Newer floorstanding speakers

[sture99]

Hello!
I'm sorry to bother you all with my quesion, but I'm beginning to be desperate. I want to get hold of a pair of speakers that I had some years ago. It was Altec Lansing 511b four way floorstanding speakers. Does anyone have some information about the model or, even better, have a pair for sale.

kind regards from
Stockholm
Sweden

[Don McRitchie]

Hi sture99

I assume you are referring to the Alec Lansing Bias 511. This sysytem and the other Bias speakers were not made by the original Altec Lansing Corporation that is profiled on this site. In 1982, Altec Lansing sold the trade name rights for home speakers to a company called Sparkomatic. They would later change their name to Altec Lansing Technologies, which continues to exist as the PC speaker company.

Sparkomatic had no relation to the original Altec Lansing other than buying the rights to the name. They had their own design and manufacturing resources and did not use any of the previous Altec product line. Their new speakers bore no relation to the high efficiency designs that made Altec famous. Therefore, you will find that they don't hold much interest for the members of this forum. Personally, I have never heard any of the Bias speakers. They may be quite good - I honestly don't know. It's just that they represent a completely different design philosophy compared to the speakers profiled on this site.

Regarding information on the Bias 511, the current Altec Lansing Technologies would normally be the first place to look. However, I know that they suffered an office fire a few years ago that destroyed their records on the Bias systems. Because of this, they are no longer in a position to provide any support for these speakers. The only other resource is the net. A quick Google search led me to the following two sites with information on Altec Bias speakers:

http://www.srpl.com/~robert/indexbias550.html

http://www.hi-figuide.com/standard/diffusori/altec_lansing/index.html

[sture99]

Don McRitchie,

Tanks a lot for your answer. My chase goes on with the help of your information. The speakers I had (511b) sounded very nice, but one had to have an amplifier and a CD that played a bit "soft" to compensate for the hardness of the metal membranes.

[Jonathan]

I do have a pair of the 510b's that were realeased two years after the 511b's. The 510's are a three way that are tri-ampable. Just like the 511b's only minus the 6" woofer. Please contact me if you are interested.

[Deadbolt]

I have of mint bias altec 511s 4 sale make [email protected]

[spkrman57]

Moderators please move to appropriate area.

[Deadbolt]

Will sale at the right price..make offer [email protected]

[oznob]

Hey, I remember those. They had a compartment on top with a glass covering. There were metal jumpers, similar to those on the 250ti, that you could boost or flatten certain frequencies by moving them to different positions. If my memory serves, they sounded pretty good but the acoustic suspension design limited their low end response. I do remeber the bass was very puchy though. I was actually looking for a a pair of those a couple of year ago but was UTL, cop talk for "unable to locate."

[grumpy]

See "...Milford PA" thread in "Lansing Related Gear" for current info regarding this series.

[sture99]

Hi all,
I remember the 511's as good sounding in the -80's, but when I listened to a pair a couple of month's ago I realized that technology has developed. Modern speakers such as B&W, Martin Logan, JM-lab sounds a lot better and to that comes modern subwoofers. The nostalgia trip is not that interesting anymore...;)

[Rolf]

Hi all,
The nostalgia trip is not that interesting anymore...;)

:wave: :scold: Get your hands on some GOOD vintage speakers. Then your nostalgia trip will be interesting again.