Altec 816 build.. Many pics.

 

I have a question for all; the box handles take up cubic volume; is it an amount of volume that matters or is it negligable? I have seen authentic cabs with and without handles and it struck me it might make a difference.

 

JBL was the speaker of choice in my region when I worked in Rock n Roll production back in Ottawa, Canada during the 80's and 90's; Altec was never on our menu so I didn't obsessively memorize the specs of every Altec component as I did with JBL back in the day. As a result I don't know the difference between the 816a, 816b, 816c and 816VI. (have I listed them correctly?)

 

Could one or more of those variations have been adjusted to accommodate the box or metal bar handles?

 

tv00 mentioned Martin 215's. I remember those back brakers fondly. In the 80's we used martin stacks loaded with JBL. We stacked 215's 6 high and 3 wide per side at medium stadium shows and we used scaffold to stack them higher at largher shows; it took three people to hump number 5 and 6 and when we stacked them higher we had three guys on the ground and two or three in a scaffold on large air filled tires so we could hump them twice and then push the scaffold along to the next stack. We also used Martin 212's for mids and custom boxes for our JBL 2380/2445 highs and 2370/2425 very highs. We also had Martin 115's but they were only rented to customers and the 215's were reserved for our shows.

 

Later we switched to the SR series. It seemed like we could pack a lot more wood into the trucks but they weren't nearly as good as the Martins.

 

Anyway, back on point; I intend to build 816's (to be used as mid/bass but not bass) and I want them to be as road-ready as possible so I want them to have box handles but I also want to be able to sleep at night; I really have to know how much effect those box handles will have on the sound or I'm going to lose sleep over it forever... Hope someone knows.