Replacing LCR speakers in my home theater
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Hi all,
I’m new here. This site was recommended to me by Jerry McNutt at Eminence speakers.
I bought two Altec Lansing A7-800 kits in 1974, and built my own cabinets identical to the Valencia design of the day. They are crossed at 800Hz and use the 811B horn. About 15 years ago, I sent both HF drivers to Great Plains Audio to have new domes installed because one failed. They did a great job. One of the LF drivers has a rub in the voice coil. After 50 years, the crossovers are likely out of spec and the bass drivers may have lost some of their magnetism. I’m thinking of shelving them for now and replacing the LCR speakers with new. I have built many speakers over the past 45 years. I’ve never designed my own crossovers but I can build them if I have a schematic.
My home theater is a mix of Altec Valencias (L,R), two Eminence subs of my own design, and a center channel I designed using an RCF tweeter/horn and an Eminence 6” LF driver. It’s crossed at 1.6kHz. My goal is to rebuild the LCR speakers so that a better blend is achieved. I’ve looked at the Toid BTS 15 builds but they are more than I need. I am intrigued with the Cinema 10 design.
Questions:
1) Should I build three Cinema 10 speakers for my LCR channels? I have enough room under the TV. The room in question is a large basement room, 7.5’ ceiling with acoustic suspended ceiling tiles, 34’ long, 22’ wide. My sound system and TV are on the 34’ wall, so I’m shooting across the 22’ width. The seating area is about 14’ from the 75” TV. The floor is carpeted and walls are drywall. The room is fairly dampened but with the current configuration, I’m having some issues controlling 110Hz and lower but that’s a discussion for another day 😄.
2) Are there any other designs or combination of designs anyone would recommend?
Many thanks…
Lee
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This is the deadist forum I ‘ve ever been on. It may as well shut down.
Also, when I sign in, it takes me outside the forum and back to what appears to be the Home page.
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I can speak for the Cinema 10s. I built 4 of those to be used as surround speakers in my 7.2.5 setup. I documented my build process as well as my impression of the Cinema 10s in my Home Theater build thread here: https://toidsdiyaudio.com/forums/discussion/the-home-theater-build-code-named-tht/page/8/
In short, you can use Cinema 10s for your LCRs as they are real good. I know individuals who built 5 of them for their 5.1 system and are pretty happy with their speakers.
Let me know if I can answer any more questions about Cinema 10s.
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Hi Nate,
Thanks for chiming in. I was hoping someone would provide their experience with the Cinema 10 build. I’ll check out the link. Many thanks again!
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One more question Nate. I’m in Canada just east of Toronto. What parts does Toid use for the crossovers? Where can I buy them? You’d be surprised how many of these components are not available in Canada. If they are, they want an arm, a leg, and first born child for them. Thanks!
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Absolutely! Glad I could help. People in the forum are generally helpful but can take a while to respond back.
Hopefully, you will find building Cinema 10s as much fun as I did, it being my very first DIY speakers project. In my thread, I compared them to my JBL speakers and was blown away at the clarity of Cinema 10s.
As far as speaker drivers and the crossover components are concerned, I believe most of us rely on https://www.parts-express.com/. I think they ship to Canada too. I have purchased a couple of Cinema 10 drivers from Amazon too and have also used madisound speaker store site for my LCRs speakers build: https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/sb-audience-pro-sound/sb-audience-nero-12mwn400d-12-midwoofer/
I usually find the “parts express” site to be most helpful with reasonably priced products.
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Great and thanks Nate. We have an outlet in Canada called Q-Components. They carry the LF, HF drivers and wave guide for the Cinema 10s. I’ll source out the crossover parts from Parts Express.
I’m replacing two Altec A7-800 speakers in their domestic enclosures. Any thoughts on how the Cinema 10s will sound in comparison? I assume far better definition and with a much higher crossover point, less honk and horn beaming. Also, the parts from from my A7’s are 50 years old. Their parameters have likely gone way out of spec, except the tweeters. They were rebuilt by GPA.
I promise not to drive you crazy with endless questions! Thanks again.
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I cannot provide comparative feedback between the two speakers as I have not listened to Altec. I could go by tech. specs alone but that does not sound like an honest feel. I would, however, say that the crossovers of those speakers should also be rebuilt, using brand new parts.
I am partial to Cinema 10s & absolutely love them 😀 If you decide to build them, look for Baltic Birch pieces or MDF on Facebook market place too. There are a couple of guys near my town, that sell Baltic Birch pieces for throw-away prices… something like 24×50 for 5$. I am sure you can find something close to you as well.
If you document your build process here in a new thread, would be cool to follow along your process.
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Thanks, all. I’ll see how it goes. There may be a new furnace in my future. so the $1,500 + may be needed eslewhere. We’ll see.
Thanks for all the help!
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Well, let’s be honest, will the furnace sound as good? 🤣
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Now, I have to decide to heat my home or bundle up with blanket layers and listen to my new speakers 🤣!
Off topic
Would it be possible to increase the font size of the reply boxes? A 4pt font size is crazy small!
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I will ahve to look into that. I am not sure. THe website part, I am not the best at. But I have someone I can contact. It probably won’t be until next week though. I am still trying to catch up from being sick.
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No worries. Hope you’re feeling better soon 👍. Thanks.
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