This is a series introducing what the Altec Voice of the Theater speakers are about, what were their design considerations, what drivers they use and why.
It's not a complete historical review, but an introduction to an in-depth journey into the 288 and 515 series drivers. This series will be a strong resource and aid on how to use these drivers, and how to build cabinets for them.
Currently there is little to no information on how to build cabinets for 515 and 288 series drivers. I'm stirring up the scene, and throwing this stone in the pond to rediscover these magnificent drivers, which are supposedly the finest high efficiency woofer and the finest compression driver ever made.
I hope you will find it useful. Here, I describe the 828 cabinet that the A5 use. Also, introduce some of the Altec drivers that can be used in this cabinet, and explain how magnet size / coil diameter / sensitivity / cone size / low frequency extension work together. Follow up will come with cabinet simulations, and detailed ideas for crossover design and cabinet tuning.
I've built my speakers with 515C and 288H. I call them Voice of Lancelot (VOL). They do not follow any currently available cabinet concepts or designs, they are the result of my two decades long research and know-how passed on to me by one of the greatest minds of high end audio (Stu Ono), who broke down ever single speaker design and taught me how to improve on them. Sadly, he is gone, but his legacy shall continue.
VOL includes a few groundbreaking concepts, the synthesis of the current cabinet design principles, backed by music instrument making principles, adapted for human auditory systems requirements and the actual room requirements (as opposed to designing for an-echoic chambers and optimizing for measurements rather than human hearing). This video series will start introducing these ideas to help you get ideas to build your own design, and enrich your life with truly astounding musical instruments. As the saying goes, once you go Altec, you can't go back.... the adage is true, a properly built Altec is what I (and many) think as the finest music reproduction instrument available in our age. Even better, you can use other drivers, you will be able to apply what you learn, and leap to the next level!
Kaplah.
