Altec 292 comp. drivers

[RacerXtreme]

Anyone familiar with Altec 292 compression drivers? Good ? Bad ? o.k. ???
Think they're 3" diaphragms into a 1.4" throat. What's the freq. response and what kind of power can they handle ?

thanks,


Guy

[spkrman57]

I have had 288's in the past and now use Great Plains 399 driver(similiar to 288-8K Altec).

I think the 292 might be higher power handling, but less HF response.

Todd White would know, maybe he will post some info!

Ron

[Earl K]

Guy , Ron

- Yes, the 292-8a was a 3" (2.88) phenolic diaphragmed, 1.4" exit driver .

- It existed in the mid seventies up until the switch from Alnico to Ferrite magnets .

- It's closely related to the 290-4g paging driver . It differs in not having the the builtin matching transformer with the extra large back-cap housing / and / it's an 8 ohm diaphragm vs the 4 ohms type found in the 290 .

- It's magnetic structure was on par with the 288-8G ( ie ; extra weight compared to the older 288 designs ) . The gap was a tad wider ( like the JBL 2482 ) to accomodate the extra heat from its' increased power handling .

- Response and power handling were supposed to be the same as the 290 / though I've never seen a cut-sheet to verify that .

- It was a product aimed squarely at the M.I. business and the young growing S.R. industry . You can see a bit of info on it here on this 1975 catalogue page.

- I remember this "touring club system" from Altec quite well ( I was a working musician back then ). The 1215/1225 system was actually quite good (once it's high end was augmented with something to go from 7K and up ) . Typically JBL bullets were the UHF driver of choice back then . ( An unsanctioned and "unholy" mix according to both corporate entities )

<> Earl K

[Mr. Widget]

Well..., where the hell is figure 3? I want to see the comparison.


Widget

[Earl K]

Okay ,,,

Here's the comparison .

[Mr. Widget]

Cool, thanks! I always thought those 2482s were a bit lacking up top...

Hold on... they are both on the same horn... isn't that a 1.4" horn?


Widget

[speakerdave]

Hold on... they are both on the same horn... isn't that a 1.4" horn?

It's a horn like the larger Altec horns that has detachable throats so one or two drivers can be used. Perhaps they used a custom throat for the 2" JBL drivers.

David

[Earl K]

- The 329a Horn

- Like Dave said

[RacerXtreme]

Cool graphs. Thanks. Am I reading it correctly that the Altec 288 extends to about 15KHz before falling off and the JBL 2440 starts dropping at around 10KHz ? Very interesting.............

[speakerdave]

Cool graphs. Thanks. Am I reading it correctly that the Altec 288 extends to about 15KHz before falling off and the JBL 2440 starts dropping at around 10KHz ? Very interesting.............

That's the 288 G. It's different from the earlier ones in that it has a larger magnet and therefore a more intense field in the voice coil gap, and I'm not sure, but I think maybe a special diaphragm. I don't think you can expect the same performance from the earlier models. I think extended high frequency response was the reason for the changes. Generally, I believe, all the 288's are treated as midrange drivers, although the G's would merit some experimentation if you wanted to build a two-way. I have plans to do just that.

David

[spkrman57]

And I get decent response up in the HF section, it does roll off below 18Khz (its rated response), But with a UHF driver sounds very nice.

I use Dr. Bruce Edgar's round wooden tractix horns with mine and like it a lot!

Ron

[Earl K]

Hi Ron

- I'd love to see some closeups of those GPA 399-8a ( on Edgar Horns ).

- How does GPAs' pricing compare to JBLs' prices for a comparable driver ( say the 2431 ) ?

<. EarlK