Vintage vs Modern speakers.

I bought used Scaena 3.2 on Jan 2000. But due to Covid break, i could not assemble main towers for 30 months.

I appreciate Rick’s help in assembly of it last Friday.

During the time, I had been using two Scaena 18 inch subwoofers to augement either Lansche 4.1 or Altec A7.

Now i am doing some comparison between Altec A7 and Scaena 3.2.


Could you tell whether  the above musics are from Altec A7 or Scaena 3.2?

Thomas

@shkong78 

Can you record the same track on both pairs of speakers, and post up here without telling us which is which?

@twoleftears 

I could do it later.

Now it is kind of blind game.

Thomas

BTW, I thought ## 1 and 3 sounded excellent, #2 a bit recessed.

One more song to tell whether the music is from Altec A7 or Scaena 3.2

@twoleftears 

What do you think of the sound regardless whether it is Altec or Scaena.

thanks in advance

Thomas

Well if you are using the same amp to drive all 3 pairs, this will have a profound impact on the sound. The Altecs should be very easy to drive with tubes the others probably not. 

@audition__audio 

Main tower of Scaena is easy to drive even with low power tube amp since it is very efficient at 93db/w.

But two 18 inch subwoofers need lot of power.

I use Crown XLS 2502

Thomas

How about this one using Line Magnetic 508 instead of Cayin 300b pp amp to drive main tower.

Consider an a5 or a better horn a7 are great for what they are but entry-level as far as overall performance.

Scaena 3.2 has 12 4 inch midrange drivers which work like full range without any passive crossvoer.

9 ribbon drivers are added with simple capacitor (6k hz cutoff).


They use active crossover at 120 hz. Thus two 18 inch subwoofers covers bass while mail tower covers frequency abover.

I had used two Scaena 18 inch subwoofers to augment subbass of Lansche 4.1 or Altec A7 for 30 months before assemvly of main tower last week.

My impression of two 18 inch subwoofers is positive with fast and tight bass with deep extension.

But somehow, two 18 inch subwoofers doesn not sound very weighty compared with Altec A7 bass horn.

Altec A7 bass horn give authoritiva bass although it starts tapering off at 50 hz and no signal below 30 hz.

When I added two 18 inch subwoofers to Altec A7 at 56hz using crossover of Crwon XLS 2502, they worked very nice.

Thus I had connected main tower of Scaena 3.2 above 500hz to see what happen.

They worked pretty nice as witnessed by Erik (Solypsa).

It may sound crazy to mix and match 60 years old vintage driver with modern speaker.

I had also tried 290 hz using Pap C1 active crossover.

it also work very nice.

Scaena 3.2 is one of the best speaker available in giving widest and deepes soundstage but also with clean mid range and treble using multiple drivers.


With slim line source, soundstage extend beyond my window.

Also I can easily pinpoint different instruments back and forth.


I will be out of town for three weeks to spend time with my 30 months old grandchild.


I will report more on August.

This shows the strength of hybrid Scaena and Altec A7.

The soundstage is wide and deep, almost mesmerizing.

Using Altec A7 basshorn bass sounds powerful with jump effect.

Thomas

To coclude, I enjoy holographic 3 D stage made by Scaena.

In addition, Altec A7 basshorn add efforless dynamics to the system.

Also I have more headroom to drive main tower of Scaena with smal or medium power tube amp using either 290hz or 500 hz crossover instead of 120 hz.

But it is easier to go back to Altec treble horn since I keep 500 hz crossover point.

Thus I can have both nuance of vintage speaker and 3 D imaging of Scaena.

I had listened to WE full horn system more than 50 times in Korea.

Although they sounds very nice with nuanced details and effortless dynamics, they never throw 3 D holographic image provided by Scaena.

Someone was asking about listening to a pair of Altec Madrids 872 - listening to a pair of 872As I found for 375 - treble is not revealing but they are nice to listen to - the biflex 15” woofers do a nice job - the speakers sounded a bit rough when I got them but I opened up and tightened all the press for connections hooking up the woofer and tweeter - many were loose - now they sound much better! 

shkong78, this is a very interesting thread.  Thanks for posting it.  I am a horn guy.  My main speakers have be DIY horns for nearly twenty years.  Thus I started listening to your posted videos assuming I would prefer the Altecs.  Much to my surprise on the selections you posted I I really liked the Lansches better.  They are very fantastic speakers.

shkong78, thanks for the Youtube clips.

Altec A7’s (with the larger HF horn) where my first PA speakers. When stored in my live in loft I used one for band practice, playing radio, records and tapes in the mid 60’s. I had no knowledge of audio. During a visit by a recording Engineer acquaintance, he relocated the A7’s, my couch and ran lamp wire to the Fisher and holy schitt! The hook went deep, there was no looking back.

Your open space is reminiscent of my loft space. I think I’ve been chasing that presentation for ever. Sadly, that loft was short lived.

In hindsight the fidelity from the simplicity and efficiency of the A7 has always stayed with me. If I had the space...