My Altec Journey and restoration project.

[Croweproduction]

Hi everyone, this is my first post on this blog, however I've been browsing it for quite some time learning about Altec history and products. I've really become a big fan of Altec and love the history behind them.

I want to share a recent restoration project. A local threatre gave me their Altec speakers, which consisted of an MDF A7 enclosure with a 515-8g, 288-alnico on a 805 multicell horn. This single speaker used to fill the 500 seat theatre with sound for over 40 years. But, lucky for me, they upgraded to a modern EV surround system. Later that week we found the older voice of the theatre speaker in the theatre basement, without the horn, but with a much older plywood cabinet with vertical slots and a 803-16 woofer! All for free because the guy knew I would appreciate Altec.

Up to that point I had scoured ebay and built over time and Onken/416 woofer and 511b horns and 802-8a setup with a custom crossover. But when I heard for the first time the 515/288 multicell combo, I was hooked! I needed to find a stereo pair! I put an A.B.B. Out for altec trades and I met another Altec fan who even traded me my 803 woofer for another 288 alnico and a set of new in box 806 compression driver which he said I could sell on ebay if I wanted to. Seemed like a fair deal, others may disagree, but oh well.

I also bought another mint multicell 805 from a guy in Quebec, and I was off to the races. Up until this point I have been using the single 515 and a 416 in stereo, but another 515-8g is in the mail with original faded bluish cone to match.

So what to do with the a7 cabinets? They are not worth much locally as a shell, and I had the 416 and 511b horns to go with them. So I decided to restore them. One problem is they looked different with the slots ports on the bottom, so i modified to newer one to match the older one! I also have new decals.

so the Onkens are not really meant for the 515 woofer, but I really prefer the midrange clarity and dynamics of this driver. Using my miniDSP bi amped, I'm able to dial in a bass hump clean down to 20hz, steep 48db slopes at 450hz, phase alignment, and a slight ramp up in the highs to allow the ribbon tweeters to compete with the horns, which just have a single cap as a high pass at 10khz.
The benefits of the miniDSP far outweigh any cons.

pictures of everything to follow!

[Croweproduction]

Attachment 65437Attachment 65441Attachment 65438Attachment 65439Attachment 65440Photos:

[Croweproduction]

[Croweproduction]

more recent photos...

[Doc Mark]

Howdy, Croweproduction,

Welcome to LH! Great score on all that Altec stuff, and nicely done results from your using the goodies you got! I'll bet it sounds just like a movie house, right in your own home!! Thanks for sharing, and God Bless!

Every Good Wish,
Doc

[Lee in Montreal]

I was last week in Memphis and visited the Stax Records museum. They recreated Studio A. and guess what was in the playback system? Yup. A pair of A7.







And that in the mastering booth

[Croweproduction]

That's amazing to see Lee, thanks for sharing. Did they have music playing through that large Altec? That 15" woofer looks like a 10" in that massive enclosure.

[Lee in Montreal]

That's amazing to see Lee, thanks for sharing. Did they have music playing through that large Altec? That 15" woofer looks like a 10" in that massive enclosure.

No music was playing from the big monitor in the control room. But the two A7 on the ceiling were playing and they sounded superb. Not a single wall was paralell and you could feel what a huge room can bring to the sound.

[turnitdown]

I was last week in Memphis and visited the Stax Records museum. They recreated Studio A. and guess what was in the playback system? Yup. A pair of A7.








And that in the mastering booth

I was there and it is a small slice of nirvana. The A7s in the right room are splendid.

[Lee in Montreal]

I was there and it is a small slice of nirvana. The A7s in the right room are splendid.

I think the A7 was designed for sound reinforcement for theater application. Obviously we're talking big rooms here. Big rooms seem to have the effect of smoothing upper bass and allowing the sound to take its place. Well, at least it was the case in Studio A. ;-)

Lee

[fpitas]

511s in particular benefit from the high ceiling of a large room, because their vertical directivity broadens below 2.5kHz (the so-called pattern flip). My music room has a regular 8 foot ceiling, and adding ceiling absorbers made a huge difference by eliminating reflections.