"Altec-Faital" - Altec 511B horns with Italian FaitalPro drivers

I never really liked horns whether commercial or DIY but after listening to a friends Altecs I thought that if ever a cheap pair of horns only came up for sale I'd buy them. A few months later refurbished Altec 511Bs came up for $500. I always felt horns a bit brittle and to tame this I added Italian FaitalPro HF108R compression drivers. The Faital compression drivers use a polymer 1" diaphragm. I built a Xover to work with the horns and added a 12" woofer in a sealed 60 ltr box to handle 1100hz and down.

The Xover crossed the horns in at 1100hz on a third order and the woofers on 2nd order. Serious padding was need on the horns to balance them against the horns and the system now at about 90db+ efficient. The horns were boxed for better appearance and shock mounted to keep vibrations from them. Also the horns are wrapped in a sound deadening foam an foil to stop ringing. 

Driven by a 180W Class D amp there is plenty of deep bass (down to 30Hz) from the woofer and great clear, very dynamic mids and treble from the horns. The most natural sound I have heard rom any system. Pleased I tried them. I have since bought a second pair with top of the range FaitalPro drivers. 

"Njira" - 180W Tripath Class D in Hammond chassis

After a number very successful builds in these compact Hammond wood cheeked chassis I thought a matching power amp with external PS maybe the perfect compliment. The amp is a hifimediy 180W T4 Tripath Class D. All the PS is on board and all high quality components. The external PS is really just a big heavy 500VAC toroid.

The amp, as with "najah", produces excellent bass is dead quiet and runs cool. I've included some of the other builds just to show my "three of a kind" hand.