Over the past months I have renovated a pair of Altec 846B Valencia speakers. They looked like you would expect from a 50+ year old speaker that has seen one or the other house party in its lifetime: beat up. When I went to pick them up I noticed something way worse, though: both 806–8A compression horn drivers didn’t work, as in: at all.
Everything else looked in relatively good shape and untouched, so I decided to go all in on the renovation and use these as my main speakers.
Components
806–8A compression drivers
811B horns
416–8Z (416–8A) alnico woofers
N800-8K dividing network, later substituted with
N1201-8A dividing network
New external crossover based on the N1201-8A frequency dividing network.
More details about everything to follow soon. In the meanwhile check #altec7188 on Instagram and the videos below ↓
Speaker stands “Type KK” (left) and “Type EZ” (right)
Some time in the fall of 2019 I decided I needed stands for my new Klipsch bookshelf speakers. After checking the options, I quickly came to the conclusion: “Nah, I can do this myself for cheap” (spoiler alert: I was wrong, at least about the latter part) – and thus laid down the foundation for what would be an unexpectedly tedious yet mostly exciting path I was stumbling along on. I’ve learned a lot about woodworking, as well. Here are some insights about the thoughts behind the stands, as well as how I actually built them.
Specifications and thoughts The two speaker stands are different, but follow the same idea and material considerations: A heavy blackened steel frame, joined together by glass fibre enforced, solid epoxy-filled joints (ideal would have been welding). A custom poured concrete base sits in the bottom of the frame to add actual weight without adding visual weight. Adjustable dampening feet for better acoustic isolation are screwed right into the steel frame. The platform on which the speakers sit is made from solid 4 cm thick walnut. Black acrylic glass hides a narrow space under the walnut, into which lights are installed to illuminate the merely decorative wooden side panels of the two speaker stands, which are also their main difference.
Architectural side panels The side panels/walls are inspired by Japanese lattice work and architecture. For speaker stand “Type EZ” the walls are built in a straightforward and easy grid. “Type KK” is heavily inspired by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma’s Sunny Hills building façade, a complex array of 3‑dimensionally connected wood beams. This right here was the real challenge and labor – from figuring out how to do it to cutting hundreds of wood joints at sub-millimeter precision, with hand tools.
A very amateurish lo-fi video I made on my phone, showing “Type KK”
Detail photos
Here are some detail views of the speaker stands. For those who really want to dig in, some work-in-progress footage of the construction follows further down.
Planning and construction
After lots of planning and trying to wrap my head around how Kengo Kuma’s Sunny Hills façade is actually built up (architectural plans from Archdaily helped), construction on the stands started on 31 January 2020. Here are some work-in-progress photos – more info is in the photo captions.
