Altec A7 What to do


Hello all, a Friend of mine has had Altec Lansing A7's sitting in his basement for several years, just couldn't put them in his current room setting. Many may know that I've been building for about 35 years. I built him a set of MTM's and delivered them for Christmas. He was thrilled. Well, today, he dropped off a pair of A7's and said they're yours. I sat them up and listened, thoroughly looked them over, looked up crossover design (500hz model) and now need to decide what to do with them. I have a decent size living room, but these are still huge. They do a lot of things right, but just aren't as refined as my current speakers. So, I've decided to sell them. I'm in no hurry to do so, but I know that I won't keep these forever. So, are these more desirable to sell as is... stock, upgrade parts in the crossover and sell them, redesign and trick out the crossover, cleanup, sand, minor fill and painting cabinets or some combination of the above. I have no doubt that a complete crossover redo, a bit of cabinet bracing and a good refinish and these babies would be incredible. The problem is... will people that don't know me accept or trust just how good they are? That being the case I'm looking for some advice. Please tell me how you would handle it in my shoes. Tim
timlub
The horn can be damped, which has a nice effect on the midrange!

There may be beryllium diaphragms available too. The originals are aluminum and have some breakups which make them less detailed and harsher.

If so, these are the people to contact:
http://materion.com/Products/Beryllium/BerylliumAcoustics.aspx

The best amps for this applications are typically lower-powered tube amps- you don't need much to make these speakers sing.
Thanks Ralph, yep, I've damped many a horns, but these are exposed and I'll either need to cover them or figure out some way to make them look reasonably attractive. I typically like butyl tape on these, but that would look terrible. As far as the diaphragm, I haven't pulled it, but I would have to assume that it is Aluminum, my buddy bought these in 1969.
Truck bed spray on liner. And mount them inside the port, woofer down. Carefully, very carefully remove the screws, and best to use a non magnetic screwtriver. The magnetic field is huge. This force is known to suck in screws and screwdrivers.
FYI any deviations from stock decrease the collectors value still wonderful loudspeakers I would keep them maybe look for 288 drivers 1050 horn 515b woofer for upgrades
Thanks John, I have 416A, not sure of the horn driver, but the horn is a 511b... Have you done any work on these? I'm wondering if anyone has done impedance correction on both drivers and resonance compensation on the tweeter. I could easily do this and keep the original crossovers in place. I'm thinking it would be very audible.