Information on an Altec 15" I found?

[ienjoycheese]

At a local music store with a ton of used gear, I stumbled upon a blue fuzzy speaker set (on the cheap because it was blue and fuzzy) but the sound was incredible - a large cab with a 15 in it, then a separate tweeter and crossover. The crossover also had an out for a 10 but it wasn't with the rest. As a bassist, of course I was interested in the 15 (the speaker magnet was enormous by feel) and I opened 'er up to find this.

during disassembly
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y167/itamae/grover/P8131314.jpg)lifted up (http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y167/itamae/grover/P8131317.jpg)
close (http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y167/itamae/grover/P8131316.jpg) - picture is fuzzy but some words can be made out - duct tape was there when we bought it, the label was slightly cracked but everything else is mint on the speaker itself.

So then, while looking for info on ER-15s I found a post in this forum via a search engine, and many members here certainly know their stuff about the brand, so I was simply wondering if it was a smart purchase. I haven't found any information anywhere else around, only a spec sheet where it has its own row of numbers... so really, any info at all about this speaker would help me in my search for anything about it.

[louped garouv]

here's a little bit...




Altec had severe financial problems. As one part of the plan to survive, they wanted to take away EV's share of the guitar speaker market (!). Scott Leslie was the engineer assigned to design the speakers.

He did FFT tests and listening tests on EV, Celestion, and a bunch of others. Then he went to work on the ER's. I kept in close contact with him since I needed samples for Fender, Acoustic, Music Man, and others to try. It took over 6 months to put together what was supposed to be the final one. He ran the FFT anaysis in the lab and it looked real good. Then he loaded it in a guitar amp. In the listening room he played his guitar for probably 10 minutes. No talking, until he put the axe down and said "Thats sounds like s**t". I'm not a musician, but I agreed, and grinned from ear to ear. Both of us wanted ER's to be really good speakers. Thats Altec's legacy.


His was a gutsy statement; the VP's and above were desperate for big and quick sales. But he worked another 3 months or so before coming up with the final speaker design. It did sound somewhat similar to the EVM, because that's the sound everyone was used to. But not exactly the same, because then why would anyone want to change from EV? The OEM version speakers had no label, no fancy paint job, etc. A small run of OEM's was made for me to use as samples. The first production runs were brought out in retail versions as the ER10, ER12, and ER15.


Here's a link that will look for some more search results on "ER15" on the altec board...
http://www.hostboard.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=search&search_forum=3729

good luck!

[ienjoycheese]

Found it mentioned once or twice more. Anything I can take is great, so thanks again.

[scott fitlin]

That was mid to late 80,s Altec, the Extended Range series.

Never heard them, but they have high power handling, and If they sound good to you, use em. I use to like the Altec 3184 eighteens, same era of drivers.

Its an Altec, though!