RARE ALTEC FIND ?

[vinyldog]

Hello folks,
I'm new to this forum, but now I have something to talk about so i thought what the hey,,, Yesterday I picked up a pair of old Altec Lido Speakers,, I believe that's what they're called, anyway they have a 755 c driver and a Horn tweeter, the cabinets look mint with 4 legs on each and so do the speakers. Any ideal as to how rare these are ?

[tomt]

i've no idea how rare


how they sound?
and what you got hooked up to them?

[vinyldog]

they sounds great, but i'm not a big audiophile so they are just hooked up to a sony receiver. nothing special.

[Zilch]

:useless:

[pelly3s]

how much did you pay for them. here is a little info on something similar to what i believe the lido is http://members.myactv.net/~je245/755sonic.htm the ones on the site are home made but they have 755s in them. That is a great driver

[tomt]

would be nice to see some pictures
you might not want to turn these up too loud
15 watt speaker you know

airflex5100...oozing...dripping... thrilling...
http://wec5.jp/Catalog/Speaker/altec-755c.html

[vinyldog]

I hope you'll can see them this way , i can't figure out how to post the pictures.


http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/[email protected]/album?.dir=ff00&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos

[vinyldog]

They will be going on ebay soon

[pelly3s]

do yourself a favor and dont sell them... get yourself a nice little tube amp and enjoy them

actually no dont they are garbage and i will take them off your hands


hey it was worth the shot

[vinyldog]

some people have told me that those are really nice, but how nice is nice ?? I 'm not into tubes yet and know that when i finally do get into them i will regret ever selling them. But i think that people like you guys would appricate them more then i can right now .:banghead:

[pelly3s]

ive only heard a 755 once. may i ask how you came across them. I fell in love with them that one time i heard them. I wish I had the money to buy them off you.

[vinyldog]

If i tell you it will only make you sick. I got them at a goodwill auction. As you can imagine i didn't pay much for them.. the only problem with them is that on of the legs is missing, so there are only seven. I know that they are worth a good penny, i'm not trying to sell them here but i just wanted to see if you guys could give me some insights as to how nice they are. All the ones that i've seen on the internet all have those gray beat up boxes, these are really nice as a piece of furniture. I do not want to part them out because of the fine cabinets.

[pelly3s]

even if you arent into tubes get yourself a nice low power solid state amp and a good turntable and enjoy those. thats a killer score, a leg isnt that tough though im sure just about anyone can make one up for you.

[tomt]

there are a few parts missing or at least 1 part besides the leg

why did i have the 'ebay feeling?'

too bad as these the'c's' don't really need a tube amp

you might want to listen to these for a while before you
throw them away for just money

even with a sony receiver

[vinyldog]

what part do you see that is missing ? i know that there is another cut out for anther driver but there is no screw holes showing that it was once there, an email friend told me that back then you could order them with one one driver. Now is that even the part you are talking about ?

[speakerdave]

Don't know for sure, but:

This speaker might be (in a sense) a successor to the Melodist, which you can see in the Library (above) in the 1954 Catalogue. There was a pair of those on eBay recently, and they went for a pretty good price, if I remember, but I can't even hazard a guess of the range. It doesn't matter because those speakers were more valuable than yours because they had the 755a and lots of early fifties classic style. The 755c is also saleable, but it does not command anywhere near the same prices, and your cabinets do not look that collectable. The tweeters in your speakers may be one of the variants of the model 3000. I believe this tweeter used a diaphragm that was the same as one of their microphones. I believe this tweeter is somewhat in demand. You also need to heed the advice above about powering these speakers gently because those tweeters are famously fragile. I think there are two varients of that little horn tweeter, one divided into cells and the other (later) not.

I've owned and passed on a wide variety of stereo gear over the years. There are a few pieces I regret selling: a Marantz 7c preamp; a pair of McIntosh MC60 tube power amps with Genelex KT88's, a KLH Model 8 FM radio, a Thorens TD124 with an Ortofon arm and moving coil cartridge, a pair of EV T350 tweeters, and two pairs of Altec 755a's. So now I make sure I thoroughly check out the musical fidelity possibilities of any gear I run across before I pass it on. There are other was to get money.

Have fun,

David

[vinyldog]

i looked at the ones you told me in the library, but the ones i have a fairly in large cabinets. I thought they looked more like the 608 cabs what do you think ?

[speakerdave]

Like I say, for me this is just guess work based on insufficient information and no direct experience with either speaker. I'm glad to see you found that part of the library. Unfortunately there are gaps, but more literature is waiting to be posted.

David

[Mr. Widget]

:offtopic: yeah, yeah... I know....

Dave, that's some dedication! Posting at 12:07 and then at 8:01.:D

Widget

[speakerdave]

Oh, god, I'm doing it again!?

[vinyldog]

Well an internet buddy that has a lot of Altec brochers told me that they were called LIDO but i can not confirm that.

[tomt]

some people have told me that those are really nice, but how nice is nice ?? I 'm not into tubes yet and know that when i finally do get into them i will regret ever selling them. But i think that people like you guys would appricate them more then i can right now
`````````````````````````````````````````````````` ```````````
how nice?
listen to these and you will catch on to 'how nice'
the sooner,and more, you listen,the sooner and more
you will appreciate.this is an incredible stroke of
fortune. dont waste it!
`````````````````````````````````````````````````` ```
whats missing? The power supply! Heres one thats 'portable'

clearly numbered 755
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=1555

what other speakers are you using?

[vinyldog]

You're in the wrong line of business :applaud: I've thought about it and if i don't get what i think i should get for them,,,, then i will just keep them. So many people have told me to not sell, that i'm starting to think that these are like the holy grail of speakers !! And i didn't say RAIL :barf: Nice train by the way !

[spinsbackwards]

The speaker your showing is an altec 836a/lido.Yours have been altered,grill cloth changed,402c missing,tweeter added,L pad added .They consist of the 755c mid-bass and a 402c bass driver to fill in below the 755c.There is a little choke going to the 402c,there are no horns or tweeters on this model.The spk is rated at 8 ohms,402c 16ohms driver,755c 8ohm driver.Just a great sounding little altec.They were made in the mid 60s to early 70sThe last pair on ebay went for around 650.00 bucks.I would part them out if you wanted to sell them.

[DaveV]

I found a similar pair in a thrift shop. The cabinets were identical but there was a different name on the back of each speaker. I think Lido was one of the names. Altec was still in business then and I called to see if they were worth going back for. I was told that each cabinet had two 755's in it and that he could not find any reference to the name of the other speaker even though it was a "factory tag" glued to the speaker. I ran back to the thrift shop and bought the speakers for $14.00. I opened them up and found that each contained a 402 and 755 and the only xover component was an inductor to roll the 402 off. A few years later on E-Bay I saw the full 3-way version with the 402, 755, 3000 tweeter and 3000 xover network and I think they were called Lidos too. The only conclusion I could come to was that Altec was making a few different versions of these bookshelf speakers and not documenting them all that well. The 755's in my speakers had the A type frames with the deeper profile and A cones but they were 8 ohm. Made me wonder if Altec wasn't trying to use up old parts when they made these variations. In any event you probably have $600 worth of drivers if they are all working and in good shape.