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Re: Altec 604 - opinions sought from 604 owners

Posted by castironandtubes on March 30, 2007 at 19:03:19

In Reply to: Altec 604 - opinions sought from 604 owners posted by blakey on March 30, 2007 at 11:17:59:

I don't think I would rate Altecs at the top of the heap for transparency. All speakers do certain things well, and other things less well. If transparency/disappearing is your number one priority, I'll bet you're not going to end up with Altecs. But, of course, they do some things that the more transparent speakers can't do, and once you sell your Altecs and buy those you might someday decide that what the Altecs did well was what is really most important to you in the end.

I have a set of 604E's, and I am very happy with them. I think that the crossover can really make a lot of difference, a lot of that coloured/honky sound you describe is what I'm guessing is a frequency imbalance from the HF driver, and with a little EQ it can sound much more natural. Having said that, I run mine biamped with no EQ, and while I think they sound great I can put on a set of Stax headphones and immediately hear a significant difference tonally. Someday I may go for a complex crossover to deal with that, or EQ of some kind, but I'm not sure that I will and I'm not sure that is the most important thing to me. There is a richness and immediacy that I don't hear so much with other speakers, nor with the Stax, and of course the dynamics and speed they are known for. I also particularly like the way they do soft, they make a magic like I have heard few other speakers make at 70db.

I don't think anyone would dispute that 604's have their issues, and you wouldn't be the first to decide they weren't for you, but for plenty they do what's most important very well.

Dave

PS I listen about 70% classical, 28% jazz, 2% other.

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