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Yeah, from a purely technical POV it's not a 'good plan', but most Altec designs were done this way and I can't recall anybody complaining about how bad it makes them sound. ;^)

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>any advice on what size to cut the hole relative to the speaks? (i.e. just enough for cone and surround to show through?)

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13.25" diameter for the -8A. Bolt holes on 14.56" diameter.

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>This definitely means router, doesn't it?

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Naw, just a steady hand. Mine were freehand cut with a cheap Black & Decker jigsaw. I wore it out cutting driver holes. ;^)

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> also, should I use the router to flare out the opening a little bit?

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Can if you want, but be careful, otherwise you won't leave enough wood to install the driver mounting hardware.

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>jeez, this is making me nervous. I have the boxes all glued up except for the front panel where i need to mount the driver and attach the port. Kevin/EZ

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Not to worry. Look carefully at my cab and you'll notice that each woofer is attached to its own removable mini-baffle. This makes for a very rigid mounting, though of course it requires more wood/gasketing.

Another benefit of this type of construction is that if your vent is fairly large and only baffle thickness, as most Altec designs were, then you can space the mini-baffle up off the cab to create a highly resistive slot vent, fine tuning it by stuffing acoustic foam in the slot, so use your imagination to make it work with your cab's dims.

The pic isn't very clear, but there's a removable vent baffle at the bottom also, but the screws are painted over, while the driver baffles had been removed and I haven't bothered to paint the new screws since this is just a temporary set-up.

GM

• cab