Polk driver in Altec cabinet?

[Rickmaan]

I'm piecing together a HT speaker system. I already have FX surrounds, a CSi center and a PSW250 sub. I'm shopping for a larger sub to hopefully tighten up the bass and eliminate some of the boominess, but my question is about my front channel speakers. I'd like to have all my speakers voice (or timbre) matched, but I find I'm very attached to my Altec-Lansing bookshelfs I'm currently using. They're a few years old (OK maybe close to 10) but they still sound incredible and they have a truly beautiful dark cherry wood finish on their very solid (and heavy) enclosures. I've come across a sale on ebay for a pair of the 6.5" drivers from RTi series speakers and I wondered if I replaced the woofers in my Altecs with these if that would make them sound more voice matched to my CSi center, or would I need to also replace the tweeters to accomplish that? Since the RTi drivers are designed for a ported enclosure would they perform as well or still have the same sound if installed in a sealed enclosure like my Altecs have?

[jcaut]

Hi and welcome to the Forum!

I understand your situation, but what you propose is not a good idea. To acheive any sort of a timbre match, you'd need to swap tweeters too. You'd also need a crossover from the Polk speaker, to match the woofer and tweeter. It's unlikely that a drop-in replacement would work, meaning that some modification of the Altec cabinets would probably be necessary. A sealed enclosure could work, if the size was right, but for best results, you'd need to port the cabinet and tune it for the Polk woofer.

Once you did all that, you'd still end up with a butchered, Altec-Polk frankenstein of a speaker. And you'd have probably spent close to what it would cost to buy a nice used pair of Polk speakers.

If you're really attached to the Altecs and like the way they sound, it would be a shame to part them out anyway. How about setting up a 2-ch rig in another room?

I'm not sure what to suggest as far as a match. I'll leave that to those who know more about it than me. Check the flea market; Maybe post a "want to buy" thread. Russman had a nice pair of Monitor 40's for sale, if they're still available, and if that's something that might interest you.

Jason