Help with Car ( Voice of Highway) 1986 Speakers anyone ?

[jgscott]

Hi, I'm looking for help info on Altec Lansing Voice of the Highway 6 x 9 Car speakers. Model # is ALS 963. They are Carbon fiber woofers with Titamium Tweeter. Thru research they maybe in the 1986 model line. Maybe ? Is this Sparkomatic, some say they really sound good. But..... I had some Altec home tower speakers, with Carbon Woofers and Titaimum tweeter and they were not great at all. Anyone know any thing about the ALS 963. THANKS

[SEAWOLF97]

http://articles.philly.com/1986-12-29/business/26069164_1_car-stereo-speakers-cerwin-vega-quality

While traditional in appearance, behooving its "old school" ties, the new A.L. line of home and "Voice of the Highway" car speakers is well-endowed with technical innovations - especially in its choice of carbon fiber and titanium driver materials - and has already won favor with audio critics.

"Despite what some companies say, there is no longer such thing as an all-American speaker," claims Anchel. "But there is an American-sounding speaker that only Western engineers seem capable of producing."

Sparked by the compact disc revolution, sales of all audio components have been soaring this past year, as music lovers upgrade the rest of their hi-fi systems to meet the digital challenge.
Loudspeakers represent a particularly rich opportunity for American suppliers. The loudspeaker "is the last vestige of U.S. manufacturing strength in consumer electronics, and accounted in 1986 for an estimated $529 million in domestic sales," notes Vic Orler, director of marketing for Altec Lansing Consumer Products.
"There's a lot of mystique in speakers. It's a black art. Consumers still perceive that American companies know how to make speakers best.
"Also, the high cost of shipping heavy speaker cabinets from the Far East gives American speaker makers a very real pricing advantage."

[hjames]

Hi, I'm looking for help info on Altec Lansing Voice of the Highway 6 x 9 Car speakers.
Model # is ALS 963. They are Carbon fiber woofers with Titamium Tweeter.
Thru research they may be in the 1986 model line. Maybe ?
Is this Sparkomatic, some say they really sound good.
But..... I had some Altec home tower speakers, with Carbon Woofers and Titanium tweeters,
and they were not great at all. Anyone know any thing about the ALS 963. THANKS

Well first, speakers from 1986 would be 27 years old now. That's not so terrible for home systems,
but for auto speakers in the pretty hostile environment of a car?
Consider that 6x9 speakers usually got mounted in the rear deck of cars -
where they get baked by the sun, suffer humidity and dust/dirt whatever ...
There may not be a lot of 27 year old speakers that survived such conditions and remained intact.

Do you have a particular set in mind that you can listen to,
or are you just interested in the idea of Altec car speakers.
They may be more collectable than usable ...

60278

[grumpy]

http://i653.photobucket.com/albums/uu255/Altec_Best/Voice of the highway s/e1304efc.jpg

foam repair parts appear to still be available for the ALS 6x9 series:
http://www.speakerrepair.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=genem&Product_Code=11-025-W-ALT&Category_Code=

[jgscott]

Ok thanks. Lots of them still are around here and there. Of course the surrounds are always a question. Thanks for the link. I read that but I'm still trying to figure if they were real special/great sounding? Or the Sparkomatic brand label A/L. Wikipedia said Sparkomatic did not get A/L until after 1986, but not sure if that is true.

[grumpy]

I'm thinking SeaWolf could have highlighted this from the article, making the date of the switchover less vague:

"In 1984, the company was sold to Gulton Industries of Metuchen, N.J., which continued the profitable professional products operation but shut down the consumer products wing. A year later, after researching consumer awareness of the brand, Sparkomatic purchased the "open-ended rights" to manufacture products under the name Altec Lansing Consumer Products, "so long as we meet their (Gulton) standards," says Anchel."

Also, in that time frame, I was a bit more into custom car stereo than I am these days... Seems like serious
folks had pretty much dropped using Altec car speakers by then. There are so many options available now...
why focus on these? I don't understand any nostalgic value or cachet, unless it's along the lines of "I wear your
granddad's clothes, I look incre-di-ble, I'm in this big-ass coat..." ;)

[jgscott]

I'm thinking SeaWolf could have highlighted this from the article, making the date of the switchover less vague:

"In 1984, the company was sold to Gulton Industries of Metuchen, N.J., which continued the profitable professional products operation but shut down the consumer products wing. A year later, after researching consumer awareness of the brand, Sparkomatic purchased the "open-ended rights" to manufacture products under the name Altec Lansing Consumer Products, "so long as we meet their (Gulton) standards," says Anchel."

Also, in that time frame, I was a bit more into custom car stereo than I am these days... Seems like serious
folks had pretty much dropped using Altec car speakers by then. There are so many options available now...
why focus on these? I don't understand any nostalgic value or cachet, unless it's along the lines of "I wear your
granddad's clothes, I look incre-di-ble, I'm in this big-ass coat..." ;)

Because word is that these are some very, very good sounding 6 x 9's.

[grumpy]

Sorry, the only sets I recall getting good reports on were the previous series:

http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?21399-WANTED-Voice-of-the-Highway-Circa-1980-84-6-by-9-4B-s-Super-Duplex

if newer series are still serviceable and sound good ~30yrs later, that is pretty impressive.
hope you find more info.

[Steve Schell]

Oh the frailties of memory! Don McRitchie and I met with a former Altec Lansing engineer (whose name I sadly cannot remember) many years ago, who had been largely responsible for the Voice of the Highway products as well as most of the numbered Altec speaker systems like the highly regarded 19. He brought his personal collection of relevant Altec product literature with him to the meeting. We had lunch at some restaurant at the west end of the San Fernando valley. Among many other things, he discussed the aluminum, Pascalite and Symbiotic diaphragms and the engineering and marketing rationales for each of them. As I recall, he indicated that the Pascalite diaphragm was intentionally spaced farther then necessary from the phasing plug to create a larger than necessary front chamber and intentionally degrade the high frequency response, placing its performance roughly equidistant between the aluminum and the Symbiotic. Don, can you fill in the rest of this story?

[Altec Best]

http://i653.photobucket.com/albums/uu255/Altec_Best/Voice of the highway s/e1304efc.jpg

foam repair parts appear to still be available for the ALS 6x9 series:
http://www.speakerrepair.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=genem&Product_Code=11-025-W-ALT&Category_Code=


I know this thread is a year old..But that is my photo Grumpy.. You had a pair in a 68 Chevelle sawweet ! :bouncy: They sound Incredible don't they ? I bought my first pair of 4B's in 1984 still have them and they still sound great...30 year old car speakers tells you the quality of them..

BTW- jgscott The ALS line was made by Sparkomatic they in a word SUCK !!! If you come across any of the real Voice of the Highways made by Altec Lansing of Anaheim,CA then you got the real deal..(4A,4B,4C,SK1,SK2,AL1 subwoofer system) I have a few pair of the 4B's and a few pair of the 4A's they need to be refoamed after awhile..The 4B's have the accordian surrounds and will last forever or as long as the voice coils isn't burned up.


@Steve Schell I'm curious Steve on who that was that was responsible for the Voice of the Highway line ? If you can recall ?


These are the Voice of the Highway 4A speakers.

http://i653.photobucket.com/albums/uu255/Altec_Best/Voice%20of%20the%20highway%20s/HPIM1911.jpg~original

And these are the SK2 5" door speakers..

http://i653.photobucket.com/albums/uu255/Altec_Best/Voice%20of%20the%20highway%20s/HPIM3532.jpg~original

[Horn Fanatic]

Hi, I'm looking for help info on Altec Lansing Voice of the Highway 6 x 9 Car speakers. Model # is ALS 963. They are Carbon fiber woofers with Titamium Tweeter. Thru research they maybe in the 1986 model line. Maybe ? Is this Sparkomatic, some say they really sound good. But..... I had some Altec home tower speakers, with Carbon Woofers and Titaimum tweeter and they were not great at all. Anyone know any thing about the ALS 963. THANKS

TELEX owned ALTEC until Sparkomatic bought the brand in 2000. As to who actually build the VoTH speakers, is anyone's guess. I know ALTEC did not rpoduce the speakers, only slapped the company name on them. The controller for the speakers were manufactured at the Anaheim plant. ALTEC released the line in either 1978 or 1979. I came by the original promo poster I think in '78 or '79, with the guy and the girl in the front seat of a Buick Wildcat, along with a pair of A7's in the back seat, hence, Voice of the Highway. The guy turned out to be an old high school chum of mine. I began working at the Anaheim plant in early November 1979, and the company had already been manufacturing the system.

H.F.

[Altec Best]

Yes I know all the details as I know a few other people that worked in the Anaheim plant... I think your talking about this poster..The folk's in the front seat was Mark & Gabriella..

BTW - The original Voice of the Highway line 4A,4B,4C, SK1,SK2,Al-1,etc was manufactiured at the Anaheim facility they kept all the stock locked up in a chain link fence cage with all the microphone stock as well..Telex didn't come into the picture until 1986 after the company had moved to Oklahoma city,OK...

One of our members at the Altec board has first hand knowledge of this that they were indeed made there.. I think you are thinking of the ALS line from Altec Lansing Technologies of Milford PA. I don't know who made the ALS line but they were junk IMHO...Any Altec with carbon fiber cones was made by Altec Lansing Technologies of Milford,PA

http://i653.photobucket.com/albums/uu255/Altec_Best/Voice%20of%20the%20highway%20s/97795376.jpg~original

[Horn Fanatic]

Yes I know all the details as I know a few other people that worked in the Anaheim plant... I think your talking about this poster..The folk's in the front seat was Mark & Gabriella..

BTW - The original Voice of the Highway line 4A,4B,4C, SK1,SK2,Al-1,etc was manufactiured at the Anaheim facility they kept all the stock locked up in a chain link fence cage with all the microphone stock as well..Telex didn't come into the picture until 1986 after the company had moved to Oklahoma city,OK...

One of our members at the Altec board has first hand knowledge of this that they were indeed made there.. I think you are thinking of the ALS line from Altec Lansing Technologies of Milford PA. I don't know who made the ALS line but they were junk IMHO...Any Altec with carbon fiber cones was made by Altec Lansing Technologies of Milford,PA

http://i653.photobucket.com/albums/uu255/Altec_Best/Voice of the highway s/97795376.jpg~original

Actually, the chap in the front seat is Larry Lutz, don't know who the girl is. If you're referring to Mark and Gabriella Engebretsen, I don't think so. Gabriella had very dark hair, and Mark looks nothing like Larry Lutz. Larry Lutz worked in either marketing or sales in 1979. I was there in 1979, and I worked building the wire harnesses for the VoTH system for a short spell before being promoted to line lead on the A Frame amplifier line. Yes, the whole parts department was chain linked off, not just the VoTH and mic parts, save for a small back area adjacent to the assembly floor.

And Telex did not take ownership of ALTEC in 1986. Grumpy spelled that out in one of his posts.

[Altec Best]

Maybe you know Dave Sauro then ? Bill Hayes ?

[Horn Fanatic]

Maybe you know Dave Sauro then ? Bill Hayes ?

Can't say their names sound familiar. What department did they work in? ALTEC was a big place, and I didn't know everyone. I only new the last names of a few people on the A Frame. Keep in mind, it's been 34 years since I have seen any of those folks. I'm better at remembering details concerning production than peoples names, most of whom I knew only on a first name basis. However, there was a chap there who claimed to be the brother of Chuck Negron, one of the singers in 3 Dog Night. And I remember a guy who went a little bonkers one morning. He was found crawling around the rafters over the assembly area, and was subsequently taken away in an ambulance. I remember seeing Stan Miller once in a while wheeling out a cart full of 288 drivers, with the President of ALTEC at his side. I think his name was Fowler. Then again, Fowler might have been the ALTEC President who committed suicide behind the Laguna Beach P.D. Not sure if I have the name right. That happened within a week or so of Terry Kath accidentally killing himself, which happened about a year before I started at ALTEC.

[Roofer]

Grumpy posted a link where I could see the power rating for Altec Lansing voice of the highway for B series could I get that again I can't find it

[grumpy]

Probably lost as a photobucket link.

The best I can see from a very low resolution copy that's still floating around... appears the 4B was specified as:

Maximum Power: 75w RMS Broad Band Pink Noise
Maximum Amplifier Size: 150w RMS
Frequency Response: 60Hz-18KHz +/- 5dB
Input Impedance: 4 ohms
Sensitivity: 1 watt, 1 meter (dB SPL) 94 or 96 (can't read it clearly)

78986