DIY Altecs

[mlucitt]

Ah, the Altec 422-8Z
Altec’s answer to JBL’s legendary D130 (and variants) woofers. To answer the usefulness found in JBL’s watershed D130, many years later .. Altec designed this excellent woofer -- a beautiful combination of Altec’s best 416 style Altec frame, with a special tighter, lower excursion cone, featuring an aluminum dust cap. This production-experiment resulted in a woofer that could handle more power, with almost 100db/1w/1m efficiency, and an more extended frequency range of 50-7500 cycles. This was a radical design for Altec, and worked quite well -- maintaining the signature tone and detail that Voice of the Theater components were cherished for. The 422’s frame, is the same high quality casting as the 515 and 803 and of course 416A/B and Z (circa 1960s). It’s quite possible and very common practice to have the 422/418 Alnico re-coned into the 416 -- by replacing the cones.

 

[Soul Tramp]

Ah, the Altec 422-8Z
Altec’s answer to JBL’s legendary D130 (and variants) woofers. To answer the usefulness found in JBL’s watershed D130, many years later .. Altec designed this excellent woofer -- a beautiful combination of Altec’s best 416 style Altec frame, with a special tighter, lower excursion cone, featuring an aluminum dust cap. This production-experiment resulted in a woofer that could handle more power, with almost 100db/1w/1m efficiency, and an more extended frequency range of 50-7500 cycles. This was a radical design for Altec, and worked quite well -- maintaining the signature tone and detail that Voice of the Theater components were cherished for. The 422’s frame, is the same high quality casting as the 515 and 803 and of course 416A/B and Z (circa 1960s). It’s quite possible and very common practice to have the 422/418 Alnico re-coned into the 416 -- by replacing the cones.

Interesting. But the 422-8Z was part of the VOTT family and always had a horn x-over in the 500hz range. It makes me wonder what the frequency response curve looked like. Guess you have to hook it up to a guitar and see what it sounds like.

The D130 was at its best (in the musical instrument world) In big loud amps like the Bassman and Showman. Probably would be less than ideal with the Univox. Putting too big a speaker on an amp is like putting too big a carb on a motor.

 

[mr_rye89]

I know that 422/418 cones break up sooner than the 416, which is problematic for HiFi use. I may mock up that 422 to use in one of my open baffles when I take the 604s out of them.....