Got some Altec's to pick up this coming week!

[charlieboy]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...9480&rd=1&rd=1

I'm excited!!!

[louped garouv]

congrats, enjoy them...

the 803As are the predecessors to the original 515s with a slightly smaller magnet IIRC...

http://www.haslingaudio.com/alteceng.html

Altec Lansing speakers are famous worldwide, the company was started in the mid 40's by James Bullock Lansing (JBL). His VOTT (Voice of the Theatre) horn systems, and further development of his 15 inch bass drivers and high frequency compression drivers during the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's, are well known all over the world, and still in use today. In 1999 Electrovoice bought the Altec Division from Harman, who owns JBL again today, and shut Altec down.

Speaker models like Altec 416A 16 ohm, alnico magnet, 3 inch voice coil, cone resonance 23 - 25 Hz, green, was a very successful speaker and was in production from approx. 1964 - 1980 with B and C versions, changing colour and power handling.
Apart from the 515 model (1945 - 1955) and the 515B model ( in production from 1955 to approx. 1970), the Altec 803A was in production from 1947 to 1958. This version was developed further to 803B, with a new cone surround giving better deep bass reproduction. The 803B version was in production from 1958 to 1964, 30w power handling. The latest versions had improved cast frame, and the 416A version took over in 1964, 30w. The 416A version has a magnet cover, and the exact same speaker, but without the magnet cover is called the 416-Z versions. This model was always used in the small VOTT cabinets, where you couldn´t see the speaker. Most of the production in these years were 16 ohm versions, so the 8 ohm versions are rare, and hard to find today. Sensitivity is around 99dB/1w/1m. Perfect for tube amplifiers.

here's the sheet....
http://www.voiceofthetheatre.com/images/803A.1.jpg


you are awful close to an A5 configuration.....

[Tom Brennan]

congrats, enjoy them...

the 803As are the predecessors to the original 515s with a slightly smaller magnet IIRC...

YRIC----The 803 was the predecessor to the 416, not the 515, the 515 was out before the 803. 803A had a paper hinge, 803B a corrugated hinge, then name of 803B was changed to 416.

[Tom Brennan]

500 bucks? You got a swell deal, I've seen the horns alone go for more. Altec values seem very low now, other things have been going cheaply too.

[charlieboy]

I think I got very lucky because there was no mention of the word Altec or 288c or 803a in the ad's title so it never turned up in a search for those keywords. Your right I had someone email me already offering 800 bucks just for the horns. I cant wait to get them in my room. I'll post some pics later in the week hopefully.

Charlie

Here's a pic of another Altec setup I was running. I had them in an active bi-amp setup with 300b amps to the 511 horns and SS power to the bass bins.


Here's some of the gear I was running



Here's another that I'm running right now.


The first room pictures is where these new Altecs will go. It's roughly 20x24x8

[spwal]

damn dude....
what a deal. can you post pics when it is all said an done? who says you can get lucky on the bay anymore? wow.

[charlieboy]

Well after a 7 hour non stop round trip the gear is home. I about SH*T myself when I saw the horns. I knew they were big but when you try and lift them...... The cabinets have tags on the back of them from Altec dating 3-5-51 and the 803a's look brand new! The 299c drivers weigh more than my 511b horns and are marked 24ohms. The LX5 x-overs loook fine as well. I'm not sure how I'm gonna hook these up and I need to do some reading to see about correct ohm loads I guess. I have some Cary amps that I can set at 4,8,and 16 ohms but I'm not sure yet.

Charlie

[theophile]

charlieboy,
I remember when you posted about going active with the Behringer,on the Audiokarma site.
Looks like you still have the Altec bug.How does that Basis sound,and what arm/cartridge are you using?
The Altecs only really bloom when used with vinyl(or probably any good analogue source).My SACD/DVD-A player gets blown away.Guess I'll have to wait another 20-odd years for digital to catch up.
Sounds like your next project is gonna be a humdinger.
Keep us posted.

[charlieboy]

theophile

Thanks. I'm gonna try the active setup with this setup as well. Im thing the cay 805 amps on the cabs and a 6wpc Decware Taboo amp on the horns. The turntable in the pic is a VPI TNT I'm using immedia RPM arm with a Transfiguration Spirit cartridge. Your right the Altecs sound great with tubes and vinyl for sure.

Charlie

[RKLee]

charlieboy: Congrads. Nice find.
What model number are the Altec horns?

theophile: Can you please clearify, are you saying that the Altec equipment is not suitable for SACD/DVD-A?