Altecs are Hip

[Mr. Widget]

I was at a local coffee house recently and was surprised to find these compact monitors being used for decor and ambiance as much as background music. Can't say they sounded great in the cavernous hard space, but they certainly were looking good!


Widget

[JeffW]

I've seen that place/speakers posted someplace before.

Ah, "Altec coffee" search paid off.

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/vott-overkill-at-blue-bottle-cafe-in-north-oakland.597982/

http://i773.photobucket.com/albums/yy16/hughbaun/08AF9D98-497E-4395-92FE-F55405481C69_zpswfvwg6ws.jpg

[jpw]

As most on this forum probably do, I remember the the 1960's and 1970's fondly when it was generally in vogue to buy and display large speakers and associated equipment in ones room rather than hide them in a wall. Women were more tolerant of it then and some also thought it was cool. Now the mainstream audio customer wants invisible sound no matter how crappy it is. Let's hope that the current craze in most things vintage, particularly with young people, brings back more acceptability for displaying audio out in the open. A byproduct will be that they discover it sounds way better.

[1audiohack]

That is very cool!

And just exactly the type of speaker you don't want in a place where people want to talk to each other.

Barry.

[SEAWOLF97]

We are in "The Age of Style"

form over function.

[DavidF]

As most on this forum probably do, I remember the the 1960's and 1970's fondly when it was generally in vogue to buy and display large speakers and associated equipment in ones room rather than hide them in a wall. Women were more tolerant of it then and some also thought it was cool. Now the mainstream audio customer wants invisible sound no matter how crappy it is. Let's hope that the current craze in most things vintage, particularly with young people, brings back more acceptability for displaying audio out in the open. A byproduct will be that they discover it sounds way better.

Sure, the era when bigger was better. You could walk into a room and find two mammoth boxes and a huge receiver and that was cool. Friends would say "let's listen to some tunes!!". In the corner there might be a small box with a 20" tubed TV that was turned on occasionally. Some how things got all backwards.

[srm51555]

Some how things got all backwards.

Sad but true.

After hours must be awesome.

Notice the updated sneeze guard for the delicious bakery.

Thanks for sharing.

[Lee in Montreal]

We are in "The Age of Style"

form over function.

So true.

[Goldjazz]

uh oh looks like the hipsters are onto us

[Lee in Montreal]

uh oh looks like the hipsters are onto us

Today's hipsters are yesterday's yuppies. Cultureless people trying to impress.

[NickH]

Today's hipsters are yesterday's yuppies. Cultureless people trying to impress.


I don't necessarily think that's correct. Yuppieism has more to do with income status. Hipsters you can find in all income brackets. I call my brother a yuppie quite often. But he does have kids now so maybe I should let it slide.

And ya I just invented that word yuppieism, :D.


How was the coffee though?


One thing I don't get about most the hipsters is the obsession with the crazy ear mods. Don't get the saucers in the ears. But I guess I'm just too old.

Nick

[Lee in Montreal]

Yuppies from the mid 1980s indeed also had an income aspect to their specificities. But most of time, all they wanted was to be hip and to the latest trend in order to impress others, even though they had no clue what it was about. Basically, they wouldn't read at all, if not for that latest book they heard in an article so that they can brag about it at a cocktail. They'd now be driving BMWs because it is the car to drive, even though they had no clue what brand it was last year. They'd eat food that they find disgusting, but have to eat because it is the latest trend. And they spend their holidays in places they totally hate, but have to visit because it is the place to be. They were hipsters with money. And they gave the 1980s a bad name ;-)

Today's hipsters are no less ridiculous than yesterday's yuppies. And both had their instruction manual... What brand to wear. What brand to buy. Including Altec... ;-)



http://s3media.247sports.com/Uploads/Assets/84/982/2982084.jpg

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--3DIiFRDM--/ksm7knhjckbaao1sbqfa.jpg

[Goldjazz]

Today's hipsters are yesterday's yuppies. Cultureless people trying to impress.

Yep I agree

[SEAWOLF97]

"Altecs are Hip"


Glad Altecs are and NOT JBL's

I have guests see the 250Ti's and excitedly ask "what are those" ?

when I tell them, the response is : "OH I remember that name from the 70's"


Hipsters ?
PDX is Hipsterville. The uniform includes tats, flannel shirt, turntable and a Porkpie hat.

Thai restaurants, beer bars and punk concerts are their hangouts.


Curtis Cook, comedian ... on PDX

I'm getting tired of these lazy, flannel-clad "artists" saying this city's artistic scenes are all dead now that they can't afford rent. New York has art. Chicago has art. S.F. and L.A. have art. I'm sorry you may have to get a full-time job and drop the faux-artsy, PBR-bedazzled, make-believe "my dreams are all I need" shtick you've been passing off as a personality for the past few years, but there will still be art in this city. There was art in this city when the first wave of gentrification came through, and there will be art in this city now that that first wave of gentrifiers has to move on.

[Lee in Montreal]

BTW I am being tongue in cheek when associating Hipsters and Yuppies. There's no scientific studies proving my point. ;-)
Today's hipsters might even be the offsprings of yesterday's yuppies. Overachieving parents producing underachieving kids.

One thing though. The installation and positioning of the Altecs in that coffee shop, in the worst manner possible, shows that they were picked not for their sound quality but just for the looks... ;-)

[DavidF]

BTW I am being tongue in cheek when associating Hipsters and Yuppies. There's no scientific studies proving my point. ;-)
Today's hipsters might even be the offsprings of yesterday's yuppies. Overachieving parents producing underachieving kids.

One thing though. The installation and positioning of the Altecs in that coffee shop, in the worst manner possible, shows that they were picked not for their sound quality but just for the looks... ;-)

Looks is everything with this spot. The old building is an eye-catcher from another era. Once a truck dealership owned by Wendell Morse. Not much for hand crafted coffee shops but good on these folks for giving life to a nice piece of architecture in a part of the city needing to hold on to some of these types of buildings.


By the way, I thought these were Altec systems. My bad according to the "audiophile and Blue Bottle owner James Freeman" these are JBL Voice Of The Theater. A misquote, no doubt.

Looking around the interior there may be no place you can sit and not hear these system's sound bounce around.


http://sprudge.com/first-look-blue-bottles-new-cafe-w-c-morse-building-52079.html

[JeffW]

Something tells me they are there to provide background ambience, not for critical listening. It's like griping that elevators don't have D66000s mounted in the ceiling.

[1audiohack]

I think the whole deal is cool. No gripe intended.

What I meant about them being exactly what you don't want in a space like that is, the VOT systems were designed for speech intelligibility. In a reverberant speak easy space those will fill the telephone band of the audio spectrum. Even if not playing loud, you have to work to talk and listen over that.

In my experience a system with the exact opposite frequency response is called for. If the bass is full and the top end sparkle is there you run the midrange down to where people have song and lyric recognition but not much more. It is suprising how loud you can have the music and still hold a casual conversation with this employed.

All the best,
Barry.

[Lee in Montreal]

I think the whole deal is cool. No gripe intended.

What I meant about them being exactly what you don't want in a space like that is, the VOT systems were designed for speech intelligibility. In a reverberant speak easy space those will fill the telephone band of the audio spectrum. Even if not playing loud, you have to work to talk and listen over that.

In my experience a system with the exact opposite frequency response is called for. If the bass is full and the top end sparkle is there you run the midrange down to where people have song and lyric recognition but not much more. It is suprising how loud you can have the music and still hold a casual conversation with this employed.

All the best,
Barry.

Right on. You want the ambient sound system to work on a frequency range outside of the speech range si that there's no competition. ;)

[NickH]

Lee that reply post to mine is hilarious. I guess I give a tiny bit more credit to some hipsters as opposed to the yuppies of the 80's. Not much though.


But knocking the microbrews is hitting below the belt don't you think? I'm good beer is nothing to poo poo over, lol. And there's a lot more choices in beer these days as opposed to 20 years ago. Even though I wasn't of drinking age back then is was darn near impossible to find black larger back then. Now its made by quite a few notable brew houses.


But all that aside they are easy targets for ridicule.


But I do think vintage speakers are also coming into retro trendyness, the chipotle down the street from my house actually has klipsch hersey's on the walls.



Nick

[Ed Kreamer]

Colleagues, there is a ray of hope here. Perhaps the hipsters after viewing and hearing the big and misused Altecs, will lace up the converse shoes, and after obtaining a $5 latte/frap (no sugar and extra bohemian cream) and wonder off to a real HI-FI store and discover what we discovered so many years ago. There must be a real Hi-Fi store not too far from there. Then remove the ear buds and start another audio revolution. Some times a new start can begin in a most unusual place.
As an addendum, I am a retired beer and wine salesman (Wholesale). The snobbery found in craft beer and wine does not exist in the growers and makers of the various products. As a fellow salesman once said in dealing with a difficult client, For goodness sake Ann, It's only Grape Juice! I had to beat a hasty exit where I could laugh my ass off.

[NickH]

Except it could make the high prices go ever higher, lol.


Sorry if I came off sounding like a beer snob Ed, I'm not. I just believe those famous words of Ben Franklin " beer is proof that god wanted man to be happy". His words.

well that's not exactly true, I do have a preference for German beers. My absolute favorite is lowenbrau but I can't find it here in Texas:crying:

Funny you mentioned the grapefruit. I hate grapefruit but shiner here in Texas makes a beer called ruby red bird beer, I love it. Its an awesome beer in the summer. I like it more then Sam Adams summer ale. That being said I do like to support local small companies over the big inbev guys.

Nick

[JeffW]

One can only guess what Ben Franklin would think of grapefruit beer.

I have a Lowenbrau bar sign/clock around here someplace. Seems like the clock got noisy.

[SEAWOLF97]

Sorry if I came off sounding like a beer snob Ed, I'm not. I just believe those famous words of Ben Franklin " beer is proof that god wanted man to be happy". His words.

well that's not exactly true, I do have a preference for German beers. My absolute favorite is lowenbrau but I can't find it here in Texas:crying:

Nick

Back in my Canoe Club/WesPac days (Dr. Electron will remember, Loach71 too) , it was 33 or Tiger or San Miguel (PI & HK) - The PI version was slightly green. Figured that if I ever got a serious cut, not sure if blood or San Miguel would come out.

In my time in Hawaii it was PRIMO beer. What rotgut. But after the first one, the second was much better.

THE "IN CAREER" in Portland is microbrewer. We might have more of them than actual drinkers ?

Anyway, the Asian beers (with lower carbonation) and the German ones appeal to me most. havn't even tried the local products. used to be able to drink all night, now ..1 is the limit.

[Ed Kreamer]

Hmmmm. Audio and Alcohol.
I mentioned beer and wine because of Lee's Hipster post. Tastes in beverage's ( and speakers) are what you make of them, and I have no problem with any ones tastes. It was the pretense I was trying to get at in my own clumsey way.
Being in that business I encountered a lot of snobbery particularly in wine. Oh the tales I could tell, but i won't. At least not here. So no Nick, I don't think that you are a beer snob. I like Lowenbrau, Bud, as well as Sam Adams. My favorite beer is Widmer Drop Top, but if someone hands me a Coors, I won't turn up my nose (unless it's light). Same with wine unless it's the sweet stuff my Wife likes. If you can find it, try Ninkasi Lager. It's terrific stuff and is brewed with a German yeast strain.
I said in my previous post Juice, not fruit. But as you know, adding fruit to beer has long been a tradition in Europe, so adding grapefruit to beer is really a variation on a theme.

Same with speakers. I have no problem with those who prefer B&W's ( or any other ) I have just always found I prefer my 4410's better, even though I get tired of the "oh, JBL, well they are just big and loud."

Peace and Prosperity

[NickH]

Touche.