Altec Lansing 602d Duplex question

[jcephusg]

Thanks for letting me join the forum. I'm relatively new to vintage audio...most of my gear is 70s-80s era. I recently picked up a pair of altec speakers, and was wondering if anyone might have some info on them. They are 602d duplex speakers...mounted in old boxes. I was wondering what the intended application was for those speakers was. originally...were they designed for pa use? or home audio? Are they something that may be used in a home audio application? I'm currently using Klipsch Hereseys and Realistic Mach Ones. I haven't powered them up yet...until I found a little more info on them. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for any info.

[Horn Fanatic]

Thanks for letting me join the forum. I'm relatively new to vintage audio...most of my gear is 70s-80s era. I recently picked up a pair of altec speakers, and was wondering if anyone might have some info on them. They are 602d duplex speakers...mounted in old boxes. I was wondering what the intended application was for those speakers was. originally...were they designed for pa use? or home audio? Are they something that may be used in a home audio application? I'm currently using Klipsch Hereseys and Realistic Mach Ones. I haven't powered them up yet...until I found a little more info on them. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for any info.

Welcome to the forum -

The 602 model was definitely designed for domestic use. The woofer is basically the model 803. The tweeter used a mylar microphone diaphragm, which is very delicate. The speaker would never have survived being used for sound reinforcement. If both tweeters are working consider yourself lucky. As there is no diaphragm available for them, they cannot be repaired. To attempt a repair would result in destroying the cone.

Bill Hanuschak described to me in great detail what it would take to repair the 3000H tweeter. By his account the effort would be very costly, and I didn't get the impression he was even interested in repairing them. To my knowledge ALTEC never repaired them, but tossed them into a trash bin. When I worked at ALTEC I was offered a box full of blown 3000H's on the order of about 50 of them. Naturally, I passed.

A word of advice, take care of those puppies. Don't crank them up for a kegger party. I own an ALTEC 833 Verde that was loaded with the 602B, and unfortunately I found out the hard way just how delicate the 3000H is. It wasn't the volume that killed it. It's demise was the result of a dirty source switch on my equalizer :-(


H.F.

BTW - I would seriously consider loading those speakers into larger properly tuned enclosures. Something on the order of 5 to 6 cubic feet. You wouldn't believe how BIG my Verde sounds.

[jcephusg]

Thanks for the help...I appreciate the info. I carefully powered them up....and they both worked, though one seemed to be not quite as loud as the other...Is this normal ? ...I only had them on for a few minutes. Are these a desirable model? Are they better suited to older era audio equipment that what I'm running? I have a Marantz 2240 and a Sansui G801 which may be a little overpowering? I just wondering if they are a good choice for my current equipment, or may I be better suited with my Klipsch Heresy's and the Realistic Mach 1s Thanks In advance for any help.


The 602 model was definitely designed for domestic use. The woofer is basically the model 803. The tweeter used a mylar microphone diaphragm, which is very delicate. The speaker would never have survived being used for sound reinforcement. If both tweeters are working consider yourself lucky. As there is no diaphragm available for them, they cannot be repaired. To attempt a repair would result in destroying the cone.

Bill Hanuschak described to me in great detail what it would take to repair the 3000H tweeter. By his account the effort would be very costly, and I didn't get the impression he was even interested in repairing them. To my knowledge ALTEC never repaired them, but tossed them into a trash bin. When I worked at ALTEC I was offered a box full of blown 3000H's on the order of about 50 of them. Naturally, I passed.

A word of advice, take care of those puppies. Don't crank them up for a kegger party. I own an ALTEC 833 Verde that was loaded with the 602B, and unfortunately I found out the hard way just how delicate the 3000H is. It wasn't the volume that killed it. It's demise was the result of a dirty source switch on my equalizer :-(


H.F.

BTW - I would seriously consider loading those speakers into larger properly tuned enclosures. Something on the order of 5 to 6 cubic feet. You wouldn't believe how BIG my Verde sounds.[/QUOTE]

[Joseph Smith Jr]

Welcome to the forum -

The 602 model was definitely designed for domestic use. The woofer is basically the model 803. The tweeter used a mylar microphone diaphragm, which is very delicate. The speaker would never have survived being used for sound reinforcement. If both tweeters are working consider yourself lucky. As there is no diaphragm available for them, they cannot be repaired. To attempt a repair would result in destroying the cone.

Bill Hanuschak described to me in great detail what it would take to repair the 3000H tweeter. By his account the effort would be very costly, and I didn't get the impression he was even interested in repairing them. To my knowledge ALTEC never repaired them, but tossed them into a trash bin. When I worked at ALTEC I was offered a box full of blown 3000H's on the order of about 50 of them. Naturally, I passed.

A word of advice, take care of those puppies. Don't crank them up for a kegger party. I own an ALTEC 833 Verde that was loaded with the 602B, and unfortunately I found out the hard way just how delicate the 3000H is. It wasn't the volume that killed it. It's demise was the result of a dirty source switch on my equalizer :-(


H.F.

BTW - I would seriously consider loading those speakers into larger properly tuned enclosures. Something on the order of 5 to 6 cubic feet. You wouldn't believe how BIG my Verde sounds.

From idiots smoking them by clipping with cheap low power solid state in most instances
Not intended for sound reinforcement use in the first place
As for your dirty mode switch capade, nasty transients pops with the volume cranked will smoke just about any tweeter, including some of the best
The 602D is a fine sounding speaker when used appropriately by someone with a brain
Yes, it was a cheaper version of the 604 concept and was honestly marketed as such, but one must keep in mind that it was also rated at only 25 watts max, and then I'm sure that was 25 watts of clean, quality power
Not the cheap solid state crap I'd be willing to bet that was responsible for blowing that bin of 50 warranty returns you were offered

And yes, you are correct, the tweeter's were fragile but I can name a dozen others equally so from that same time period from other equally well respected makers

Once domes and "super" tweeters came into fashion they were the weak link for more than a few for quite a while if you think back about it

The collision of the solid state era with one of ALTEC's longest production drivers ever does not constitute an indictment on the speaker itself, just an indictment on the who and how they were used (and abused)

If they were that bad I doubt ALTEC would have kept on building them for almost 40 years

[fest3er]

[I'm late to this show, but it's relevant....]

Dunno about the 602d. The 602a is still a fine speaker and, like most quality speakers, will happily reproduce what they're asked to, so long as they receive clean input. As I recall, the best speakers will take any amount of *clean* power up to the point the voice coil flames out. Tweeters, of course, need far less power because they move far less air. I wonder if a titanium cone would lengthen these tweeters' lives...

I inherited Dad's 602a speakers with cabinets built to the 602a spec. IIRC, the 602a is rated at 96dB at 1 Watt input (maybe 1kHz?) measured 1 meter away. Dad'd had them reconed 40-odd years ago. They are the main left/right speakers on an Onkyo TX-NR709. Recall the scene from The Expendables with Ahnold in the airport continuously firing the automatic shotgun. With the sound loud enough for the shots to punch us in the torso, if this system needs a sub, it's only down under 30 Hz or so. (Yes, the Onkyo was rejecting *large* amounts of heat.)

After the reconing, the only time we had a problem with them was when I realized the sound was *way* inconsistent (his hearing was way off due to being stuck in a small 'room' on a destroyer working on classified radar while someone on the other side of the bulkhead was air-chiseling rivets off). Turns out the Jones connecters he used had oxidized a little. We replaced them with terminal strips and the problem went away. The highs are still a little off today; I suspect components in the passive crossovers inside the cabinets are getting a little 'weak'. But at my age, it's getting hard to hear the difference.

In time, I'll add my Polk SDA-2Bs as rear surround speakers. We'd bought a small Polk speaker for the center channel, and used a pair of cheap RadShack speaker for surround 'hints'. Dad was so happy with the sound and with the 60" TV we talked him into buying that he bought about 260 DVD and BR movies. He really enjoyed watching his favorite movies with commensurate sound up to the day he died at 90. (He also enjoyed the babes in the Star Trek shows and Xena, but that's another story.)

Altect Lansing 602s mounted in proper cabinets will provide very good home theatre sound while requiring 1/2 to 1/10 of the power that other speakers can demand.

Aside, I also have his original folded horn cabinet (again, built to the 602a spec) he used back in his mono days, as well as a JBL DL130, 075 tweeter and N2500 crossover. I think that'll make a very nice speaker for a bass guitar (provided they work).