

Empirical : based on concerned with, or verifiable by observation, or experience, rather than theory or pure logic. Example: They provide considerable empirical evidence to support their argument.

@@theempiricalaudiophile3729 Actually, they don't. They give anecdotal evidence, which isn't evidence at all.

Adding 100 lbs. of weight decreases the resonant frequency of the cabinets, but does reduce the internal volume of the cavity for a modest trade-off in low frequencies output.

How can say all that about "gizmo’s " and what ever else you just wasted my life reading if you never heard them ? That’s a retorical question ... YOU DONT !!!

Dear Davey Downer: I have a pair of 604Cs, driven by a pair of Futterman OTL3s, modified to triode. I listen almost exclusively to vinyl. Are there more accurate sounding speakers? Definitely. But much and maybe most of what we define as "more accurate" or "better" is really just a differentiation based on our personal preferences due to the way we each hear differently: there are scientific studies on this that will surprise you. I have been using the 604Cs for 43 years. To my ears, they are a bit colored, but to my ears they have a dynamic, lifelike quality that few of the dozens of other speakers that I have auditioned (just to make sure I am not missing out on something) over the decades come close to, and of those that do, then price by factors of 5 to 10 come into play. I don't expect to be replacing them anytime soon, and others seem to agree with my assessment. You used to be able to get a 604 on eBay for $400 bucks. They are going for 4 times that amount these days, and Great Plains Audio is making brand new ones at $1,800 each. I use weights to dampen movement. They do work. I blind-tested it with three friends, not as audio-inclined as me (and I did not tell them what I was doing to try to modify the sound), and they unanimously preferred the weights. But your threaded rods is a good idea. Why didn’t I think of that? I have to try it. I presume two pushing away the sides, and one pushing the top away from the bottom. . To your point, I replaced the stock crossover (notorious for their poor design) with Mastering Lab crossovers, which I sent to Jon Specter (blues guitarist, cousin of Al Kooper) to rebuild with audio grade Jensen foil/oil capacitors. They took two months to break in. Regarding the 604s “clean detailed bass”: bass was never a strong point with the 604s. I support them with a 15” Velodyne sub, crossed over at 70. I get deeper, authoritative and detailed bass from the sub, and more lifelike midrange from the 604s. You are right about the bevel. Doesn’t do bupkus. If there is a concern here, just front mount them: cheaper. Please learn how to spell empirical.

See my new comment in this thread.

Actually, I'm not biased. In fact, I was quite shocked to see once audiophiles hear the system, then they realize what they are missing. I've seen people trashed their whole system after listening to such an old system like mine for the first time. But then again, the Chicago Audio Society could be all wrong and you then again could be all right.

I do not have the equipment to play music and not have it demonetize by RU-vid. You might remember a long time ago nobody ever heard a reviewer's system. You went off of what he said, and then looked at the system yourself to judge whether or not you should buy it. Why is it today? Everybody must hear something over RU-vid.

Back in the day when Stereophile an Absolute Sound was out in magazine form nobody could hear what they were listening to. The only thing you can do is go out and buy the CDs that they were recommend and listen to them off of your system and see if you get the same results. Today it seems like everybody wants to hear some systems over lousy RU-vid where the sound quality is mediocre at best. So what are you going to be able to evaluate?

Right you think your actual going to hear how good they sound going through RU-vid then your watching device even with headphones wired one it would still be a horrible way to try to audition them not even close

@@garytoddvolquardts126 If you learn to download the video, it removes the RU-vid suppression. I suggest you learn how to do that. You can play it back with say VLC player which has multiple ways including an EQ, sound widener and several other options, and playback with DAC and listen through good or accurate headphones(audiophile grade), videos well tell you just how good or bad the recording mic is. Some videos you can tell are totally crap without any of that.

I don't think so because I saved a lot of money from not buying new speakers. I mean if you think about it saving $16,000-$25,000 on speakers, I could use that money for other things.

@@theempiricalaudiophile3729 There is no way you have great high frequencies from that horn driver no matter what you did to the driver and the lens. I spent 40 years looking for a horn driver that made cymbals sound real, Valencia 846B speakers were my second factory speakers, I had 4 of them. The only way they sounded great was by adding tweeter. I now have beryllium diaphragm drivers, they are the closest thing to the sound of ribbons I could find, and ribbons have the most realistic cymbal sound you can get.. I had spent around $25,000 on different combinations of either just horns and horns with tweeter. I run just horns now.

LOL!

They are not superior to some modern speakers, but they are superior to most. Read my reply to Dave below.

@@mlebron20 I've read Dr Floyd Toole's book along with Sean Olive plus a bunch of research done at Harman. Guarantee these speakers don't measure well along with pretty much ALL other vintage gear. They may sound good to you or others and thats fine, but doesn't mean they're transparent and faithfully reproducing the source. I'm not saying they're bad speakers but a lot of the vintage and pretentious gear is heavily hyped by subjective nonsense.

@@iowaudioreviews Jon Specter measured my speakers after he upgraded the crossovers and they did measure according to the manufacturer's specs, which was more than ... well, ... more than well enough for me. And in any event, speakers that measure well can still sound ... well, not so well. A lot of modern gear is heavily heavily hyped by subjective nonsense. I'm constantly sticking it to audiophiles at audiogon about the $2,000 per foot cable interconnects and speaker wire: "Hey guys, I use chain-link fence to wire my speakers to my amps, sounds fine!" The bottom line is: am I happy? The answer is yes. And I enjoy watching the jaws drop and the s*^t-faced expressions on almost everyone I bring to my audio room (theaudioatticvinylsundays.com) when they first hear the system.

@@iowaudioreviews Speaking of "modern speakers", do I have a story for you. I gotta run now, but later...

@@iowaudioreviews See my new comment, posted not as a reply to you, but separately.

SHHHHHHHHH! Actually, it's just parts that are needed for the turntable.