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Author Topic: Altec 802 and power handling math session Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-18-2002 09:16 AM                     Steve, I was not making any criticism of the Altecs sound. I too like the sound of Altec A-4's...no problem there, especially on a deep stage. However they had problems with them at The Zaentz soundstage. They could not take the levels these guys like to mix at...woofers bottoming out, etc. I remember Mark Berger saying that they wanted a real world system in there to do mixes hence the A-4's. He also said they would probably be replacing them as for the problems they were experiencing. As for the reel(s) of mag of Amadeus I heard there, it was amazing! Unfortunately not many A-4 systems out here. Lots of older A-5's and A-7's in the older theatres out here. Yes, do a system or two with the JBL 5600 series stuff when you get the chance. Its alot of work just assembling them and the midrange horn is larger than some proples house, but it is all very worth the effort. Also, I did not use the JBL digital EQ, went with the analog version instead. You know I hate anything Digital in the chain. I don't remember a dip in the hf on them, if it was there it wasn't much after setting the levels on the x-over. I'll go back and look at the R-2 files and see if there was much of a dip though and report back. Whats in the Stag now? Did they go to the three way stuff? It sounded REALLY good in there with the two way, and absolutely no background noise at all on mag playback! Mark  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 12-18-2002 10:55 PM                     As to the A-4s bottoming out...if they were indeed updated (as stated earlier)...bottoming out wouldn't really be too possible in a mixing stage...a 4675 couldn't put out more volume...particularly with the Altec having 515-16GHP woofers...they are 200-watt AES drivers each or 400-watts for the cabinet, which translates to 1600-watts peak program. Whereas the A-4 as an 8dB advantage in sensitivity over the 4675 (and most other direct radiators)...they most certainly could take the levels of today and then. JBL has canned their analog crossover BTW (I'm pretty sure they nixed them this year). It is of no consequence though...I've always been a fan of RANE products and the AC22B and 23B were/are superior to the JBL 552 or 553. RANE also has their DSP stuff with the RPM 26 series. The new one, the RPM-26Z has drag and drop programming. I just did a set of JBL 4632Ts with the Rane RPM-26V and the performance with that unit was dramatically superior than a typical crossover. The Rane unit has parametric EQs available for each speaker section to make 1/3 octave EQ wholey unecessary with virtually no EQ at all. The channel to channel timbre was startlingly close with the RANE crossover...anyway this is probably also best discussed on another thread. Steve  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 12-19-2002 07:57 AM                     I just did a quick check and the M series crossovers, the M552 and M553 are indeed, no more. Not to be left out, the upper-end digital crossover, the DSC-280 is also not listed. Have no fear though, the DSC-260A is still alive for your digital 3-way processing needs! Steve  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-19-2002 09:28 PM                     Steve, Thanks for the tip!! I've been way too busy to even look at the new(if any) JBL price lists since starting at CLACO. Rane stuff is ok, and I'd have no problem using that, there are also others that are worth looking into. I prefer to keep as few A to D / D to A conversions as is possible in any chain. There's already enough of that going on before the signal would even reach the X-over. Mark  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 12-20-2002 09:08 AM                     Mark, I agree with you on that...use as little DSP as possible (none unless necessary) and minimize A/D conversions. I used the RANE RPM-26 on what I would call a difficult speaker. With only paying one DSP "hit" I eliminated a whole buncha 1/3rd octave time-shifts and noise hits. The other alternative I looked into was stacking a 5-band parametric on top of an analog crossover but then you pay in the noise department and have less flexibility. If you have a cinema processor that has digital outputs (like the CP-650 with the studio board in place) then you don't pay the A/D or D/A "hit." Even the newer THX crossover the THX-D1138 can take AES3 inputs. Again, in this particular situation, the DSP unit did what I wanted and was pretty painless. I'll give RANE credit though...they have figured out how to get the user to set up their DSP stuff so you have maximum dynamic range and not have you clip the DSP section. Steve  |  IP: Logged

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